A couple of weeks ago an intrepid team of three Germans set off from the southern end of the 16,000 mile Panamerican Highway in Argentina driving a Volkswagen Touareg TDI. Their goal was to drive non-stop to the northern end at Deadhorse in Alaska in 14 days, lopping ten days off the previous record. You can check my original post here.
With all the possible delays they might have encountered traversing 14 countries, it was amazing to find them accomplishing the task in less than 12 days. Some might say they cheated at one stage by chartering a plane to cross the border between Columbia and Panama, bypassing the Darien Gap, the only part that’s not completed.
By coincidence I am currently travelling from Alaska to California driving a 1999 Ford F150 towing a pop-up camper for a friend who did not want to make the 3400 mile journey herself. A friend and myself offered to undertake the chore. Having just spent two days on the Alaskan Highway in Alaska and Yukon I now know from firsthand experience that making fast time is no mean achievement. The road is under repair for a dozens of miles at a time and you often have to make stops in construction zones.
I had hoped to actually see the Touareg TDI as it was “flying” north but we arrived at the spot in the Yukon, where I’d anticipated seeing them, a day too late as they finished two days earlier than expected.
Traversing the Alaskan Highway has always been on my bucket list. It’s fascinating to find that while some people are jealous of my “working vacation” others say they would hate to undertake such a long drive. If you needed to get a truck and trailer from Anchorage to Southern California would you drive? Or would you consider it a task and just as soon let someone else do it for you?
Related posts:
- VW Touareg Team Tackle Pan American Highway
- Revealed: The New Volkswagen Touareg
- 2011 Volkswagen Touareg
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