When I was a kid, my dad was often unemployed so a budget family day out whatever the weather was to make up a packed lunch, jump in the car and go and explore all the tiny lanes in the area, generally as impassable as possible. Bonus points for an “unsuitable for motor vehicles” route.

In retrospect, this wasn’t the most environmentally friendly of activities but it was cheap, practical in the most typical of British summers and had a certain spirit of adventure going off the beaten track. It is probably telling that my father used to rally drive in his youth.

It occurred to me, while going down an ever narrowing track (which according to Tom Tom was the fastest route – the map manufacturer probably didn’t factor in the cow crossing) that these days we recapture that simple childhood joy with our sat nav devices.

While on holiday on the west coast of Wales, I don’t think we’ve been taken the same route twice and the sat nav has been taking perverse delight in sending us the most insane way possible. Our best so far has been a side-trip through a “ford” which after 3 days of solid rain more resembled a fast flowing river. The Almera coped, fortunately.

Still, it’s lots of fun and we’re finding some really pretty little places we’d never have known about if we were navigating sensibly with a proper map. We do need a “be f-ing serious, Tom Tom” button for when we’re towing, though!