For those not in the loop, firstly shame on you! You should be subscribed to Hydrapinion AND Auscam Online!

But those that are in the know are aware that for the last week-ish, myself and Budweiser the Dog, complete with a Monaro load of clothes, electronics and other assorted paraphernalia necessary to exist, have been driving from Bridgetown, 300Km south east of Perth, to Avalon on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. A trip of 4500Km or so (with detours for the pedantics).

We have had a number of adventures on the way; nearly running out of fuel; majestic light show thunderstorms on the Nullarbor; Mr Plod deciding he didn’t like black Monaros in Victoria (I didn’t get a ticket as I had done nothing wrong) and a 10 kph 50Km + section of road in NSW due to low cloud, drizzle and dense fog.

I had the Monaro Wired for Sound as Cliff Richard would say, as well as for video. Over the next few days, or however long it takes, I am going to take the windscreen facing footage and audio I took and make a short, guerrilla based video of the 4500Km trip t oaround 5 minutes using ONLY the video and raw audio of the trip plus the occasional add in voice over explanation. The audio will consist of what I had playing at the time (music, radio news, ABC cricket, silence) and my comments, discussions with Buddy the Dog about Life the Universe and Everything, the occasional expletive (some roads are CRAP!) and my reaction to circumstance as they happened. Should be fun. There will be no pulling back I promise.

But one thing about this trip in hindsight worries me.

Technology in itself is wonderful, and I love it, but sometimes it can lead us potentially badly astray.

The ex pectedlast leg of the trip was from Marulan on the Pacific Highway south of Sydney to Sydney proper then on to the Northern Beaches, about 3 hours or so at worst. But a nasty cold front, or storm or something had bred itself appeared and all of a sudden the weather went from a balmy, sunny 26 or so degrees to a dark, foreboding, overcast and much chillier 16 degrees (we are talking Celsius here by the way overseas fans).

I had been driving for 7 hours at this point, was a little bit weary, Buddy was restless so I rang a Top Bloke friend who is one of my senior (as in top level not old) writers at Auscam to see if I could veer right and pull up a piece of carpet at his place in the Shoalwater area for the night.

No problem he said, so I re-programmed the brand new GPS (it is unfair to reveal the brand name and you’ll see why shortly) and off we went. Now I figured Mrs Sat Nav would have a few shortcuts up her sleeve; I knew the area and could have got there myself, but was hoping that she would be able to shorten to trip as the weather was decidedly nasty by now.

And shorten she did, by distance but not by time, as simply, she took me on a roller coaster ride through a series of hairpins and mountains through to Kangaroo Valley and back up the other side before again tumbling down to Nowra on roads that were absolutely blanketed in fog and cloud with greasy, wet drizzle and excitement adding to the mix and excitement.

At this point, I have to say I quite enjoyed it. The Kaiser Baas Car Camera captured the especially hairy bits where the visibility in the now early evening gloom was probably less than 50 metres and the Monaro was in its element as a sports tourer. It was fun.

But here is the thing. Hopefully without coming across too wanker-ish, I have been involved in cars, racing and rallying with journalism and testing thrown in for most of my adult life. I have driven everything from Toyota Echoes (Yaris) to Aston Martins and Lambos and Rollers. And in all sorts of conditions. I have a multitude of Advanced Driving Courses in my pocket and hold a CAMS licence.

So I consider I have the experience to deal with the conditions that, let’s face it, Mrs Sat Nav threw at me. I didn’t choose them.

I have seen this before when driving in Europe. That is, no account is taken into the CONDITION of the directions given for the best possible journey by Mrs Sat Nav. In the case of yesterday, a P-Plater with a week’s experience by themselves could have been placed in a very nasty position if they had simply accepted Mrs Sat Nav’s advice and followed the suggested route. They would have met B Double’s on hairpins, idiots with no lights on, locals who know the roads backwards and simply kept normal speed or more, wet roads, very low visibility and very nasty conditions. Without fog lamps it would have been a nightmare, and there were many cars parked waiting for the conditions to improve.

So. Is the next generation Sat Nav one that also talks to the Weather Bureau and gets and then gives another level of dimension of advice?

After yesterday, I hope so for the sake of inexperienced drivers and enthusiasts alike.

(But I can’t wait to edit that footage, just quietly!! Whatv a blast that was :))