Keegan Longueira

Keegan Longueira is a South African Adventurer, Motivational Speaker and Author.^[1] He currently resides in Witbank (eMalahleni) a coal mining town in the Province of Mpumalanga in South Africa. Keegan rose to prominence in 2015 after completing a solo bicycle expedition across Africa from Cairo to Cape Town. On 2 March 2015 he arrived at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town in a time of 59 days, 8 hours and 30 minutes, and became the Guinness Record holder for the fastest man ever to cross the continent on Bicycle.^[2] Keegan for 4 years had done major expeditions within South Africa as training and build up to the World Record Attempt. He now speaks to churches, businesses and major companies about his expeditions and his lessons learnt on the road. Keegan uses his story to influence and touch lives and inspire people to live their dream, regardless of far away it may seem when starting.

Keegan Longueira in Egypt

Keegan with SA Flag

Keegan Longueira TV Interview

Keegan Longueira Riding

Keegan Longueira

Keegan Longueira Author

Biography

Keegan Longueira was born in Vryheid in Kwa-Zulu Natal South Africa. His dad was a coal miner and his mom a school teacher. The family moved to Standerton soon after his birth and he grew up there. Keegan has always been a keen sportsman and played rugby, cricket, tennis, football and also competed in karate, swimming ^[3] and wrestling. At the age of 6 his family moved to Witbank where he attended St Thomas Aquinas school.^[4] He excelled in sports and made provincial sides for hockey and swimming while acquiring a love for creative writing. At age 15 he went to St Benedict's College Boarding School in Johannesburg. Keegan worked at a small triathlon shop ^[5] before deciding to attend the University of Johannesburg ^[6] to study a BSc in Sports Science. He dropped out before April and then for a short while tried his hand at being a teacher. Before the end of the year he left on a mission trip to Zambia which had a life changing effect on him. Keegan then left for Brazil November 2010 where he volunteered in an orphanage for 3 weeks. In January 2011 he tried his hand at studying again (BCom in Marketing Management) at the University of Pretoria.^[7] Keegan promised to see the year out but his belief in wanting his life to represent something bigger led him to de-register from University, buy a second hand bicycle and embark on an expedition across South Africa.^[8]

Expeditions

Witbank to Cape Town

The title of his first expedition (The Cape Trek Project) eventually become the name of his company, The Cape Trek Project (Pty) Ltd. Keegan's first bicycle expedition across South Africa stretched from Witbank to Cape Town. Keegan used this trip to raise money for CANSA first and then Operation Smile. He completed the first trip in 22 Days, the second in 10 days and the third in 14.^{[9][10][11][12]}

Witbank to Ballito

His fourth expedition was done in aid of Cancer once again but was done with one of his good friends, Brent den Bakker^[13] The two cycled towards the sea to meet up with a primary school hockey team, The Travelling Pinks,^[14] who would be playing three matches to raise money for charity. Keegan was the coach of the team at that time.^[15]

Cairo to Cape Town. Guinness World Record.

His fifth and biggest expedition took place in 2015. He flew to Cairo from South Africa on 31 January 2014 and rolled out of the Cairo el Borg on 2 January 2015 to cycle to Cape Town as fast as he could. He was chasing Robert Knoll’s World Record of 70 days. ! The early journey was plagued by injury and skin infections and by the time he reached Wadi Halfa (Sudan) many thought the record opportunity had past. 4 Days behind record pace, Keegan cut out planned rest days to catch up on time lost. He crossed Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Botswana before eventually arriving back in South Africa. En-route Keegan suffered from diarrhoea, severe sun burn, cramps and dehydration, survived a near robbery at knife point (twice), was spat on in Ethiopia and hit with rocks thrown by kids. Despite this, Keegan entually reached Cape Town on 2 March 2015 to become the fastest man across the African Continent.^{[2][16][17][18][19][20][21]}

Operation Smile

Keegan partnered up with Operation Smile in 2013 after hearing a talk done by David Grier, the South African adventurer who ran the Great Wall of China. David shared the story about kids whose parent couldn't pay for their children's cleft lip and palate surgeries and the complications they would encounter in their lives. The pictures on the slide show touched Keegan deeply and after the talk he walked up to David and asked to be involved. Since that day, The Cape Trek Project and Keegan have raised an incredible amount of money for the organization. Costing just R5 500 to not only repair a child's palate and lip but also their life, gives these people another chance at life. Keegan has always maintained that it would have been impossible to do the things he had done if he had a deformity like this and has committed to helping others. .^{[8][28][29][30][31]}

References