We are driving through Africa, from west to east and south to north, between December 2019 and April 2021. We started from Namibia in December 2019, and we’re first going through Southern and Eastern Africa.
Then, we’ll head north through Europe all the way to the Arctic Circle, unwrapping the magical wilderness and wildlife of the mythic Scandinavia.
And then, planning to start from September 2021, we’ll drive back to Southern Africa along with a different, the western African route, but on the same mission!
On the way, we’ll visit national parks, nature reserves, and wildlife conservation projects.
We’ll stop by Unesco World Heritage sites and jaw-dropping destinations where most of the tourists won’t venture. The off-road is our road.
We’ll share with you the magical encounters with wild animals and stories of rescued wildlife.
Our love for Africa began already in 2015 when we lost our hearts to this incredible continent after our first visit to Tanzania. In the preceding years, we ended up exploring seven more African nations from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to South Africa, slowly getting to know the real Africa in its fiery colors.
WHO ARE WE AND WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?
We’re Piritta and Niina, two animal lovers and adventurers from Finland. We left our corporate lives behind to pursue our dreams of helping the endangered wildlife.
Niina has over 15 years’ experience from advertising and PR, and Piritta is a professional photographer. By combining our skillsets, we hope to help raise the awareness of wildlife conservation among the general public all around the world.
We also want to encourage people to do more and donate to organizations that do the vitally important work on the frontlines of conservation.
We have always wanted to see the whole of Africa – with all its animals, cultures, beauty, and struggles. We wanted to help wildlife. Expedition Conservation is our answer.
During our several past trips to Africa between 2015-2017, we saw the habitat loss that squeezes animals into small protected areas, poached elephant carcasses, and orphaned babies mourning their dead mothers. And the despair of meeting the last male Northern white rhino called Sudan who has now died and left just two lone females on this planet. All this encouraged us to do our share to help wildlife.
And our hearts went out for the wildlife organizations, community-based conservation projects, and brave rangers who are risking their own lives to protect the endangered animals every day.
IF YOU’D LIKE TO HELP US, TOO, YOU CAN DO SO HERE
With Expedition Conservation, we want to share that all with you. The harsh reality of fighting wildlife trafficking, and remarkable success stories in wildlife conservation that remain mostly unknown in the western world. With us and Expedition Conservation YOU can see the real Africa, too!
We’ll share the enchanting spell of the “Mother Continent” and its magnificent fauna and flora.
In the middle of 2018, we left our corporate jobs, sold all our small belongings in Finland to devote ourselves to Expedition Conservation. After all, you have this one life and you have to live it!
It took us several months of intense planning to finally make this dream happen. We then arrived in Namibia in late 2018 and started to search for a proper expedition car. That search took several months up to the end of April 2019.
We then had to leave Namibia to visit Finland, our home country, for a few months, and after that, we then returned to Namibia in late August 2019. Preparing our car to the harsh overlanding adventure ahead of us took much longer than we had anticipated. Still, we finally got every bit and piece together and departed to the road for good in December 2019.
But here we are now, at the beginning of this epic, 3-year adventure, hoping to get you on board with us!
We have already had a lot of unexpected struggles during the trip, which we did not account for, and they have, unfortunately, eaten a lot of our budget. But no matter what, we will keep on going!
If you’d like to give us and the wildlife we are trying to help a helping hand, there are several ways you can help. Just check here: https://expeditionconservation.org/support
You can also donate straight through PayPal and help to keep us on the road and help us to help more conservation organizations! – And you will get a surprise gift! 🤠
Thank you so much for all your support! 🙏 Stay wild and stay safe!
