2020 Lockdown Tour

On the 14th of July, the 5 pairs of Old Legs cyclists resident in Zimbabwe will pedal out of Harare and up to Mt Nyangani Zimbabwe’s highest point. 

Then onto the Zambezi Valley, one the world’s last remaining wild frontiers. Mindful of not being eaten or stood upon by lions, buffalos, elephants and crocodiles, we’ll follow the Zambezi River west through the Mana Pools National Parks, a timeless wilderness area and rated one of Africa’s best plus dinosaur foot prints in the Chewore, and fossilized forests in the Dande, and Zimbabwe’s largest concentration of baobabs north of Kotwa. 

Once we’ve ridden as far as Nyamoumba camp at the start of the Kariba gorge, it will be back up the Zambezi escarpment to Marangora and Makuti and then back down it again to Lake Kariba. 

Then across the Lake to ride the shoreline of the Mutusadona National Park from Changa to Bumi Hills with the Mutusadona mountains towering high above us. 

From Bumi Hills, we’ll head south towards Gokwe into Zimbabwe’s remote hinterland where we will once again slog up the Zambezi escarpment, so we can camp on the edge of the Mucheni Gorge in the Chizarira National Park so we can stare down upon eagles in flight and out across the vast plains of Africa stretching away below and unspoilt as far as the eyes can see. And then back down the bloody escarpment again, and on to Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls will be rest day so will have all the time we need to take in the world’s largest waterfall in all her splendour, flowing at her highest peak in almost a hundred years. 

Then we’ll ride to Kazungula where four countries meet, and then south through deep Kalahari sands to the remote wilds of the Kazuma Pan. Then through the Hwange National Park, again being mindful of not being eaten or stood upon by Africa’s Big Five and friends.

Then south to Bulawayo and through the history and massive granite edifices of the Matopos and onto the Tuli Circle and then east along Kipling’s great grey-green greasy Limpopo River to the wild and remote Gonarezhou National Park. 

In Gonarezhou we’ll ride beneath the towering, iconic red sandstone Chilojo cliffs and on to Zimbabwe’s lowest point, where the Save and Runde rivers meet, for the start of the Blue Cross, Zimbabwe’s foremost endurance event, 500 km of uphill slog, up the Eastern Highlands, over the  Chimanimani mountains and up through the Vumba mists, ending back where we started at Mt Nyangani, Zimbabwe’s highest point.