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A couple of petrolheads, a Shelby Mustang and an empty racetrack

By Paul Ash | 2012-04-26 15:29:35

Sunday Times motoring writer and racing driver Thomas Falkiner took the newspaper’s adventure duo for a few fast laps in his Mustang at Zwartkops raceway. Check the slideshow.

The Shelby Mustang on the open road PHOTO: Marianne Schwankhart

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Freighthopping: Riding South African freight trains

By Paul Ash | 2012-04-03 10:52:04

I hopped a couple of South African freight trains and discovered that all things are not equal on Transnet’s tracks.

Cab of a Transnet Freight Rail class 33 diesel locomotive

6.30am, Voorbaai rail yard DAN Pienaar, driver of 1174, the weekday freight from Mossel Bay to Worcester, is champing at the bit. It’s going to be hot and, with a pair of ailing 46-year-old diesels up front, who knows what trials the day may bring. Read More…

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“I tripped and I ended up in one of the boats.” A short history of cowardly ship’s captains

By Paul Ash | 2012-01-18 18:00:44

Captain Francesco Schettino, master of the Costa Concordia cruise ship, should probably stop digging the hole he is in.

Theodore Géricault's masterpiece, "Raft of the Medusa", painted in 1819, shows the wretched survivors of the French frigate waiting in vain for salvation

The transcript of his heated discussion with Italian coastguard officer Gregorio De Falco has already gone viral. He is being mocked throughout the world for leaving his stricken ship before all the passenger and crew were safely off or accounted for. In the maritime world, that’s about the worst thing a ship’s master can do.

Having first claimed he was co-ordinating the rescue from a lifeboat, now he says he tripped “… and I ended up in one of the boats”.

Captain Schettino isn’t the first ship’s captain to abandon his passengers and crew to their fates, and he probably won’t be the last. This kind of thing is as old as shipping itself. Some notable incidents: Read More…

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Millions of tonnes of tsunami debris heading for America

By Paul Ash | 2011-10-25 18:13:38

tsunamidebris3

An estimated 20 million tonnes of tsunami debris from Japan has floated halfway across the Pacific Ocean and is expected to wash up on the west coast of America in three or so years time.

The debris,w hich includes lumber, plastic barrels, capsized fishing boats, the flaoring roofs of houses and other assorted junk was spotted recently near Miday Island from a passing Russian ship.

See the story HERE

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Been There, Shot That. More speed, less haste. Making movies in Thailand

By Paul Ash | 2011-09-29 17:45:19
Making movies in Pattaya

Making movies in Pattaya

Bangkok, Thailand, December Pang the casting agent comes to the house we’re staying at, looking for extras to star in a Thai soapie. Apparently they need a couple of farangs to dress up and pretend to be diplomats in an embassy cocktail party scene. At a couple of hundred baht just for showing up, there is no shortage of hands.
Pang forgets that every night is party night in the house. At 4am, there are just four of us sitting quietly on the bus. Me, an Australian, a Lanky Canadian and the German nutter with a duffel full of East German army helmets he’s been trying to flog around Bangkok.
“Where the others?” he says.
“I guess they’re not coming,” says the Australian.
So Pang does what any resourceful casting agent would do. Read More…

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Lugenda: A story from the Land at the End of the Earth

By Paul Ash | 2011-08-10 14:46:45

It’s a wilderness in every sense of the word: far away and almost forgotten, a place that the Portuguese dubbed “fim do mundo’ – the end of the earth.

Nature takes its fiery course in the shadow of one of the inselberg outcrops that dot the reserve PICTURE: Russell Scott

Nature takes its fiery course in the shadow of one of the inselberg outcrops that dot the reserve PICTURE: Russell Scott

Roving travel writer Janine Stephen wrote us this marvellous story on the Niassa National Reserve which lies in the liquid embrace of the Rovuma and Lugenda rivers in the far north of Mozambique. Read More…

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1time drops Maputo

By Paul Ash | 2011-08-03 15:46:49

1time

1time Airlines has called it quits on the Johannesburg-Maputo route. The airline’s last flight to the Mozambican capital will be on August 31.

The airline says it would need a greater allocation of the number of seats it can sell on the route to make it more viable. Read More…

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VespaVenture: Getting lucky with a good patch of road

By Paul Ash | 2011-07-21 17:22:25

BY BRENDAN BOYLE

Every day of our two-week Vespa adventure in Tuscany seemed better than the last, right until we touched the sky more than 1000 meters up in the region of Focchia.

A Vespa completes a classic Italian scene

A Vespa completes a classic Italian scene

We had been encouraged by a day trip from Bagni di Lucca on which we discovered the gorgeous mountain town of Tereglio, an impossibly beautiful little town on its own peak, facing down its 12th century rivals on each of the surrounding summits. Read More…

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VespaVenture: The Big Push to Poggio

By Paul Ash | 2011-07-20 10:36:19

BY BRENDAN BOYLE

‘Poggio?’, we asked with an interrogative lilt and hands pointing along the path we were following.

‘Poggio!’, said the farmer with emphasis and a hand in the same direction as he looked down on us from his horse.

Into the Tuscan Mountains

Into the Tuscan Mountains

We had taken an exit on one of the S66′s many roundabouts and ended up on a twisting track wide enough only for one car at a time. It snaked unfenced through fields of wild flowers, corn, lavender and lucerne as though someone had dropped a string of thin tar and left it lying as it fell. Read More…

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VespaVenture: Goodnight, Florence, from the stairs of Babel

By Paul Ash | 2011-07-18 16:34:55

BY BRENDAN BOYLE

It was a missed turn after the Ponto San Niccolo that delivered our most delightful hour in Florence, so we retraced the ride to say farewell to the city on Saturday night.

The Arno flows like silver through a Florence sunset

The Arno flows like silver through a Florence sunset

Jed and I had been planning to ride across the river to look for supper around the Piazza de Pitti, but took a wrong exit from the roundabout and ended up on a steep and winding road between luxurious Florentine villas. We stopped after a while to consult, but decided to see where it led. Read More…

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