Wildlife Worldwide Rides 4 Rangers

Many of you will know that I set Wildlife Worldwide up in the early 1990s after having spent an extended period as a walking safari guide in Zambia’s Luangwa Valley. That, of course, seems like a million years ago, but I have been lucky enough over the years to return countless times – with groups, on ‘recce’ missions and of course with my family and friends. And, without my early visits to the Luangwa Valley, during which I fell head-over-heels in love with wildlife and the wilderness, Wildlife Worldwide would never have been created – so I have a lot to thank this great Valley for. Latterly I was incredibly proud to be invited onto the Board of Trustees of Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) – the body that oversees the protection of South Luangwa’s wildlife, and I would like to do everything I can to ensure that the wildlife in this part of the world, and those that protect it are looked after.

In the month of September, a team of us at Wildlife Worldwide have pledged to ride at least 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) – the length of Africa – to raise money for Ride4Rangers a fabulous travel industry initiative supported by the charity TUSK which is aiming to put U$10 million into the field to support rangers over the course of the next nine months – and we would like to do our bit to show our support. 

The Covid-19 epidemic has given us all a tough few months, but in Africa the almost total collapse of the travel industry has had a devastating economic impact which is threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. It is also threatening Africa’s iconic wildlife. Without tourism there is just not the money to pay the rangers whose role it is to protect this incredible resource. The rangers are experiencing drastic salary cuts although they are still working tirelessly to ensure the safety of the continent’s wildlife.

All the money we raise will go directly towards supporting the salaries and deployment of African rangers during this crisis and, incredibly, every penny will be match funded. So, if we raise £5,000, the rangers will receive £10,000, doubling the impact of every donation.

If you would like to sponsor us, you can visit our JustGiving page. You can also follow the progress of our Wildlife Worldwide team on Strava. Our intention is to give you updates on our progress during the course of the month, and we may even have a ‘social ride’ towards the end of the month that you would be most welcome to join – with all of the appropriate social distancing in mind of course.

We know it is a tough time, but we would very much appreciate your support – as would the rangers in Africa. Please feel free to share a link to this blog with friends and on your social media feeds – the rangers (and the wildlife) need as much support as they can get…

£150 could purchase a full patrol kit for a ranger in South Luangwa
£180 could fund a community scout salary for a month
£250 could provide rations for a 3 week 6 man rotational patrol team
£500 could sponsor fuel to deploy anti-poaching patrols for one vehicle for a month

Week One Update

So, we are one week into our Wildlife Worldwide #Ride4Rangers September Challenge in support of critical conservation in Africa – a cause very close to our hearts – and we are on course for reaching our ‘virtual target’ of riding the length of Africa! By the end of Monday we had cycled 1,485 miles (2,376 kilometres) between us – which is the equivalent of riding from Ras-ben-Sakka in Tunisia (the northern-most tip of Africa), across the Sahara to the Nigeria/Cameroon border. If we were doing the cycle in Africa itself, I wonder what we might have seen by way of wildlife? Perhaps a scimitar-horned oryx, addax or fennec fox in the sandy plains of Tunisia, or a fleeting glimpse of a forest elephant crossing the track ahead as we descend into Cameroon’s dense forests.

We have been overwhelmed by your support, so far raising over £11,000 for the Rangers in Africa (particularly those at Conservation South Luangwa) – smashing our original target of £5,000. So, a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who has donated so generously in these difficult times.

We would also like to say a massive thank you to our two sponsors Net Technical Solutions and Marshall Volkswagen for their generous support.

We want to keep the fundraising for the #Ride4Rangers initiative going as every penny we raise in September will be match funded – which means that there will soon be a staggering £22,000 heading to Zambia in support of their incredible conservation efforts.

Week Two Update

After the end of Week 2 of our Wildlife Worldwide #Ride4Rangers September Challenge, in support of critical conservation in Africa, we are somewhere in the heart of Angola on our virtual ride, with the two weeks combined having taken us approximately 3,100 miles (4,900 kilometres). Helen Cox, who many of you will know, did a coast-to-coast ride in Devon at the weekend, Nick Baker cycled over 200 miles and Nick Joynes cycled a whopping 280 miles. But it's not just about the big distances, it is all about getting involved, and everyone in our team contributed – Sarah, Henrieta, Emma, Sue, Charlie, Sean, Nick Mackman and Bret.

