Rhino Charge Success

BNIS was well-represented at the 34th edition of the Rhino Charge, held this year in the stunning Nkoteyia Community Conservancy, especially on the podium! BNIS families are not only fundamental to the running and organisation of the event but also within the competition itself and this year, both first and second place were secured by families from the school.

This annual fundraising event involves teams (52 cars this year) attempting to visit 13 designated checkpoints whilst travelling the shortest distance, in any order or direction of their choosing, through terrain full of hills, rocks, valleys, riverbeds, wash-aways and spiky vegetation - if they find a road and use it, they are penalised! Teams have a driver, a navigator and around for runners or scouts who spend the day ahead of the car, looking for the best and most direct route. The event involves ten hot hours of teamwork, map reading, GPS’s, strong cars, skillful driving, winching, running, thinking on your feet and lots and lots luck - speed has nothing to do with it!

The podium-placing teams - 48 and 38 - feature family members of Tiki (Y5), Kubi (Y1) and Killi (FS2) who were of course amongst the on-site supporters. Team supporter, get up in the dark to cheer their team on at the start and then spend the rest of the day piled into a car, charging around on the spectator roads to meet their car at strategic checkpoints to cheer them on while they perform unbelievable feats that you never dreamed possible on four wheels! At the any one time, multiple teams come into checkpoints from all different directions and the entertainment is endless. This year, the course was highly challenging and only six cars successfully made it to all 13 checkpoints to finish the course.

Things went particularly well for Tiki's team and it was with absolute delight that he reported back to school after the event with the news that his dad's team, Car 48, had clocked the shortest distance of the course to emerge the overall winners with a distance of 26.7km. They were followed in second place by Team Bundu Fundi Car 38, which include Kubi and Killi's family members, with 29.86km.

The prize giving was graced by President William Ruto which caused everyone great excitement but especially our families when he visited the top placed cars and met the teams and their supporters! The icing on the cake for Tiki and his dad's team, was watching him leave with a 48 cap on his head!!

At the end of the day, the event is all about conservation and this year an impressive KES 173 million was raised for conservation work.

The White and Lambrechts families from BNIS are heavily involved in the running and administration of Rhino Charge and Rhino Ark, and they spend a lot more of their weekends and half terms throughout the year visiting sites and doing recces towards the planning and organising of this spectacularly fun and important conservation fund-raising event. Everyone is already thinking about next year's event and we cannot wait to see which teams are successful then!