Cycling To Meeca through Sudan

by Sara Haba (France)

I didn't expect to find Sudan

Crossing the border To the unknown, this is what I did when I left Egypt by bicycle to Sudan. As a solo travel woman, I needed a buddy and I found the best one: Merzouga, my dear bicycle. After spending more than 1000km in Egypt with my new friend, we were ready to dive into the unknown. Our first steps in this new land were hot and dry. We hope to make new friends but the desert isn't crowded with people. So we make the tent our new house and the sand our new bed. Every two days, we had the joy to meet new people coming from nowhere. After following them, we discovered that this nowhere was actually villages hiding in the desert. Being a woman gave me access to the Sudani woman world. A lot of people will think that this is a narrow-minded world but the women I met, from the youngest to the oldest one, welcome me as part of their family and encouraged me so much to continue my cycling trip. I met these women souls all along the trip, wearing different clothes, speaking different dialects, some of them were super strong, super independent and some even cycled with me. Some of them even join me before I took the boat to Saudi Arabia. By opening their houses and their hearts, these women have shown me the way to dive into new lands without judgment, with deep respect and with an open heart. And this is the way I'll cycle in Saudi Arabia.