One Woman's Solo Journey From London To Lagos: An Interview With Pelumi Nubi

With several thousand kilometers and more than ten countries between them, most travelers transiting from London to Lagos opt for a 6.5-hour plane ride—but Pelumi Nubi isn’t your average traveler. Originally hailing from Nigeria’s largest city and raised in the UK capital, Nubi’s deep affinity for travel led her to launch a truly valiant feat at the end of January 2024: a one-woman road trip spanning from the northern reaches of Europe to the West African coast. While the journey was met with its fair share of obstacles, Nubi reached her destination on April 7th, ultimately cementing her status as the first Black woman to complete a solo road trip from London to Lagos.

For Forbes, Nubi shares some of her toughest challenges and fondest memories throughout the journey, all while highlighting some of her favorite destinations across West Africa.

What first inspired you to take this trip, and what did you have to do to prepare for it?

The inspiration was really for me to connect to places that I considered home. I was born in Lagos and grew up in London in the UK and I’ve always enjoyed exploring, I’ve been to over 80 countries. I really was trying to connect my two homes, London and Lagos. I found there wasn’t enough representation between the overlapped community of people that looked like me and their stories being shared.

I wanted to challenge myself to do something adventurous and show that the impossible can be done, to inspire the next adventurers and inspire some representation in the overland community.

How did people initially react when you told them that you were driving from London to Lagos?

My close family members were very familiar with me doing this kind of adventure. I had driven across Namibia, and also from London to Lake Como, so they weren’t surprised. But strangers were saying it was impossible, that I was crazy. They were mostly curious as to how I would actually do it, so documenting on social media was important to show the step-by-step of how to do it.

What’s the biggest challenge that you faced during the trip?

Being a woman doing this solo, as this kind of exhibition usually has something behind it. Usually when people do this they’ll have a chef, a medic and a whole team behind them. I had to wear this cap the whole time and also be active on social media as well. It was definitely challenging navigating these numerous roads.

But the biggest, biggest challenge for me was being in an almost fatal accident. I had a collision with a truck that had no warning signal, the airbags came out and I thought I was going to be badly hurt. No one wants to have an accident, period, but talking about having an accident where you don’t speak the language and you’re far from home and medical facilities aren’t what you’re used to, it was definitely layered. Having to deal with doing this expedition that a lot of people were invested in and having to pull myself up from such a negative situation and turn it into something positive, I’d say that was a very big challenge.

The border issue was definitely a challenge, especially going more into West Africa. For example, in Liberia I had to sleep there for two days, I was just feeling like it was getting more and more difficult to travel through Africa. I was feeling frustration as someone that was born within the continent being able to fully travel in other places and not feeling much resistance, but coming back home and feeling such a big resistance, that was definitely a bitter pill to swallow. This has been pushing me and motivating me to look into policy change, especially with my new role as Ambassador of Tourism within Lagos State in Nigeria. How can we make our borders better? How can we make a smoother journey for people? How can we make tourism and trade easier between Pan-Africa, really?

What’s one of your most cherished moments that you look back on now after your trip?

The experience of leaving home and the excitement of putting something that I’ve wanted to do for so long. This took over a year of planning to bring it to life.

From driving through the Atlas Mountains to being in total awe of driving through the Sahara Desert to driving through Mauritania (a place that isn’t often explored) to trying Senegalese food and being obsessed with it to enjoying the beach in The Gambia. Back-to-back memories. And being welcomed back home, to have my homecoming received with such grace back in my home country.

Of all the countries that you visited across West Africa, which would you recommend visiting for someone that’s never been to that part of the world?

That’s hard! Of course I’m going to say Nigeria, I’m definitely biased to that. The next I would say is… Sierra Leone. There was just something special about that place. The food was amazing, the culture was amazing, the vibes of it. I spent most of my time in Freetown, it has a lot of similarities to Lagos. Sierra Leone is a place with a nice mix of all of West Africa.

As a Lagos Tourism Ambassador, what are some top activities that you recommend for first-time visitors to the city?

For first-time visitors, definitely experiencing the nightlife in Lagos. People come down in December just to really get into the parties, they’ll go until 5:00 AM. Lagos has a lot of hotspots in terms of where to go and what to do.

Another place I absolutely recommend is La Campagne. Lagos can be kind of hustle and bustle, so if you want to organize a nice weekend away, it’s still in Lagos but has a nice resort kind of vibe. If you want to see the city itself, you can go to Nike Art Gallery, the Danfo resto for cultural food. You can try agege bread with beans inside of it, there’s so much, the list just goes on.

Now that you’ve completed your journey, what’s the next road trip that you’d like to go on?

Lagos to South Africa, I would love to explore regions that I’ve never been to before. But something different, maybe the American Route 66. I would love something like that. But if I’m sticking to the continent, definitely Lagos to South Africa.