Thando, Vusi: A love story and cycling across Africa

They bought a bicycle. And rode it in turns. Thando used it to go shopping, Vusi to the studio. Thando had only learnt cycling on a cousin’s bike during high school holidays in Bulawayo some seven years ago. 

Now she started riding in traffic. On her birthday in November 2023, she bought a bicycle. They tested themselves in longer distances: 70km, 80km, 100km within South Africa.

After enduring 140km from Soweto to Pretoria and back in 11 hours, they felt ready for the continental mission.

“My thighs were aching,” Thando said. Yet she had to serve work the following day. “I could bring the coffee while walking, but going back upstairs I could only crawl.”

They planned to start their African expedition on April 3. “We bought bags, tents, food, and all that.”

But on April 2, their bikes were stolen, delaying their journey till April 10.

Kingdom in the Sky

If the Soweto-Pretoria rehearsal was hard, Soweto-Lesotho, their first leg in the continental tour, was thrice harder. 60km every day, for seven days, with heavy bags in Lesotho—nicknamed Kingdom in the Sky because its 1,000 metres above sea level—was an absolute mountainous task. “For nine kilometres towards the border, we just pushed the bikes,” Vusi said.

After five days of resting, they rode into the north of South Africa, into Eswatini—another state surrounded by Rainbow Nation, like Lesotho.

Eswatini, a typical monarchy, stuck to its traditions amid civilisation has opened up its frontiers to the world. “Foreigners attend cultural ceremonies, visit the hot springs, Queen Sheba’s Breasts, etc. for free,” Vusi said.

Both are storytellers: Vusi a musician, guitarist, producer. Thando an actress—eyeing a cameo appearance on Kenyan or Nigerian screens. So, beyond travel, they want to appreciate places and people, tastes, cultures, manners, etc. But their stay depends mostly on means of accommodation.

Living like birds

For over a year during their adventure, Vusi and Thando will be jobless. Already, they weren’t rich. “If we dwelled on these financial challenges, we wouldn’t have started the journey,” Vusi said.

Stealing their bikes strained their already thin budget. “But we adjusted and told ourselves that we’re going to be living like birds which don’t work,” Vusi said. 

And they have largely relied on donations from their Facebook followers.

Yet, unlike birds which return to their nests every after a day’s gamble for food, Thando and Vusi hop nest to nest, into people whose languages they can’t speak, whose cultures they can’t fathom. “But yes, let’s leave Soweto for Nairobi,” they said, hoping that the lessons from Season One will make Season Two easier.

And there are no guarantees. Because anything can happen: a flat tyre or a total breakdown of the bike. In some places they’ve been treated like kings, in others like suspects.

They expected spending some nights in the wild—because it’s adventure and because places with high crime rates like in South Africa and Zimbabwe, towards Harare, don’t entertain strangers. But sometimes the rejection bordered on racism.

Drunken saviour

Once, they were stranded in a Mozambican village. They needed a place to sleep but someone told them: “We don’t want South Africans here,” calling neighbours to chase the strangers.

Riding away, they caught someone’s attention. He was running along them. “Can I ride with you?” he asked. They stopped. “We want a place to sleep,” they told him, just trying their luck.

“I can take you to my father’s home,” the drunken villager said, without hesitation. “Give me your phone, I'll call him.”

It was 6pm; the road was too sandy. They couldn’t ride. “Make sure where you’re taking us is legit, otherwise we’re going to fight,” Vusi threatened the man amid frustration and doubt.

“Just trust me,” the man said. “We’re nearly getting there.”

They pushed the bikes. “Tonight, you won’t sleep in your tent. Bring in your bikes as well,” said the man, ushering them into a palatial home.

“He even offered us his bed but we said: no, that’s too much generosity,” Thando said. “I even thought he was a ghost or something. I couldn’t believe what this drunk guy was doing for us.”

He gave them lettuce, peanuts and all they needed to cook, before they retired to beautiful slumber.

In the morning, their host showed them the scenic view of the Indian Ocean, barely two kilometres away.

Now sober, he mounted a palm tree and dropped about 15 coconuts.

He opened many with a machete. “I drank coconut water until my stomach was bulging,” Vusi said, his tiny eyes burying into his smile.  

He went up again, downing more coconuts. “We packed some for the road.”

Sweet homecoming

Someone they had met in Mozambique hosted them at the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe—one of the world's largest waterfalls. “He told us to live as long as we wanted.”

They also enjoyed free services at Great Zimbabwe Cultural Village, Zambezi Boutique, T&T Guesthouse and Charama Leisure Resort. They had a day’s trip to Botswana, free; a sunset boat cruise on River Zambezi, free; and visited game parks, free.

