The Dom way round: 2016

Monday, 29 August 2016

I set up this blog in 2010 to record my 'round the world' motorcycle trip. In 2010 and 2011 I travelled from Alaska to Panama and then South Africa to Kenya. Mainly on my own but my wife came out for some of it. I also did some volunteering along the way.

That blog evolved into a book - Gone Riding, which is available in Kindle form here

Since returning to the UK I have spent my summers exploring Europe by bike. (Norway and Sweden 2013; Romania 2014; The Balkans 2015; Poland, The Baltic and Finland 2016; Pyrenees and France 2017; Ireland 2018)

My bike has now done 112,000 miles - 68,000 of it with me. We've been to over 60 countries.

I sold my bike in January 2019.

I now no longer post regularly on here, using my Gone Riding Facebook page instead.

So, please use the links to get a copy of my book and/or take a look at the facebook page. You can, of course, search through this blog to see the 'raw data' of my trip and lots and lots of photos!

Ride safe and explore.

Dom

Thursday, 14 July 2016

Here comes the summer...

In two weeks time I'll be off on my annual bike trip. The map shows where I've been for the last three summers - this year it's the Baltic. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Kaliningrad (hopefully).

Tracy will fly out to Riga and back from Helsinki. If she's lucky I'll pick her up and take her, otherwise it's a hell of a walk!

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Out for a ride in the Midlands, late April. Starting to plan my summer trip. - The Baltic this year!

Saturday, 20 February 2016

Often people ask me how sales of my book are going. I'm not quite sure what they mean by this (numbers or responses?) but for me it's clear. I didn't write a book to make money or sell huge numbers. I wrote it to encourage others to follow their dreams.

EVERY time I get a response like the one below I feel proud to have written GONE RIDING

Thanks Sunit.

Posted on Amazon.com on my birthday.

Of all the motorcycle touring adventure ever written... This one is by far the most brilliantly narrated... Much much better than Ted Simon books or the other guys... Entirely from my perspective are my opinions

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!!!