site in Nairobi , Kenya ( Mama Roche was famous amongst overlanders , but sadly she passed away on 27 October 2000 ). When I arrived at these places , it was just accepted we ’ d hang out together . We are motorcyclist : we are of the same ‘ tribe ’. If you are a little concerned about travelling alone , your fears are completely unfounded . With literally hundreds , if not thousands , travelling the world ( Australia being one of the most popular destinations ), by motorcycle , including many women , you won ’ t be alone for long .
In fact , I suggest you ’ re better off alone as you ’ ll have a far more interesting experience , a far richer cultural experience as the locals will be less inclined to approach you when you ’ re with another or in a group . They ’ ll think : ‘ You ’ re okay because you ’ ve got a friend . But when you ’ re alone , they ’ ll want to help you . This ‘ kindness of strangers ’ echoes many a traveller ’ s experience . And this kindness is ubuntu . It is a Bantu word from South Africa that literally means : ‘ I am because we are ’. Or as Desmond Tutu so perfectly explains : ‘ Ubuntu speaks about our interconnectedness . You can ’ t be human all by yourself ’.
When you travel alone , there are no distractions and I believe when this happens , you begin to search for meaning in how events unfold . As my journey progressed , I began to search for meaning in the coincidences and chance encounters that came my way with frequent , almost daily , regularity . Because no harm ever came to me , I did not expect it to . Without another to ask : ‘ should I go this way or that way , do this or that ’, I relied on my intuition to help me make all my decisions . But this is not to say that I always made the right decisions . I was riding to Lake Turkana , an alkaline lake in northern Kenya , which is surrounded by inhospitable desert and scrubland . My intention was to see the fossils of our early ancestors .
I wanted to stand on that very spot where we all came from . But to do so , I was advised to take a guide and we negotiated a fee of US $ 150 which he would waiver if I took a short detour to search for sapphires . No more than fifty kilometres , he said , but it was an eight-day adventure that left us dehydrated and weak from hunger , until we reached the lake and were rescued by Turkana fisherman .
After surviving that experience , I questioned what I was doing in Africa
risking my life . I questioned should I go home , but the moment I thought about doing that , I could not give up . My only thought was an overwhelming sense of expectation for my journey and what I would discover . I rode on through Uganda and across Zaire , one of the most difficult to travel and lawless countries on the planet .
I rode on through West Africa and then to Mauritania . All up I rode 42,000 kilometres through 19 countries and while I encountered many
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