If we had been cycling in Africa maybe we would have visited the western lowland gorillas, or possibly seen forest elephant and forest hog. And, now that we are in Angola could be possibility have the opportunity to glimpse giant sable? Who knows!

The support we have received from everyone has been really amazing – as I write we have gone over £13,000 of fund-raising for the rangers in Africa (and particularly Conservation South Luangwa in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park) which is wonderful, and with the match-funding this takes it up to £26,000 plus. Thank you for all your help in making this possible.

Week Three Update

What a third week it was! Between us we cycled 1,324 miles (over 2,000 kilometres) taking our ride total to 4,424 miles in all - it looks as though we are over the South African border and cruising towards Cape Town on the final leg of our (virtual) journey. There is a really good chance that we would have seen large herds of Kafue lechwe in southern Zambia, probably elephants and buffalo in and around Victoria Falls as we crossed over the great Zambezi River, wildebeest and zebra in plenty as we travelled through Botswana, and we may well be coming into the super drylands of northern South Africa so aardvark are a real possibility here.

We have had some wonderful cycles over the last week - together with Nick Garbutt, Nick Baker and Nick Mackman, I cycled from Bampton in north Devon to Lynmouth, up and over Exmoor and down to the truly beautiful north Devon coast. As we were going down our final descent in to Lynmouth and I was looking to my right into the trees and through the woodland, I couldn’t help thinking of the amazing rainforests of Borneo that the four of us had been in only a couple of years previously at our Festival of Wildlife. It seems like a long time ago now!

Nick Joynes takes the distance record for last week with his ride on Friday of a staggering 200 miles and 12 hours 14 minutes in the saddle - that’s dedication to the cause I’d say, and my 90 miles from Winchester to Gloucester looks a bit weedy by comparison!

Nick Baker turned over 175 miles, Sean Weekly 134, Nick Garbutt 125 and Nick Mackman 106 - but everyone put in a huge effort to get us a little closer to our target figure of 5,000 miles - Bret, Emma, Charlie, Sarah, Hen and Sue. It has really been great to see.

Most importantly, through all of your amazing sponsorship, and the support of Marshalls VW and Net Technical Solutions we have already raised over £15,000 for the rangers in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park - all of which is going to be match-funded turning it immediately into £30,000. A massive thank you for your incredible support and for making this possible.

Week Four Update

We ended up cycling nearly 6,000 miles - and have been overwhelmed by the support we have received throughout it all.

It seems a bit of a shame that it’s all over, but we are so proud of what we have managed to achieve with everyone’s help - we simply couldn’t have done it without you!

In the last 10 days of the month we added on another 1,500 miles or so, taking our riding total to 5,925 miles. We have gone way off the south coast of South Africa and must be pretty close to Antarctica by now having seen albatrosses, whales, seals and sea lions along the way - what a lovely thought.

The cycling has been brilliant - I know we have all enjoyed it enormously - and we have cycled in some truly beautiful locations (in addition to our local Hampshire patch). Last week Nick Joynes and I drove down to Devon to ride with Messrs Garbutt, Mackman and Baker on an unbelievably blustery day on Dartmoor. But what a ride… magnificent scenery, glorious sunshine, great company, and even a lunch stop at Café 3 Sixty - a lovely cyclists café in Bovey Tracey.

But, most importantly, what did we manage to achieve for Conservation South Luangwa (CSL) in Zambia? Well, an amazing £18,404 is the answer to that - for which we are incredibly grateful. This is all going to be match-funded and as a result CSL will receive a much-needed £36,808… this will go a long way to help those frontline rangers doing their work at this very difficult time.  We really can’t thank everyone enough for the generous donations and support.

Our JustGiving page is still open and so there is still time to sponsor us if you wish!

We are hugely grateful to our corporate sponsors - Marshall Volkswagen and Net Technical Solutions.

Our cycling team included - Nick Joynes, Nick Garbutt, Nick Mackman, Nick Baker, Bret Charman, Charlie Munns, Henrieta Wiltshire, Helen Cox, Sarah Malcolm, Emma Healey, Sue Noakes and Sean Weekly (and me!).

We, and our friends at Conservation South Luangwa, are hugely indebted to everyone.

To find out more about Conservation South Luangwa please watch this incredible video featuring the inspiring ranger Benson Kanyembo.

Thank you in advance for your support. To keep up-to-date on our progress follow us on, Strava, Facebook and Instagram.