They also had a 7.5km fun run in the Victoria Falls Marathon, though Thando regrets it: “I hate running.”

Born and raised in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Thando had never been to Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital until they rode there in July. Born and raised in Gokwe, Vusi had also visited Harare twice and briefly.

They also visited Gokwe, where Vusi met his mother, whom he hadn’t told goodbye when he left for South Africa in 2015. Thando also met her future mother-in-law, a milestone in their budding romance.

“We’ve got to understand each other more on this journey,” Thando said. “We’re learning our flaws and our strengths. And how to cover up for each other and help each other in moments of vulnerability,” Vusi added. 

Prior, it was hard because they spent little time together: Thando at a coffee shop, Vusi in the studio.

“Had we stayed home, we wouldn’t have known that better now. Sometimes we’ve been acting but that phase is over now,” Vusi said, both laughing. “I think relationships get better when you’re dealing with reality.”

Thando added: “We fight, even along the road. But at the end of the day, it’s about us, about each other.”

Celebs in Zambia

Vusi and Thando were hosted by two tv stations in Lusaka, and on another near the border.

But first, The Mast newspaper had published their story. “Oh we saw you on The Mast, you’re the ones,” people said.

“We really felt like celebs,” Vusi said.

“Zambian people are so friendly, they never wanted us to leave,” Thando added. “I’ll never forget the kids. From Lusaka to Chipata [near the Malawian border] they lined up, greeting us: how are you? how are you? how are you? where you go?”

In Zambia, they also sold their bikes and bought bigger, stronger, faster ones: a second hand Claud Butler for Thando and a Raleigh for Vusi for a combined $263.

They only replaced a tyre for Thando in Malawi. Vusi’s front got deflated in Kampala but they patched it for the 700km to Nairobi.

They didn’t have to worry about the durability of the bikes. “We chose these bikes because they are universal; their spare parts are easy to get,” Vusi said.

Disease; impossible terrains

Nkhata Bay to Mzuzu in Malawi is about 50km but 30km are mountains. Getting there in one day was draining. “Even professionals return with their bikes on the truck. No, no, no. I almost gave up,” said Thando. She pushed her bike. Vusi refused to push “but his bike was tired.”

From Mzuzu, they took three days off in Karonga, on the shores of Lake Malawi, as they battled malaria. Barely fully fine, they rode to Kasumulu border post in Tanzania.

But another depleting stretch was Songwe border post to Mbeya. “The hardest 150km so far,” Vusi said. 

They usually covered such a distance in two days but needed four, plus a day-off in-between.

Prior, they also suffered stomach upsets in Mozambique “because we weren’t used to the varying tastes of salty water.”

Kampala beats Maputo

They left Entebbe, Uganda at 1pm and reached Naalya Motel at 5pm—way slower than their speed.

“We thought Maputo was the worst place for cyclists but Kampala,” Vusi said. “The boda-bodas, the taxis, private cars, the people, oh my God,” Thando added.

“In some places I had to push the bike. The boda-bodas leave their lane. And they come in thousands, voom, voom. They don’t give each other space. So where do you pass with your bicycle? And they don’t follow the rules, even when the robot shows red, they will go.”

‘Inside the lake’

Like any smart traveller, Vusi and Thando used Google Maps to forecast their journey: the roads, the weather, the terrain, etc. But at times the app betrayed them.

They were in Tanzania looking for a small lake where they could bathe and wash their clothes. “But Google only recognised an old gravel road, not the very good main road. We got lost,” Vusi said.

“Actually, Google was telling us we’re inside the lake,” Thando said, sparking loud laughter.

They gave up the search, settling by a small river, as people wondered who ‘these are.’ “We washed there, cooked there, camped there.”

Almost ate a rat

They had covered nearly 9000km but were vibrant; never drained. “To keep happy, we cook, eat, swim, and laugh all-day,” said Thando, stocky, curvy, goggle-eyed, chocolate-skinned, her scalp almost bare. “We have a strong love for food. That’s why we don’t lose weight.”

They labelled Western Uganda the land of mountains, bananas, milk, pineapples and lots of green.

“It was our first time eating a meal of only bananas,” said Vusi, light-skinned, medium-size. “And the milk in Tanzania, Rwanda and Uganda tastes special.”

They drank palm wine and sugarcane wine in Mozambique, banana wine in Rwanda but super Kasese [gin] in Uganda was something else. “I fell sick,” Vusi said. “We diluted it but still.”

At Naalya Motel, another facility which hosted them free, Aggrey Nshekanabo served us boiled cassava as the evening snack.

“Cassava is one of the things we didn’t know as food,” Vusi said. They first tasted it in Mozambique, where it’s served fried, boiled, steamed, as ugali, even raw.

