by Joe Kurmaskie

Opinion

Into Africa to Help the Kids

Summer is when we let the child inside us come out to play. For me, the bicycle has always been the best way to show myself and other adults a path back to those carefree days that stretch out from June to somewhere in September, and to help kids discover adventure and confidence in the saddle, on trail-a-bikes and tucked into trailers.

I know, I know, if there was a twelve step program for outdoor enthusiasts and two-wheeled addicts, I’d have been tackled to the ground long ago.

Thank God the only interventions I have to wrestle with are a few short-on-daylight, bitterly cold days each February.

I think of adventure cycling, especially the summertime variety, as a public service — channeling my addiction for a greater good; rescuing kids of all ages from the couch, reacquainting them with what their bodies can do, the simple mysteries still residing in the natural world and, in the case of hardcore desk jockeying adults rusty and brittle from seasons of striving, it’s my sworn duty to reunite them with their former selves or introduce them to the kid they never met.

About those kids.

A few small river crossings.

First, it was my own sons I hooked on the open road. It started with rides to school, then weekend trips, graduating to an epic ride across America by bike, followed by a madcap adventure across Canada with their mother along for the first time. Note to those who believe it’s folly to try to get your spouse onto a bike; she’s rarely been seen out of the saddle since.

The natural evolution was to fund a program called Camp Creative: No Child Left Inside, through my direct book sales, grants and loads of community support. We take kids, and often their parents, onto the open road, into the woods and on waterways, blending creative arts with physical activities, environmental education, and a blend of social service wrapped in a historical and cultural sense of place.

What does any of this have to do with Africa? Trust me, everything.

When August rolls around and the summer is ripe and full in this hemisphere, after we’ve wrapped up another season of trips for Camp Creative, I will travel halfway around the world to help raise awareness and funds for a program that, in many ways, mirrors the one we’ve started in the Pacific Northwest.

Children In The Wilderness takes youth from across southern Africa into the woods and bush so, in the words of the organizers, “they can become passionate about the environment, and learn that there are sustainable ways of creating income from the environment and conservation.” They’ve been doing it successfully for years now, bringing more than 3,000 children through their programs and helping to create future generations with some vision and leadership.

And talk about walking that talk. The funding to run these kids programs comes largely from an eco-tourism wing of the organization called Children In The Wilderness Safaris. It hosts biking adventures through game preserves and national parks in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Malawi, with each participant raising money for the youth programs.

This is where I come in, and the kid in me comes out to play.

Groups go on fully staffed and routed adventures such as the Tour de Tuli. A mountain bike epic, it will put me and a couple hundred other adventurers in staggered teams on what organizers like to call “Fun-draisers.” The Mapungubwe Route puts us in the middle of the Northern Tuli Game Reserve in Botswana, the Tuli Safari Area in Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe’s community areas, Sentinel Ranch, and the Mapungubwe National Park.

Photo by Courtesy of Children in the WildernessTouring the wide open spaces of Africa.

Details and negotiations get worked out between the three respective governments to make two informal border posts. It’s the only time cyclists get the opportunity to pedal on these trails. Over 300 kilometers of predominantly singletrack cycling will put us eye-to-eye with elephants, zebras, historic forts, dinosaur beds and sunsets that stretch out forever across the open plains.

One of the organizers who planned this year’s adventure put it best, “I can confidently say that this route is going to blow people’s minds!’”

A few highlights include setting out from the remote eastern corner of Botswana, at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe Rivers, an area known historically as the Tuli enclave — a wilderness of savannah, forests, marshland, open plains and sandstone outcrops. It is home to no less than seven of Africa’s giants: the African elephant, the lion, giraffe, the baobab tree, the eland, the ostrich, and the kori bustard. Some 175,000 acres of pristine game land has been set aside for these animals.

Riding will start early each morning to take advantage of cooler temps. We’ll pedal through the Northern Tuli Game Reserve on ancient elephant paths, which also now serve as singletrack. The terrain varies from undulating savannah to rocky outcrops and wooded flood plains with a few technical stages and some excellent wildlife habitat. Due to the high abundance of big animals on this reserve, we’ll use extreme caution when cycling on this day. We’re expected to stay together and cycling leaders will ride with each group.

We will also traverse the Mmamagwa Ruins on the Mashatu Game Reserve, a culturally significant site that pre-dated the Mapungubwe Dynasty and Great Zimbabwe. 

We’ll then cross the Motloutse River in a northeasterly direction towards Zimbabwe; a river of historic significance as it’s here that the first diamonds were discovered in the country. Cyclists will follow “elephant singletrack” approximating the Zeederberg Trail, the old wagon route that connected Pretoria in South Africa with Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in the 1800’s.

Fort Tuli, on the banks of the Shashe River, serves as an overnight stop. Established by Cecil John Rhodes and his “Pioneer Column” in July 1890, the remains of the Fort can still be clearly seen.

Perched on the banks of the Limpopo River, Sentinel Ranch is named after the rocky outcrop that depicts a “Sentinel”. One popular attraction of Sentinel is the numerous dinosaur remains and sand rock art.

Cycling upstream on the northern side of the Limpopo River,we will cross into South Africa at an unofficial border post known as “Poachers Corner.” We’ll also get to visit remote villages, including Maramani community areas in Southeastern Zimbabwe — many miles from tourism and urban areas.

Mapungubwe National Park is a hidden jewel on this tour and will offer good game viewing with lunar landscapes of sandstone formations. One thousand years ago Mapungubwe was the center of the largest kingdom in the subcontinent, where highly sophisticated people traded gold and ivory with China, India and Egypt. It has now been declared a World Heritage Site.

It’s rare when a solid, sustainable business brings together adventure, ecological protection, opportunities for youth education, funds and fun for adults.

So it’s into Africa for me, to bring back the stories, images and ideas for Camp Creative and other youth programs in the Pacific Northwest, and to let you ride shotgun around some of that distant continent with me.

And if this doesn’t bring out the twelve-year-old boy in my summer, then just avoid it and speak in hushed tones, because there’s no hope for me.

For information about Children In the Wilderness and to look into one of their fundraising tour events or safaris visit www.tourdetuli.com or www.citw.co.za.

Joe Kurmaskie rides a bike for the joy of it. His next book, “Mud, Sweat and Gears: One Family’s Rowdy Adventure Across Canada on Seven Wheels,” will be on bookshelves July 2009. For more information go to www.metalcowboy.com.