Google translate … it’s amazing. There’s no need to learn
a language.”
An openness to share, to exchange is what Heather
thrives on and it often worked well and to her advantage.
“In Kyrgyzstan I wanted to hang out with the nomads,
she laughs again, the fondness of the memory shining
through. “I turned up and saw a yurt on the banks of the
lake and the older boy knew what I’m up to.
“I just want to hang out with them, so I said, ‘I just want
to camp somewhere but I’m afraid the wolves might eat
me’,” laughter rips across the table. “So that gave me an
excuse to be with them. I just wanted to hang out with
them and see how they live their lives.
“After three days, after helping them with day to day
life and the animals they really warmed to me. It was a
really great experience.”
Heather says that it would be the same in an Australian
Aboriginal community. The key is being respectful and
giving a little back, knowing when enough is enough and
when the time to move on has arrived.
“They do say guests and fish do go off after three days,”
she laughs again.
Heather travels are in two parts; the ride out and the
ride back. Very different landscapes, political situations,
people and cultures. This comes across in both books.
Ubuntu has a naivety that a young rider, a young writer
would experience. It’s filled with promise, hope and a
view that can only be described as Ubuntu, let’s see what
happens and go with it. Once you’re in, you’re in and
there’s no wanting out. Through all the trials and tribula-
tions, you’re drawn through to London and the euphoria
of reaching something familiar … then comes the slap!
Where Ubuntu ends Timeless On The Silk Road begins
and the reader is reminded that Heather is facing mor-
tality, her time is limited and perhaps the Silk Road will
be her last great adventure. A diagnosis of HIV meant
Heather faced certain death, at least in her mind, she
didn’t want to become the atypical victim of AIDS and
so begins the journey of discovery along the Silk Road, a
discovery of what it means to be human, to be mortal, to
even be remembered … she wanted an honourable death.
“AIDS was not a respectable death,” Heather explains
with steely resolve. “No! Being shot in the back at the
Tajikistan border would be a respectable death or be-
ing found dead in the desert. You just think who gives a
fuck?”
This is a subject that Heather becomes quite animated
about, there’s a clear passion that the stigma needs to
end that what she went through while travelling Central
Asia should never have happened. She points out that it
was the very early days of the internet and there was little
to no information about HIV / AIDS and available treat-
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