Since August last year, South Africa’s Mark Mitchell has been on a very long stroll—one that, upon completion in Norway, will add up to 18,000kms. All of this to deliver Spekboom and if he’s lucky, plant billions of trees:
Global (23 April 2024) — In August 2023, Wolvengat’s Mark Mitchell began a mighty stroll across the continent. Armed with the TrekKart he designed and made himself, Mark’s mission is simple: to deliver a specimen of Spekboom to Oslo’s Botanical Gardens in Norway, and hope for the planet.
You’d be forgiven for wondering why Mark is so determined to deliver the succulent plant to a place so many kilometres (180,000) away from home. And you’d also be right in wondering—for there is far more to Mark’s ‘Great Trek’ than an adventurous gesture.
Since he was a youngster, Mark was enthralled with the idea of being a trans Africa adventurer. This was partly fuelled by such an adventurer who visited the village he was staying in on a mission of his own some decades ago. And for the past 50 years or so, Mark has longed to wear the same title.
For many years, Mark worked as a Cape Cycle Tour Guide, where he dreamed and talked about cycling to ‘the end of the world’ across Africa. As it turned out, he would undertake a different kind of transport—his own two legs.
But, he didn’t want his trip from the Cape Agulhas to Norway to be solely about himself. Considering the good he could do by virtue of such a big trek, he decided to use the Spekboom as a symbol of environmental love and devoted his walk to raising funds to plant what he hopes will amount to billions of trees (7.2 billion at that) as well as shrubs and plants!
Through this, Mark aims to make the best use of his legs and adventurous spirit as possible, with several goals. These include:
- Combatting climate change
- The opportunity to rehabilitate local, natural ecosystems
- Removing alien species and replanting native species
- Re-establishing better ecological management
- And many others
Currently, Mark has covered 4,987kms over 155 days, and is in Tanzania (where he just made it to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro!).
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You can show Mark and his Spekboom all the love and support here, and keep up with his milestones (or help him out with a meal or coffee) here.
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