The Dom way round: July 2011

Saturday, 16 July 2011

My bike arrived!

Just a quick message.

My bike arrived yesterday. It only took 5 weeks to fly here from Kenya! So far I haven't had to pay any customs or taxes, but then again I haven't been sent the Carnet yet which I need.

I'm now in the process of "importing" it into the UK. This Thursday it goes for a MSVA test (a sort of pre-MOT test) then an MOT on Friday then Is end all the paperwork off to the DVLA. Hopefully that will onylt ake a couple of weeks to come through, but there are several stages in this and it only takes one hiccup to stop the whole process.

I would love to have it all completed in 2-3 weeks so Tracy and I can, at least, go up to Scotland for a couple of weeks before summer ends and I have to start work (I know I know... this time last year I was just about to set off and now it's almost a distant dream) But then again I'm really lucky to have found a job so I can't complain.

I'll post a few photos and details of what happens with the whole importing thing incase anyone is interested.

Hello

Hi. My name is Dom and in July 2010 I rode a motorcycle (partly) around the world. I started in Alaska and headed for Panama. It took me 6 months and I covered 21,000 miles. I then shipped my bike from Panama to South Africa. I returned to the UK for February and in March 2011 I flew to South Africa. Starting in Cape Town I took three months (and 9,000 miles) to get to Nairobi.

As well as riding a bike I stopped off and did some voluntary work along the way. In Mexico I worked on a turtle rescue project for two weeks and in Costa Rica at a Sloth Sanctuary for three weeks. In Cape Town I taught for three weeks in a Primary school in a township.

In North America my wife, Tracy, came out for three weeks and also joined me for two months in Central America.

I returned to the UK in June 2011. Although I'd kept a blog (obviously) throughout the trip I honestly had no desire to try to write a book. But that changed. Within days of getting home I started writing. Then in Autumn 2011 I found out about The Ted Simon Foundation and applied to be a Jupiter's Traveller. Unbelievably they accepted me and I starting a whole new, and much more frightening, adventure... Trying to write a book about my trip.

'Gone Riding' was published in November 2013. Signed copies are available direct from me at www.domgiles.co.uk. The book is also on Amazon where you can also get the kindle edition. There is lots more information about my trip and the book on my website where you'll find links to my Facebook page and Twitter account.

I now use this blog to write about my current bike trips. In 2013 we went to Scandinavia for the summer and in 2014 we went to Romania. Summer 2015 was spent solo around the Balkans. In July 2016 I went to Poland, the Baltic and Finland.

In the summer of 2017 we went to Northern Spain and France and in 2018 we went to Ireland.

I sold my bike in January 2019!!!