This past weekend saw the much-anticipated Landy Festival roll into the Malonjeni Game Farm near Meyerton. The concept behind the Landy Festival was to see if we could beat the world record of 347 Land Rover vehicles in a convoy set by the Convoy for Hero’s in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England 23 – 24 April 2011.
The Landys started rolling in by the hundreds on Friday afternoon and we could already tell that we were going to smash the record out the ground. SA Adventure and LandyOnline hosted the 4×4 course at the event. There was a mud pit, axle twisters, rocky climbs … and Gabriel Hill. Most people found the 4×4 course quite easy until they reached Gabriel Hill – a steep climb of about 50 meters on a sandy loose surface and then a sharp right turn at the crest only to be faced with a steeper rocky decent at the top. Needless to say this had a few of the drivers wide eyed. A donation of R20 was made by each driver who drove the 4×4 course and this money will be donated to our friends at SPOTS who are working tirelessly against rhino poaching in South Africa!
Sunday was the day the record was going to be broken. The masses of people and Land Rovers of all makes and models started to gather on the field from about 10h00. All the vehicles had to be checked by the organisers and put into order, this as you can imagine took a bit of time! The convoy left at 13h00 to drive the 16-km route required to achieve the record. I have seen a lot of Land Rovers in my time but this was a sight to behold. The official number was a total of 1007 Land Rovers in convoy! We are still waiting for the confirmation from Guinness Word Records, but we are confident the record has been shattered right here in South Africa!
Well done to all the drivers and organisers, we can’t wait till next year!
Visit Land Rover South Africa online for images and info of all the latest models.
