Few things feel as good as packing just the essentials, getting into a car with a friend or two, and setting off on a long roadtrip – preferably with an itinerary that hasn’t been fixed beforehand or at least one that’s reasonably flexible. And one that necessitates the crossing of countries or, for those who’re really lucky, perhaps even continents. And for those who might be wondering, it’s not as much about that car you do the journey in, as much as it is about the journey itself – the desire to explore new places, meet people, experiment with new kinds of food, try speaking a new language (even if it’s only a few words!) and experience new cultures. It’s about getting away from the daily grind, roughing it out occasionally (or frequently, if that’s what floats your boat) and living an adventure of your own making. With the best roadtrips, the journey is indeed the destination. But what if you can’t drop everything at a moment’s notice, climb into a car and drive off into the sunset? As always, there’s books to the rescue. Here’s a list of books we recommend you read if you love motoring roadtrips.
Drive Nacho Drive: A Journey from the American Dream to the End of the World, by Sheena Van Orden and Brad Van Orden
‘On an afternoon just like many before it, Brad Van Orden sat at his desk. When a coworker meandered past his window, Brad succumbed to an impulse and blurted out the most outlandish thing he could think of: ‘Hey Steve, let’s drive your hippie bus to Tierra del Fuego.’ This prompted Steve’s halfhearted response: ‘I don’t think so.’ But this got Brad thinking. What if we just dropped everything and left? Isn’t there more to life than this? He messaged his wife with a question: ‘Want to do this?’ to which she immediately responded: ‘Yes!’ They clearly had no idea what they were getting themselves into. Drive Nacho Drive tells the hilarious and sometimes harrowing story of what happens when Brad and Sheena Van Orden trade in the American dream for a year on the roads of Central and South America aboard ‘Nacho,’ their quirky and somewhat temperamental Volkswagen van,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘As a result of questionable decision-making skills and intermittent bad luck, Brad and Sheena repeatedly find themselves in over their heads. Whether negotiating cliff-hanging roads in rebel territory, getting caught illegally smuggling a transmission in a suitcase over international lines, mounting a stealth mission to steal Nacho back from a deranged Colombian auto-dismantler, or clinging to the side of a vegetable truck while descending a 16,000-foot Andean pass, there seems to be no limit to the predicaments that these two can get themselves into. The Van Ordens deliver a thoughtful, hilarious, and mouthwatering depiction of adventure and misadventure on the Pan-American highway, one that will leave you simultaneously shaking your head and holding your sides, while asking yourself, isn’t there more to life than this?’ it adds.
‘With each passing year, our lives bore a closer and closer resemblance to the ever-promoted American Dream. We were both working professionals, the living was easy, and we were occupying a relatively nice house with four bedrooms,’ the authors say, adding that at one point, they began to feel the need to shake things up, the need for a bit of adventure, the need to make things a bit more interesting. They briefly toyed with the idea of moving from the US to Germany, but as things turned out, they just settled for an around-the-world trip. ‘We decided we would buy a Volkswagen camper van, save a bunch of money and drive around the world. We would call the van Ignacio because Ignacio is a dignified name and because every old and beloved vehicle deserves a name. It would be ‘Nacho’ for short. We scribbled out a savings plan and set the wheels in motion. We wanted to be damn sure that we weren’t wishing our lives away,’ they say.
Get your copy of Drive Nacho Drive
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 314 / 316
Price: Rs 1,548 / Rs 353
Available on: Amazon
927 Days of Summer: Around the World in a VW Van, by Sheena Van Orden and Brad Van Orden
This is part-2 of Drive Nacho Drive. ‘In their book Drive Nacho Drive, Brad and Sheena Van Orden traded the American Dream for the open road, and set off in their temperamental 1984 VW van named ‘Nacho.’ After thirteen months of humorous and sometimes demoralising misadventures along the Pan-American Highway, our intrepid subjects eventually arrived at the southernmost town in the world in Tierra del Fuego. This is where 927 Days of Summer picks up the trail. After shipping Nacho from Argentina to Malaysia on a container ship, Brad and Sheena resume their journey, this time with the ambitious goal of driving all the way around the world. When they roll out of the shipping container onto Malaysian soil, their odometer turns over 300,000 miles. Is Nacho really up for the brutal journey ahead?’ says the publisher’s note.