Thando prefers it boiled. “The ugali makes you full all-day. Yet I need to taste different types of food,” she said.

But her food adventure was put to test with frogs and tortoises on the menu. “I almost tried a rat in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe but my heart said aaargh,” Thando said.  “But I’ll taste a snake in Nigeria.”

Missing Burundi; assault in Rwanda

They embarked on the tour with an open mind and whatever they have seen is memorable. “But we missed Burundi,” they said.

The visa office at the Tanzania-Burundi border could only allow them three days in Burundi. “We needed at least a week.” 

The problem wasn’t the $55 for the visa. “We could even afford the $10 per day to extend our stay in Bujumbura. But we couldn’t ride Manyovu to Bujumbura, a mountainous road, in three days.”

Around 5pm, a few kilometres to the Rwanda-Uganda border near the tea plantations in Gatuna, the bikers, now joined by a Rwandese rider, slowed down to greet school children. Then a shocker. “He saw me coming and he cocked his hand to hit me,” Thando narrated how a man assaulted her. “I tried to ride away to avoid him, he still came and hit me hard, leaving his fingerprints on my shoulder.”

His motive was unknown. But Thando’s trauma is indelible. “That was even worse than the racist guy who had rejected us when we wanted a place to sleep.”

Diving in Victoria

Thando and Vusi entered Uganda October 14 through the south western border. “The people were welcoming. We slept at a police station, without questioning.”

On another day, they camped in a garage, before traversing the western part of the country which they labelled “the land of mountains, bananas, milk, pineapples and lots of green.”

They learnt about the equator landmark in Kayabwe, Mpigi District, before jumping onto a free ferry from Kasanje to Entebbe, avoiding the busy, speedy traffic on Masaka Road.

They had swum in Malawi and Mozambique, but missed out on Lake Tanganyika because the beach owners wanted money. They quenched their thirst in Entebbe, swimming in Lake Victoria at will.

“We were swimming with the fish and after that we ate the fish,” Thando said, her humour so natural.

They would interface with the Victoria waters at the Source of the mighty Nile in Jinja, while lodging free at Kingfisher Safaris Resort Hotel.

Birthday; Christmas in Nairobi

On her birthday last year, Thando bought her first bike. This year, November 9 was the day they entered Nairobi, concluding their first season, exactly seven months since they left Soweto, having cycled through 11 countries.  

“It was a double celebration,” Thando would later tell us via WhatsApp. “For my birthday and our arrival in Nairobi. We got a huge welcome at the Trumpet Lounge. They even made a beautiful cake for me.”

They also enjoyed free services at Monrovia Guest House in Nakuru and more such offers.

Thando calls Kenya “a very beautiful country,” whose staple food—ugali—is also “our staple food in Zimbabwe.”

“We’re planning to celebrate Christmas here with anyone willing to enjoy it with us.”

Best country?

So given a chance, which country would they settle in?

“If all these countries could become one,” Vusi said, smiling like a baby. “We would like to stay in each country,” Thando completed the sentence. There’s something special about South Africa; the temperatures in Lesotho, Vusi explained. The Zambian people were amazing. The beautiful Mozambican beaches, accentuated by palm trees flaunting delicious coconuts, blew them away.

“Or if I can have citizenship in every country. I have lunch in Lilongwe, dinner in Maputo,” Vusi said.

In Tanzania, flirting with Swahili, counting moja, mbili, mpaka kumi (one to 10) was exciting just like Uganda, “where you sleep hungry by choice.”

In Eswatini, everything felt familiar: the food, language (Siswati and Ndebele are related). And the hospitality made their five-day visit amazing. “We felt like champions in Eswatini,” Vusi said, with special thanks to Phinda Dlamini and Darren Dunn, the director of the Eswatini Cycling Association, which covered their meals and accommodation.

During their send-off, local cyclists rode with Vusi and Thando 20km after the capital Mbabane. The association also assured them free accommodation at Hlane Royal National Park, about an hour's drive to the Mozambique border.

“We had just cycled for two weeks and not sure we would make it to Kenya, but Eswatini celebrated us for just starting the journey.” Perhaps, that’s the fuel that’s kept them riding.

Season Two, Three

They wanted to start Season Two in Kenya, through the Horn of Africa, Sudan, Egypt, but due to the unrest in the countries in-between, they will fly to Tunisia, ride to Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo and Nigeria.

For similar reasons they will avoid Chad, Cameroon and Niger, where Boko Haram mostly operate.

Tunisia-Senegal could take them about three months, because they don’t want to spend long in the harsh desert weather, with little supplies like water. But from Senegal they expect more marvels of the savanna, and more people to meet.

Season Three: from Nigeria to Zimbabwe, through Angola, Namibia and Botswana, could take them longer because the roads may be muddy.