Pelumi Nubi: The first Black woman to drive solo by road from London to Lagos, covering over 10,000 km in 74 days.

Tough Girl Podcast

Pelumi Nubi is a purpose-driven travel content creator and connector who thrives on exploring less commonly visited countries.

Currently living between London and Dubai, she calls both the UK and Nigeria home. Having ventured to over 80 countries across six continents, her engaging content inspires her community to embrace life with fearlessness and embody true freedom.

She is committed to showing that travel can be safe, easy, and achievable, particularly for Black women who want to travel solo.

Pelumi has recently achieved an incredible milestone, becoming the first Black woman to drive solo by road from London to Lagos, covering over 10,000 km in 74 days.

Additionally, she was recently appointed Ambassador of Tourism in Lagos State, Nigeria.

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Show notes

• Who is Pelumi
• Growing up in Nigeria
• Moving to the UK aged 10
• Relocating to Dubai in 2023
• Her passion for travelling
• Being bullied and diagnosed as dyslexia
• Visiting over 80+ countries
• Why travelling can be easy, safe and doable for solo travellers
• Academic life and the end of her PHD
• Pivoting from science to travel
• Her road trip from London to Lagos
• Early travel memories
• Doing a global leaders program and spending time in India
• Is travel/content creation a viable career option?
• Why no knowledge is wasted knowledge
• Using her research background to plan her Lagos trip
• Living her life in chapters
• Deciding to drive to Lagos and how much time to plan for the adventure
• The power of having mentors
• Needing more time to plan and deciding to delay for a year
• Starting 24th January 2024
• Naming her car ‘Lumi’ and the reasons behind the name
• Keeping costs down
• Her route - UK, ferry to France, then Spain, ferry across to Morocco and then down the West coast of Africa
• Putting measures in place to keep herself safe
• Being more excited about the journey, than the fear
• Working on her mindset to keep going, despite the naysayers
• Refusing to read comments and not engaging
• Setting other goals for the journey
• Feeling like a failure after the end of her phd and not getting to be called Dr.
• Needing to do a hard thing
• Wanting to re-write the narrative about how she felt about herself
• Not seeing people who looked like her doing over landing trips
• Wanting to inspire other Black solo explorers to go on an overland trip
• Wanting to show off the beauty of the different countries in Africa
• Wanting to go at a slower pace
• Why it was chaotic on the road
• Daily routines and figuring out where to sleep at night
• Meeting new people and feelings of loneliness
• Why a smile is the universal language
• Africa is not a country
• Riding the Iron-ore train and the reality of what it’s like
• Being a Black woman solo traveller and the differences between travelling in Europe and Africa
• Why you should start local
• People not believing that she was doing the adventure solo
• Sexual harassment while traveling
• How to connect with Pelumi and follow her adventures
• Future travel plans
• NDAs
• Not wanting to play it safe
• Just do it…
• Advice for women who want to get travelling and to make a pivot in their live
• The power of daily habits and why they are so important
• Keep the promises that you make for yourself
• Why the magic is in the doing.

Social Media

Website: www.peluminubi.com/s-projects-side-by-side

Instagram: @pelumi.nubi

Twitter/X: @peluminubi_