[vc_row][vc_column][mnky_countdown date=”2017/11/04″][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]THE COUNTDOWN HAS BEGUN: In less than 10 days a team of 9 environmentalists, journalists and mountaineers will attempt a new world-first: summiting 7 mountains in Africa, back-to-back, in 7 weeks.
The team will cross five East African countries – Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo – from 4 November to 20 December 2017, visiting Unesco World Heritage Sites and key national parks in-between climbs.
Their mission for every summit is simple: raise awareness of crucial causes that affect the mountains and their surrounding natural environment, people and animals – from endangered mountain gorillas to melting glaciers.
Their overall goal is more challenging: to stimulate tourism to East Africa. Because this group of die-hard environmentalists knows that without sustainable tourism there’s no chance of preserving the nature and wildlife of one of the world’s most diverse and achingly beautiful regions.
Carel Verhoef
“The hard truth is that conservation requires money – lots of it – and the best way to get this much-needed revenue for conservation is through responsible tourism,” explains Carel Verhoef, one of the #7SummitsAfrica Challenge expedition leaders and a director of title sponsor Great Migration Camps.
As a life-long wildlife specialist who has spent the last 13 years tracking and researching the 2 million wildebeest that form East Africa’s greatest wildlife spectacle, the Great Migration, Verhoef is at the coalface of conservation in the region. He will be leading the #7SummitsAfrica Challenge team along with top African mountaineer Sibusiso Vilane, who belongs to the exclusive 7 Summits club (the mountaineers who have summited the highest peaks on each of the 7 continents), and Ake Lindstrom, East Africa’s most experienced mountaineer.
Sibusiso Vilane
Ake Lindstrom
The team will dedicate seven weeks (and several hundred blisters) to the cause. All they need from you is your support to help raise awareness of the #7SummitsAfrica Challenge, and each of the 7 crucial causes they are climbing for.
Please follow #7SummitsAfrica on social media, share their stories, and tell your friends.
Asante sana! (Thank you – Swahili)
