1/3 of the Way: The Story of One Saudi Woman on a Bike Around Iceland

At a career lull, Saudi Arabian explorer Yasmine Idriss found herself being asked the age-old question, “What will you do now?” As images of corporate schedules faded into the back of her mind, Idriss’s vision of the Icelandic mountainous terrain came forward, and she hasn’t looked back since.

Before she knew it, Yasmine embarked on a journey to the journey: a meticulous training period in order to cycle all 1,322 kilometres of the Icelandic Ring Road.

“It’s funny but I’m actually a pretty novice cyclist,” the adventurer tells CairoScene. “It didn’t get in the way though. I had the dream of cycling around Iceland and I just trained to do it. Too many of us create obstacles between ourselves and our dreams. I believe that if something calls you strongly enough, you just find a way to do it.”

Today, she is 10 days through the olympic task, one-third of the way into the bellowing winds of the Iceland Ring Road.

According to the expert traveller, cycling is the optimal pace to experience the world at. Where walking is too tedious, and cars create a disconnect between experiencer and experience, cycling allows Idriss to truly connect with the world around her. Exposed to all the elements, cyclists can bask in the wondrous terrain that engulfs them. As beautiful and immersive as it is, the journey is far from easy. Yasmine has had to battle the fickle weather of Iceland with a heart (and legs) of iron. “There’s an insane amount of focus required when the winds get so strong they almost blow you off the road.”

There’s no doubt that at times, the journey feels too steep to finish. Being on the road for weeks on end, with no shelter, often takes a toll on Idriss’s resilience, as she spends nights camping or sleeping at various hotels along the way. And yet she keeps cycling.  “The main challenge is that there’s no shelter. I’m out there in the world, from morning to night, with no shelter. It’s a very strange experience.” The journey Yasmine is on is surely a loaded success to her personally, but it is also one all Arab women share, although it might not feel like it. Idriss has done the necessary task of separating her actions from gender, an essential step to ensuring that perceptions around her gender do not stop her from following her dreams.

“As Arab women, we’re taught to always seek comfort. Always pursue safety. I think we get stale when we’re in comfort for too long,” Yasmine says. “I think putting ourselves in discomfort intentionally is how we grow as humans.”

In her quiet seclusion in the far Icelandic North, it might not seem like anyone is there, but the world is watching as Yasmine Idriss makes history on her bike, already awaiting her next venture. Perhaps the cyclist would see a return to the Saudi Arabian coastline?