Experience to Remember
A dramatic drive through desert, mountains and jungles in the brand-new Discovery is a Land Rover Experience to remember
An expedition through Peru’s mountains, jungles and desert in the all-new Discovery
Our Discovery HSE Si6 is surrounded by giants. Immense sand dunes tower above the vehicle, dwarfing us and the rest of the Discovery convoy we are part of. It’s day two of the 2017 Land Rover Experience Peru and we are exploring the spectacular desert country just inland from Peru’s west coast tourist hub of Pisco.
It is midday, and the sand is hot and soft. These challenging driving conditions are, today, a cinch – raising the Discovery’s suspension and shifting into sand mode has allowed drivers to treat this terrain with some disdain, albeit still with the required caution. The resulting driving experience is best described using that oft-used cliché of a roller-coaster ride, with our Discovery convoy driving up, down and alongside some impressive dunes for an afternoon.
In short, it’s cracking fun, and a brilliant way to kick off the driving component of the week-long exploration of this amazing South American country.
Are you experienced?
The Land Rover Experience (LRE) Peru is the latest in a long and distinguished line of trips. It has been running since 2000, with the initial tour based in Jordan. Since then LRE has guided modern-day four-wheel drive explorers through a number of unique global destinations, including Nepal, Iceland, Malaysia and Australia, with this Peru journey clocking in as number 12. Our group comprises a mix of international journalists and competition winners from the USA (Land Rover US ran an off-road driving competition, with the four winners scoring seats on the Peru 2017 trip), all united with a passion for adventure and Land Rovers.
The LRE is a brilliant concept; Land Rover’s lengthy history of exploration and adventure can sometimes be forgotten in these days of brand ambassadors such as Posh Spice and Jamie Oliver. This trip (and its predecessors) provides a reminder of that wilder, muddier heritage in spades. Plus, we’ve timed it perfectly as 2017 participants: the all-new Discovery, in stock SE and HSE Si6 form (bar the Goodyear Duratrac all-terrain tyres they are shod with and some ARB accessories, including air compressor, swags and
fridges), is our expedition rig for the next week, book-ended by two Range Rover Sports, carrying camera/video crew and trip guides.
In the beginning
Our trip actually starts two days before we jump in the vehicles, with the group flying from all corners of the globe on the first official day to the Peruvian adventure hub of Cusco. From here, we jump aboard – in this order – a bus, a train, and then another bus on the way to the World Heritage site of Machu Picchu which is, as expected, simply amazing. The train ride back gives plenty of time to think on what may be in store for the following days.
If you’d told me I would be flying from Cusco to the Peruvian coastal tourist hotspot of Pisco on my own Boeing 737, I may well have laughed. But, that’s exactly how our first driving day started. With around 30 of us on board, the 737 felt decidedly spooky but that sensation was soon forgotten and replaced with awe as we climbed up and away from Cusco and started crossing the rugged, snow-clad Andes. This huge mountain range and its icy peaks provided a massive contrast to our actual destination on the coast. The landscape around Pisco is decidedly barren, with the sands of the desert encroaching right to where the land meets the Pacific Ocean at many points on the coastline.
The desert driving experience is fantastic and only spoilt very slightly by one inattentive journo jamming a Discovery nose-first at the bottom of a relatively sharp drop-off and making an impressive mess of the front bumper and the radiator. It is here we say a silent thanks to the fact we’re travelling with LRE: the expedition mechanic – and a few of the guides, including our expedition doctor – get stuck in to the repairs and, impressively, have the busted-nose Discovery back and running within an hour. It’s a lesson we all take on board. The rest of the desert foray is at a slightly less excitable pace as we continue in a northerly direction, the steep, rugged ramparts of the lower Andes slowly becoming visible through the desert dust. We have to return to our coastal digs for this night, but that view does hint at what we can expect to be driving through tomorrow when we track north from Pisco. As it turned out, it was just a very small tease.