‘This hilarious, and often harrowing tale follows them through the sweltering jungles of Southeast Asia, the buzzing hornet’s nest of India, into the remote Nepalese Himalayas, through the stony hills of Anatolia to the Sahara Desert in Africa, through Europe and beyond. Whether dodging rickshaws on crater-filled roads, defying Maoist rebels on cliff-hanging Himalayan tracks, getting hopelessly stuck in the desert on the Pakistani border, or becoming the subjects of an international missing person’s case in the remote mountains of Laos, there is never a dull moment in 927 Days of Summer. Come along as a diverse cast of characters guides our subjects through a world of unfolding landscapes and cultures on the road trip to end all road trips, and then ask yourself: can you really just go home, unpack, and eat a sandwich?’ it adds.
‘Our original, hare-brained plan, hatched spontaneously over dinner one night, was to drive from our home in Arizona to the Southern tip of Tierra Del Fuego, the farthest South that it is possible to drive in the world. After that we would ship Nacho to Asia – the hard part – and then slowly work our way around to Europe. Of Asia we were ignorant, having neither experience nor preconceived notion. The land beyond the Pacific, an unfathomably faraway place… the possibility of adventure was endless. We had recognised that the most worthwhile experiences were borne of struggle and vulnerability. The real adventure begins at wit’s end, as it were,’ the authors say.
Get your copy of 927 Days of Summer
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 450 / 450
Price: Rs 1,755 / Rs 441
Available on: Amazon
Kindness of Strangers: Penniless across America, by Mike McIntyre
‘What would you do if you had to journey penniless across America, depending only on the kindness of those you met along the way? If you’re Mike McIntyre, you might meet a biker-turned-minister who shares faith, food, and self-defense tips with a stranger on the road. A lady firefighter who used to be a man. A lonely woman who offers a place to spend the night, and in the morning feels the loss of yet another man who leaves her. Stuck in a job he no longer found fulfilling, journalist Mike McIntyre felt his life was quickly passing him by. So, one day he hit the road to trek from one end of the country to the other with little more than the clothes on his back and without a single penny in his pocket. Through his travels, he found varying degrees of kindness in strangers from all walks of life and discovered more about people and values and life on the road in America than he’d ever thought possible. The gifts of food and shelter he received along the way were outweighed only by the touching gifts of the heart, the willingness of many he met to welcome a lonely stranger into their homes, and the discovery that sometimes those who give the most are the ones with the least to spare,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘My head throbs from heat and hunger as I wilt on the side of a country road in Northern California. I’m out of water. I don’t have two dimes to rub together, let alone a lucky penny. I ate my last meal two nights ago, in a dream. The summer sun roasts my face. I feel like I’m hitchhiking inside an oven. My baseball cap would bring relief but I leave it in my backpack, giving drivers a clear look at my eyes. No matter. Nobody stops. And who can fault them? It’s 1994. This is America. Land of the free and home of the serial killer,’ the author says in chapter one, hopefully giving you some idea of how it might be to hitchhike across the USA, with no money, relying on the kindness of strangers alone. It’s a motoring roadtrip alright; just one undertaken in other people’s cars. Nothing wrong with that, we suppose, and it makes one heck of a story.
Get your copy of Kindness of Strangers: Penniless across America
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 246 / 261
Price: Rs 2,586 / Rs 358
Available on: Amazon
The Long Haul – A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road, by Finn Murphy
‘A long-haul mover’s rollicking account of life out on the Big Slab. More than thirty years ago, Finn Murphy dropped out of college to become a long-haul trucker. Since then, he’s covered more than a million miles packing, loading, and hauling people’s belongings all over America. Known by his trucker handle as U-Turn, he spends his days, and many of his nights, in a 53-foot eighteen-wheeler he calls Cassidy. In The Long Haul, Murphy offers a trucker’s-eye view of America on the move. Going far beyond the myth of the American road trip, he whisks readers down the I-95, across the Florida Everglades, in and out of the truck stops of the Midwest, and through the steep grades of the Rocky Mountains. As he criss-crosses the country, Murphy recounts with wit, candour, and charm the America he has seen change over the decades, from the hollowing-out of small towns to changing tastes in culture and home furnishings,’ says the publisher’s not.
