Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives #5

Meryem Belkihel: cycling solo around Africa

Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives (OWEL) is a series that celebrates the unusual paths that women take – whether it’s a short diversion in their life’s journey, or a new route entirely. It’s about women who are sometimes brave, sometimes bold, often vulnerable, and usually curious… and their quest to create a life that reflects who they truly are.

---

Meryem Belkihel, cycling solo around Africa. Photo © Meryem Belkihel

Dear NE-One

If you’re anything like me, you have a love-hate relationship with social media. You don’t want to be there, but then – oh, just a quick look – and bam! You’re sucked in. But every now and then you come across something worthwhile…

One of the Facebook groups I belong to is brilliant. It’s a very supportive community of women who travel – some consistently, others who are thinking about taking for their first solo trip ever – and it was there that I came across Meryem Belkihel, a young Moroccan woman who’s cycling solo around Africa. I lost myself in her photos and videos: empty roads, muddy tracks, desert dunes, mountain passes.

When I asked if she’d be open to an interview for Ordinary Women Extraordinary Lives, we tried for weeks to get our schedules to align. First, she was somewhere in the mountains in Ghana and had weak signal; when we rescheduled when she was in Nigeria, but then she was recovering from malaria. Eventually, in early November, we sat down for a quick chat.