Mossel Bay Tourism Media Release: Immediate. 16 July 2008

KINGSLEY HOLGATE’S AFRICA OUTSIDE EDGE EXPEDITION VISITS MOSSEL BAY

Kingsley Holgate – ‘Africa’s Greatest Living Adventurer’ – and his team of explorers visited Mossel Bay this week during the last few days of their quest to circumnavigate Africa through 33 countries by land and sea.

The Expedition carried with it a Scroll of Peace and Goodwill endorsed by Nobel Prize laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu and ex-president Nelson Mandela as well as a Zulu calabash filled with seawater taken from Cape Point – the starting point of the journey.

Besides recording their experiences, the team ran three humanitarian projects during their tour: ‘One Net One Life,’ which distributed 100,000 mosquito nets to young children and pregnant woman – Africa’s most vulnerable people; ‘Teaching on The Edge,’ which distributed mobile libraries, learning material and malaria education to schools on the edge of Africa; and ‘Rite to Site,’ which presented spectacles to those on the outside edge who wouldn’t otherwise have had access to these vital visual aids.

Mr. Holgate was excited about his visit to Mossel Bay – especially when he learned of the existence of the Mossel Bay Archeology Project, SAMPLA (the South African Marine Predator Lab) and the Dias Museum Complex with its replica of a 15th Century caravel.

These significant institutions all contribute in one way or another to the rich history, culture and ecology of Africa’s Outside Edge.

Almost fifty scientists from around the world are working on the Mossel Bay Archaeology Project (MAP).

The biggest archaeology project of its kind, MAP has unearthed the earliest properly dated evidence of modern human behaviour (165,000 years) and is studying the effects of climate change through evidence found in a series of caves at Pinnacle Point (carbon isotopes recovered from stalagmites in the caves, for example, provide information about the quality of water filtering through as a result of changes to the vegetation covering the overlying land – changes which are influenced, of course, by climate).

SAMPLA, a private foundation, is busy with a research project into great white sharks in the Bay – which provides ideal conditions for this type of work – and the Africa Outside Edge Expedition team met socially with two of the company’s scientists, Ryan Johnson and Stephen Swanson.

Mr. Holgate said that the Dias Museum Complex’s caravel reminded him strongly of traditional Arab dhows – and that it was similar to the dhow he and his family used on their African Rainbow Expedition (a journey which took them from Durban up the East coast of Africa to the Somali border).

Mr. Holgate believes strongly in symbolism and said that it was because of its prevalence in African cultures that he and his team were carrying their Scroll and Calabash.

He said they had also carried stones presented to them by the managers of de Hoop Nature Reserve which they had dropped at the eastern, northern and western-most points of Africa; and that they had collected stones from those points to bring back to the reserve, which they would visit later this week.

The Scroll, which has been inscribed by more than 5,000 people along the way (“including pirates and presidents,” according to Mr. Holgate), was signed by various members of the community of Mossel Bay – including Mossel Bay Tourism’s Marcia Holm and the manager of The Point Hotel, Willem Viviers, who hosted the team on Monday night.

The team filmed and photographed their experiences while they were here, and could use this footage in documentaries and feature articles about their journey.

Information about the Africa Outside Edge Expedition and its humanitarian projects at www.kingsleyholgate.co.za; about SAMPLA at www.sampla.org; and about Mossel Bay at www.visitmosselbay.co.za.

ENDS 686 WORDS

MORE INFORMATION:
Debra Bouwer – Marketing Manager, Mossel Bay Tourism marketing@visitmosselbay.co.za

Telephone: +27(0)44 691 2202 www.visitmosselbay.co.za.

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