Long Eaton Biker sells home to fund 4 year ride around world

A DERBYSHIRE biker is preparing to spend the next four years riding solo around the world.

Nigel Swaby will set off on the mammoth journey from his home in Long Eaton, which he has sold to fund the trip, on November 16.

The epic journey will see him travel through Europe, across Africa, through India and Australia, and across South and North America.

After leaving the UK, he will travel 6,000 miles to the southern tip of Africa on his Aprilia Tuareg 600cc motorbike, raising money for charity on the way.

The 55-year-old bachelor said he was looking forward to his life-changing journey.
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He said: "So many people have asked me what I'm most scared of.

"But there is no point in worrying about things that have happened in the past, only what is ahead of you."

Mr Swaby, who has been divorced four times, will travel first from Long Eaton to Plymouth to catch a ferry to Northern Spain.

After riding through Spain, another ferry will take him to Morocco in North Africa.

From there, his trip south will take in the Western Sahara desert, Senegal, the Gambia and other Western African countries, before reaching South Africa three months' later.

On the first stretch of his four-year trip he is trying to raise money for the charity Plan UK, which helps underprivileged children across Africa.

Mr Swaby, a former medical technician, cartographer and milkman, said: "I have literally sold all that I have to make this even remotely possible.

"My beloved BMW bike was sold in auction at the Classic Motorcycle Show, and an abrupt redundancy made the decision very easy – go off around the world before it's too late.

"I needed a reason, other than a selfish one, to do it, so the idea to support Plan UK was hatched."

After a brief stop-over in South Africa, Mr Swaby will then travel north through Uganda, Zimbabwe and Kenya before catching a boat from Mombassa to India.

He estimates it will take a further 1,200 days to complete the rest of the journey.

This will see him motor through the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, South America and North America before returning to the UK in late 2012.

Mr Swaby has been riding motorbikes since he was 21 and said that his only accident was within a few weeks of buying his first bike.

He said: "It was 1975 and I was on a James Captain 197, when I had an unfortunate incident with a Trent Barton bus.

"That left me on crutches for nearly a year, but it didn't put me off riding.

"I have owned more than 50 bikes since then, though."

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