Land Rover Defender drives across Bering Strait
Author: Chris Barker
Published: 26 August 2008
Even Top Gear hasn’t been there in a trick Toyota Hilux. Although Top Gear presenter James May did drive a Triumph Herald across a Staffordshire lake with the help of a sail, rudder and small motor. But even Captain Slow – and the BBC’s insurers - knows his marine limitations.Which fall some way short of the Bering Straits that divides Russia and Alaska right at the top of the world.What might be beyond a team of televisual entertainers, was definitely not beyond Steve Burgess and his and made-to-measure off-roader, as the equally madcap British farmer out-explored Sir Ranulph Fiennes by circumnavigating the freezing and choppy waters of the Bering Strait. From behind the wheel of an aquatic version of the hardy Land Rover Defender.Throwing caution to the wind, and braving -46 degree temperatures, the crossing came as the culmination of a motoring and human endurance trip that began some 10,379 miles away in the less hostile surrounds of Huddersfield.The 56-mile stretch of open water – acknowledged as perhaps the most dangerous sea crossing on the planet – had been previously attempted by Britain’s most celebrated explorer, Sir Ranulph Fiennes.Ending in failure and frostbite before, Burgess successfully achieved the daredevil feat as part of an expedition which he took on with a little help from UK tyre and rubber company Cooper, who provided Cooper Discoverer STT tyres to help with the entire journey.Making a mockery out of those faux-aquatic Land Rovers that sprout snorkels from the side, Burgess ignored the helpfully natural phenomenon that winter affords the brave traveler – the forming of a an ice-bridge that spreads across the Strait – and instead decided to sit it out and wait for it to melt. Then float/drive across.
However, due to inclement weather conditions Burgess was forced to take refuge on his epic sojourn, and pitched up on the isle of Little Diomede, adding several weeks out of his scheduled crossing time.In total, his expedition covered a staggering 10,379 miles of the most remote and hostile territory on the planet, and used up 50 days of his life.He pays tribute – and insists that his challenge wouldn’t have been completed were it not for – the customised Land Rover being shod in Cooper tyres. And the edifying fact that it were a Land Rover, a vehicle built for the rigours of any environment thrown at it as it drove and swam its way into the record books.
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