‘Some 40 million Americans move each year, and very few have any idea what they’re getting into or the kind of person to whom they are relinquishing their worldly goods. The Long Haul is also a behind-the-scenes look at the moving industry, revealing what really happens when we call in the movers. Through it all, Murphy tells poignant, funny, and often haunting stories of the people he encounters on the job: a feisty hoarder in New Hampshire; a Virginia homeowner raging when Murphy’s truck accidentally runs down a stand of trees; an ex-banker in Colorado who treats Finn and his crew with undisguised contempt; a widow who needs Murphy to bring her archaeologist husband’s remains and relics to a Navajo burial ceremony in New Mexico. These experiences inspire Finn’s memorable reflections on work, class, and the bonds we form with the things we own and the places we live. Brimming with personality and filled with great characters, The Long Haul is a resonant portrait of the enduring appeal of manual labour in the dark underbelly of the American Dream,’ it adds.
‘To the casual observer, all trucks probably look similar, and I suppose people figure all truckers do pretty much the same job. Neither is true. There’s a strict hierarchy of drivers, depending on what they haul and how they’re paid. The most common are the freighthaulers. They are the guys who pull trailers with any kind of commodity inside. We movers are called bedbuggers and our trucks are called roach coaches. Bedbuggers are shunned by other truckers,’ the author says, pointing out that he particularly doesn’t fit in, as he doesn’t wear a cowboy hat, snakeskin boots or a belt with the Harley-Davidson logo on it. ‘I’m not from the South and don’t talk as if I were. I do not for a moment think I’m a symbol of some bygone ideal of the Wild West American freedom or any other half-mythic, half-menacing nugget of folk nonsense. I will admit to being immensely proud of my truck-driving skills, the real freedom I do have and the certain knowledge that I make more money in a month than many of the guys around the coffee counter make in a year,’ he adds. Hey, whoever said you need a car to write a memorable roadtrip book? A truck will do just fine, too.
Get your copy of The Long Haul – A Trucker’s Tales of Life on the Road
Format: Paperback / Hardcover
Number of Pages: 256 / 256
Price: Rs 1,242 / Rs 2,116
Available on: Amazon
The Lost Continent, by Bill Bryson
‘As soon as Bill Bryson was old enough, he left. Des Moines couldn’t hold him, but it did lure him back. After ten years in England, he returned to the land of his youth, and drove almost 14,000 miles in search of a mythical small town called Amalgam, the kind of trim and sunny place where the films of his youth were set. Instead, his search led him to Anywhere, USA; a lookalike strip of gas stations, motels and hamburger outlets populated by lookalike people with a penchant for synthetic fibres. He discovered a continent that was doubly lost; lost to itself because blighted by greed, pollution, mobile homes and television; lost to him because he had become a stranger in his own land,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘Bryson’s acclaimed first success, The Lost Continent is a classic of travel literature – hilariously, stomach-achingly, funny, yet tinged with heartache – and the book that first staked his claim as the most beloved writer of his generation,’ it adds.
‘I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to,’ says the inimitable Mr Bryson. ‘When you come from Des Moines, you either accept the fact without question and settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there for ever and ever. Or, you spend your adolescence moaning at length about what a dump it is and how you can’t wait to get out, and then you settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there for ever and ever. Hardly anyone ever leaves,’ says Bill, who did of course manage to leave but then who came back and wrote a book about it. Bryson isn’t always politically correct (here’s one example: ‘Iowa women are almost always sensationally overweight – clammy and meaty in their shorts and halter tops, looking a little like elephants dressed in children’s clothes…’) and his writing can occasionally be a bit offensive, but it’s also very entertaining. Highly recommended.
