Silk and Siberia

[Taipan]

Surprised he didn't have paper maps and a compass as a back up tbh? Not sure i'd want to be heading into that kinda territory without some sort of back up to electronic gadgets! Anyway, glad he's salvaging something from it and enjoying what he is now doing!

[MyLittleStudPony]

I've done a couple of slightly remote two week trips. And by the end of those I've had enough of my bike and my mates and constantly haggling for stuff.

While going further afield sounds more exotic, it also usually means more open sewers, aggressive begging and biting insects. Some of the places he was talking were probably shitting in a bag territory.

[Taipan]

Surprised he didn't have paper maps and a compass as a back up tbh? Not sure i'd want to be heading into that kinda territory without some sort of back up to electronic gadgets! Anyway, glad he's salvaging something from it and enjoying what he is now doing!

I haven't done much touring but I've done a bit, in the 1990's we had a program on our computer at work that used to do printouts of the route, not pictures, just a list of the roads we'd need to take. We'd print off the main routes and then head off, swapping pages on the tank bag every day, we managed a lot of Europe just like that.

My Wifes Uncle used to get those printed out directions from the AA! We met them at campsite in Spain nd I towed a cravan down there. He gave me a list of towns to head for and I had one of these on the dash so I knew I was heading in the right direction!



Today I have a satnav for my camper which I put the dimensions of it in so it only takes me along suitable roads!

[Mr. Dazzle]

"Print the directions off Mapquest before we leave"

[ChrisW]

Keeping an A-Z in the glovebox!

[Bustaspoke]

Maybe I'm being a bit of a luddite or overcautious,I look on Google Earth & on line maps but I like paper maps so I've never used a Sat Nav,I look at maps before I go & tape the directions to the tank.

[Demannu]

I know it's not quite the same, but did 2 months in eastern Europe 20 years ago with paper maps. Every morning there was a fresh list taped to the steering wheel and off we'd go. City/ town centres could be interesting, but other than that, map and compass were good.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Pfft...I used to deliver Pizza for Domino's with only an A-Z (which didn't even cover my whole patch) for guidance and no option to look at it on the move. Deliveroo riders don't know they're born!

Basically the same thing as riding thousands of miles across Europe and Asia

[Noggin]

Surprised he didn't have paper maps and a compass as a back up tbh? Not sure i'd want to be heading into that kinda territory without some sort of back up to electronic gadgets! Anyway, glad he's salvaging something from it and enjoying what he is now doing!

It wasn't just the satnav - that was a final straw. I'm 100% sure that if everything had gone smoothly until that point, he'd have been perfectly capable of sorting maps and going on!! But when it's the next in a long list of things to knock you, it ends up being the final straw. Hell of a challenge to do that trip in a group, but solo you do need to be sure of things!!

[The Spin Doctor]

I used to know London pretty well when I was despatching... but today, it's changed so much some areas I simply don't recognise.

[Bigjawa]

I used to know London pretty well when I was despatching... but today, it's changed so much some areas I simply don't recognise.

That's me with Belfast and I grew up there.

I live in Ballymena now and couldn't name a single street in it apart from my own, but I know Portrush, Omagh and Cookstown like a local.

You can nearly guarantee a satnav will be outdated by the time the latest map update is available.

[Cousin Jack]

I mostly use a sat nav in a different way. It tells me exactly where I am, and I can use the map on the sat nav to identify the next major towns thst might make it onto roadsigns. My main problems in the back roads of Europe has been knowing where I am.

Works for me, just as long as the signs arent in weird script. I doubt it would work in Asia or the Middle East.

[The Spin Doctor]

I mostly use a sat nav in a different way. It tells me exactly where I am, and I can use the map on the sat nav to identify the next major towns thst might make it onto roadsigns. My main problems in the back roads of Europe has been knowing where I am.

Works for me, just as long as the signs arent in weird script. I doubt it would work in Asia or the Middle East.

That's actually how I used the sat nav back from Sussex earlier today.

When I had a kip, SWMBO took over and followed Waze religiously... took about 90 minutes to do what should have been a 60 min drive back across London. I have no idea why the sat-nag was routing us into the jams but by the time I woke up we were stuck in heavy traffic.

[Count Steer]

I mostly use a sat nav in a different way. It tells me exactly where I am, and I can use the map on the sat nav to identify the next major towns thst might make it onto roadsigns. My main problems in the back roads of Europe has been knowing where I am.

Works for me, just as long as the signs arent in weird script. I doubt it would work in Asia or the Middle East.

My first 'sat nav' was a hand held thing that simply gave you coordinates/map reference because all I needed to know in extremis was where I was on the map. It was not for cars and bikes but was (not really an exaggeration) a bit of a life saver in thick fog on a sticky up bit of the Pyrenees. Maps are but it really helps if you know where you are on one.

[Mr. Dazzle]

My first experiences with GPS (on a boat) were the same...literally lat/long and programmable locations. Took it about 10 mins to find its feet too This was back before the yanks turned down the encryption, so it only worked to +/- 50m or so.

Similarly useful in a proper sudden pea souper out in the Channel!

[Cousin Jack]

I was a latecomer to GPS. I used maps for the first 4 or 5 forrays into Europe on the bike. No problemo, until one day I was heading through the Black Forest en route to Austria. I was early, so started exploring tiny roads and enjoyed a couple of hours just bimbling about. Then I realised that tempus had fugit, and I was long way from the hotel in Austria. Even worse was the fact I had no idea where I was within about 50 miles, and the last 17 signposts had been for obscure villages in Germany. My only map tthat covered the area was a map of Europe, and that didnt help much.
To cut a long story short I tried to keep heading in a direction that I though would pick up a main road, and then had to ride across Switzerland on their Mways, through Zurich in rush hour, to get to the hotel in time for dinner. Next trip I had a sat nav!

[Horse]

Similarly useful in a proper sudden pea souper out in the Channel!

Luxury!

A group of us sailed from Lymington to Cherbourg, before heading off to Alderney.

We set of at 8pm. Dead calm, so motoring rather than sail. At 3am, into fog. We could the engines of ships going through the channel. At one point wven felt its wake. Scary, very.

None of this GPS stuff. We had a compass and an AM radio with a swivelling antenna to get bearings.

We emerged from the fog at 8am, a mile off the Eastern end of the Cherbourg harbour wall.

[Whysub]

I have a rough idea of where many bigger towns are in France, Spain, Germany, Croatia, Bosnia and Austria, I still have no idea where anywhere is in relation to anywhere else in Czechia. All except Brno is East of Prague.

Ridden there and back every year since 2009 (except 2020) and am still no wiser.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I first used a GPS in 1990, it just told you where you were

[MyLittleStudPony]

I'd have been ok without a GPS. But the thing is, I know how to read the land.