Ubuntu: One Woman's Motorcycle Odyssey Across Africa

As you travel Africa, you will find the way of ubuntu – the universal bond that connects all of humanity as one.

At the age of twenty-eight, while sitting in a friend’s backyard in the remote mining township of Jabiru in northern Australia, Heather Ellis has a light-bulb moment: she is going to ride a motorcycle across Africa. The idea just feels right – no matter that she’s never done any long-distance motorcycle travelling before, and has never even set foot on the African continent. Twelve months later, Heather unloads her Yamaha TT600 at the docks in Durban, South Africa, and her adventure begins.

Her travels take her to the dizzying heights of Mt Kilimanjaro and the Rwenzori Mountains, to the deserts of northern Kenya where she is befriended by armed bandits and rescued by Turkana fishermen, to a voyage on a ‘floating village’ on the mighty Zaire River and into the timelessness of Islamic northern Africa. Everywhere she goes Heather is aided by locals and travellers alike, who take her into their homes and hearts, helping her to truly understand the spirit of ubuntu – a Bantu word meaning ‘I am because you are’.

Ubuntu is the extraordinary story of a young woman who, alone and against all odds, rode a motorcycle to some of the world’s most remote, beautiful and dangerous places.

Praise for Ubuntu:

"Heather Ellis writes about her most daring adventures and deepest struggles with humour, heart, guts and grace. I was enthralled by every page. Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild.

‘Beautifully written and a pleasure to read, 5 stars.’ —Australian Motorcycle News

Heather's was a great adventure into the soul of Africa, a thrilling story of endurance and self-discovery, told with care, intelligence and deep humanity. It is beautifully written and a pleasure to read. So read it.’ —Ted Simon, author of Jupiter’s Travels 

‘The next stage of our evolution is how are we to live together. Through Heather’s motorcycle journey across Africa, and the African people who embrace her, we learn what is possible – this is ubuntu.’ —Father Bob Maguire AM, RFD