BUCKET LIST BOTSWANA
Botswana has a Swiss aura about it. This delightful African country has a stable government, a high GDP driven largely by diamond mining, low unemployment, has not been involved in any wars since independence in 1966, and produces a disproportionate number of Olympic medallists. With its exceptionally beautiful, uncrowded and well-stocked game reserves, low-key luxury lodges and super-friendly locals, this peaceful nation is an oasis for nature lovers who yearn for wild open spaces and bountiful game.
Mention Tour de Tuli to any mountain biker or the Okavango Delta to any travel enthusiast and their expressions will light up with nostalgic reflections of the holiday of a lifetime. The country is one of the most magnificent destinations on earth – and it’ s right next door, just a few hours’ drive north from Joburg. The only downside is that most lodges are dollar-based. This is great for the local economy, offering a low footprint and high yield, but it makes travel expensive for us Rand-earners.
The Tour de Tuli stage race sadly folded in 2022 after 16 editions, but I had the privilege of riding it a decade ago. I loved every second of rolling through mopane forests, then climbing ancient sculpted granite and sandstone outcrops to look out in wonder over the endless plains, teeming with animals. It was biking bliss.
Twenty years before that, I spent a week in the Okavango Delta and, despite many extraordinary bush experiences in places like the Greater Kruger,“ the swamps” still hold an almost mystical and romantic sense of deep African adventure for me. It’ s a long way to get to this sparsely populated area with no tar roads – but you’ ll find so many natural waterholes, rivers, lakes and ponds
surrounded by palm trees and grasslands that consistently host hippos, crocs, elephants and herds of buck, occasionally pursued by big cats while vultures circle high above. Nature seems so close yet so far in this wetland tapestry. Watching elephants feed at the water’ s edge while seated just metres away in a“ mokorokoro” dugout canoe will bring out the David Livingstone in the most urbanised city slicker – and that feeling never dies.
A lifetime of bicycle adventures has seen me explore many remote places on two wheels, and a deep childhood-ingrained craving for the bush has made riding in game reserves a sensory symphony to me. Every ride in the African wilderness is unique – you simply never know what to expect around every corner as you follow time-trod animal paths through ancient landscapes. Having recently ridden through the indigenous forests of Kenya and witnessed the speed of urbanisation as rural dwellers discover the value of modernisation, I’ ve had a slight sense of panic that we are losing time to experience raw, rugged rural Africa. Each day more acres are cleared for farming or houses, and new fences erected as man slowly takes over the last remaining animal corridors.
The notion of my kids growing up in a new world order and possibly out of Africa spurred me into action to take them far off the beaten track, to smell, see, touch and hear our unique wilderness spaces. I needed to feed my soul and my sense of parental obligation to guide my treasured children back in time to a real-life fantasy that lives beyond the urban horizon. To spend grounded time off-line, to watch the sun rise and set and to listen to the creatures of the night under a blanket of stars. I felt that if my girls immersed themselves in the bush, the unique magic of Africa would creep under their skin. I knew that they would then always desire to spend time here and pass on the legacy through vivid storytelling to their kids and generations to come.
“ CROSSING THE GREY-GREEN LIMPOPO INTO A WILDERNESS WITHOUT CELL RECEPTION SOON SETTLED THE FAMILY INTO DEEP- BREATHING, GROUNDED CONNECTEDNESS”
Paul and his daughter Mila perched above the vast expanse of Tuli in eastern Botswana.
28 | MTB | bucket-list busting