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Flitting waves of anxious excitement awoke me at 3.30am, quickly realising that today would be the day that I drive a
Land Rover, or any 4X4, for the very first time.
This day marked the first of a three-day, roughly 900km journey along the northern part of the Lesotho border in a shiny, new Land Rover Defender.
In previous experiences of roughing it, someone else was always driving. Some prefer to be behind the wheel to better
control the situation, but I take pride in being a top notch passenger. Need a snack, sanitiser, jokes and random conversation? Then count on me!
But need me to drive a beast of a vehicle up a rocky hill through dongas and eroding rocks? Before my adventure with Land Rover, this was a hard pass.
I, therefore, opted to remain a passenger on the first day, and thankfully, the gentleman I was partnered up with on our trip handled the terrain like a professional off-road driver. To say I was amazed at the intelligence of the Defender, however, cannot be underestimated.
Potholes littered the path along the northern part of the Lesotho border on the Land Rover Defender expedition.
While I glanced to my left at the sheer drop below, one wheel of the Land Rover in the air, I realised that the car knew exactly what it was doing – camera technology allowing one to see underneath the vehicle, multiple buttons on the dashboard to ascend and descend what felt like a mountain while mighty tyres gripped rocks like cycling shoes.
There really was no need to worry about driving this car, and even amateurs did this obstacle course, I thought in hindsight.
The sheer amount of cameras on the car itself ensured that there was always as little uncertainty as possible – very useful when tackling the road almost never travelled, or even crowded roads travelled too often.
This is the exact appeal of the new Defender, owed to 70 years of trial and error.
70 years of Land Rover innovation.
Land Rover coins it as the “strongest and most capable vehicle we have ever created”. The three-day trip put this theory to the test, and for all three days, the demands on the drive which sometimes made it seem like an insurmountable task, were accomplished with ease.
The paths I opted to explore with the Defender were more on the “safe” side – long stretches of pothole-ridden tar roads and muddy, dusty passes – and I found this vehicle to be the easiest I had ever sat in the driver’s seat of.
To add to my initial list of woes, I was used to a manual hatchback, so the automatic aspect and the sheer size of the Defender scared me too.
It quickly became second nature, as did most features in the Defender.
For someone who has never set a foot on the accelerator of a vehicle such as the Defender, it really was the easiest 4X4 to drive. If there were doubts, the car’s technological genius guided you. One only needs to lift a few fingers and toes to take control, and the Defender does the rest.
Sheer drops simply required changing settings on the Defender to adjust the height of the vehicle.
The anxiety from the first day dissipated as the scenery became more impressive. And when I was being a dutiful
passenger, I had plenty of time to peruse the odds and ends on the inside of the Country and Urban Pack Defenders.
Water and snacks stayed cold in the car’s mini fridge, and there was enough space for my uncannily long legs, snacks and more.
A large interactive screen kept us on course while speakers blasted forgotten hits as we forged ahead through the Free State and into KwaZulu-Natal. With some guidance from Land Rover staff, the amateurs on the trip conquered shaking hands to climb rocky hills, dodge rocks immersed in mud, traipse through eroding roads constantly changing due to heavy rains, and make turns that sometimes forced us to grip the edges of our seats.
I quickly learnt the task that seemed impossible on the first day of the marathon journey with the Land Rover Defender became one I now yearn to repeat. If there was a next time, I would fight to be in the driver’s seat for the duration of the trip.
And if the car is good enough for Kingsley Holgate and his family of adventurers, it sure is good enough for me.
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