Think of two things you’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance.
Yes I know – why only two? How about two thousand?
Well OK. But here’s two for starters: Overtaking Michael Schumacher and driving an Aston Martin halfway across the world.
Not bad, eh? Last year, with co-driver Phil Colley, I had the chance to do both in a V8 Vantage when we made the first-ever crossing of the new Asian Highway.
But we certainly wouldn’t have made it without Stanfords' trusty maps.
The trip from Tokyo to London took in 17 countries and 10,000 miles and had some extremely hairy moments.
It was a highway, not a motorway remember – so with plenty of dodgy deviations in China and the ‘Stan nations of central Asia, we were sent off into the wilds with an alarming frequency … which is where those wonderful maps came into their own (especially South Korea, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Georgia).
Not that we needed one to overtake Schumi, of course.
That was an unexpected grand finale when we powered up to the seven-times world champion’s Maserati on the autoroute north of Paris.
Want to know what happened? Well, I've written the book of course. It’s out 29 November - Driven Together: Historic first crossing of Asia’s new Highway to the West.
Richard Meredith has written a number of travel books besides Driven Together. Other titles include One Way or Another - a Gap Year for Grown-ups; and Which Way Next' - story of the Daewoo Challenge. Visit his website at www.mercurybooks.co.uk
Author: Richard Meredith
Date: 4 November 2008
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