Above picture: Thirteen members of the Mouse-Free Marion Cycling Team gather next to Cape Town’s City Hall before the start; photograph by Tim Timmerman
On Sunday 09 March, 27 members of the Mouse-Free Marion Cycling Team set off to cycle 109 km around the Cape Peninsula as part of the Cape Town Cycle Tour to raise R 109 000 (R1000/km) in support of Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds. The Mouse-Free Marion Project. All 27 of us successfully completed the tour in good spirits.
It was a near perfect day for cycling on the often-windy peninsula, with just a light breeze to cool us down a little while ascending the route’s four major climbs. After a strong start, the team spread out to ride at every participant’s comfortable speed. Along the way, we attracted attention from the other riders and spectators alike in our distinctive blue jerseys emblazoned with a flying Wandering Albatross on the back, and from the blue feathers that decorated our helmets.
22 kilometres and one climb still to go. Kate Handley, Sue Tonin and John Cooper pause for a quick selfie and a smile at the Chapman Peak’s lookout
Some of us are veterans of the Cape Town Cycle Tour, now in its 47th year (one of us rode his 30th tour, I went for my 29th) and some were novices setting off on their first event. For several it was the longest distance they have ever covered on a single ride. A few of us had trained hard all summer and set off to achieve a “personal best”. Our ages covered a wide range, the oldest being 78. Some of us cycled in defiance of health issues. Two team members have been thankfully declared cancer free after tests and operations last year. A family group successfully shepherded a member who had been recovering from a serious illness on her first Cape Town Cycle Tour.
Some of the team members, suitably feathered and medalled, get together after cycling 109 km to chat about their rides; photograph by Jacques Scheepers
What united this disparate group from different parts of South Africa (many of us only met each other for the first time for the group photograph before the start) was the shared determination to see the end of Marion Island’s albatross-killing mice. You can help our determination to raise R109 000 by supporting the Mouse-Free Marion Cycling Team’s online appeal via GivenGain at https://www.givengain.com/project/john-raising-funds-for-mouse-free-marion-97528. We are already over two-thirds of the way to meeting our fund-raising target. Your donations will surely see us reach it.
In addition, all hectares sponsored at R1000/ha during the two-week period 17-31 March will also be registered to the online appeal. Sponsors will still receive a signed Certificate of Appreciation, and their hectares will be listed against their name on the website’s Honour Roll
Please be generous. The island’s albatrosses will thank you and so will we!
John Cooper, News Correspondent, Mouse-Free Marion, 17 March 2025
****************************************************************
A Sooty Albatross chick on Marion Island, digital artwork by Jayashree Sadasivan of Artists & Biologists Unite for Nature (ABUN) for the Mouse-Free Marion Project, after a photograph by Stefan Schoombie
The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.
