Adventure is a motorcyclist’s “soul food,” the kind of food that can benefit your mental, physical and emotional state. When living on a continent like Africa, it just makes logical sense that adventure motorcycling, without any question, should be the best way to spend your time on two wheels. Most of us have had the privilege, but the majority seem to think that the ADV life is either too expensive or just a bit too tedious—due to all the equipment needed for a lengthy in-the-sticks adventure.
This couldn’t be further from the truth! With good planning, you could start your adventure path on a lightweight plastic, entry-level adventure or a pre-owned motorcycle. You can also find touring companies like Tuli Tours Africa who take care of booking your accommodation, food, backup vehicle and structure daily outrides across stunning terrain. So, adventure biking can be effortless when knowing the right steps and over time, you’ll find yourself on the gravel, exploring the world and realizing that the best adventures are a mere twist of the throttle away.
My recent adventure started outside the open doors of a KTM dealership, RAD_KTM…
Shooting the breeze on a cloudy March afternoon with Miguel Lage (Dealer Principal at RAD_KTM), switched on the adventure lightbulb in both of our heads. The bulb was switched on by an invitation from John Gilbert and Heine Engelbrecht (owners of Tuli Tours Africa), an invitation to one of their Botswana adventures. This particular adventure would see us spend 3 nights and 4 days of motorcycling bliss, where riding and sightseeing would take place in never-before-ridden game reserves, in and around the “Tuli Block”.
What really sparked my interest about the Tuli Block is how this reign has somehow been Botswana’s best-kept secret. Over the last few years, the Tuli has become the safari goer’s destination, with a ring of several concessions forming one of the biggest, private game reserves in southern Africa. What also makes the Tuli so special is how the landscape differs greatly from the other typical safari areas in Botswana. Yes, where Botswana tends to be rather flat, the Tuli offers stunning Inselberg mountains, large rock formations, many massive old trees and large game populations on private lands.
With access to riding on privately protected land sparking the interest of myself and 10 other riders, we all loaded our bikes on Saturday 18 March and made our way to the first stop at the Mapesu Private Game Reserve—82 km north of “Alldays”.
Myself, Miguel and Fernando (Miguel’s son) left RAD at 7:00 AM with the bikes loaded on the trailer, later meeting up with the two “Dry Bull” brothers on the N1 heading towards Polokwane. The total travel time would be roughly 6 hours, leaving us an hour to spend at the old “At se Gat” pub, now called Clarky’s Pride. After a cold brew and some deep-fried croc, courtesy of Miguel, we pulled into Mapesu Private Game Reserve just after 14:00.
Once we pulled into the four-star lodge Wilderness camp, we were greeted by our many riding buddies, John our tour guide and Heine the support vehicle driver. With the bar and swimming pool deck occupying some exciting motorcycles (KTM 500 EXC-F Enduros, a classic rally raid 990, Husqvarna Norden, Yamaha T7 and 390 ADV), we carried on bonding over our machines and what was to come the next few days.
After some good old meet and greet we then made our way down to our luxurious and fully furnished tents to offload our goods, shortly before our outside Boma fire dinner. Even before swinging a leg over our motorcycles, we were all starting to speak the same language, the language of adventure. Many of the people who joined this adventure have spent some serious kilometres in the saddle and had many riding stories to share, which lit up the eye of those who were just beginning their very own journey. The idea of less is more was beginning to grow, just like the saying: “Fill your life with experience. Not things. Have stories to tell, not things to show.” This is so true, as we don’t leave this world with all we gather in it.
Through the mesh of our tents, the orange sun rose, lighting up the non-polluted sky and bush in front of us for a new day. Just picture it, not a car, aeroplane or hooter blasting away from a taxi…just silence and the sound of animals singing their morning song. This is how we all woke up and proceeded to gear up for our first day’s ride out.
John led the group out on a stunning ride before breakfast, riding down the Den Staat Road turn off and along the Mapungubwe National parks stunning scenery. The routes we rode required us to ride at a strict speed limit because of the roaming game and out of respect for the private property owners who entrusted us with their property. Nonetheless, the entire group were entertained by close sightings of wildebeest and rooibok. After a quick water break under a stunning baobab tree, we made our way back to Mapesu for breakfast.
Riding alongside game on a motorcycle really does humble a person, I’ve only ever felt a similar feeling 30 meters underwater. One truly experiences something special, perhaps one realises how uncomplicated life can be or how we take things for granted. For the nature lover and motorcyclist, this is an awesome experience like no other, it beats sitting in the back of a safari vehicle any day of the week.
With the morning’s outride and delicious breakfast behind us, we loaded the bikes onto the trailers and hit the road. The plan thereafter was to drop off the vehicles at Platjan Lodge, and travel via dirt roads along the Limpopo to Platjan border, where we would all enter Botswana together. Parking the vehicles and trailers at Platjan Lodge would save us all an additional 160 km of tar road travelling on our return Tuesday.
