The mid-week long read: scout's honour
Recce-ing the routes for the 2018 Porsche World Expedition
Almost nothing grows in the Simpson Desert. The odd shrub or native sweet grass can withstand the blistering heat and near-constant drought of this vast wilderness, but you don’t need a PhD in Biogeography to see this is not a place that readily supports life.
And to make matters worse, over the 68,000 square miles of dusty plains and high dunes in the heart of Australia’s impossibly vast and unremitting outback, you will not find a single paved road. Which is why it seems an unlikely place to find a Porsche Cayenne S.
Rewind 24 hours: on a detailed reconnaissance mission for next year’s Porsche World Expedition, the Porsche Driving Experience team arrived at the desert town of Birdsville to be greeted by an unlikely amount of water.
“You can’t go any further,” shouts an employee from the Birdsville tourist information centre. “All the roads are flooded! Turn around right here!” Energetic circular motions follow to indicate the only course of action – an about turn.
Catja Wiedenmann, the director of the Porsche Driving Experience, is not so easily daunted. “That’s a nice welcome,” she remarks with a smile, her mind already beginning to unpick the options.
The next town is nearly 700 kilometres away, and the roads nothing to shout about, even when not under water. Wiedenmann had originally intended to drive the Cayenne south from Birdsville, skirting the Simpson Desert. She now faces a 2,000km detour to avoid the flooding. Or a shortcut through the desert itself.
Forty-year-old Wiedenmann likes to push the limits, and necessarily so. Her job offers her a lot of contact with Porsche enthusiasts who seek to explore and expand their driving skills. She and a small team are in Australia to prepare for what may well be the most spectacular driving experience Porsche has ever offered—the 2018 Porsche World Expedition.
Participants will have the chance to drive the new Porsche Cayenne on various detailed and highly challenging routes around the world. Six tours on six continents, taking in 4,000m high mountain passes in the Andes, the salt deserts of Bolivia, African national parks, the dirt roads and temples of Southeast Asia and central America, European lakes and the Australian Outback. “There’s never been anything like this before,” says Wiedenmann. And it’s not hard to believe. The expedition is unique and completely extraordinary.
Things will get rolling in May with the Australian tour, which starts off in Brisbane on the east coast and heads for Perth—capital of Western Australia—on the coast of the Indian Ocean. The European tour will follow in June, leaving from Norway’s North Cape and ending in Chamonix in France. Four more expeditions of 13-14 days will follow—in Africa, Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia. Each tour will be 3,500 to 7,000 kilometres long and involve a maximum of 28 participants. Up to four of them will share a specially equipped Cayenne, taking turns driving as much as 1,000km a day. The routes will be governed by classic rallying regulations, meaning set start times and arrivals within specified periods.
“The World Expedition is designed for passionate Porsche fans who enjoy unique experiences with kindred spirits and seek extreme driving challenges—and who long for adventures that are simply priceless,” says Wiedenmann.
It was she who came up with the original idea and put together an experienced team of professional travellers, event managers, rally experts, medical personnel, photographers, and local guides to make it happen. They have spent months selecting the best possible routes, determining daily stages, and finding outstanding accommodation. Each route is being tested from start to finish. Like this one now in Australia. “We personally inspect every part of the route,” says expedition leader Annette Loftus, a travel specialist from the United States.
The team works flat out to ensure the success and quality of every aspect of the Porsche World Expedition. Loftus is forever wading through red tape, negotiating with authorities in China over driver’s licences, arranging for Maasai tribesmen to guide her to a hot spring in the Tanzanian jungle, planning evening meals with award-winning Swedish chefs.
The current process she refers to as ‘the reality check’: “We inspect each room, test the food in every location, and cover 40,000km.”
Loftus and her scouts have already recced the routes in Europe and Africa, during precisely the same weeks they’ll be travelled next year. The Africa tour, for example, will coincide with the great wildebeest migration in the Serengeti. In one of the most tremendous natural events in the world, six million animals cross the Maasai Mara. And now Loftus has received special permission from national park authorities for the Porsche group to be there.
“Sometimes we even manage to achieve the nearly impossible,” says Wiedenmann, as she sets off fearlessly into the Simpson Desert. An experienced Porsche driver, she observes that what few tracks exist are challenging, but also the perfect way for the new Cayenne to prove its mettle. As she drives on she makes another decision, and this impromptu shortcut evolves into an official part of the Australian route. Three days and 500km of high-desert driving, with a camp under star-studded skies.
The 2018 Porsche World Expedition begins on May 11 in Australia and will wrap up in Southeast Asia on October 28. For more information visit www.porsche.de/world-expedition. And take us with you.
Cayenne S: Fuel consumption combined 9.4 – 9.2 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 213 – 209 g/km
Join In
Comments (2)
It's a great idea, this big tour gonna nail it. Just it link doesn't work😢😢. Though, wish I be in one of these events a day😎.
Who is chosen to go on the teams?