Malta trip on the Versys

[Lozzo]

I finally got round to uploading my photos to flickr. They're boring, all mixed up, in no particular order with no captions yet.

Here ya go, feel free to criticise and rip the p1ss

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58993393@N03/

EDIT - Captions are now done, doesn't make them any more exciting though.

[davepreston]

love the tank bag directions, it may of well said england, france, spain,italy, malta, germany home lol

[rictus01]

Lots of pics of the bike, which is fair enough, but doesn't show the trip that well, so what was the satnav that let you down? and was it fixable or not?

Cheers Mark.

[Lozzo]

The satnav is a Garmin Zumo 550 I've had for about two years and it's very good. I use it with a Scala Rider FM Bluetooth headset, which works very well and can also be linked into my HTC Desire so I can make and receive calls on the move - I do this from time to time depending on how flash I want to appear. The unit itself is fine and still in use every day, but the bike mount has gone phutt. I left the rubber cover that goes over the brass contacts off and it poured down with rain a couple of times. I reckon that's fried it because the mount is wired direct to the battery. I'm going to pull it apart and have a go at a repair before I splash out on a new one.

It is difficult to get decent photos that show your trip when you're mainly just heading from town to town and on your own. There wasn't a great deal to photograph actually out on the road, and certainly nothing I thought "I really must stop and get a photo of that" to be honest, so I settled for a record of my bike in each country I visited and at places that were of some interest, like the Colloseum and Vatican.

[Lozzo]

love the tank bag directions, it may of well said england, france, spain,italy, malta, germany home lol

Add a few more. I went through 13 countries all told on that trip.

[speedplay]

Thanks for sharing Lozzo :)

[Bluefish]

now do a trip report, you lazy git ;) saw the pics with the snow on the mountains and thought they don't have mountains like that in malta, least not when i was there a few years back :rolleyes:

[Lozzo]

How can I do a proper trip report when I didn't actually do anything except ride down, catch a ferry and ride round a bit before catching a ferry and riding back? I visited a few countries, saw a few towns and took a few crappy pictures. It wasn't that exciting like Melody's trips where she goes off road and encounters gorrillas and visits some wonderful places in the middle of nowhere. This was a simple ride the bike for 350 to 500 miles a day and then rest up kind of trip. There wasn't much exploring, just a lot of motorway riding.

I know this is going to sound pretty selfish, but I did this trip for me because I'd been promising myself I'd do it for 32 years and after having 5 kidney operations in the 6 months up to June last year I desperately needed a break from life over here- I wasn't really bothered about taking photos because I'd seen all of Malta and a fair bit of the other places I visted before, and just wanted a record of the countries I visited on this particular bike.

[Bluefish]

ok i'll let you off then, but next time..

[Lozzo]

I'll have to do it all over again, and take proper photos next time.

[Lozzo]

Oh, and by the way. If anyone is thinking of going to Switzerland in summer - be warned, it gets 'kin cold up there in the Alps, even in September. When I rode up the San Bernadino Pass they'd only just reopened the road because it had been snowed in. That doesn't bode well when you're wearing lightweight textile gear and the thermal liners are in the panniers and you can't be bothered to dig them out. I did when I got to the tunnel, because by then it was just too cold.