I’m a picky reader. Most books about bicycle touring and classic travelogues just put me to sleep. But Rebecca Lowe’s Slow Road to Tehran is not just a book about bicycle touring, which the author herself bluntly admits in the first paragraphs. While cycling from London to Tehran, Lowe attempts to understand the complexity of the Middle East. With wit and self-irony, she shares the joys and struggles every bicycle tourer can relate to.
In 2015, when the refugee crisis and the Syrian war dominated the headlines in Europe, Rebecca Lowe embarked on a year-long journey on her bike across Europe and the Middle East.
As a journalist focusing on human rights, she hopes that slow travel will help her better understand the intricate mosaic of the region and its relationship with the West. She’s looking for the context: where the war, the revolutions and the fight for power come from and how they affect the regular people.
It’s not another book about the hero’s journey
I have a complicated relationship with travelogues. Many feel too self-centric, with the world reduced to the background for the author’s journey and inner transformation.
Many travellers, particularly the hippie bicycle tourers, say they aren’t interested in politics and only care about the people. Travel YouTubers and bloggers claim that the countries they visit are nothing like what you see in the media. They seem to forget that the politics is an inseparable part of everyone’s life and that what you see on the road is not opposite to what media show but just a part of a larger picture.
While acknowledging the one-sided portrayal of Muslim countries in the Western media, Rebecca Lowe is far from romanticizing the people and places along her route. She doesn’t try to show regular life in opposition to the loud events portrayed by the media but focuses on how politics and everyday life constantly intertwine and influence one another.
Lowe doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge her privilege and ill-preparedness
In The Slow Road To Tehran, Lowe recognizes that her journey is only possible because of the privilege and that there was undoubtedly more than a whiff of vanity about the endeavour in her trip. She’s got a lot of distance and is not scared to own her mistakes, from small things like calling her trip ill-prepared to openly admitting that she felt a dose of satisfaction when the police brutally beat up a man who harassed her and waited too long to beg them to stop. It’s not an attempt to find excuses or explanations, rather the readiness to show a human face with all the flaws.
Lowe is somewhat self-deprecating when she says she has no training and cycling experience. Yes, the journey to Tehran was her first long-distance bicycle tour. But she used a bicycle for commuting 15 kilometres daily, and she’s well-travelled, so you can’t say she encourages people to embark on a world tour with zero preparation.
No sugar coating
Her description of places she visits is multidimensional and colourful. She attempts to withhold from judgment, sweeping generalizations and rushed conclusions like some bicycle touring writers often do.
The Slow Road to Tehran is a collection of stories. Lowe often stays on Couchsurfing, and the conversations with her hosts give a glimpse into the reality of regular people. But she’s also using her journalistic skills and connections to dig a little deeper where an average traveller wouldn’t reach. The author visits a refugee camp and meets with political activists.
The book is also rich in references for those who want to learn more about the history of the Middle East and other facts mentioned in the book.
Lowe engages in conversations about what it means to be religious or follow certain societal norms. Her conversation partners often challenge her assumptions about Islam and patriarchy. For example, she meets a young woman in a niqab who says the attire is her choice and gives her more confidence, making her “a secret treasure”.
The book is full of stories of hospitality and generosity. But Lowe also honestly reports on something most women travelling solo have experienced – sexual harassment. The description of her confusion, frustration and discontent when these incidents happen strongly resonated with me.
What struck me was how she tried to find compassion for a man from a refugee camp in Bulgaria whose drunk sexual advances made her very uncomfortable (“he’s not a malicious man, just a misguided one”, she writes after he sends her an apology).
With wit and irony, Lowe describes the joys and hardships of bicycle travel
Although the bicycle and the physical challenge are not the story’s main focus, The Slow Road to Tehran is full of anecdotes and reflections most bicycle tourers can relate to.
Flat tires in the least convenient moments, parents excessively worrying, friends telling you that you’ll die, too much time with your thoughts – Lowe describes these aspects of travelling solo by bike amusingly and entertainingly. Her classification of five types of hills had me in stitches, and the mentions of loneliness and missing loved ones reminded me of the difficult moments during my travels.
The story of illegally crossing the border to Croatia gave me an instant feeling I could be friends with the author (I was equally unaware of Croatia not being part of Schengen when I biked there in 2018). It felt comforting to read that a well-travelled, educated journalist still has this kind of knowledge gap.
What I missed in the book
Since the route described in The Slow Road to Tehran was very long (11,000 kilometres), some parts of it didn’t get as much attention as they, in my opinion, deserve. I felt like the journey through the Balkans was rushed and that many fascinating stories about this region were untold. This is understandable, considering the author focused more on the Middle East.
It was also slightly disappointing to find all the photographs accumulated at the end of the book. They were also pretty small. On one hand, they don’t distract you from the story and let your brain imagine places and people based on the description. But I am convinced the book would be more aesthetically pleasing if the photos followed after each chapter and if they could be a bit larger.
Final thoughts
I can certainly say The Long Way to Tehran is one of the best bicycle touring books I’ve read. It brought me back the thrill and excitement about hitting the road on my bike again. After a year of feeling a kind of bike-touring apathy, the book gave me a much-needed kick of inspiration.
If you’re looking for a bicycle touring book that’s more than just an account of kilometres ridden and sights seen, The Long Way to Tehran is travel biking at its best. It’s a fantastic read for everyone who wants to learn more about the Middle East in a light form.
The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East was published by September Publishing in 2023. It’s available as hardback, ebook and audiobook. You can order it here.
The Slow Road to Tehran: A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East is also available as ebook and audiobook on Scribd. Both formats are included in the subscription. Use my referral link to enjoy the Scribd subscription for 60 days for free (and to give me a gift of using my Scribd for 30 days for free too)!
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