Three Countries In Four Days - Two Wheels

If you prefer to ride for the incredible places you see, rather than to win races, the Tour de Tuli is the event for you.

- Reuben Van Niekerk

MAKe no mistake, here at Leisure Wheels we’re firm believers in the internal combustion engine. Sometimes, though, a vehicle can only get you so far. Then it’s time for a different type of transport, something that can take you further, deeper, into the wilderness. This time, that tool proved to be the humble bicycle.

The Tour de Tuli is a unique experience which brings together a host of people who share a love of mountain biking and the outdoors. Riders are privileged to be able to ride in the beautiful wilderness areas of the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area which includes areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana over four days, and to do so for a good cause: the children of the Children in the Wilderness programme.

Children in the Wilderness is a non-profit organisation that facilitates sustainable conservation through leadership development and education of rural children in Africa. In this way the programme hopes to inspire the children to become the custodians of these areas in the future. Children in the Wilderness started in Botswana in 2001 and has since expanded to Namibia, Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe and most recently, Rwanda.

The ride started and ended at the Mapunbugwe confluence where the Limpopo and Shashe rivers meet and you literally look out across three countries.

Mapungubwe is an interesting place. This extensive savannah landscape located right on South Africa’s northern border – where Botswana and Zimbabwe meet – is a land of ancient floodplains, sandstone formations, mopane forests and towering baobabs. It is also said to be home to South Africa’s first kingdom, a highly complex society that marked the heart of a pre-Shona kingdom between AD 1050 and 1270.