From Panama to platinum – 70 years of Land Rover at FOS

Straddling the border between Panama and Colombia lies the Darién Gap – a huge strip of rainforest that is practically impbadable by car. The Gap is traversed by swamps and rivers, forests and marshes, and hosts scorpions, sharp ants, vampire bats, deadly snakes, trench feet and malaria. If you chose a route for a road trip, it would not include this inhospitable stretch of sweaty rainforest.

Between 1971 and 1972, however, a team of 64 engineers and royal scientists took two Range Rovers across the Darién Gap. on their way from Anchorage, Alaska to Terra del Fuego, Cape Horn. It was the first expedition to cover all of North and South America, and the first to cross the infamous Gap. The journey of 17,084 miles began on December 3, 19659003, and finally ended with the two Range Rovers still in progress on June 10, 19659003. The Range Rovers were almost completely standard and, at that time, very new to the roads. The inhabitants of Embera-Wounaan and Kuna in the Darién Gap would have never seen a motor vehicle, let alone the new model of Land Rover.

The trip was not without its problems – the rainforest slows down to a quarter of a kilometer a day, while a car crashed into a truck in Canada and the Another almost sunk during a crossing of the river. Gavin Thompson was the main driver in one of the Range Rovers and, during the perilous crossing of the Darién Gap, drove both cars. Many years later, a reporter drove the one who had flung himself to the water and commented that there was "a strong smell of moisture". Having parachuted more oil and pumped the water out of the cylinders, the engine fired without problems. The only victim was the cbadette player. Once the Gap exceeded, the team left the scientists and ran south.