The team at Wildlife Worldwide are proud to join others in the travel industry to raise funds in support of African rangers and wildlife by joining the Ride4Rangers initiative.

Across the world, every one of us is experiencing the impact of COVID-19. In Africa, the collapse of tourism has had a devastating economic impact, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people, as well as the future of the continent's iconic wildlife such as elephant, rhino, lion and pangolin.

Money to pay rangers in some of worlds' flagship wildlife areas in Africa is simply not there. The conservation bodies in prized wilderness areas such as Zambia’s Luangwa Valley, Tanzania's Serengeti, South Africa's Kruger and many more, are struggling to pay the salaries of the rangers who are the first line of defence. The rangers are enduring drastic cuts in salaries and resources due to the devastating economic impact of the COVID pandemic, but they are still working tirelessly to safeguard the continents iconic wildlife.

During the month of September, a team of us at Wildlife Worldwide have pledged to cycle 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometres) – the length of Africa – to raise money for Ride4Rangers. The money that we raise will go directly towards supporting the salaries and deployment of African rangers during this crisis and, through this incredible initiative supported by Tusk, every penny will be match funded. So, if we raise £5,000, the rangers will receive £10,000, doubling the impact of every donation. The overall aim of Tusk is 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.

Here’s how your support could help…

£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

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

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 mile 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 Marshall 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.