The definition of 'wanderlust' is "a strong desire to travel", according to the internet. In the rush hour, I'd propose adding 'all-consuming' to that definition. Anything to not be crawling in stop-start motorway traffic, right?
From time-to-time, working in the global automotive industry does allow us to indulge our desires to travel. A transcontinental dash to Frankfurt or Geneva, week-long vehicle launches on the Iberian Peninsula... Even the occasional 'once-in-a-lifetime' drive, all in the name of work.
I have never been anywhere so otherworldly – so totally at odds with my daily surroundings – than the Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road. You'll know of this road – it was one of the routes from 'Ice Road Truckers' on TV. It charts a 190-kilometre course along the Mackenzie River delta and northern coast of Canada's Northwest Territories, a road of ice from Inuvik to the Inuvialuit village of Tuktoyaktuk.
Hundreds of miles inside the Arctic Circle, the ice is six to eight feet thick, with a weight limit of 35 tonnes. This ‘road’ was the destination for an exclusive drive by BBC Top Gear Magazine of the new Jeep Grand Cherokee Trailhawk, all arranged by PFPR. At 2.2-tonnes in weight, the Jeep slipped well under the weight limit, but it doesn't stop us gazing down in wonderment at the blue-black water beneath our feet whenever we step out of the car. Like shattered glass, the ice is riddled with beautiful white fractures, cracks that look like frozen flashes of lightning.
It's bitingly cold, so we don't stay out for long. One day, the temperature gauge plummets to 38°C below zero. The wind chill was minus 55°C.