Well done on your 14th place in this years charge. For full results see Here where you’ll find the rest. Back next year then ?

Finished the 2012 rhino charge

This is a request for a donation to the Rhino Ark Trust (RAT).

Funds over the past years from the Rhino Charge have provided for a 400km fence round the Aberdare Mountains ecosystem in Kenya. As well as maintaining the fence new funds will enable similar systems to be built for Mount Kenya and Mount Eburu.

The Rhino Charge itself is a one day off-road event in the wilds of Kenya. All the money raised for this event and by me goes to the RAT. I pay all my own travel costs.

I have taken part in the RC in the last 2 years as well as the UK Rhino Charge and have raised £35,000 to date.

This year I am Car No 9 owned by John Bowden of Gumtree 4×4 in Sussex.

As before as an incentive to make a donation to RAT through this event all donors contributing through me £40 or over will be put into a draw (to be made on 1 May 2012) for a 2 and 1 week holiday in my flat in the Costa Blanca in Moraira, Spain – see attached sheet. The winners have use of the flat BUT pay for their own flights and car hire.

As a special incentive this year, whilst stocks last all donors will be given UK Olympic Stamps on envelopes and St Pancras Station postcards dated mainly 27 July 2011 – one year to the opening of the Olympic Games. Envelope/postcard samples are attached. Twenty of these have been signed by Liz Johnson, Paralympic gold medal winner in swimming 100m breaststroke in Beijing 2008 and a contender next year

I make a special request to all those persons/companies who carry out business with Kenya to make a contribution to next year’s Rhino Charge.

Donations can be made direct to www.justgiving.com/carno9rhinocharge2012 or by cheque/cash to myself and you will see my payment to just giving, or by cheque to Rhino Ark Trust which I will forward to the UK Treasurer of Rhino Ark Trust. Invoices for company donations will be provided if requested. Please pass this on to any of your friends, work colleagues etc and more so to your company’s PR dept.

Thank you in advance for any support you give to Rhino Ark Trust and Car No 9

www.rhinoark.org  www.info-teulada-moraira.com

Why did we do it? To improve on last year of course when our vehicle “Shorti” badly let us down. So all the hype and promises of a better prepared vehicle; let’s take a practical look at what happened.

Firstly I promised to raise a minimum of Kenya Shillings One Million (£7,200) as my guaranteed entry for the charity Rhino Ark Trust. (please check out www.rhinoark.org) – not just to maintain the fence already built around the Aberdares but also now to fund new fences round Mount Kenya and Mount Eburu. Yes we raised KES1.45m (£10,430) almost the same as last year.

My team Angus, my son who was in the team last year, Justin Davenport-Thomas well versed in LR’s for years and Gitonga, our mechanic from Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers (KVM).

I flew out 5 days before the event hopefully to fully check out the vehicle. Not quite! We travelled from Nairobi to Thika – home of KVM – not just to see the flame trees which we did but to take a run in the vehicle. When we arrived at the factory the mechanics were still tinkering with the vehicle – master brake cylinder kit still awaited, wiring incomplete but bigger tyres causing the pedals to be moved inwards in the cabin. Could I shorten by legs, me at 2m tall!! New batteries found and one of the two plasma ropes I took out last year had been fitted on the front winch. The rear winch still lacked a decent hook. Thank heavens I had brought one out with me.

After a chat with David Percival, MD of KVM, who had loaned me the vehicle all was promised to be OK so we left for a day’s R + R back in Nairobi at The Fairview Hotel – a very comfortable family/business hotel.

Angus arrived Tuesday and needless to say had to go geo-caching in Karen and at the Kenya National Museum.

Wednesday we journeyed north, across the equator, past Lake Baringo and into the Yatya hills of the Tugen Range. Looking for our camp site we are told at Checkpoint Charlie 2 that “your trucks are down that road. Please let us know where they are”.

Ah, there are the two KVM trucks above a river bed, but no Shorti, and only the frame of the large tent to serve as mess, diner and workshop – time 5.30 pm after a long dusty drive from Nairobi. “Hey guys where are our sleeping tents?” says I – “Still in the trucks”. So we set to work to at least put up our tents so we could get some shuteye later on. Three hours later we have 4 two or three person tents set up to kip in. David Percival and his team arrived at 1am the next morning!

Where was “Shorti” – put on a trailer behind “Charlie” the 109. Hard to drive so Shorti was put on the road for a while. Yes with dumper truck tyres  BUT we found out the results of that later.

Well our canteen lady gave us great food in the circumstances – full English breakfast – and thank heavens there was no flash flood in the night or we may have floated down the river.

