Two South African-based Zimbabwean cyclists have become the latest to complete the arduous Johannesburg-Bulawayo journey.
Mbonisiย Moyoย and his friend Johnย Mawethuย Mbonaย embarked on the journeyย on July 1 at 02:30 am and arrived in Bulawayo on July 4 at 12:15 pm.ย
The duo said they enjoy cycling and by embarking on this journey they are trying to motivate more people to take up cycling.
Moyo, whoย cycled the same journey in 2021, said he took lessons learnt in hisย initialย trip to improve on this one.ย
โFrom theย previousย trip, I noted a few things that we needed to improveย onย and we implemented them on thisย journey. On theย previousย trip, we did not give ourselves enough rest and that affected us. This time around we were getting enough rest hence we managed to finish the journey at least about 10 hours earlier,โ he said.ย
โWe started on Saturday around 2:30 am and it was the three of us. Along the way, after covering about 200km, heย said he wasย notย feeling tooย well,ย so he went back home. We then continued just the two of us.ย On theย first day, we cycled a total ofย 381kmย then we put up aboutย 50kmย before Louis Richards and freshened up.ย We rested for about four hours.
โWe left there around 7 am and cycled all the way to Musina, where we rested a bit and had some food. We were there for an hour tops. We then crossed the border and had a few stops in Beitbridge where we bought sim cards to connect to the GPS because the ones that we had from the South African side were no longer working this side.โ
Moyo said they faced a number of challenges on their journey ranging from poor roads to limited resources.
โThere are also accommodation costs that we need to factor in, food costs and data to connect to the GPS. If weย couldย have moreย clubs,ย then we can have moreย peopleย investing inย sportsย and it would be more cost-effective to doย long-distanceย cycling. The other challenge that we faced was the road surfaces. The roads areย veryย bad,ย especially just afterย Makado, we were really slowed down. Our average speed drastically dropped but we had to soldier on,โ he said.ย
โThis sport is quite fun, but it is very capital intensive. The resources that are needed are very expensive, from the bicycles that we use to the accessories. The tyres and tubes are quite pricey. All things being equal we would need a car that would escort us, carrying some of our equipment, first aid kits and spares for the bicycles. But because we do not have such, we carry all the necessities on our own.โ
Mbonaย said the journey was marvellous and for someone who wasย cycling such a long distance for the first time it was quite bearable.ย
โI was joining myย friend for the first time.ย He did this trip two years back andย I’mย reallyย glad that this time around Iย gotย toย join him.ย From Beitbridge, we stopped in Gwanda where we had a lengthy rest. We arrived there yesterday but we only left this morning around 6 am.ย From Gwanda, our next stop was Mbalabalaย where we gotย a few fruits before continuing all the way toย Esigodini. Fromย Esigodini, we stopped at some shops along the way where we gotย more water andย proceededย straight to Bulawayo,โ he said.ย
โCycling is something that we love doing and we have been doing it since we were young. We really do wish there were more people who would take up this activity so that we can have more of these long-distance cycling events. We really wish to be in touch with cycling clubs from here at home, it would be more fun if we could do it with more people. If we had access to local cyclists, they would have met us half way, making the journey more bearable. There is also safety in numbers, we cycle for days, and sometimes to beat the record we even cycle at night, so moving in groups would be safe.โ
