After biking greater than 12 000 kilometres throughout Africa, Zimbabwean couple Vusumuzi Mnkandla and Thando Tshuma acquired a hero’s welcome in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, over the weekend.
The Zimbabwean couple began the primary season of their biking journey in Soweto, again in April 2024. Of their first season, they coated 9 300 Kilometres throughout 11 international locations, together with South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya.
In January 2025, they began their second season of biking 2 948 kilometres throughout 5 international locations (Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).
A heat welcome for the Zimbabwean Couple
Cheers, music, and emotional embraces from household, pals, and biking fanatics who had been following their journey on-line greeted them upon their arrival in Bulawayo. For the couple, reaching house was greater than a bodily milestone. It was a second of triumph after weeks of navigating a few of the continent’s hardest terrains.
“We weren’t anticipating that folks could be celebrating us like this,” mentioned Thando in an interview with The South African. She couldn’t maintain her tears as she thanked everybody who made their journey profitable. ” We now have learnt rather a lot by means of this journey as we now perceive completely different languages and cultures. We additionally learnt new issues about meals.”
Perils encountered in the course of the biking journey
Their journey was not with out hazard. The cyclists admitted that they endured a few of their most harrowing moments on the street. “There was a time I genuinely feared for our lives,” Vusumuzi Mkandla mentioned.
“There was a time in South Africa, within the Free State. As we have been descending a mountain street on a curve, Thando needed to scale back velocity. It was then that she realised the brakes weren’t linked. Fortuitously, the downhill ended proper after the curve.”
Because the couple cycled alongside the roads, some reckless drivers practically introduced their journey to a tragic finish. In addition they had to pay attention to the lurking wild animals.
“I keep in mind after we have been biking in Kanyemba, a recreation park in Zimbabwe. We might see lion footprints, and that might inform us a lion was shut by. It was my scariest second,” mentioned Thando.
The couple is predicted to renew their third season, which they imagine will happen quickly.
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