Live, Love and stop poachers in Namibia!

My next project is underway! In July 2023 I'll be joining the charity Rally For Rangers and taking a Yamaha bike through Namibia with the sole purpose of giving it away. Hear me out, the. cause is a worthy one. As you probably know, there's many diverse and wonderful wildlife living in the vast National Parks that are Namibia's rich treasures. Many of these animals are indigenous to Africa and sadly on the brink of exinction, take the Rhino for example. Someone has to protect them! Enter the Community Park Rangers. Their job is to patrol their Park from those who would poach or otherwise commit illegal activities and threaten the livelihoods of those living there and the very existence of some of our more endangered species.

Louisa on her new Ninja 1000SX

I hear about this annual event through Adventure Rider Radio, the second time that radio program has spurred me into action and taken me to Africa! The first being a trip to help with Pikilily - the all female motorcycle taxi company in Tanzania - and giving me a chance to work with the amazing Claire Elsdon, founder and explorer in her own right. Pikilily is going from strength to strength and by bringing awareness of road safety (something sadly missing in Tanzania) and vehicle maintenance has most certainly saved lives, particularly children's.

I'm currently raising funds for the bike, having decided that I'm happy pay my own expenses, so asking anyone who would like a part share in the donated bike to sponsor it at GoFundMe - anything will be welcome and will go towards the bike or parts for it. The Park Rangers in Namibia don't get much funding for the vital work they do so often their modes of transport are not working and awaiting repair. By getting a new bike they can save animals from being butchered and warn off those who would do harm. I think that's something giving up my time and money for, so here I am. A purpose bigger than myself. A purpose that combines existentialism and the planet. 

I believe that animals have just a right to existence as we do. The way we treat them even in a legal context (battery farming for instance) is deplorable. I've become almost vegetarian, realising that not only do I feel wrong to eat more meat than I need but that actually it's better for your health to get most of your fuel from fruit and vegetables. So many species are going extinct every single day, it's heartbreaking. The estimates vary wildly - of course - but between 15 and 200 species disappear every day! Now I'm not one to blame everything on the human race, the earth warms and cools and species come and go in any time in the evolution of our planet. However, the last five mass extinction events were predicated by a massive event such as a meteorite hit. We are in our sixth mass extinction event and I can only see a direct link between that and us and the incredible burden we have on the earth and its resources. 

I do hope that the Age of Aquarius or whatever it is to be called, where we suddenly become enlightened and realise that actually we don't need to be greedy, or so fearful, or behave in a way that means we are in competiton with everyone. Because we already made it, we are apex. We don't need to take more than we need because of lean times ahead. We have enough on this planet and with technology we can support many more than we ever thought possible. But this would require us to share, to give up individual luxuries and to behave for the greater good of humanity. Are we close to that enlightenment yet? I don't think so, but I do see the occasional sign. More people are meditating and talking about the value of living for the present. More people are aware of their own ego and its destructive tendencies. So perhaps, just perhaps, we can move towards a fairer world where we don't hurt our neighbour through fear and we don't rape our oceans of the diverse wildlife but instead we learn to be content and grateful beings, realising that to help and not to harm is the way to our own little slice of hapiness. 

#stoppoaching #protecttheplanet #bikesforrangers 

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