Words can barely describe how intense our lives have been for the past year and more, but here’s to finally breaking my blog drought! I’m delighted to share news of the Wild Imaging Trust (a charitable trust registered in South Africa, of which Dave is the founding trustee) and our joint project Rock ’n Ride 4 Rhino. This is an epic conservation, community and communications project entailing a 15,000+ km motorcycle adventure around Southern Africa from April – Sep 2013.
It has been conceived by Jason Hartman, 2009 SA Idol and founding director of Men of the Trees, and Dave – both passionate bikers and conservationists – in partnership with Damien Mander, former Australian Army Special Operations sniper and founding director of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation. The purpose is to educate and inform, mobilize united action and raise funds for the extensive equipment, manpower and resources required to effectively combat the poaching scourge that threatens our wildlife and planet, to support community upliftment in areas impacted by poaching and to provide a powerful communications mechanism via video, still images and internet platforms.
We’re half way through the tour and what a phenomenal time we’ve had. Heartfelt thank you to each and every student, teacher, supporter, sponsor, biker and friend who has made this success possible! Special mention to Yamaha SA for sponsoring Jason’s Road Warrior cruiser and Dave’s Super Tenere adventure bike, pictured below. You may recognise this photo of the guys at dawn from some of our billboards around Jo’burg – with sincere thanks to our sponsors at Primedia Outdoor.
Huge thanks also to Unitrans VW and their exceptional Unite Against Poaching initiative for the two trusty Amarok double cabs that are carrying our team around the country. Here they are at the beautiful Olive Grove Guest Farm in Beaufort West, who generously hosted us on our first night:
In addition to all our other sponsors, our heartfelt gratitude goes out to Legacy Hotels & Resorts and City Lodge for their fantastic support. Here we are at the City Lodge hotel in Summerstrand PE:
Schools have formed the backbone of our tour, with the exceptional Philanthropy Challenge that we’re sharing with students (52 schools and about 22,000 students so far). It has been humbling, overwhelming and deeply inspiring to experience the vibrant energy of so many young people, coupled with the power of unified purpose. On behalf of our whole team, we are so grateful for all of their invaluable support! For more information about Rock ‘n Ride 4 Rhino, please visit www.rnr4r.org and follow the blog. If you’d like to help, please email [email protected] or donate via the site, or simply SMS RIDE to 38008 (SMS costs R10). Thank you!
