Albania - land of the T80

What do Norman Wisdom and our continent crosser to be, the Yamaha T80, have in common? If you said they're both dead, you'd be ignoring the glaring great clue in the post title.

Yes, they're both big in Albania (the Yamaha is technically not dead yet).

Some may attempt a joke here and laugh at how highly appropriate it is that Europe's worst country is also home to Europe's worst bike. But that would be to reveal their essential ignorance. To survive in Albania you need to endure a pounding of the sort that the likes of Charles's Peugeot 106 couldn't, as was revealed when we drove through that land of ex-commie mystery last year.

During the Extreme Trifle holiday adventurette we called Car Trek, the Peugeot attempted some off-roading of the like we'll be experiencing on an hourly basis on the way to Siberia and holed his sump approximately 300 metres on the first unsealed road into Albania. Repairs were completed as per the photo, but we didn't again attempt excursions beyond the A-roads.

Now, if we'd had T80s, it would have been a different matter. The locals love them for their ruggedness and their ability to run on fuel blended with liquids more associated for their thirst quenching qualities here in the UK.

Despite going back again in January this year to write a story about the proliferation of petrol stations in Albania (why does no-one believe me on this?), I failed to take a picture of a single one, despite seeing many, but here's another daft moped of the sort that used to infest Italy before they were banned.

And here's a moped pickup being ridden by Xhteptoe's son (that's his dad in the foreground).