Using adventure to improve and save lives – that is the key concept of the Kingsley Holgate Foundation, founded by one of Africa’s most colourful modern day explorers. Kingsley Holgate is a humanitarian adventurer, author, TV personality, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Land Rover Ambassador, speaker at the New York Explorers Club and a legend that Getaway Magazine calls ‘the most travelled man in Africa’.
On every expedition – many of them world-firsts – the Kingsley Holgate Foundation team actively work to prevent malaria amongst pregnant women and mothers with young children who are the most vulnerable, provide the gift of sight to poor-sighted, mostly elderly people in remote regions, reduce the spread of water-borne diseases and provide potable water to drought-stricken communities, upgrade impoverished Early Childhood Development centres and proactively support wildlife conservation efforts, especially of critically endangered species such as elephant and rhino.
Having explored all 54 countries on the African continent during 40 expeditions, no other team of modern-day explorers have achieved so much in using the energy of adventure to make such a positive difference to the lives of so many.
They are also the only expedition team in history to have followed the Tropic of Capricorn around the world by Land Rover, tracked the entire outline of Africa through 33 countries, discovered the geographic centre-point of the continent deep in the Congo rainforests, and reached all 7 of Africa’s extreme geographic points.
GREATER GORONGOSA EXPEDITION
What a grand adventure that also showcased the history and heritage of Land Rover Defenders and three generations of Holgates together on expedition!
Imagine the scene: 6-character Defenders spanning 30 years packed to the roof racks with expedition kit and humanitarian materials, trundling in convoy from South Africa and through Zimbabwe to reach central Mozambique – their jolly drivers and crews each with fantastical tales of their own African travels.
The 2025 Greater Gorongosa Expedition was our 42nd geographic and humanitarian journey and had a major focus on malaria prevention alongside other humanitarian and conservation work. It traced new tracks through little-explored regions, including a circumnavigation of the 4,000-square-kilometre Gorongosa National Park and traversing magnificent indigenous forests and vast conservancy areas to reach the banks of the great Zambezi River – all part of an exciting new ‘Greater Gorongosa’ vision for conservation and communities in central Mozambique.
Lead by Ross and Kingsley driving the same two new-gen Defender 130s that completed the 60,000-kilometre Afrika Odyssey Expedition in 2024, four other historic Defenders joined the journey and tackled every terrain imaginable with style – slippery mountain tracks, dirt roads turned into red-mud quagmires by unseasonal rains, rocky 4×4 escarpments, elephant roadblocks and even an old fashioned river crossing by hand-pulled pontoon.
What made this expedition even more memorable was having 24-year-old Tristan Holgate (Ross’s son and Kingsley’s grandson) behind the steering wheel of ‘The Stomach’ (the 2012 Defender130 from previous humanitarian and geographic journeys) and learning the ‘expedition ropes’.
Alongside the high adventure, countless campfire stories and thousands of tyre revolutions, the Greater Gorongosa Expedition worked hand-in-hand with the Park’s human development teams in five remote communities, staying true to our mission of ‘using adventure to improve and save lives’.
Accompanied by photo-journalist Ollie Keohan and film-maker Calvin Fisher, this expedition also helped shine a spotlight on the incredible revival and restoration of Gorongosa National Park, now risen from the ashes as a ‘People’s Park’ and deservedly reclaiming its title as ‘Africa’s Eden’. Links to their compelling stories can be found under the MEDIA and NEWS tabs.
2,136 Mil
nutritional meals for children & mothers and other ECD support.
All our geographic and humanitarian expeditions are Carbon Neutral, with CO² emissions offset through the planting of thousands of indigenous trees.