On the road to adventure

The road trip is perhaps the most glorified and popularised form of exploration, and today is still the most liberating method of travel.

A long journey through unknown territory holds its appeal to the adventurous and the curious. In its most extreme form, however, the road trip can be lethal. For example, the Paris-Dakar rally claimed around sixty lives over its 29-year history, including its founder, yet each year drew hundreds of people to travel through one of the most hostile territories in Africa.

Within popular culture, ‘The Road Trip’ is an exciting narrative device repeatedly revisited. Oz, The Hobbit and Star Trek, films all released in the past year, draw on various aspects of ‘The Road Trip’. Meanwhile, popular literature ranging from Kerouac’s infamous ‘On the Road’ to Auster’s postmodern ‘The Music of Chance’ utilise the road trip as a literary device to explore liberation and as a metaphor for self-exploration.

So what drives such madness, and how can it be found today, on perhaps a less intense scale?

The most convenient method for those short of time but with a little extra cash in their pocket are the companies set up to provide a hassle-free experience. One such company, ‘Wicked’, is the perfect picture of ‘cool’; the swearing, advocating of weed and sexual innuendo on their website alone makes their target audience quite clear, and they are excellent at what they do.

Now a global company, they hire out everything from cars to vans, all customised for roadside kips and painted in eye catching, humorous slogans designed to make old people tut. Helpfully, it is usually possible to drive your vehicle from A to B and drop it off at a different depot, thereby saving yourself the hassle of driving it back, or having to sell it for your plane ticket home.

Of course, all these conveniences come at a cost, which really rules out a long trip.What’s more, you are limited to certain roads and I personally think you lose out on the enjoyment of buying and doing up your own dreadful car.

All of which leads me to the next option: buying your own banger.

Firstly, and I can speak from experience, this option is a gamble. Security and reliability are not really as guaranteed as they are with hiring. Any car you find within your price range is likely to be dodgy at best, and a few wheels short at worst!

It will probably break down, steer in strange directions, make unsettling noises and, just to top it all off, you’ll no doubt be buying it at a hugely inflated price by a two-faced, butter-wouldn’t-melt, novel-accent-wielding arse.

Sensing some resentment? You shouldn’t, because I would far rather have faced all this than played the easy game. My friend and I looked around and found a station wagon with no suspension, about two inches of clearance from the ground, and with what looked suspiciously like oil building up under the bonnet.

A good buy I’m sure you’ll agree, especially when we then decided the best option would be to drive it through the outback of Australia on dirt tracks and single tarmac roads. There’s nothing quite like making a phonecall to your dad at 3am that starts, ‘The car’s broken down, and we’re on top of a volcano.’

Needless to say, three months later all I was left with was £60 from the scrap-yard and a slightly dusty number plate. We lost the gamble, and ended up losing money, but we were slightly foolish. There are many people who are a bit more careful and end up selling their car for what they paid, or even a profit.

Despite losing money though, the car paid for itself in accommodation and transport and it is hard to feel bad given that it came with three months of unlimited freedom.

For all those who think this is still a bit tame, the ultimate road trip at an amateur level comes in the form of the Mongol Rally. Held annually, this is a charity event hosted by ‘The Adventurists’, a group running a variety of road trip challenges.

The Mongol Rally challenge is to buy a car with an engine size of less than 1 litre, apply some suitably witty additions according to your own creative flair, before driving it from England to Mongolia, over 10,000 miles away. There is no set route, just a destination, and people travel through the entirety of Europe, followed by Russia, then even Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the other end, you leave your car (if it makes it!) with the charity and fly home after an unforgettable drive halfway across the globe.

As a true lover of the famous road trip, the Mongol Rally is certainly going on my list. The only question that remains is which vehicle to take on the challenge in!