Vespa World(?) Tour 1991-1992

Day ?? - Spain

1991-11-26T00:00:00.000Z

...

Paul: I decided to go Spanish style and ride without a helmet like all the locals were. As we were riding down the road a motorcycle cop passed us, I chickened out going further and put my helmet back on.

Unfortunately the cop sensed some easy money and turned around, pulled us up and fined me. The bastard waved at locals riding by without helmets while dishing out the ticket. The fine was 80 quid... government sanctioned highway robbery!

No Helmet Fine

Day 2 + 3 – Paris

1991-11-20T05:39:00.000Z

The next day we road into Paris and located a campsite. We have not learned more than a few words of French, so resorted to eating at petrol stations and McDonald’s were we knew what was edible (well fairly edible anyway). So our first real French words were "Shake Chocolate" and "Grande Frites".

Trying to find directions to the Eiffel Tower

Sunny Paris from the Eiffel Tower

Versailles

We did some of the touristy things, like go up the Eiffel tower, see Versailles and the Louvre. It was so cold that it was only in the Louvre that we got feeling back to our limbs.

We managed to speak to one scooter rider on a Vespa 90 with a huge windscreen. He liked BA’s scooter (being a 200) and took it for a ride. We sat at the side of the road thinking, he has BA’s 200 and BA now has a 90, hmmm, not looking good. The guy came back so BA didn’t have to complete the journey a bit slower.

French Scooter

The temperature was so cold that we sleep the nights in the campsite in all our clothes, including wet weather gear. BA even slept in his helmet. We did our best to get warm in the campsite TV room and got really drunk to help keep out the cold, but it was pretty miserable. At least from now on we were heading south to warmer temperatures.

Day 1 - Farmers Field, France

1991-11-18T05:07:00.000Z

22,451 miles on the clock to start with

Day 1 involved, getting up, getting fuel (and taking a photo of the odometer) and then finding our way to Dover. It was all a bit of a headspin, heading off into the unknown is like that and part of the fun.

We took the ferry from Dover and headed towards Paris. The first thing we learnt was how to avoid the toll roads. The second thing we learnt was everywhere was freezing. We drove till we got tired and then pitched our tents in a farmer's field at the side of the road. I had an army surplus sleeping bag, it was supposed to be waterproof but ended up being slightly warmer than sleeping in a plastic bin liner!

Pre-Planning

1991-11-10T10:38:00.000Z

The first thing that we found was that paperwork was the hardest part of planning a trip such as we wanted to do. Luckily we managed to find an official travel agents book which was not sold to the general public. We had to go to the publisher’s office to pick it up and they informed us that if we took an interesting photo with it, that they could use for promotion, then we might get some payment (most likely a free book). The book was fantastic, with info on every country in the world but was the size of a large telephone book!

We then proceeded to get all the visas and vehicle paperwork that we could. BA couldn’t get a visa for Algeria (because Britain wouldn’t give visas to Algerians). I lucked out on green card insurance for Morocco. We couldn’t afford carnets for the scooters for Egypt. Getting us and scooter through Iran/Iraq/Saudi and lots of other countries was near impossible. By the time we were ready to go, we had decided that we had to play it by ear for a lot of things. I had almost enough paperwork to get me to Greece, so our plan was to go that way via North Africa. Once in Greece I was going to grab a boat (because it was big port) and see what country I could get so I could carry on the journey (most likely India). Since we were leaving in Winter the plan was to go South as quickly as possible.

Other planning was getting jabs and other equipment. We ended up spending 60 quid on a first aid kit, which the headache tablets were used almost immediately after a hard night of celebrating before we were leaving. At the same time as getting the kit, we had our jabs. We both weren’t expecting this straight away and BA had the embarrassment of baring is bum through Christmas tree underwear while the nurse gave him a jab.

Last minute scooter maintenance

1991-11-03T13:09:00.000Z

R.Agius Scooters kindly did a bit of servicing for me and gave me free oil and tubes in exchange for handing out business cards as we went. However, being a 260 quid scooter and having been ridden all over the UK already, it needed a bit extra. New tyres and bolt tighten etc was in order…

Pulling scooter to bits on the rear lawn of the squat.

Setting the scene - 1991

1991-11-01T12:11:00.002Z

This story starts in 1991. Although I now live in Australia, I am originally from New Zealand (but I am alright now). I made my way to the UK and had the big "Overseas Scooter Experience". For those that aren't aware, the scooter scene in the UK is huge, below is a picture from my first rally, 3000 scooters and about 5000 people...

National Scooter Run - Margate

I did a complete rally season, touring all over the UK and having lots of fun as part of the W.C.D.O.A.N.S.C. (We Can't Decide On A Name Scooter Club).

Exploring the UK Scooter Run by Scooter Run

W.C.D.O.A.N.S.C. was a fantastic club and they are still my close friends till this day. In fact in 1991 Niall was the one that organised buying a scooter for me because I was working 80 hours a week! Later in 2005, Niall (retrospectivescooters) did the same again for my honeymoon tour because I was in Australia.

Niall - (Now Retrospective Scooters)

Although my UK/Irish friends and embarassing photos are many, another name worth mentioning is BA. BA was up for some scootering touring to, so we set off on this adventure together.

BA and Denise on the way to a run