Norwegian motorcyclists arrive in Duhok after two-week trip from Oslo

DUHOK, Kurdistan Region - Two Norwegian motorcyclists arrived in Duhok city on Sunday two weeks after traveling from Oslo, making their first-ever motorcycling trip to the Kurdistan Region. 

The couple, Kawa Sabri Botani, a Kurdish national, and his wife Mariyana Botani, a Norwegian woman, arrived in Duhok on Sunday. Their plan is to stay and visit tourist attractions in Erbil and Duhok provinces. 

The couple are members of an organization that has up to 40,000 cyclists in Norway.

As soon as the couple arrived after driving through 6,400 kilometers, they visited a bust of Sabri Botani, Kawa's father, which is placed inside Duhok's Azadi Park.

Sabri Botani was a famous Kurdish revolutionary, politician, and poet who after decades of struggling for the Kurdish cause, died in 1998 in Norway.

In addition to hiking and skiing, the Kurdistan Region is also a destination for Western motorbikers and cyclists.

Motorbiking is seen as a new asset to the fast-growing Kurdish tourist industry that already brings Western tourists in for organized tours to see the natural, historic, and cultural sites of the Kurdistan Region.