Challenging the Defender

REVIVED: THE TROPHY IS BACK AND VERY TESTING

- Charl Bosch

The Camel Trophy was renowned for its toughness and stamina from 1980 to 2000.

Famous for its use of Land Rovers, the event crisscrossed countries and continents as the ultimate adventure rush sponsors Land Rover and Camel cigarettes wanted to portray.

The eventual outlawing of tobacco advertising led to Camel stubbing out its sponsorship.

The rebooted Land Rover G4 Challenge failed to capture the original magic and quietly disappeared soon after.

Last year it was revived yet again, retitled and now known as the Defender Trophy using Defender 110s. The new reiteration being more physical and not as reliant on driving.

Orienteering is also still present, cycling has been removed and water-based activities no longer restricted to rowing from one end of a river or lake to the other.

As before, the event is split into regional segments campaigned in 75 countries by more than 600 participants. Of these, 12 will go into the semifinals before being whittled down to two for the global finals in October.

South Africa has always had a strong Camel Trophy presence and our semifinals kick off next month. JLR South Africa, as a way of also launching the limited run Defender 110 Trophy Edition, opened the event to the media for the first time.

Led by Mark Collins, who finished second in the 1998 Camel Trophy with his brother John, the tasks were made a bit easier to compensate for our lack of physical prowess, supposed skill and muscle.

This involves yours truly who, having spent many years watching the Camel Trophy on television, isn’t the most physically adept or worth much in the muscle department.