Play your part in raising awareness of rhino’s and join Durbanville Hills Wines, proud sponsor of the Race the Rhino MTB challenge taking place on World Rhino Day, 21 September at Magaliesberg.

The 15km or 50km route will take cyclists through some picturesque landscape in memory of the 668 rhinos killed during 2012 and to raise renewed awareness of renosterveld, one of the most important but highly threatened plant families of the Cape Floral Kingdom. A portion of the proceeds of the Race the Rhino will go to the Karen Trendler’s Rhino Orphanage, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the Renosterveld Trust.

Renosterveld takes its name from many rhinoceroses seen by the earlier settlers to the interior grazing in this type of vegetation. Unlikefynbos, which prefers poorer soils in more inhospitable areas, renosterveld grows where the land is fertile. Over the years it has been supplanted by vineyards and wheatlands so that today it covers only 4% of the area it once did. It is home to a wide variety of plant species as well as one of the world’s rarest and most endangered tortoises, the geometric tortoise.

Durbanville Hills Wines is a member of the Biodiversity & Wine Initiative (BWI), the organization that works for the protection and rehabilitation of indigenous vegetation, and the winery protects 320ha of renosterveld on member farms. To raise awareness of its threatened state, it also named its Rhinofields range for renosterveld.

The race starts and finishes at the Van Gaalen MTB Track, Skeerpoort, and will end with a prize-giving. There will also be a lucky draw as well as entertainment for the kids, Durbanville Hills’ wines to taste and food stalls.

For more information and to enter visit www.renosterveldmtb.co.za.