Perception altering bike journey of Discovery

The Slow Road to Tehran by Rebecca Lowe, is a two-wheeled adventure tale, travelling  11, 000 miles, a year-long adventure plodding from Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Oman, and the UAE before finally arriving in Iran.

Lowe, who was the chief reporter at the International Bar Association, is adept at human rights issues, had previously cycled in the Balkans and Mexico, took up the cycling travelling on her bike “Maud” with challenging terrain across mountains and deserts and repressive police states between here and Iran. Red face and soaked in sweat Lowe was determined in her mission to “ peel back the layers of artifice and to unearth the human interest stories” as she gallops through the Middle East, a region she calls “ Mosaic”. She visited a dozen homes and named several hosts and friends of friends  – aid workers, students, activists, doctors are called upon and questioned on their politics and personal lives, as well as the realities and delusions of their countries while eating juicy kebabs.

In 2015, as the Syrian war raged and the refugee reached its peak, Rebecca Lowe set off with the West to reveal the history of 20 countries packed in 400 pages. Her problems like heat storms, ruptures on puncture-proof tyres snarling traffic, and lecherous men. In Sudan where the Nile’s power is greater “even in Egypt: and “stars blaze their billions”. The destruction of Wadi Halfa and North Darfur’s deadly 2012 gold rush is vividly highlighted.

Lowe definitely took plenty of risks and put in the leg work at an exhausting time.

It was an odyssey through landscapes and history that captured her heart driven by a desire to learn more about this troubled region and its relationship with the West.

Lowe was frequently rescued by farmers and refugees, villagers and urbanites alike, and relied almost entirely on the kindness and hospitality of locals to complete this living portrait of the modern Middle East. Her deeply evocative account of her travels and the people, politics, and culture she encountered. Lowe gave an illuminating insight account of the beauty, kindness, and complexities of the lands she travels through.

The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride Through Europe and the Middle East by Rebecca Lowe, September Publishing  £18.99, 416 pages.