ESCAPIST UTOPIA

A JOURNEY FROM THE HEART OF NAMIBIA TO THE SKELETON COAST IN LAND ROVER’S STUNNING NEW OFF-ROAD CHAMPION

We are well and truly alone.

Before us lies a seemingly endless gray desert moonscape, our silver specks of overland-loaded 2020 Land Rover Defender 110s, dancing over sand dunes, splitting the horizon with the churning South Atlantic Ocean, are the only sign of humanity.

I snap back to reality as my Land Rover’s nose aims skyward as we struggle up a dune. Throttle in, the engine roaring, we rocket up the crest. Suddenly floating over the desert floor, we hear a thunk from all four corners of our air-suspension—signaling we’d temporarily left earth somewhere over Namibia’s Skeleton Coast.

It’s not often a new Defender comes around—the same holds true for a new Jeep Wrangler or Mercedes-Benz G-Class. Yet all three of these legendary overland-ready off-roaders have been revised during the past three years: The Wrangler was new for 2018, the G-Wagen for 2019. Now it’s the Defender’s turn.

Over the next three days and 500 miles, we would conduct an expedition through Namibia’s northern Kaokoland in the Kunene Region, an underdeveloped area populated mostly by the nomadic Himba people. Our route will take us from the regional capital of Opuwo, over the treacherous Van Zyl’s Pass, through the Marienfluss Valley, down the Skeleton Coast, and then back to Opuwo.

Terrain here varies wildly, from sandy two-tracks and riverbeds to rocks, gravel, mud, and water crossings. The only sort of terrain that would be in short supply would be asphalt—just two of the 500 miles we were about to traverse would be paved. In other words, Land Rover is pulling no punches with its new Defender.