Something about the Aussie road trip tradition appeals to our spirit of freedom and rebellion. I suspect most of us harbour a desire to just drive off into the distance.
And every so often, at the right time, that’s exactly what we do.
Whenever I feel a road trip coming on, lines from ‘Poetry of Departures’ by Phillip Larkin often drift into my head:
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Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand, |
Thankfully, taking a road trip can often satisfy that wild human craving to “chuck up everything and clear off”, allowing you to get it out of your system, then return, calmed, to your normal life.
Australia must be full of nomads like me. As children, we went on road trips with our parents and siblings. As single people, we hit the road for long journeys in our own cars. Then, carrying backpacks, we struck out for Asia, Europe, Africa or America, following the same primeval craving to check out what’s over the next hill and keep on going, moving further away from the people, places and lives we know.
And then come back.
The road trip is the ultimate expression of the motoring life, and the art of driving. To me, it’s what enjoying a car is all about. The road trip is where motoring and travel meet and become one.
Since the focus of Open Road is on motoring and travel, it is natural for road trips to become an inherent part of our editorial mix. So, starting from this special ‘Road Trip Issue’, we will aim to always include at least one road trip, hopefully combining a road test of a good touring car with the experience of seeing a specific part of Australia, or the world.
In this issue, motoring editor Andrew Kerr and writer Paul Rodger take the latest BMW Z4 and Porsche Boxster to Mudgee. Paul also tests an Audi Q5 in the rugged terrain of the Eyre Peninsula. Travel writer Rob McFarland gives way to his better nature in the strangely named villages of England’s Cotswolds. And deputy editor Kris Ashton interviews Hoges and Kenny about their road trip movie, Charlie & Boots, at its Tamworth premiere.
On another poetry track, the issue includes my own Henry Lawson pilgrimage to Mudgee and Gulgong, the region where he grew up. My mother read Lawson’s poetry to me before I even started school, and his verse trails along with me on road trips through the bush.
I stood in the ruins of the house he lived in as a boy at Eurunderee, walked around a Gulgong that would have changed little from the one he knew, and enjoyed every exhibit in the Henry Lawson Centre.
NRMA Travel is offering special Member weekends in Mudgee, where the emphasis will be on the region’s fine wine and food. If you get a chance, check out Gulgong, and raise a toast to Henry.
David Naylor
Editor-in-chief
Open Road September/October 2009
