UK to USA in a Land Rover Defender
The average person traveling from England to North America would probably hop on a plane - but let’s be honest, that’s just way too mundane. At least that’s what farmer Steve Burgess and former UK Off-Road champ Dan Evans felt, as they decided to head across the continents of Africa, Europe & Asia to the tips of Russia, the Bering Strait, across to Alaska then down to South America. It’s not a journey one could easily make in a Toyota Prius, it’s a job for this Land Rover Defender.
Burgess first had the idea back in 1992 for his “Cape to Cape” expedition (http://capetocape.org.uk/) where the adventurer was in South Africa and wanted to be in South America. After looking at a map he realized the only challenging body of water to cross was the Bering Strait between Siberia and Alaska. A bit of a trip from The Cape of Good Hope to Cape Horn - We catch up with their voyage on the cusp of Siberia in their retrofitted Defender.
Prowling through the Russian tundra is probably the easiest feat Cape to Cape’s Land Rover had to face during this journey, a real issue arouse when the vehicle and team made it to the Strait - forcing them to not only cross a car over water, but freezing cold water with ice chunks to boot. We wonder if there was some sort of border crossing procedure which took place when the truck left land in Russia or when it surfaced on United States territory.
Once the expedition reached land’s end on the Asian continent it was time to make this Land Rover waterproof. With the addition of an extra drive shaft to power a propeller, twin floats were attached to each side of the vehicle - with a combined volume of 1480 gallons and the ability to keep almost 6 tons of buoyancy. After being stripped of non-essential equipment (hopefully not seats or heat) its two-man crew, weighing three tons, successfully crossed the Bering Strait - after stopping mid way on the tiny island of Little Diomede for 30 days to avoid a number of obstacles related to both weather and native.
Aside from heavy storms accompanied by strong winds the tiny amount of island residents (population 140) were apathetic towards providing a safety boat, causing the entire trip to stop for an indeterminate amount of time. Burgess ended up flying to Alaska by himself, then back to the UK to raise money to purchase a safety boat and continue on.
The wait was worth all Cape to Cape’s trouble. The first week of August between Russia and Alaska brought gorgeous weather and an easy trek across the sea. Land Rover’s floating Cape to Cape Defender made it across in just under 19 hours. Burgess said it himself: “To be the first team to cross the Bering Strait in a motor vehicle was a fantastic feeling.”
All that’s left is for the team to head down the west coasts of North & South America - and on to Cape Horn, a task that will begin this winter when Burgess returns from checking up on his farm. The man needs to eat, after all.
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