Drive Through Africa for Wildlife Conservation

Mission: Travel through Africa to support wildlife conservation and fight illegal poaching. Raise awareness and funds for endangered species. Educate and inspire.

Join the forces: no act is too small, and every animal we can save together counts! Help us to spread the word, support Expedition Conservation and the grassroots organizations throughout Africa!

WHO ARE WE?
We’re Piritta and Niina, two Finnish wildlife lovers, who’re on a mission to save as many animals as we can! We left our jobs, sold our belongings, and bought a Land Rover Defender to drive through Africa to raise awareness and funds for wildlife conservation. You can read our whole story here: expeditionconservation.org/what 

WHY OVERLAND ACROSS AFRICA?
By traveling through the whole continent of Africa in 2019-2021, we will gain – and share – a deeper understanding of the wildlife crisis, current wildlife conservation issues, and success stories. With knowledge comes the power to help the threatened animals and ecosystems. 

On the way, we’ll visit national parks, nature reserves, and wildlife conservation projects. We’ll showcase the incredible work that animal sanctuaries, orphanages, and wildlife centers are doing – often with limited funding. We’ll stop by remote World Heritage sites and jaw-dropping destinations off the beaten path. We’ll share with you the magical encounters with wild animals and stories of rescued wildlife.

We will showcase trailblazing and lesser-known wildlife rehabilitation centers, community initiatives, and anti-poaching projects, and give you tools to support these local ventures all around Africa.

WHY SUPPORT US?
According to the recent studies, grassroots level conservation efforts and community-based programs deliver the best results. For foreigners, it’s usually hard to find and support these lesser-known projects. We’re here to bridge the gap.

We will list carefully vetted projects on our website with their donation details so that you can support these trustworthy organizations and be sure that your money will be used for saving the animals (even social media shares help them to reach more people!).

SCHEDULE & DESTINATIONS:
We will drive with our Land Rover Defender all the way from Southern Africa to Europe. Our goal is to drive through Southern, Eastern, and Western Africa to Morocco and reach the Arctic by June 2021 - after 33 African countries!

This is not a race but an expedition. Completing the first round from Namibia to Finland will take appr. 21 months - we're taking the long route with plenty of detours. We want to really see the conservation work all around the continent, learn from it, and experience the beauty of Africa - to share it all with you!

ROUTE: Southern Africa to the Arctic  Sept 2019-June 2021
Namibia-Botswana-Zimbabwe-South Africa-Lesotho-Swaziland-South Africa-Mozambique-Malawi-Tanzania-Kenya-Uganda-Rwanda-DRC-Burundi-Tanzania-Zambia-Angola-DRC-Congo-Gabon-Cameroon-Nigeria-Benin-Togo-Ghana-Ivory Coast-Liberia-Sierra Leone-Guinea-Guinea-Bissau-Senegal-Gambia-Mauritania-West Sahara-Morocco-Spain-France-Belgium-Netherlands-Germany-Poland-Lithuania-Latvia-Estonia-Finland

WHERE ARE WE NOW AND WHAT'S NEXT?
Our journey starts from Namibia, where community-based conservation models have restored wildlife numbers at astonishing scale. During the last 30 years, Namibia’s elephant population has tripled and the country has Africa’s largest black rhino population on community lands. We’ll showcase Namibia’s innovative conservation efforts during October 2019.
 
Our flight lands in Namibia on 30th of August and we’ll spend the first month equipping our car, taking bush mechanic training, learning dune driving and crossing rivers, and venturing into the wilderness to test our camping equipment and survival skills. During the upcoming years, we need to be able to fix the most unexpected car issues and camp in the middle of wilderness teeming with dangerous animals.

FOLLOW US REAL-TIME!
You can support and follow the expedition real-time in all social medias.

Please help us spread the word on Facebook, Instagram,  and Twitter!

By donating to Expedition Conservation, you will also get exclusive access to email reports and destination videos from the road - just drop us your email address!

HOW TO SUPPORT & JOIN THE EXPEDITION
By donating to Expedition Conservation, you help to keep us on the road and fund our visits in local conservation organizations.

This project is currently funded only by our own savings, which are already running out after buying camping equipped Land Rover Defender T110, called Honey Badger, from Namibia. She was damn expensive (20 000€ + estimated €2000-€3000 for the remaining equipment, which will be installed during September 2019). Although our Honey Badger can take us through deserts, vast reserves, rivers and dunes without giving a duck, she still needs diesel and occasional care.

We will live mainly in our rooftop tent to keep our own expenses low, but fuel, visas and border fees, insurances, and all other expenses during our 21-month expedition add up tremendously. 

SPONSORING EXAMPLES

Cheers! €1–€30
Support our daily expenses. Honestly, every dollar counts. Thanks for being so awesome!

Sponsor a visa for one of us €50
Roughly one visa to one African country for one of us. Visa fees vary between €30-€400 per person per country. We’re planning to go through appr. 33 African countries only on our first round, so these fees really add up.

Sponsor Expedition Conservation for One Day €60
Support Expedition Conservation by covering our one-day expenses for two persons*.
*Estimate based on average daily costs of food, fuel, camping fees, national park/reserve fees, equipment repairs, occasional medical aid, and so on.

Fuel a leg: Feed the Honey Badger €120
Full double-tank* (120 liters) for the Honey Badger. She’s always hungry.
*Estimated diesel price in Africa, based on Namibian price

Sponsor a country exploration €1680
Estimated travel costs, visas and border fees, fuel, and food; based on a one-month period in one African country. Covers us both for one full month!

Thank you so much for sharing this adventure with us. Every social media share helps our mission. Every dollar counts. Thanks for being there and being amazing!

Visit our website for more info and more ways to support our journey: https://expeditionconservation.org