Dubai to Marbella via the UK (2 of 6)

Relocation – Planning

In May 2000, I relocated from Dubai to Spain, opening up and operating a local branch of the Marine consultancy company I work for in Dubai, based at my home in Marbella and covering Southern Europe. The Dubai office covers the Middle East and sub-continent.

Originally I wanted to ride the bike from Dubai to Spain, via Iran, Turkey, ferry to Italy, France and Spain. However the plan was changed due mainly to me being advised to enter Spain, with a UK (EEC) registered bike, rather than a UAE registered one. So I decided to airfreight it to the UK, I would follow three days later to allow for the bike being cleared.

I planned the trip from Santander in Northern Spain, to my home in Marbella, using an excellent computer program called Microsoft AutoRoute Express 2000 Europe. I entered the campsites and places of interest that I intended visiting and the type of roads that wish to travel on (mountainous / country / secondary roads) and the program calculated the route in a matter of seconds. After studying the calculated route, it was amended as necessary.

Strip maps and driving directions were printed out, these fit in the transparent map case that sits on top of my tank bag. I then took various positions (Latitude and Longitude) from the program and transferred them as waypoints to my Garmen III+ GPS, using another program called GarTrip. During the trip down through Spain, I found that all of the roads with the exception of one, which was more of a cart-track than an actual road, were included on the Garmen’s ‘base map’. The Garmen is mounted on a shelf above the instruments and plugged into the dashboard socket.

I choose the Plymouth to Santander ferry as I wanted to spend the two weeks that it took me hanging around waiting whilst the RT’s registration was processed, visiting haunts I used to frequent years ago when I lived in the South Devon and owned a range of bikes ranging from a BSA Bantam 125 to a Vincent Black Knight, via a Douglas Dragonfly, Sunbeam 500 and Maicoletta.

Fully comp insurance was arranged with ‘green card’ coverage for Spain, from the time that the RT arrived at London. Airfreight insurance being arranged by my Dubai insurers and paid for the refund on the Dubai policy.

Packing/Airfreighting

Dubai is lucky in that it has a freight forwarder which specialises in the transportation of bikes. The owner has a Harley.

I was advised to bring the bike to their warehouse, where I would supervise the crating. I duly turned up with the bike and was shown the base frame that the RT would sit on. Well! It was a used Harley crate, bummed from the local Harley shop. BMW’s have centre and side stands, Harleys only have a side stand, I insisted that the centre stand was used. The base which would form the crate was modified, using a saw, crow bar, large quantities of 4×4 timber and six inch nails. When I complained that this was adding extra weight which I would have to pay freight on, it was explained that air freight was based on cubic weight, not the actual weight of the crate and contents, the RT was well under the cubic weight for the size of the crate. I then rode off to find the nearest filling station and filled the near empty tank, with 27 litres of cheap petrol.

The bike was eventually eased/lifted onto the base, a plywood shell built around it. The crate was measured and the height found to be above the airline maximum. A saw was produced and the RT’s screen removed, the screen by screw driver, the saw being used to ‘trim’ the crate. The crate was then trucked off to the airport, where it was scheduled to fly to London on the evening BA (British Airlines) passenger flight. The BA officials looked at the crate, asked what was in it and demanded that it was opened up for inspection, they were told to ‘get stuffed’ and the bike was flown to the London the following evening by Royal Thai (without the crate being opened). The cost of which was higher than the first class fare, but without the good food and booze being provided.