Tag Archives: road trip

The Deep Mani

The Deep Mani

I was somewhere north of Sparta when the Monster began to let go of my jaw. As the awful infusion of caffeine and chemicals faded, it was replaced by an enormous fatigue, so as soon as possible I pulled over in the rental car and slept at the dusty roadside...
Game Changer

Game Changer

At first it looks like a storm cloud gathering on the horizon. On a hilltop perhaps 500 yards dead ahead, dust is erupting in the yellow hues of dawn, shafts of early morning light shooting through agitated particles like lasers. These perfect lines are then interrupted by a huge, dark..
The Great Balkan Ride

The Great Balkan Ride

After more than two decades on and off-road Ursula was in bad shape. Her speedometer did not work, nor did her fuel gauge. Ursula’s odometer was stuck on 147,467.8km and nobody knew when it stopped counting. Her air-conditioning worked in theory, but in practise caused the engine to overheat. Her..
The Eire Up There

The Eire Up There

The smashed avo on artisanal sourdough, teased with freshly ground spices and enlivened with hand-squeezed citrus was being well received by my adolescent dinner guests. OK, I would go on to make the exact same thing for dinner the next night and, yes, it was ultimately just discounted avocado on..
The End of Greece

The End of Greece

At the end of the world, I am reluctant to report, there is excellent 3G coverage. Our understanding of the world is a little better – at least in geographical terms – than it was in the age of the ancient Greeks, but for them the Matapan, the southernmost tip..
Pure Electricity

Pure Electricity

They are underpowered. They have poor range. They are slow to charge. So who cares if refuelling is cheap and the world is being saved from the endless grind of fossil fuels? Purely electric vehicles aren’t anything more than glorified milk floats. They aren’t convenient, they aren’t cool, and they’ll..
On The Road

On The Road

Never let anyone tell you otherwise: when it comes to road trips, the US is the best country in the world. People often talk of the size of the country, leaning back on the cliché “everything’s bigger in America”, but you only get a sense of how true that is..