testmeat photoblog

i've mentioned before that on my recent snowboarding holiday we decided to drive from the uk to the south of france instead of flying across. this meant a longer and more tiring journey, but also considerable savings. for example the ferry only cost £50 - and that was a return - for up to seven people - that works out cheaper than it costs me to get the bus to town and back. all in all we must have clocked up over 1000km, but the car held up well. it even survived the snowy mountain passes thanks to some snow chains. there were no big dramas, we didn't get lost, we made good time, we even arrived in calais on the way back with enough time to get an earlier ferry. it was only when we docked in dover that we noticed one of the back tyres looking a little flatter than it should. we pumped it up when we got on dry land, but about ten minutes into our journey back, while we were zooming along the m20, it gave up and exploded. any smugness we felt at getting back early quickly dissipated as we waited in the cold on the hard shoulder for recovery to get there. it was an annoying end to the holiday, but i was impressed that it had managed to get us all the way to the alps and back, and that it chose an english speaking country where we had insurance and breakdown cover, to fail.

i'm not sure if you've tried taking a ground level photo late at night on the hard shoulder of a motorway, but it's a little bit of a hairy experience. it took me a few attempts to get a shot i liked, as all i could do was place the camera on the ground, point it in what i thought was the right direction, set the timer going, and then jump back behind the 'safety' of the crash barrier. here's the original