Thursday saw us sorting out Shorti after it had arrived at 9 am, loaded up gear, sorted out GPS and passed the official scrutineering. Back to camp for a rest and then the charge formal briefing at 5 pm. with map handout.

We knew from where we were starting as we had drawn our guard post start at lunchtime. At the briefing we received the thirteen waypoints we had to visit – as short a distance as possible is the target in eight hours – up hill, down dale, through the bushes not round them. Angus set to and in half an hour we had agreed our route.

Final check on Shorti, why not much power in third gear – misfiring. Check the distributor  and then at 9pm we discover the brand new Britpart starter has failed. Thank heavens David Percival’s new hybrid “Scruffy” had failed an hour before so we whipped off its starter and put it on “Shorti”. I retired to bed around midnight and kept hearing Angus shout “No power!”

I woke at 5am fearing the worst that we had no vehicle. Good luck it could still run – a little. Down to the start at 6am for the run to our guardpost. At 7am we rise up the hills to think where the hell are we going. Marc Allen of the orange “Sally Slop Cabbage” says he is too nervous to eat the sausages,bacon rolls etc on offer – as are snacks and rehydration at all guardposts.

The gun is fired at 7.30am and off we go downhill to the first checkpoint. Forty minutes to travel seven kilometres. Now for the real test – on to Vineyard Church – straightline along a river bed or we leg it on the “road” for at least twice the distance. Spirit of the challenge says riverbed run. No, not simple sand and pebbles – bloody big rocks and overhanging trees as the heat rises not just of our crew but yet again the rad needle is up at boiling point – just as last year. Oh my god they ain’t fixed that either!!

So ninety minutes along the bed passing other chargers despite our stops to cool down the engine and top up we reach Vineyard Church for a top up ourselves. So we carry on guardpost to guardpost  all manned by volunteers, friendly and giving us food and water.

Angus’ navigation is great until we lose ourselves in the bush  and we can’t find “Brookhouse”. Sod it says I on we go when we pass a vehicle and the driver says you have bad front offside wheel wobble. Of course I, as the driver, already know that and we are crawling at 5kph. Take a look and no bush on the front shock – probably damaged when Shorti was driven at speed on the road to the event – nor had the wheels been balanced.

On we crawl to the short challenge called “The Gauntlet” which is 3 guardposts very tight together for good spectator viewing.

By this time it is 4pm and to be blunt I am knackered. So Justin drives and nearly goes over the edge – it would have been more than curtains – but I head back to the final checkin. We draw a line at the gauntlet as we wouldn’t reach our staring point by 530pm as Shorti was no longer practical to drive.

The result we came 32 out of 60 – a very good effort in the circumstances.

Will I go back to next year’s Charge? – you bet but not in Shorti.Car no 9 beckons ..provided by John Bowden of Gumtree4x4.

We returned to Nairobi the next day for our first proper wash in 4 days. Then on Sunday off to Leleshwa Camp (www.leleshwacamp.com) just outside the Masai Mara Reserve where we were looked after so well. We saw the “Big Five” and visited a local village and school. And oh yes the migration had started. Thousands and thousands of zebra pouring into the Mara across the Sand River – what a sight.

Now read Mark’s story. He came third much to the surprise of the Clerk of the Course, Anton Levitan. Shock horror a Brit coming third! Well done Mark and team. Will any more Brits go there and beat the locals ?

Results

Overall winners for distance:-

1. Mark Glen                   Team Glen-Llewelyn
2. Sean Avery                 Team Bundu Fundi
3. Mark Allen                  Sally Slop Cabbage

Victor Ludorum

1. Alan McKittrick          Team 05
2.  Sean Avery                                Team Bundu Fundi
3. Mark Glen                   Team Glen-Llewelyn

The Victor Ludorum calculations give discount on distance for the amount of funds raised – just like the UK Rhino Charge. Team 05 raised a staggering £82,000 out of the total raised this year of £556,000. Wow!!

My thanks to all the Rhino Ark Trust team in Kenya and all the volunteers who make the event happen. A true challenge through the wilds of Kenya.

Don’t forget the UK Rhino Charge where you can have a chance to compete in the real Rhino Charge in Kenya. Put the date in your diary for SUNDAY  11^th September at  Park , just south of East Grinstead in beautiful  Sussex. Managed by John Bowden with Clerk of the Course and his glorious team of Redcoats. Entry forms are on the Rhino Charge website as above

Welcome to Our Rhino Charge website.

We are going to participate in the Rhino Charge 2012 and want to raise as much money for the Rhinos.

We have been to Kenya twice before 2009 & 2010.

We  are  fundraising for The Rhino Ark. To help me support this great cause, sponsor me by texting <YOUR UNIQUE CODE> £<AMOUNT>  to 70070. Visit my fundraising page at here. Thank you!