This year’s season of ‘Twende Butiama’ cycling expedition has changed routes to accommodate new destinations such as Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Manyara Regions along the way.
Due to that therefore, previous precincts such as Dodoma and Morogoro have been taken off the tour.
Teams of cyclists are meanwhile expected to ride through eleven mainland regions in the special cross-country mission from Dar-es-Salaam to Mara, in honor of Mwalimu Nyerere.
This seventh season of ‘Twende Butiama,’ a cycling expedition which rides off from the coastal city on the third day of July 2025 should take two weeks up to the 13th of July 2025.
“Other than honoring Mwalimu, the cyclist expedition which runs for the seventh year in a row, targets to support education, health and environmental initiatives,” said the chairperson of the ‘Twende Butiama,’ expedition, Gabriel Landa.
More than 200 cyclists will ride more than 1541 kilometers between Dar-es-salaam and Butiama, the latter being the birthplace of the founding father of the nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere.
Teams include young riders of 15 years and below, senior cyclists described as ‘Masters,’ as well as female riders.
They will punctuate the journey with tree planting sessions enroute.
Participants will also hail from neighboring countries, such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi and Zambia
The entourage using all types of machines, including ordinary and mountain bikes, are to cycle through the Coastal (Pwani) Region, after being flagged off from Dar-es-salaam city.
The riders will then move into Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Manyara, Singida, Tabora, Shinyanga, Simiyu and finally Mara, in that order, before climaxing the mission at Mwalimu’s village in the Butiama District of Mara.
Some riders will join along the way, the original 120 will cover all routes but others who join the expedition from Kilimanjaro, Arusha and other regions may boost the number to more than 200.
For the third year now, Vodacom Foundation Tanzania has been sponsoring the ‘Twende Butiama,’ cycling expeditions.
Zuweina Farah, is the director of Vodacom Foundation who is also the public relations officer for Vodacom, says the company has been especially covering the area of education and environment.
“Vodacom Tanzania is marking 25th Anniversary of Operations in Tanzania in 2025 and throughout the time we have been donating desks for 34 local schools and so far, planted over 70,000 tree seedlings during the ‘Twende Butiama,’ missions,” she said.
According to Zuweina, Vodacom had advised the coordinators to change the cycling route, that is why for the first time the riders will pass through Arusha and Kilimanjaro instead of Dodoma like in the past.
On his part, Mosses Andrea the chairperson of the Arusha Cycling Association said he will be participating in the 2025 ‘Twende Butiama,’ and make use of the 15 riding days as some form of exercise.