TRAVERSE Issue 09 - December 2018 | Page 74

horse lover I had to often ask what the meat dish was. There would be no for- giveness! Our dinners included a pint of ale that was part of the package. Silk Off- Road were more than generous even sharing many bottles of Vodka. After all we were in what were once Soviet states! Very quickly I knew I had chosen well in going with Silk-Off-Road as they are just great guys. Next morning we were loaded into 3 vehicles and taken on a tour of the area including a visit to Medeu speed skating rink which at 1,691mt alti- tude is the highest outdoor rink in the world. Back at our hotel a fleet of DR650’s had been delivered. We set about fit- ting such things as tank bags, phone holders, GPS units, USB adaptors etc. We had also been asked to have off-line map systems installed on our TRAVERSE 74 phones. Just in case we got lost. I had installed a free system called maps.me and was gobsmacked by how well this worked. Maps to cover the 4 countries to be visited were free and my iPhone worked like any GPS system with full voice to turn direction. Anton, the lead rider/mechanic from Silk did such a great job of guid- ing us through cities etc. that nobody was ever lost even momentarily. Wanting a tank bag to carry small