Every trip starts
as a bad idea.
Nobody plans a shenanigan. You say yes to the wrong vehicle, point it somewhere ambitious, and let the borders do the rest. Below: every leg of the journey — the done, the active, and the frankly inadvisable. The dotted line is the route. Follow it down.
The Arctic Trek
Eleven countries in eleven days — October 2024, an RS Garage production: a Volvo XC90 in full livery, roof tent up top, pointed north into the kind of cold that makes car doors argue with you. The maths was brutal — a border a day, give or take, on a schedule with zero room for a bad morning. The Volvo did what Volvos do: complained in every language we drove through, quit in none of them. Eleven for eleven. That car owes me nothing.
66.5436° N 25.8470° EFR-001 · NAPAPIIRI
BORDER No. 2. OR MAYBE 3.FR-002 · ISO 400
48.2077° N 16.3672° EFR-011 · KM ZERO
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE DANUBEFR-012 · ISO 400
FLAGS: MORE THAN MEFR-013 · ISO 400
The €20 Bike
Vienna to Budapest on a bike that cost twenty euros. Not a good bike. Not a fast bike. A bike with a basket, whose entire value proposition was "probably makes it." Two capitals, one Danube, 575 kilometres in five days — on a price tag lower than most people's lunch. Every kilometre it didn't fall apart felt like winning an argument with physics. It made it. Obviously it made it. The wrong vehicle always wins — proved again, June 2025.
The Family Airlift
A month in Asia with the kids. Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, back to Thailand — nine flights in four weeks, a logistics operation disguised as a holiday. Different rules with the crew on board, same philosophy: keep moving, say yes, sort it out at the gate. Best month of the year, no contest.
21.0347° N 105.8563° EFR-021 · TA HIEN
RED DUST COUNTRYFR-022 · ISO 51
CHECK-IN: EXTENDED FAMILYFR-023 · ISO 400
The Island Lap
Two weeks in Sri Lanka, the whole way round. No base camp, no repeats — keep moving until the island runs out. An entire country lapped properly, edge to edge. Some of it, fittingly, by tuktuk.
7.9570° N 80.7603° EFR-026 · SIGIRIYA
TUKTUK RESEARCH: ACCIDENTALFR-027 · ISO 400
The Six-Week Drift
Six weeks back in Asia: Thailand into Laos, north to Chiang Rai, out to Phu Quoc, landing in Bangkok. Long enough to stop being a tourist. And waiting on the other side of it — the States.
The States Run
Boston to LA, the wrong way round — out through Vegas, up to Napa, down into Los Angeles. Four of us, and the vehicle doesn't exist yet, because that's the format: we land in Vegas with $1,000 each, and whatever the tables leave us with buys the car. Win big, cross America in something ridiculous. Lose big, cross it anyway in something worse. Side quests mandatory. The wrong vehicle always wins — this time the house picks it.
36.1126° N 115.1767° WFR-031 · RECON
34.0522° N 118.2437° WFR-032 · RECON
The Next Wrong Idea
Nothing about this leg is real yet — that's why it's in pencil. The frontrunner: monkey bikes across Mongolia, next July. Unconfirmed, but I've spoken to someone about it, which by my standards is practically a signed contract. The longshot: a tuktuk from Vietnam to France via every tea region on earth — not planned, not even slightly, still the right kind of stupid. And lurking behind both: Arctic Trek 2 — Norway is still unstamped, and that feels like unfinished business. One of these happens. Possibly none. Possibly all three.
SOURCE: THE GUY I SPOKE TOFR-041 · BORROWED
GROUND CLEARANCE: BRIEFLY INFINITEFR-042 · BORROWED
Ground covered — 40 countries
Still counting.
Every pin is a story — a border queue, a breakdown, a meal that changed my mind about an entire country. Some pins came easy. Eleven of them came in eleven days, in a Volvo that had no business finishing. This isn't a trophy wall. It's a to-do list with the easy bits crossed off.
Come along on
the next one.
Every border is a chapter. This one's still being written.
Every trip so far has been mine — my bad ideas, my border small-talk, my roadside repairs. That's already changing: the States Run boards with a full car of mates. More seats will follow — co-drivers, camera hands, navigators, anyone whose first reaction to "monkey bikes across Mongolia" is "when do we leave." No promises of comfort, ever.
What pays
for the fuel.
The ventures. They cover the diesel, the visas, and the inevitable recovery truck — so the shenanigans don't have to.