Mountain biking with zebras in Mlilwane

The zebra did not move

We rented bikes at Mlilwane’s main camp — two basic hardtail mountain bikes, well-maintained, in a rack next to the communal kitchen. The rental rate was modest. The staff member who handed them over gave brief trail information: the main loop is marked, the short loops intersect the long loop, stay on the trails (this is a wildlife sanctuary, not a golf course), give animals space, do not approach the hippos on foot.

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in Eswatini’s Ezulwini Valley is a predator-free reserve. There are no lions, leopard, or cheetah. This is the specific condition that makes the unusual thing possible: walking and cycling unguided through the sanctuary, in the presence of game, without the risk that attaches to those activities in reserves with predators.

The main loop is approximately fourteen kilometres, taking between ninety minutes and two-and-a-half hours depending on pace, terrain, and how often you stop. The first five kilometres traverse the valley floor through short Acacia woodland and open grassland. Then the track climbs the Nyonyane mountain’s eastern flank through rocky path and open mountain fynbos to a viewpoint ridge.

The zebra were grazing in a group of seven approximately thirty metres off the trail, heads down, entirely uninterested. We slowed to walking pace. Two of the zebra raised their heads and watched. We rode past at approximately four kilometres per hour. They returned to grazing.

This is what the Mlilwane mountain biking experience is: the ordinary business of cycling a trail, intersected repeatedly by animals going about the ordinary business of being animals. There is a specific quality to encountering wildlife at the pace of a bicycle rather than from a vehicle — you arrive without engine noise, without the visual signature of a large car, and with a physical proximity that a game drive vehicle cannot achieve in a predator-free context.

The warthog section

The middle section of the long loop passes through grassland that is preferred grazing territory for the reserve’s warthog population. Warthogs are, by disposition, among the more excitable large mammals in the southern African bush. When alarmed, they raise their tails vertically — the antenna behaviour that gives them a comical dignity — and trot away at speed that looks inadequate but covers ground surprisingly quickly.

Several warthog families were using the trail itself as a path when we arrived on the long loop’s midpoint. We slowed. The family — two adults and three piglets from what appeared to be the current year’s litter — cleared off the trail at a quick trot but only moved about twenty metres into the grass, where they stood and watched us pass with an expression that is difficult to describe without anthropomorphism but that conveyed low-level alarm rather than genuine fear.

The viewpoint

The Nyonyane ridge viewpoint at approximately 650 metres elevation looks over the full Ezulwini Valley: the Lusushwana River glinting below, the royal palace grounds (not accessible to visitors) in the valley floor, the Mlilwane wetland area where hippos are visible as grey-brown lumps in the water from this height, and the Drakensberg escarpment on the South African border to the west.

In December, which is early summer in Eswatini, the valley was fully green and the afternoon light — we reached the viewpoint around 3:30pm — was slanting gold from the west. We ate the lunch we had packed. A pair of vervet monkeys came within three metres and displayed the precise calibration of animals that have learned that cyclists sometimes carry food but that cyclists are not reliable food sources.

What the Mlilwane cycling experience is actually about

The honest version is this: the trail is not technically demanding. It would be rated blue or low-black on a European trail system. The cycling itself is pleasant but not the reason to do it. The reason to do it is the specific experience of moving through a wildlife-populated landscape at a pace and proximity that vehicles cannot offer in any reserve with predators, and that guided walking cannot offer at any meaningful distance.

It is also very cheap, very accessible from the Ezulwini Valley, and available without advance booking. For a visitor spending a day or two in Eswatini, two hours on the Mlilwane trails is one of the more unusual things available on the continent.

The Eswatini three-day hiking adventure covers Mlilwane and extends to Sibebe Rock and Malolotja for visitors wanting a more substantial multi-day outdoor experience in the kingdom.