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Tour de Tuli jolts sleeping Beitbridge West

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SHASHE village, 100 kilometres west of Beitbridge, lies where Botswana and Zimbabwe meet and is a quiet place.

SHASHE village, 100 kilometres west of Beitbridge, lies where Botswana and Zimbabwe meet and is a quiet place.

By own correspondent

Tour deTuli participants relax on the beach at Maramani Camp
Tour deTuli participants relax on the beach at Maramani Camp

It is almost 700 kilometres south-west of Harare near Tuli Circle through which Cecil John Rhodes’ Pioneer Column entered Zimbabwe way back in 1890.

At Shashe there is a small primary school, a small shopping centre and a giant community-owned irrigation scheme with a citrus plantation and late model overheard centre pivot irrigation equipment.

Nearby Maramani Village, 16 kilometres south-east of Shashi and located where South Africa and Zimbabwe meet, is even quieter.

There is little to show for years of civilisation apart from a riverside camp built by the community on the banks of the Limpopo River.

The Maramani Camp is situated where the governments of Zimbabwe and South Africa have long abandoned an idea to build a second border post directly linking the two countries.

Sitting between sandstone hills, with the southern hill’s foot in the Limpopo River, Maramani Camp is scenic and can hold up to 400 people for overnight activities.

There are modern toilets and showers.

A thick muddy scent from the crocodile infested drying pools and sandy banks of the Limpopo give the place the look of a beach.

The hosts are a warm and friendly Sotho tribe who live in this area where soothing sounds of birds and wildlife complete the package of a friendly natural atmosphere.

A mixture of ruggedness, and long and sandy Mopani stretches best describe the terrain of Shashe and Maramani whose few households dotted far and apart makes it appear deserted and lonely.

Maramani Camp is the centre of the wildlife-rich Mapungubwe Transfrontier Park shared by Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Last Sunday this centre burst into life hosting 500 people from around the world for the Tour de Tuli, an annual cycling adventure locals look forward to just like Christmas.

Tour de Tuli is by no mistake a rich people’s game and the sight of 306 cyclists riding across a quiet village is a beautiful spectacle.

The event breathes life into its usually quiet 280 kilometre-long tri-nation cycle track where participants are backed by an all encompassing support team including air rescue.

They ride across stretches of sand, up the hills and down into rivers through areas home to elephants, leopards and most wildlife species of southern Africa.

The cyclists camp overnight in ranch of the three countries, but Maramani Camp has stolen their hearts.

Tour de Tuli, now in its 12th year is an important date on Zimbabwe’s tourism diary and villagers on its Zimbabwean path enjoy it.

“I am one of the founder members of this adventure holiday. We were doing it in the east of Beitbridge and it was called Tour de Kruger,” Jacob Jordaan, who drives a car fitted with communication equipment used on the tour, said.

He said the event was moved to the Mapungubwe Transfrontier Park because of the challenges provided by the landscape.

The event has grown from a small function it was a decade ago.

Villagers just enjoy the Tour de Tuli.

“I stay out late at night to see many cars passing by. I wave at them occasionally direct them to the camp. Some give me chocolates,” said 12-year-old Mpho, whose home is two kilometres from Maramani Camp.

Like most villagers, Mpho was out late and with her two little brothers made themselves visible to dozens of oncoming high-powered all terrain vehicles heading for the camp. During day she marvelled at hundreds of cyclists passing her home to the camp.

The cyclists’ support team drives in vehicles carrying food supplies, a cycle workshop and medical supplies.

Tour de Tuli is a four-day event that takes cyclists in small teams from South Africa across the Limpopo into Botswana then across the Shashi into Zimbabwe before heading back to South Africa.

Fully complemented makeshift border posts are created to facilitate a seamless joyful adventure for the cyclists comprising mostly chief executives of large corporates in the world who pay R25 000 each for the four-day gruelling cycling event.

“Their package includes food, tent facilities, hired bikes, support medical staff and doctors, beverages and everything they need for the tour,” event official Nicola Harris said.

The cyclists’ leaders are equipped with radios, a satellite fed Global Positioning System and each group has two team leaders who help cyclists navigate through the treacherous terrain.

The event has created a relationship with Shashe Primary School children sure to receive donations from the bikers.

Besides, children from the school are hosted in periodic conservation holiday camps where they meet with agemates from Botswana and South Africa to learn conservation skills.

When cyclists arrive from Botswana their first port of call is the primary school where they mingle with children before riding to Maramani Camp in a single file.

“It is a sight to see,” Mpho said.

A day’s lap for cyclists is between 50 and 70 kilometres after which they camp in the bush for meals, facilitated communication with loved ones back home, massages and beverages and all important interactions. They sleep before the next day’s lap.

Their day ends with a report back meeting and exchange of experiences in their camp and captivating reports are made.

During this session some are “punished” for getting lost, falling off bikes. The punishment is at times drinking more tots of whisky!

These sessions plan for the next leg of the tour and inform the cyclists of their route the next day and places of interest they will be taken through.

In Beitbridge the cyclists were shown dinosaur fossils some millions of years old, while a narration of the Mapungubwe Kingdom, a 14th century capital of the Munhumutapa Empire which preceded the Great Zimbabwe was made.

The cyclists are also educated on how to behave when they come across wild animals.

At Maramani participants pay a camp fee of $10 each and the money goes to the community.

“It helps us. We have built a school in the village to cut 16 kilometres children walked for education to Shashe,” headman Lemohang Mahopolo said.

He felt the camp was underutilised owing to lack of commitment to attract more adventurers and visitors to the area. Only two events are held here anually.

The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority dispatched its staff led by operations director Petty Katekete.

Apart from petty visa and camp fees, Zimbabwe does not earn anything.

The country has in the last 11 years failed to initiate tours or similar camps or attract tourists.

Apart from the rich history shared by the other two countries Zimbabwe has the Tuli Circle, rich local culture which could be marketed as an attraction.

Mobile phone service providers have also failed to cover the area where people rely on SA networks only.

South African bank Nedbank, catering companies from that country and many other organisations benefitted.

Even vegetables and water served at the camp were from South Africa.

The event, hosted by Children in the Wilderness uses part of the funds raised to educate children in most African countries where they have branches.

Once based in Zimbabwe, Children in The Wilderness relocated to South Africa where an enabling and conducive climate was.

Staff at Zimbabwe Tourism Association Beitbridge are handicapped by a shortage of vehicles just like government extension officers in the vast district where outreach work has died.

In sharp contrast, local legislators who do not participate in such events have all-terrain vehicles they use in town.

Maramani Camp hosts two events anually despite its potential, strategic location and welcoming environment.