Unfortunately, Murphy’s law and Miguel’s Mitsubishi Pajero had an arm wrestle and good old Murphy won the battle. Lucky for us, Andre and Werner (Dry Bull brothers) offered to tow us to At se Gat, where the Pajero would hang ten till our return. We offloaded the bikes and caught up with the group at the Platjan border post. With the quickest-ever border crossing, Fernando and I guzzled down our Stoney ginger drinks as the day’s heat was upon us. Whilst we quenched our thirst, Miguel appeared out of the woodwork with some local slow-cooker chuck roast—the locals are really the most down-to-earth and friendly people you could ever meet.
The ride from the border to our accommodation at the Eagle View Star Deck Lodge would be a taster of the terrain we would be riding the next day. Sand can really separate the men from the boys and too, the heavy from the light machinery we were on. Nigel Borain or Uncle Nigel, as we all call him, along with “Dakar” Marnand Strydom seemed to be having an absolute blast in the sand, almost like it was their second home. With a stunning elephant sighting on what’s technically a Botswana dirt highway, we pulled over for a photo and drink break before arriving at the lodge.
With the bikes parked and the luggage loaded on the support vehicle, we headed off on a game drive to our unfenced bush camp accommodation. On the drive, we got to see elephants, zebra, rooibok, springbok, wildebeest, kiewiet, a hyena, massive baboons and a pride of young lions—a true garden of Eden experience. The starry night saw us arrive at camp, with cosy tents, campfire and good company, bringing all but a day’s ride to an awesome wilderness shut-eye.
A fresh morning saw riders kit up nice and early after breakfast for what I think was the most enjoyable day’s ride. Our first stop was for fuel in a local village that had gone out of their way to buy 50L of fuel to top up our fuel tanks and later that day cook us lunch, again these locals are so amazing.
Topped-up tanks saw us head down some fast-single trail, water crossing and what looked like an abandoned highway. Some of us really had a blast on the single trail, riding between the sticks and leaning back through the water crossing.
The “highway” led us to a spectacular view of a road leading into the Limpopo River. This moment was another, greater than life itself moment, allowing for some emotional escape whilst the hippos and cows grunted in the background. Sometimes the best therapy is staring into the beautiful distance. It was in this case.
With enough mental and physical pictures taken along the Limpopo River, we rode back to the little village for lunch. Running into problems or punctures on an adventure ride is inevitable, but how John and Heine handled a quick puncture repair along with the help of Marnand and Anthony Lang was exceptional and professional. All the tools, knowledge and preparation were at hand and the T7 was up and running (for now) in no time.
With our last group outride in the Tuli slowly coming to an end we rode one last route, which got us up and close to the rock formations on the way back to the lodge. With spectacular views and some fun rocky terrain, we stopped for one more repair on Marnand’s T7 after he collected a fence running up front. What preceded was laughter all around as we all pulled a little souvenir from the Tuli out of the spokes of his bike.
At the end of the day, we had a quick soak in the pool over a few cold ones catching up on such an awesome day’s ride; a ride and personalities we would all remember returning to our tents. With one last dinner together came a special moonlight set up under the stars as our final treat before riding back to our vehicles across the border come first light.
Coming out of this ride left me wanting to return back to the Tuli as it surpassed my expectations as an adventure motorcyclists haven. More so, meeting such a diverse group of riders: from young 13-year-old Fernando competently manning his KTM EXC-F 500 everywhere we rode, Nigel sharing his vast knowledge of Africa, Wolf Seitz only starting his riding career at 61, Andre and Werner showcasing the ultimate brotherly love and wheelies for days, Antony, Miguel Da Silva and Marnand showing the rest of us how to ride an adventure bike anywhere. Lastly, Miguel Lage for allowing me to tag along and for keeping many interesting conversations going around the table.
As for Tuli Tours Africa, I can only recommend joining John and Heine on one of their excursions. Both of them complement each other, making for an all-around great trip. We all know Heine from ADA and if you don’t, he brings with him over 33 years of experience in the motorcycle and touring industry. You can entrust Heine with your life, knowing that he is a certified 4×4 and motorcycle instructor whilst also being certified as CPR/AED + First Aid, Nature Site Guide Level 2, and a member of the Field Guide Association of Southern Africa.
John’s routes grow deep in the industry too, with a family heritage of travel and tourism being passed down from his father—who worked beside Sol Kerzner pioneering tourism to the Seychelles. With a love for Tuli or obsession shall we say (visiting Botswana over 40 times), John has continued with the family tradition and has been running a successful business for the last eight years. At the end of it all, John and Heine are more than just professionals at what they do, they are down-to-earth people who anyone can connect with.
For more information on upcoming Tuli Tours visit – www.tulitoursafrica.com
