Two Weeks To Go To The Amazing Rhino Charge
Final preparations for the 30th anniversary edition of the Rhino Charge, Kenya’s unique off-road motor competition, are underway at an undisclosed location in the untamed wilds of Northern Kenya. Competing crews and spectators are gearing up ahead of the actual adrenalin-charged motorsport orienteering challenge on Saturday, 2nd June.
This year’s Rhino Charge main event timelines are as follows:
• Friday, 1st June – Scrutineering
• Saturday, 2nd June – Rhino Charge
• Sunday, 3rd June – Prize-giving
Rhino Ark founder Ken Kuhle, Rally Enthusiasts Rob Combes and Brian Haworth in 1989 mooted the idea of an off-road 4×4 event to support the fencing project carried out by the just established Charitable Trust Rhino Ark.
The Trust was committed to saving the dwindling Rhino population in the Aberdare National Park, as well as mitigating human-wildlife conflicts around the National Park. On 04th of February 1989, 31 competing vehicles entered the first event which was won by Travers Allison in a Suzuki jeep. Whilst the first Rhino Charge raised only Kshs. 250,000, this amount increased tremendously over the years and has in recent years set new records.
The annual off-road 4×4 competition is held in Kenya, a high profile event the world is now watching, in which entrants are required to visit 13 way points scattered over approximately 100 km² of rough terrain within a 10 hour period.
Entrants are supplied with a 1:50,000 scale map of the venue, co-ordinates of the 13 guard posts and their start position the night before the event. Each competitor must plot the guard posts on the map and decide his/her route. The winner is the competitor who visits the most guard posts in the shortest distance as per GPS measurements.
It has over the past 3 decades not only become a world-renowned motorsport event, but also, and primarily, remains a major fund raising activity for the conservation efforts of Rhino Ark, the charitable trust which works towards the protection of Kenya’s ‘Water Towers’.
Indeed, since its inception in 1989, the Rhino Charge has raised a staggering amount of over KES 1.3 billion towards the Aberdare, Mt. Kenya and the Mau Forests Complex.
This year’s event is particularly unique as it is the 30th anniversary of the Rhino Charge.
