Be honest: at some point in your life you’ve definitely thought about going on a road trip somewhere, right?
Whether it’s taking a weekend away to France or a full-blown tour of Route 66, pretty much everybody has at one stage dreamed of hitting the open road with nothing but their wits, their wheels and maybe a handy road atlas.
Still, there’s always a certain few who take things to extremes. Whether it’s climbing to 17,143 feet above sea level in a black cab or getting lost in the desert in an old Citroen, here’s some of the craziest road trip stories of all time.
Bangalore to Paris with the Baid family
Does the idea of a family road-trip set your nerves frazzling? Spare a thought for the Baid family, who earlier this year completed an epic road trip, all the way from Bangalore in their native India to Paris.
Taking in 14,154 miles, 11 countries and more than 50 cities in process, 37-year old Anand Baid and his wife Punita took 111 days to complete the trip, with their two kids Yash and Driti along for the ride.
Calling themselves Team LIFE (Little Indian Family of Explorers), the family decided to take on the challenge after Anand quit his job and his wife had two months of vacation to spare. After a bit of effort persuading their children’s school to let them have extra holidays, they began their trip on April 8th.
Having secured visas for each of the countries they were due to visit, a process which involved exchanging hundreds of emails, the family packed up their Fiat Linea and set off.
Travelling from India to Nepal where they were stuck for five days thanks to an earthquake, they then moved into western China and faced massive sand dunes and winds so strong that their car swayed while driving, Anand says.
From there, they went on to take in the majestic landscape of Kyrgyzstan and visited the Door to Hell natural gas field in Turkmenistan, before travelling onwards to Iran.
According to the family, Iran posed a slight problem; as vegetarians they struggled to find food and had to show pictures of vegetables to Iranian chefs to help them understand, though they mostly cooked their own food on a small stove along the way.
From there, they travelled through Turkey, Greece and Italy, before driving across the Swiss Alps to Spain, and finally arrived in the French capital. Apparently the one-way trip was enough for them, however, as they shipped their car back and instead caught a flight home.
Rally nan’s Trans-America Challenge
The oldest rally car navigator in the world raced almost 6,000 miles across North American back in June this year, at the grand old age of 97.
British-born Dorothy Caldwell travelled through 15 states on the 22-day long trip which encompasses the gruelling Endurance Rally Association’s Trans-America Challenge.
Driven by her son Alastair, himself 72-years old and a former manager of the McLaren Formula One Team, Dorothy travelled in a 1963 Rolls-Royce for the event, which started in Nova Scotia and ended in San Francisco.
As part of the event, the pair stopped off in 19 different places, including Buffalo in New York, Bay City in Michigan and Reno in Nevada, alongside the 45 other rally participants joining them on the road.
Although Dorothy only took part in her first rally four years ago, she’s since driven in the Trans-America Challenge back in 2012, and also joined her son on a rally in Burma.
Despite pushing triple figures, her role as navigator required her to be in a constant state of alert, as the rally route took the vehicles along various difficult routes and over rough terrain.
Alongside looking after the maps, she also had to update the trip meter on the road, but she said that she would only act as a navigator if she was able to do it with her son.
“This will probably be my last big rally,” she said. “The first rally I did with Alastair was in Suffolk in 2011.
“It seemed like quite a simple thing to me, so when he asked if I would navigate for him on the first Trans-America Challenge back in 2012, I said I would.
“I’m the last in my generation now. I’m starting to find it harder. I’m beginning to need glasses for distance, and as I’m in the middle of moving house I think it might be time to ease back a little.”
Still, despite this being her last American rally, she didn’t rule out the possibility of returning to the navigator’s seat, saying that she’ll likely be back for more action in New Zealand, where she currently lives.
The grandmother, who also has ten great-grandchildren was previously a full-time housewife and mother who also sat on school boards before swapping it for the thrill of the rally stages. Here’s hoping we’ll still be racing at that age!
Desert dwelling with the Citroen 2CV
Back in 1958, Citroen wanted to show off the capabilities of its much-loved 2CV, incidentally one of the most badass cars of all time. Fact.
After kicking around a few ideas, the carmaker eventually settled on the concept of a round-the-world trip, which was to be conducted by drivers Jacques Seguela and J.C. Baudot.
The pair set off from Perpignan in France on October 9th, and embarked on a journey which would take them right across Europe, Africa and South America.
By the time they reached the Atacama Desert in Chile, the dinky Tin Snail had already managed its way through a marathon 15,534 miles, but a particularly tricky patch of rough terrain almost spelled disaster.
Halfway through the desert trek, the engine made a crunching sound and the car clattered to a halt. After diagnosing the problem, the drivers found that the oil reservoir had run completely dry, and with nearly 2,000 miles between them and the nearest settlement, things looked pretty grim.
Enter a mysterious Native American, who appeared “suddenly, as if fallen from the sky”, according to the pair’s book, entitled Drive Around the World.
Without saying so much as a word to the pair of bewildered explorers, he took a number of bananas from his bag and then mashed them into the car’s crankcase before continuing on his way.
According to Citroen, the 2CV then reportedly started up again, good as new, and was able to complete the rest of its journey across the Chilean desert on smushed-up banana power alone.
After the expedition, Jacques Seguela went on to co-found one of the largest advertising agencies in the world, RSCG, and to this day he continues to swear that this story is true.
After finishing the desert stretch, the pair went on to complete their trip, successfully completing the first round-the-world tour in a French car, and clocking up a massive 62,137 miles in the process
World’s most extreme taxi tour
Back in 2011, three British friends decided to set a world record for the longest journey ever undertaken by taxi.
The trio, Paul Archer, Johno Ellison and Leigh Purnell, took 15 months to drive their black cab, affectionately named Hannah, across a total of four continents and 50 countries around the globe.
Inspiration came after the lads were on the way home one night after a night out on the tiles, with the trio thinking that they should see whether they could successfully embark on the longest and most expensive taxi journey ever.
As well as taking part in the epic road trip, the three friends also set the record for the highest altitude reached by taxi, having climbed as high as 17,143 feet above sea level when travelling through the Qinghai Province in China.
At the time, Leigh said: “We thought it would be difficult getting on - being in a metal box 24 hours a day, but we've got on really well and stayed really good friends.”
It wasn’t all plain sailing, though, as during their adventure they were arrested in Moscow and Paul ended up getting deported from Iran after being detained by the Iranian Secret Police.
“The most challenging part was the central Asian area - going through Iran, Pakistan and India, and then up through the Himalayas,” he said. “We couldn't get into Pakistan and I got deported from Iran.”
According to a spokeswoman from Guinness World Records, who presented the three with an official record in 2012, the fare they would have clocked up on the meter would total £79,006.80. Luckily, they didn’t have to pay it and instead ended up raising £20,000 for the British Red Cross.
Have you got any hilarious, scary or just downright strange stories from your own trips? Why not share them with us on our Facebook or Twitter pages!
