She aims at becoming the first women cycling solo around Egypt
Nisaa FM: - Hamsa Mansour is training for an epic journey. Her dream is to become the first Egyptian woman to solo-cycle several thousand kilometers around her country.
Aiming to complete the epic journey in 2019, the 29-year-old, who is working as an adventure trip leader, has already begun preparing and training for the adventure. In November this year, she's embarked on a "short haul" – a 775 km trip around the Red Sea and Sinai, completing it in just 11 days.
Her reasons for doing it? She says, “Generally speaking, I do this for two reasons. First, I believe that we grow the most within nature. The most valuable lessons I've learned in my life were while hiking in the desert or climbing a mountain or so on, and this is exactly what I want to do. Second, I hope to inspire others to see that there is an alternative way of living.”
She hopes to be able to send a message to the Egyptian society and mainly to the Egyptian women to get inspired to get out there instead of conforming. They should want to try new things, to get inspired to see the beauty of Egypt and what its roads have to offer. But also change society's perspective ... She says, “Society insists that adventure sports is a man's domain. I hope women wouldn't have their gender dictate what they think they can do, or even think of it as one of the factors.”
Inspiration from other solo-cyclists
Hamsa Mansour loved cycling just as much as every other kid. And then years back, she was traveling to Sokhna on the West shore of the Red Sea’s Gulf of Suez. There she saw a cyclist on the road, and this was where it started.
“At first, I only dreamt of cycling to Sokhna. Then years later, I met others who had solo-cycled in Egypt, among them the Egyptian adventurer Galal Zekri Chatila. The stories inspired me to dream bigger. I solo-cycled to Ismailia last March and it didn't feel like enough. I can't wait to embark on this adventure.”
Mansour’s focus right now is to train well. Everyone around her believes that she can do it, which is both inspiring and scary. When asked about what she will do if running into criminal groups or other threats when travelling alone, she laughs and says, “I'm honestly only concerned about the uphills. Seriously though. I tried cycling on my own to Ismailia and I befriended people on the road. They were all very helpful. I believe in the good in people, and my friends' experiences support my vision too.”
You can follow Hamsa Mansour’s journey on Instagram, where she has posted the photo at the left.
Source: www.stepfeed.com