Tunisian Cyclist Sara Haba makes a 53-day journey from Tunisia to Mecca, Saudi Arabia by bicycle

Tunisian Cyclist Sara Haba became the first woman to reach the holy city of Mecca on a bicycle.She travelled to Saudi Arabia and made the pilgrimage journey in 53 days.

Haba named her bike Merzouga, which can be interpreted roughly to “grace with blessing” in Maghrebi Arabic.

Haba was troubled that she wouldn’t be permitted to access the sacred city as she was travelling by herself, but she didn’t let the fear stop her.

“In Saudi Arabia, where the distance and the difficulty were really small in comparison with what I went through, I was tensed before reaching Mecca as I really didn’t know if I would be allowed to enter the city, cycling by myself,” she added.

“I was afraid to be stopped at any point. I didn’t know if my body will follow my will and accept all that I was imposing to it,” she wrote on Instagram.

Haba travelled across the desert into Egypt and Sudan for weeks on end, mostly by herself, and documented her travels using the hashtag #cyclingtomecca.

 The physically demanding route had her long-distance biking for up to eight hours a day, and she didn’t have a team with her so when her bike broke down in the desert she had to repair it by herself.

Thousands of people followed her journey online and wrote supportive messages on her Instagram, whilst others asked her to carry their prayers.

Though Sara travelled alone, when her story went viral online, many people met her on her journey.

After 16 days on the road, she arrived in Port Sudan, where she met a woman who had travelled 200km to see her. In another heart-warming moment, people on the road presented the cyclist with watermelon and dates.

Thousands of people followed her journey online and wrote supportive messages on her Instagram, whilst others asked her to carry their prayers.

In response, she thanked them.
“A special special special thanks to each person who has crossed my way, smiled to me, shown me the way, filled my bottles with water,
offered me a fruit or a jabana, shared their house with me, presented me to their family and friends, cycled with me even for 1Okm, cried
with me and made me part of their lives.
“I didn’t expect anything of all what happened,” she wrote online.”I kept making duas for all of you, holding the list of names tightly on
my hands, while turning and turning in the crowd. But it will never be
enough. Hope that life will give me the opportunity to give this back to the universe.” Sara concluded: “I wouldn’t have made it without each one of you. You made it guys.”
Upon her arrival in Makkah, Sara met her brother, who came from France and performed the Umrah.