Get your copy of The Lost Continent
Format: Paperback / Hardcover / Kindle
Number of Pages: 384 / 512 / 354
Price: Rs 349 / Rs 1,895 / Rs 309
Available on: Amazon
Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America, by George Mahood
‘Two Brits, George and Mark, set off from New York City to explore the back roads of America. In this calamity-ridden travel tale, George sets out in true clichéd fashion to discover the real America. Throw in plenty of run-ins with the police, rapidly dwindling finances and Josephine – the worst car in the world – and you have all the ingredients for a classic American road trip. And then there is Rachel, George’s girlfriend, left back in England. Would travelling to the United States without her turn out to be the stupidest decision he had ever made? Will George and Mark make it all the way to California?’ says the publisher’s note.
‘We had it all planned out. My friend Mark and I had plane tickets booked for New York. We would buy a cheap second-hand car and set off on a roadtrip for 6-9 months, driving every inch of the United States. We wanted to explore the parts of America no buses, trains or tour groups stopped at. We wanted to visit the America you don’t see in sit-coms. We wanted to see the real America,’ the author says. Sounds like a fair plan but you know what they say about the best-laid plans and how they often tend to go awry. A cracking account of a trip across the US. In a used car – a 1989 Dodge Caravan – that cost all of $850. It’s the journey that matters, right…?
Get your copy of Not Tonight, Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small-Town America
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 370 / 371
Price: Rs 1,473 / Rs 414
Available on: Amazon
A Trucker’s Tale: Wit, Wisdom, and True Stories from 60 Years on the Road, by Ed Miller
‘They say that only truck drivers experience the true grandeur and landscape of America: The winding mountainsides at sunrise, the first frosts of winter descending on apple orchards, the call of the rising roosters. In A Trucker’s Tale, Ed Miller gives an inside look at the allure of the work and the colourful characters who haul our goods on the open road. He shares what it was like to grow up in a boisterous trucking family, his experience as an equipment officer in Vietnam, the wide range of vehicles he’s mounted, and the daily trials, tribulations, risks, and exploits that define life as a trucker,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘Ed’s vibrant, no-holds-barred tales are hilarious and heartwarming, sometimes cringeworthy or unbelievable – recollections of heroic feats as well as the ‘fishing stories’ that have stretched and shifted from CB radio to CB radio. Many are the results of what he calls ‘just plain stupidity.’ Others bring to light the small acts of kindness and grand gestures that these Knights of the Highway perform each day, as well as the safety risks and continual danger that these essential workers endure. Together they paint a compelling portrait of one of the most important but least-known industries and reveal why Ed, and so many like him, just kept on trucking,’ it adds.
‘Our granddad Obie owned all kinds of farm equipment and by the time my brothers and I were 10-11 years old, we began driving and operating farm tractors, farm trucks, backhoes, bulldozers and tractor trailers. One of Obie’s farm trucks was a red Dodge with two enormous headlights the size of medium pumpkins, one on each fender. One brother would drive the truck and the other two of us would straddle the fenders and ride them through the fields as though we were taming wild horses. My favourite of Obie’s vehicles was a bright red Farmall M farm tractor. After kicking it out of fifth gear, you could fly downhill so fast you could barely hold on, two small steering tyres shimmying violently,’ the author says, who clearly received a good, solid education in the art of truckin’, early on in life, which would hold him in good stead later in life. A very entertaining read.
Get your copy of A Trucker’s Tale: Wit, Wisdom, and True Stories from 60 Years on the Road Format: Paperback / Hardcover / Kindle
Number of Pages: 216 / 216 / 193
Price: Rs 1,288 / Rs 1,635 / Rs 866
Available on: Amazon
‘In 2010, the Bell family, Graeme, Luisa, Keelan and Jessica, set off in their Land Rover on an African adventure which would ultimately afflict them with the overlanding addiction. After touring Southern and East Africa for six months they returned to South Africa, to normal life and the corporate grind. Only touring in their trusty Land Rover, Mafuta, could still their trembling hands and sate their insatiable hunger. The decision was made to live an alternative travel lifestyle, a decision which would take them and Mafuta to South America where, through a combination of good luck and bad decisions, they circumnavigated the continent for over two years before setting their sights on North America. This is their story, the hard days, the laughter, the breakdowns, the life lessons and the love for each other and the road less travelled,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘Written with passion and from the heart, We Will Be Free is more than just another travel book, it is a modern manifesto, a declaration of independence and self-sufficiency. The Bell family will inspire you to live life fully and in your own way,’ it adds.
