Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
A TOTAL of 600 people including 335 cycling tourists participated in this year’s edition of Tour de Tuli tourism Expedition, which is held annually in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conservation Area.
The mega park is located in the western part of Beitbridge and comprises the Northern Tuli Game Reserve (Botswana), Tuli National Park and Maramani Communal lands (Zimbabwe), and the Mapungubwe National Park (South Africa).
The expedition involves mountain bike tours and seeks to market the GMTFCA as one of the best tourist resorts in the Sadc region. The cyclists pass through three countries during the course of the event.
The participants were drawn from countries like the United States of America, Britain, Canada, Germany, Australia, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
Introduced in 2009, this year’s event roared to life on Tuesday morning after taking a two-year sabbatical induced by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Event director, Ms Bronwen Bunden, described the expedition as a great success and hailed Zimbabwean officials for efficiently handling all the logistical issues.
She said they were impressed by Zimbabwe’s conservation systems, which have seen the communities being able to get rewards for such efforts.
Ms Bunden said it was pleasing that environmental management issues were starting at the grassroots level around Zimbabwe’s component of the TFCA.
“We are thrilled to have the many riders coming through into Zimbabwe through an informal border and leave again for Botswana and back to South Africa via other informal borders,” she said.
“This event has been a great success considering that we had taken a two-year break due to Covid-19-related restrictions are new entries.”
The tourists entered Zimbabwe through a temporary border between Zimbabwe and South Africa on Tuesday morning where they cycled for 70km around the Maramani Communal Lands, and put up at the Shashe Wilderness Camp close to the Tuli national park.
On the following day, they left for Botswana via another informal border along the Shashe River. They will leave for South Africa via the pond-drift port of entry.
The funds raised from the expedition will be channelled towards charity programmes in the participating countries.
“We are planting back into the community every day through our programmes and we want to make sure the children learn a lot on issues of conservation.
“The hospitality by Zimbabweans is impressive and we are proud to be passing through their component, which is rich in wildlife,” said Ms Bunden.
Each participating cyclist pays R24 900 and brings their own bicycles while others were sponsored.
“We commend the level of coordination and cooperation between authorities from the three countries,” she said.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority business enterprise manager for Matopos region, Mr Partridge Mhembere, said the event has helped boost arrivals in most parks and within the area, where the expedition is usually held.
He said the tour was also meant to raise more awareness on conservation issues in the communities.
“We hope the communities will benefit from the awareness, which comes with such events. In fact, conservation will be the end winner since people now realise its importance,” he said.
“In addition, sport unites people and at the same time we believe we will be seeing more arrivals judging from the feedback from the cyclists.”
Mr Mhembere said the interest of many tourists to visit Zimbabwe was encouraging and they will continue reorganising and repackaging the Zimbabwean component of the TFCA.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) spokesperson Mr Godfrey Koti said the influx of more than 500 tourists for a single event in just under a week was an endorsement of the country as a destination of choice.
“The Tour de Tuli cycling event that we are hosting together with Botswana and South Africa, is a massive expedition, we are using this as a marketing tool for Zimbabwe,” said Mr Koti.
“We are now working together with Zimparks to put together the best tour package in this area. At the end of this event there are children from this area who will be taken into class in South Africa to learn more on conservation.”
Mr Gabriel Erasmus from South Africa said there is a lot that Zimbabwe could do in introducing more tour packages in its component of the TFCA.
“It’s an honour to be here and the terrain is really good for mountain bike tours,” he said.
Ms Lindy Nieuwemhuizen said Tour de Tuli was helping to build mutual relations with the three hosting governments in areas around consecration and tourism marketing.
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