I hate to rave about any gadget now. Seems the minute I like something, it goes and fails on me.

The latest one to struggle with the vigors of the Fiesta World Tour is the Spot tracker.

It worked fine as we left Europe to cross the Bosporus for Asia. But with internet a hit-and-miss thing in places like Jordan (at the Movenpick Hotel on the Dead Sea I’ll admit we were more preoccupied with floating like a cork), I did not check if it was pinging our location every 10 minutes, as planned.

So by the time we hit fast internet at the large pink peanut-shaped Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi, I realized our trans-Arabia blast had been invisible to the orbiting satellites that are supposed to track the Spot’s progress.

Turns out the lithium batteries had run out — in a mere 10 days! I’m glad my life did not depend on the thing. So, with new juice installed, you can see now that we reached Dubai at the end of Leg 2 of our four-leg expedition to Sydney, Australia.

But, it was a close thing. We lost a crew member to a family emergency back home. With 2 crew and 3 cars for the Saudi Arabia crossing, we pulled in a good Saudi friend, Eias, to help with the driving. Nine hundred miles in 14 hours. You do the math…

Eias is a gadget freak. He loved the kit we had aboard. His favorites were the Iridium sat phone (it works great, but we found there is cell coverage even in the most remote corner of The Empty Quarter — they must turn sand dunes into cell towers), the plug-in Camping Gaz fridge full of cold water (it hit 125 degrees north of Riyadh), and the Handpresso machine plus accompanying plug-in kettle. This from a man with 25 motorbikes and a house full of other toys.

Making the perfect cup of espresso in the middle of the desert with the Handpresso.

“Excellent coffee,” he declared when we made him an espresso close to the Iraqi border. But sweet Arabic tea is the thing out here. A portable tea maker might sell well in Saudi.

Right now the Handpresso is up there in our top travel gadgets, too.

When it gets to 125 degrees, this plug-in fridge by Camping Gaz is a welcome friend.

Another great gadget is the Tom Tom satellite navigation app for our photographer Anthony’s iPhone. It has kept is circumnavigating when road signs and local fixers have failed. We just hope it works, as advertised, by using satellite signals, not cell coverage — otherwise Anthony’s going to owe his cell provider a pile of money.

With the family emergency for our technician, I had to nip back to London for 36 hours. Based on advice from our photographer in the upcoming China section, I picked up the Huawei E5 mobile Wi-Fi unit and plan to feed it a supply of local data SIM cards in each place we go. I will use it for the first time when we hit Hong Kong. The photographer also told me of a gadget market where we can indulge our desires. I cannot wait.

I also brought out the wireless keyboard for my iPad, in hopes of making it feel more like my trusty 15-inch MacBook Pro. The keyboard makes the iPad more friendly for a writer for sure, but I still dislike the lack of road office support from the iPad. I frequently want to find old files and images and trawl old emails for information, and it’s hard to do that with a tablet. The iPad, I conclude, is a great piece of kit for short flights or commuter train trips or a tool for viewing or showing off pictures and video. But as a mobile office for a 2-month trip, it fails.

My blogs from now on will be on the MacBook Pro.

We crossed Saudi Arabia with just 2 cars and almost no spares. Long hours with not even a camel to say hello to brought the need for our Motorola walkie talkies into focus. Powered by the car’s USB link, they kept the inter-car banter flowing.

Lastly, and another of my top gadgets, is the Flip Ultra HD. We have been using it for blogs and even for as secondary camera for our TV work. I’ve even done a short video blog for you, shot with the Flip Ultra — so now you can see us and our road-worn cars and kit in glorious high-def video (assuming you’ve got the bandwidth, that is!).

Until next time!

See Also:

• Ford Fiesta World Tour 2010 on Gadget Lab
• Ford Fiesta World Tour 2010 on Autopia
• Travelling Around the World in a Gadget-Filled Ford Fiesta
• Rockford Spins, Drive-Thru Weddings and Flatbread Tacos
• Small Is the New Big at Ford

Authors: Jeremy Hart

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