‘Having achieved the South African version of the American dream, we should have been happy, right? What more can you expect from life than health and wealth, the golden keys to the Kingdom of Happy? If anything, we were too successful [and yet] every night I would lie in bed and dream of some form of escape, a way to leave this life of schedules, habit, routine and chronic boredom behind. At night I would sit on a plastic stool in the garage, sipping on beer after beer, staring at the off-road vehicles which beckoned me to load up, drop out and disappear. But we needed a push out the door, a kick in the pants, a new philosophy,’ the authors say. They did ‘disappear’ in due course, the catalyst being the passing of Luisa’s father, who had encouraged them to take some time off and travel. ‘With Andre’s [Luisa’s dad] passing in 2009, we decided that we must travel. That life is too short to live just for money that we did not want, to live this life with regrets,’ they add. The ensuing adventure – told across three books (this one, and the next two) – is one you must read.
Get your copy of We Will Be Free: Overlanding In Africa and Around South America
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 342 / 342
Price: Rs 3,053 / Rs 217
Available on: Amazon
Overlanding the Americas: La Lucha, by Luisa Bell and Graeme Robert Bell
‘La Lucha, the sequel to We Will be Free, is the story of one family’s determination to travel the world as professional international overlanders. The story picks up in Ecuador, after the family had successfully solo circumnavigated South America and continues with their dogged determination to drive up to Alaska and across the Americas from tip to tip, coast to coast. The Bell family has had to overcome massive geographic, personal and financial obstacles, in order to achieve their dreams but continue to fight, despite the odds. They discover a strength they never knew they had and have many adventures, as they challenge themselves to the limit of their capabilities to not only survive but prosper. La Lucha demonstrates how, with passion and perseverance, anyone can achieve their dreams,’ says the publisher’s note.
‘This is not Shantaram. We are committed to telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but. We overland tenaciously, country by country, obeying most of the important laws, never overstaying our visa periods, never working illegally, politely and diligently dealing with bureaucracy, which, other than finances, usually presents the largest, most stubborn obstacles,’ the authors say, adding that their journey so far has been relatively calm, with no violent confrontations, kidnappings, theft or illness. ‘Perhaps Asia will be more exciting, maybe the Middle East will live up to its reputation for war and mayhem. India or Pakistan will sure provide the chaos we need to elevate this story to dizzying, improbably heights,’ they say. Now, what’s that saying about being careful what you wish for…?
Get your copy of Overlanding the Americas: La Lucha
Format: Paperback
Number of Pages: 316
Price: Rs 3,013
Available on: Amazon
Europe Overland: Seeking the Unique, by Luisa Bell and Graeme Robert Bell
‘Would our Land Rover Defender, with her large mud-terrain tyres, skull adorned bullbar and self-built habitat be as out of place and inappropriate on the streets of Europe, as a rooftop tent is bolted onto the feminine slope of a Porshe 911? And would Europe be so expensive that we would have to flee for Africa and Asia, desperately? Would we find adventure and un-spoilt nature, would we be able to travel freely and live our outdoor lifestyle? This book is written to answer those questions, and the best way to do so is to continue the narrative of our continuous intercontinental overland journey as written in our previous books, We Will Be Free and Overlanding the Americas: La Lucha, the story of our family of four giving everything we have to give to achieve our goal of living the explorers’ lifestyle. We seek nature, beauty, tranquillity and adventure. Many Europeans who read this book may ask themselves whether us outsiders might have found what they may have not, in their own backyard. I believe that we have,’ the authors say.
