Meet the First Woman to Drive Solo From London to Lagos

She documented her trip on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, and quickly built up a following. Today, with the trip behind her, Nubi has a list of accolades: Lagos tourism ambassador, the first woman to complete the solo drive from London to Lagos, the car she drove is now a museum piece, and there’s a list of more than 80 countries she has visited in her life (not to mention 311,000 followers on Instagram alone).

Photo: Pelumi Nubi

“It’s absolutely changed me in terms of what I believe is possible or not,” Nubi says on the podcast, adding that “you just need to trust yourself because I got a lot of naysayers. I’m traveling solo, I’m Black, and female. It doesn’t get harder than this.”

It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Nubi would take this route in life. She majored in biomedical sciences, and earned a Phd in cancer research and human genetics. But she has always been a curious person — and one interested in breaking stereotypes and boundaries through representation in travel. At university, she would regularly take weekend trips to explore parts of Europe, and later cofounded a publication called The Black Explorer during the height of the pandemic.

Photo: Pelumi Nubi

Nubi’s travels don’t come without difficulties, of course. She recalls on the podcast times when people in Eastern Europe would touch her skin as if they had never seen a Black person before. In Morocco, she was offered a discount on a room if she allowed someone to give her a massage. A 12-hour ride on the notorious mining train in Mauritania dubbed the “Snake of the Desert” had no shortage of scares. She was often met with questions about a husband and why she was alone on her drive to Lagos, because “there’s that expectation that a woman cannot go on adventures,” Nubi says.

There’s no denying that stereotypes and racism affect travelers, no matter the destination. Nubi, however, is helping to change the narrative of who travel is for — whether backpacking, overlanding, or taking a luxury vacation. Though it can be easy to fall into the trap of reading about a place and thinking it’s not for you, Nubi says, the rewards outweigh the negatives.

Photo: Pelumi Nubi

“If you want to do it, do it,” Nubi says. “Travel is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done for myself. It teaches you lessons that cannot be taught in the classroom.”

To hear the full conversation — including Nubi’s tips for solo travel and why everyone should visit Lagos during “Dirty December” — listen to No Fixed Address: The World’s Most Extraordinary People on your favorite listening platform.