We've all experienced the urge. The urge to just keep driving. To fire up the engine and just keep rolling, past city after city; country after country; continent after continent. It's definitely an appealing prospect, and it's one which the good folk of the Pub2Pub Expedition have taken to extremes, by covering over 22,000 miles across the globe since hitting the road last July.
If you've seen our previous updates on the expedition, you'll know the score. A group of adventurers have set themselves the task of driving a TVR Chimaera from the northernmost bar on the planet, to the southernmost. From the frigid heights of Arctic Norway, they've journeyed across Europe, the USA, Central and South America, and have just reached Patagonia. So, what's new since our last update?
Well, we last caught up with the expedition in the jungles of Central America, and they ended up hanging around there for quite a while, thanks to Costa Rica's extreme aversion to right-hand-drive vehicles. Bureaucracy kept the car trapped in no man's land between international borders for a rather stressful eight days, before a truck could be arranged to transport the outlawed machine across Costa Rica, to Panama. Where further RHD-related red tape was encountered. Fortunately, however, the expedition had well-connected friends in Panama who were able to smooth the car's entry, and its subsequent shipping around the Darien Gap, to Colombia.
So how has South America treated the expedition so far? More of the trial-by-red-tape treatment? Not at all. Since arriving in Colombia and hitting the road south, Pub2Pub has found itself scrolling through a bucket list which should be at the top of everyone's dream driving experiences. Experiences like roaring across the Peruvian Highlands, 4,000m up with the roof down, or roaming the world's largest salt flats - the Salar de Uyuni, in Bolivia. They've driven the famous 'Death Road', near La Paz, and cruised past active volcanoes in Ecuador, rolled past Llamas on the Altiplano, and drag-raced a horse across a field in Colombia. And through all the challenges, the TVR has been carrying on, business as usual, with no serious maintenance required so far in the trip, other than a clutch change in Nicaragua (a new clutch being sent out from the UK by TVR specialists Powers Performance in less than seven working days - impressive stuff!)
So what's next for Pub2Pub? Well, with 22,300 miles completed, the mere matter of another 1,200 miles across Patagonia now remain between the trusty TVR and the last licensed premises on earth, in Tierra del Fuego, before the expedition heads back north to Uruguay, from where the car will be shipped back to the UK. We'll be rooting for them as they push on towards their goal of completing the longest journey ever made by a sports car.
For updates as the expedition closes on its final goal, feel free to head over to the Facebook page.
And all the people who've helped the expedition along the way - you know who you are!
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