A SCOT cycling alone around the world has been robbed just days after beginning a new leg of her journey in Brazil.
Ishbel Taromsari, from Plean, near Falkirk, was mugged hours after arriving in Anchieta, in the state of Espirito Santo on the east coast of Brazil.
The 36-year-old escaped injury. However expensive camera equipment which she was using to capture images of her travels and share with thousands of followers on her social media sites, was taken.
She posted a tearful video message, in which she told how the attack had left her “full of nervous anxiety and tension”. Ms Taromsari, who is half Scots, half Iranian and a former Velodrome Sprinter for the Iranian national team, arrived in Brazil two weeks ago for the latest leg of a round-the-world journey, which has seen her cycle solo across 16 nations, including France, Spain, Turkey and Iran.
At one point she cycled along the Turkish border with Syria while soldiers trained their guns on her, and in December 2015 she nearly died during a freak snowstorm in Torres del Paine National Park, Chile.
In the past she has told how she has had to fight off unwanted attention from men, by shouting “bad man” at the top of her voice to gain attention.
She travels without a map or compass, spending nights in a tent and with just a few pounds spending money. She said earlier: “If I start trying to read a map, I get lost. So I ask local people for directions.” she once said. “Sometimes I have to avoid people, not because I’m frightened, but they are so desperate to feed me and give me somewhere to rest, that I can’t get on with cycling.”
Ms Taromsari is planning to cycle 4500km across Brazil, through the Amazon and then north to Ecuador and Colombia.
She told her social media followers that she planned to leave the town immediately, and cycle back the way she had just come.
She added: “I am going back to the last place I felt safe. I’ll hang out there for a few days. Then I’ll go back to the reality of cycling Brazil.”
Brazil crime rates are notorious, with robberies, kidnappings and violence relatively commmon place. The Espirito Santo area where Ms Taromsari was cycling has one of the country’s highest homicide rates, with 47.3 homicides per 100,000 people..
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