Linux networking is driving me insane

Can anyone tell me what is wrong with this:

# ip route add 192.168.7.7 via 10.1.1.1
RTNETLINK answers: Network is unreachable

I want to route packets to a specific address to a specific gateway. I don't care if either of these addresses are known. As long as they are valid addresses attempt this route.

Linux routing (at least using the ip command) seems to love to second guess what you want. If it thinks it knows better then it damn well tell me why it can't do this. "RTNETLINK answers: Network is unreachable" is not an acceptable error.