Heather Ellis is an Australian writer, journalist and motorcyclist with more than 40 years of riding experience who rode her Yamaha TT600 enduro motorcycle through Africa, Europe, Central Asia and into China and Vietnam from 1993 to 1997.
The experiences and the lessons I learned on this journey have defined me - defined how I view every part of life..... Heather Ellis
(After the ride through Africa and Central Asia, I arrived home in Australia in September 1997 but the timing wasn't right and I never completed my book. Near death and then life took over: university, career, marriage, babies, separation ...and divorce). As I approach 50, it is time to finish my book - a project born 17 years ago.)
Available: November 2014 (expressions of interest can be emailed via the Contact page)
Latest Blog
Freedom Ride against anti-bike laws
10am on Sunday, 1st December 2013. Ride to the steps of every Paliament House in Australia.
Organised by The Freedom Riders Association of Victoria and supported by the IRG (Independent Riders’ Group).
(A group of Yarra Ranges riders leave Monroe's cafe, Healesville at 9am for Spring Street, Melbourne)
Synopsis
"I travelled the world with the goal of seeing it the way it is: seeing beyond the ‘tourist route’. And like many a traveller before me some innate feeling was pushing me forward, to discover not just what was out there, but also a deeper meaning of myself."
As a young woman of 28 years, I had reached that point in life when I questioned its purpose. It was then that the idea to ride a motorcycle through Africa and beyond was realised.
I had ridden motorcycles since childhood. Even so, embarking on a motorcycle adventure alone was a crazy idea, but I felt inexorably that this was what I was meant to do. It was this inner drive which gave me the courage to follow my dream and not fall victim to doubts, which only breed hesitation and inaction. What are we doing here anyway, spending our lives where today is the same as tomorrow in our quest for more? What have we really got to lose by following our dreams?
I bought a new Yamaha TT600 off-road motorcycle, resigned from my job as a radiation safety technician at a uranium mine in northern Australia and rode down the West Australian coast to Perth to board a cargo ship to South Africa. A work colleague joined me for a few months leaving Africa from Kenya. I rode on alone through Central and North Africa, Europe, Central Asia and back to Australia via China. I got lost in a desert, was befriended by armed bandits, survived London as a motorcycle courier, was arrested in Russia and lived a thousand lifetimes a day.
The hours spent in my helmet all those years ago gave me time to reflect on the good fortune, chance meetings and coincidences which occurred with frequent, almost daily, regularity as I rode through many of the world's most remote and dangerous places.
‘Do thoughts somehow generate vibrations that in turn influence the energy that surrounds us all, paving the way, to achieve our dreams, to live our lives? It is from asking this question that I have always been driven to write my memoir. The experiences of my four year motorcycle ride to many of the world’s most remote and dangerous places are the threads that weave my story together to leave the reader both entertained and inspired to believe in their own dreams and the energy that drives it: to trust in it and to follow their own intuitions.
"As my journey progressed, the many coincidences which I grew to accept as being a natural occurrence of each day, only fed my positive attitude. No harm ever came to me and so I did not expect it to. My intuition, no longer being constrained by conformity, was allowed to develop. I learnt to trust in it, as it never failed me." Heather Ellis
The Ted Simon Foundation encourages those who adventure into the world to go the extra mile and transform their experiences into something of value for the world to share.
Sponsors and Advertising Links:
Tsubaki (sponsor provided 520 Alpha O-Ring motorcycle chains)
Yamaha (sponsor provided some spare parts for my TT600)
Shoei - motocross helmets with visor
