MTB Endurance Ride for Rhino – Hillcrest to Hilltop

A Ride with a huge Challenge: 341 kilometers in one day – and be sure to get in to the Hluhluwe Imfolizi Game Park before dark lest lions and other predators attack riders after sunset! The Ride Event is on the 12^th December 2015.

Last year, the Inaugural Ride for Rhino was so successful  it was made an Annual Event. The ride from Hillcrest to Hilltop Camp, Hluhluwe is arguably the toughest 1-day MTB ride in South Africa.

The Challenge is unique as it’s not only the distance that is the problem; the last grueling 35 kms climbs  from the Centenary Centre in Imfolizi (the very park Rhino were saved from extinction in 1961) along the windy bushveld road to Hilltop Camp with hungry predators roaming freely in the bush.

The ride is self funded. There’s no entry fee and each person pays their own expenses. Exhausted Riders will stay in Hilltop Camp Accommodation  at their own cost to contribute to the Rhino Fund.

The Ride

The challenge  will be starting at 1am on Saturday 12^th December. The estimated distance is 350 km and the cut off is at 16 hours in order to get through the reserve before nightfall tolimit the chance of being eaten by a wild animal. The final 35km is inside the reserve to Hilltop Camp.

There are alternate distances of 240km and 100km that will start respectively from Darnall  and Empangeni in order for the group to complete. The goal is to time all start groups to arrive at the park entrance together and ride through together in one group.

Exhausted Riders will stay in Hilltop Camp Accommodation but paid by themselves so that the Rhino Funds can be of benefit for the Survival

Support Vehicles

Volunteers will support the ride in vehicles, so we will be able to drop back to a vehicle to get food, drink etc… It is vital that we limit stopping for safety reasons, i.e. that we make the camp while it’s still daylight. We ask for a fuel contribution for the vehicle you use for your support. All crew will be on Whats app and have a GPS with download Logs.

Bhubesi EMS has volunteered to make his Ambulance available from Zululand. Thanks to Dr Bhubesi Ngomezulu for making a difference to Wildlife and our Region.

Donating

Please be sure to write Rhino Ride as the reference in the first line, ‘Message to African Conservation Trust’.

Account Name: ACT Rhino Fund

Bank: Nedbank

Branch: Musgrave

Branch code: 13012610

Account no: 1008662976

Deposit Reference: Rhino Ride + your company or surname

Who will benefit

Project Rhino performs many functions in the province and is involved in Rhino Awareness Education in other parts of South Africa. Along with ZAP wing and other ground Anti-poaching Units, there is also a strong Youth Awareness programme.  Project Rhino is the single beneficiary. All donations go to this noble cause.

This ride is to raise awareness and funds to support their efforts, which includes keeping the ZAP Wing aircraft fuelled, foot and vehicle patrols, binoculars, etc… There are also community education projects targeted primarily at the youth which is funded through Project Rhino.

Thirty percent of the funds will go to the Ezemvelo Community Rhino Ambassadors. This funding from the Ride in 2014 enabled 400 Ambassadors to be trained in Rhino Conservation in four regions of Ezemvelo. Namely Midlands Sector, involving Spionkop and Weenen Reserves, Hluhluwe Imfolizi, Mkuze, Ndumo and Tembe Elephant Park.

Save our Imfolizi Wilderness.

Rhino Art will be educating Schools along the Southern Section of the Park and making the Community Aware of the negative effects of Mining. Project Rhino KZN supports every facet of the Anti-mining Campaign and our campaign is about Alternative Sustainable Wildlife Resources to.

Ironically the MTB route is through the polluted Mfuleni mine area as the riders climb towards the Gate in Imfolizi. A disastrous scar of this pristine environment with heavy trucks and machinery damaging  the landscape.

For more information: Contact Sheila Berry or Rob Symons at Global Environmental Trust

Mobile +27 82 495 6249

www.globalenvironmentaltrust.org

saveourwilderness.wordpress.com

Cycling – synonymous with the new brand of Rhino Awareness Worldwide

• Hillcrest to Hilltop- the Ultimate Challenge NON Stop
• BuyNoRhino –two sisters cycling 6000 kms in South East Asia doing Rhino Art and speaking to schools
• Olli- Wayne Bolton riding for SAN PARKS and doing Rhino Art
• Sabie Lowveld Rhino Ride to Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre
• Steve and Haley Dahl- took a Journal of Youth Declarations and Rhino Support around Danang Province, Vietnam
• Transbaviaans – Dave Pattle and Andrew Stewart –team Rhino Art 210 kms nonstop through the night

Cycle Ride in Hanoi Vietnam in October 2015  with US Ambassador Ted Osius after Signing the Famous Rhino Declaration from the World Youth Rhino Summit. Cyclists in the 2014 Hillcrest to Hilltop signed this incredible book as a symbol of Support- Our Shirts had Rhino Horn is not Medicine printed on the back in Vietnamese.