A team of 12 women will ride 200km through the Western Cape next month, and every kilometre is meant to do more than burn legs. They're racing for the Cape Leopard Trust in the Old Mutual Double Century on 21 November, starting in Swellendam, with a target of R250 000 for leopard conservation in the region.
It's the first time the trust has fielded a dedicated cycling team at the event, according to operations director Natalie Hayward. The crew warmed up in August with an 88km training ride through the Cape Winelands, pedalling from Stellenbosch via Paarl to Franschhoek — a route Hayward says neatly illustrates the problem the campaign highlights. Riders start in a busy town on the edge of leopard territory, then cross roads and farmland that cut through the corridors the cats use to move between mountain ranges.
That idea anchors the team's fundraising campaign, called Right to Roam. Leopards need large territories, and as the Western Cape's natural areas become more fragmented by development, the animals struggle to travel between them. The Boland Mountain Complex, which includes Jonkershoek Nature Reserve, is a key study area for the trust, whose regular camera-trap surveys track how the local population is holding up. The numbers are sobering: fewer than two leopards per 100 square kilometres in the Boland complex, with the species listed as vulnerable globally on the IUCN Red List. Habitat loss, conflict with people, illegal killing and snaring are the main pressures.
The money raised goes towards practical, locally driven conservation. The campaign's GivenGain page puts some price tags on the work: R800 funds a wildlife patrol team or a rescue response, while R8 000 covers a veterinary callout for an injured or snared leopard or native prey animal. As of early October, with just over two months left, the fundraiser sat at R3 000 — so there's a long way to go before race day.
For travellers, the story is a reminder of what's living quietly in the mountains around the Winelands. The Cape Fold mountains that frame the Stellenbosch and Franschhoek wine routes are leopard country, one of the world's recognised biodiversity hotspots, as trust CEO Helen Turnbull points out. Hikers in reserves like Jonkershoek are walking through the same habitat the cyclists are raising money to protect — and supporting organisations like the trust is one way visitors can help keep it that way.