‘Our goal while travelling the planet overland is to learn, and study the countries which we explore. La Lucha was somewhat controversial as we documented modern America, as well as northwestern South America and Central America, from an outsider’s perspective. But this book is about overlanding – the pursuit of freedom, peace of mind and unique experiences,’ they add. Let us add, this – like the other two books in this trilogy – is very well-written, fast-paced and chock-full of action and adventure on the road. If this doesn’t inspire you to jack it all in and set off on a roadtrip of your own, probably nothing else will. It’s that good.
Get your copy of Europe Overland: Seeking the Unique
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 262 / 263
Price: Rs 1,822 / Rs 284
Available on: Amazon
Bonus: We said 10 best motoring roadtrip books but found another two that are simply brilliant, so, hey, why not. Here’s another two great books you’ll love!
First Overland: London-Singapore by Land Rover, by Tim Slessor
‘Why Not? After all, no-one had ever done it before. It would be one of the longest of all overland journeys – half way round the world, from the English Channel to Singapore. They knew that several expeditions had already tried it. Some had got as far as the deserts of Persia; a few had even reached the plains of India. But no one had managed to go on from there: over the jungle clad mountains of Assam and across northern Burma to Thailand and Malaya. Over the last 3,000 miles it seemed there were just too many rivers and too few roads. But no-one really knew,’ says the publisher’s note. ‘In fact, their problems began much earlier than that. As mere undergraduates, they had no money, no cars, nothing. But with a cool audacity, which was to become characteristic, they set to work – wheedling and cajoling. First, they coaxed the BBC to come up with some film for a possible TV series. They then gently persuaded the manufacturers to lend them two factory-fresh Land Rovers. A publisher was even sweet-talked into giving them an advance on a book. By the time they were ready to go, their sponsors (more than 80 of them) ranged from whiskey distillers to the makers of collapsible buckets. In late 1955, they set off. Seven months and 12,000 miles later, two very weary Land Rovers, escorted by police outriders, rolled into Singapore to flash bulbs and champagne. Now, fifty years on, their book, First Overland, is republished, with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough. After all, it was he who gave them that film,’ it adds.
‘In many ways, the world has shrunk since the mid-1950s [when the journey, which the book talks about, was undertaken] but that is primarily in terms of the many advances in air travel. The fact is that their own landward journey would be quite impossible today. The totalitarian regime of Burma/Myanmar would never have granted visas for a land entry across the country’s far northern frontier. The Indians too have long barred travellers from their side of the Assam/Myanmar border area. Further east, it would almost certainly be impossible to get permission to leave Burma, over the Shan hills, to Thailand. Elsewhere, there are other problems; one thinks of the Middle East – Iraq, Iran, Baluchistan, Afghanistan… Members of this expedition were lucky in having attempted their journey during a very short window of opportunity. It seems to me that this tale of a most unusual adventure is just as fresh and just as much fun now as in the year it was written,’ said David Attenborough, when the book was republished in 2005.
Get your copy of First Overland: London-Singapore by Land Rover
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of Pages: 256 / 316
Price: Rs 1,382 / Rs 1,354
Available on: Amazon
Peter Egan on the Road: America’s Favorite Automotive Writer Stays Off the Interstate, by Peter Egan
‘Peter Egan, long time editor-at-large and columnist with America’s finest automotive monthly, Road & Track, presents the best of his travel writing features from the period 1983 to 1996. The prolific Egan has a way with words. Each of the 30 features carries you with him through diverse countryside, townscapes and cultures in a wide variety of captivating cars. Two examples: He winds his way to the Himalayan foothills in an Indian-built, British designed taxi – The Road to Everest – in 1986, or drives his heart and soul out in Italy in an open Ferrari two-seater – The Mille Miglia and the Great Yellow Beast – in 1993. New especially for this book are his introductions to each chapter – in each one Peter looks back with the benefit of hindsight to charm the reader some more. This is travel writing at its very best from the incomparable, self-effacing, nostalgia-driven Peter Egan,’ says the publisher’s note.
Get your copy of Peter Egan on the Road
Format: Hardcover
Number of Pages: 356
Price: Rs 4,217
Available on: Amazon
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