Is it foolish for a woman to cycle alone across the Middle East?
When Rebecca Lowe set off solo from the UK for Iran by bicycle, her friends thought she had taken leave of her senses. But although she had to endure gropers, extreme heat and heavy-handed police, most of the people she met were a long way removed from stereotypes [read more…]
In pictures: How one woman cycled from London to Iran
Rebecca Lowe’s friends thought she had taken leave of her senses when she set off on an 11,000km, year-long cycle from the UK to Iran. Her article for the BBC News website attracted a huge amount of interest from readers. Here she tells the story of her journey in pictures [read more…]
I cycled to Iran and found a warm, hospitable country – but women’s rights has a long way to go
‘Iran is a prison,’ the woman told me as she showed me around her small, sparsely decorated flat. ‘Women have no value here. I desperately want to leave, but I can’t.’ [read more…]
Cycling the Middle East: the kindness of strangers and the desperation of refugee camps (15 Jan 2016)
I’m very much of the Ranulph Fiennes school of thought: “plod forever” and take one step at a time. I began my trip on 29 July last year from my flat in London. I’ve now made it to Jordan, via France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Turkey and Lebanon. [read more…]
The virtues (and hardships) of travel journalism (Jan 2016)
Six months ago, I was a full-time journalist in the City, doing a job that I loved. I specialised in international justice and the law, and enjoyed considerable freedom to choose my own stories and travel [read more…]
How to cycle from London to Iran – with no training (21 Jan 2016)
Awake at 6am, then 6.15am, then 6.30am. Today’s the day! I try to ignore it, but I know it’s time. My arm doesn’t even hurt too badly anymore, my last surviving hope for delay. I had a typhoid jab a week ago and since then it’s felt like I’ve had nightly wrestles with Floyd Mayweather. For the past few days, I’ve had vivid images of me as that heroin addict in Requiem for a Dream, my bicep going mushy and gangrenous as I cry out deliriously, heroically, that I’m going no matter what – only to be dragged off by medics and sedated. [read more…]
Cycling World, Nov 2015 [read more]
Cycling World, Dec 2015 [read more]
Cycling World, Jan 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, Feb 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, April 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, May 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, Aug 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, Oct 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, Nov 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, Dec 2016 [read more]
Cycling World, Jan 2017 [read more]
I biked through Albania. Alone. As a woman. (March 2016)
The road is blocked by goats again. It really is the last straw [read more…]
Many people in the West have Iran pegged as a ‘hostile country’. But here British adventurer Rebecca Lowe reveals that when she visited Iran last year as part of a journey by bicycle across Europe and the Middle East she discovered a people genuinely curious about Britain, ‘extraordinarily welcoming’ and an underground party scene where ‘gallons of spirits and wine’ were drunk – and even drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy taken [read more…]
Two-hour radio interview with Vision 101.3FM, based in Khartoum, Sudan.
This podcast features Rebecca Lowe, a journalist from London who is cycling around Europe and the Middle East (March 2016)
We join Rebecca in Cairo, Egypt about two thirds of the way through her adventure [read more…]
Radio interview with Rebecca Lowe
Benji Hyer interviews the journalist about her eye-opening trip around the Middle East to find out what lies beyond the headlines [read more…]
Britanska novinarka, ki bo na kolesu skušala predstaviti drugo plat Bližnjega vzhoda (Sep 2016)
Britanska novinarka Rebecca Lowe je na posebni misiji [read more…]
Londra-Teheran In bici contro i pregiudizi. Il diario di Rebecca: “L’Islam non è fanatismo”
Ha attraversato venti Paesi e raccontato con le foto le vite di chi ha incontrato. “Volevo dimostrare che l’Africa e il Medio Oriente sono altro rispetto all’integralismo religioso. Ho trovato tanta umanità. E gente pronta ad aiutarmi” [read more…]
Egyedül, nőként bringázott végig a Közel-Keleten
Rebecca Lowe egy évig járta kerékpárral a Közel-Kelet országait. Egyedül, nőként egy olyan világban, amelyről nem sok jót hallunk a hírekben [read more…]
‘I Quit My Job To Ride 11,000 Across The Middle East’
The day I found myself squatting semi-naked behind a small adobe hut, frantically scrubbing myself with an economy wet wipe while scouring the vast, parched landscape for sand snakes and lurking male voyeurs, was a bad day [read more…]
Rebecca Lowe is Turning Wheels and Shifting Focus
English journalist Rebecca Lowe set off on a cross country bike ride with a difference in July 2015 [read more…].
One bike, three continents, twenty countries and eleven thousand kilometres to ride. Last year, journalist Rebecca Lowe spent 12 months cycling from England to Iran – by herself. Despite not training at all for the eye-opening adventure, she meandered out into the unknown and discovered a lot along the way… [read more…]
The Courier
Inverness Courier
GoPro film: the final straight.
A video of the final throes of the journey, entering Tehran (with a flat tyre and no lights!) at 10pm on Monday 20th June, after an exhausting 160km slog through the desert in 48C heat.
