Never Say Die

Jon Chater spends the weekend in the Lake District with adventurer and endurance record holder Sean Conway – and discovers the latter’s Series III can also go the distance

- Jonathan Chater

If there’s one apocryphal statistic Land Rover should be proud of, it is that 70 per cent of vehicles built are still on the road. Endurance is what their vehicles are all about.

Now meet Sean Conway – the first and only man in history to cycle, swim and run the length of Britain. He completed the record-breaking feat in 2015, when he ran from John O’Groats to Land’s End in just 44 days, having previously cycled and, unbelievably, swum 900miles in the sea to complete the route. So it’s no surprise that Sean is also a certified Land Rover nut. He owns four of them, suggesting far more than a passing interest; more, a passion for Land Rovers bordering on obsession. Sean tells me that after his adventuring days are over, he dreams of setting up a garage where he can be around Land Rovers all day.

Sean meets me at Windermere station in a classic Range Rover he calls Mildred. I should explain at this point, Sean is in the habit of giving human names to every vehicle or bike he owns. He says it’s something he’s always done.

I imagine being an endurance adventurer must at times be a very lonely existence (many of his trips have been entirely self-supported). Perhaps talking to his vehicles helps him pass the time while out in the wilderness on his own. Barbara Toy had Polyanna, and Ted Simon his Triumph bike Jupiter; these loners have previous.

When Sean gives me a rundown of the four Land Rovers he currently owns, I’m reminded of a proud father talking about his children: “I still have my red 300Tdi Defender called Mana, named after Mana Pools where I grew up in Zimbabwe. I’m in the process of selling that one.”