On a high
Leaving the glistening Pacific Ocean is only slightly tough the next morning; that sneak peek at the lower Andes has all of us pretty pumped – as does the first couple of hours as we blast north up the motorway toward Cañete. The supercharged V6 effortlessly pushes the vehicle as we track along the motorway, accompanied by glimpses of the Pacific to our left. Surprisingly, the chunky Goodyear Duratracs are also quiet; there’s little discernible tyre noise entering the cabin, pointing to effective sound-deadening. This means a quiet in-cabin experience for me and Gonzalo Raggio, my Peruvian co-driver.
We turn inland at Cañete and start our gradual ascent into the brown, dry, dusty mountain country. Initially we follow a river valley but this eventually narrows into what is locally known as River Canyon, in the Yauyos Province. The road surface alternates between sealed, gravel and dirt, with potholes becoming more frequent as we move further into the canyon. This part of the drive is incredible; the canyon walls are near-vertical – as is the drop-off from the roadside to the raging river beside us.
Needless to say, it is preferable to be the passenger through here, simply to be able to take your eyes off the road and enjoy the gigantic bronzed cliffs that shadow us as we climb ever higher. Confirming the volatile weather this region cops we are stopped, the first time, by a road crew removing huge boulders that have dropped from above – the result of rain eroding the cliffs. Another hour on, we are stopped once again, this time by a road crew re-sealing another exposed part of the road. The road itself is an amazing feat, cut through the canyon as it is, but equally worthy of admiration are the hard-working local road crews who must be out here fixing sections of this route for large parts of the year.
Climbing out of the canyon the terrain changes again;
bare, hard granite cliffs and mountains surround us as we drive well above the tree line and into some breathtaking vistas, which reach across barren peaks that seem to march close together toward the even higher snow-clad mountains beyond. Our climb finishes at 4600 metres, showcasing just how Peru’s landscape can change so quickly in what is a relatively small geographical area. It also shows the harshness of altitude sickness; we’ve travelled direct from sea level to this height in roughly four hours and a few of our party are emptying the contents of their stomachs here while the hardier of us wander around taking in the view and very thin air.
From this lofty viewpoint we drop down, crossing a landscape not unlike the Scottish Highlands. It’s an amazing contrast to the more jagged and dry western side of this mountain range.
As we descend, signs of civilisation start to reappear, and we spot a few hardy shepherds and their flocks of alpaca as we get close, and then pass through, the town of Chaquuicocha before reaching our overnight destination of Concepción and the welcoming Huaychulo Hotel. Looking at the route on our GPS – and allowing for its ability to show contour lines – it still doesn’t come close to showing just how dramatic the terrain was across the course of our day. From coastal resorts on the Pacific, to deep river canyons and then Highland-esque vales, the route packed in just about anything that you’d think would impress tourers. And Peru hadn’t finished yet.
Run through the jungle
I am sitting in the Discovery driver’s seat all too aware that around one metre to my left is a vertical drop of at least 500 metres. There’s not even a tree or rock in sight to break your fall – it is straight down. Magnifying awareness of our lofty position is the fact the road is sealed, but only in the literal sense; the surface is close to totally covered in potholes of varying depths and edge-sharpness. The Discovery’s tyres are thumping and bumping no matter how much I manoeuvre left and right – always with that drop in mind – while I remind myself that at least I am not driving the road in my 2003 Td5 Disco 2. The new Discovery’s steering is doing a brilliant job of muting the bumps and vibrations through the steering wheel.
We had climbed steadily since the morning, reaching a beautiful alpine plateau at 4350 metres, and passing by more shepherds and their flocks, as well as three pristine alpine lakes – Pomacocha, Habasccocha and Jeronimo. After the plateau it was descent time, down to the towns of Muchac, Pomamanta and Layainiyoc, then the Comas District, which signalled the start of our current cliff-side drive.
In truth, precarious road surface aside, the drive is exhilarating, with plenty to occupy the driver, including swapping over to manual shift mode; the rarefied air has affected the engines slightly and for the best responsive performance, shifting manually has become standard.
There is plenty to see up here. The valley below is patched with towns, green terraced fields, and topped with the ubiquitous jagged spires up top. And yet, it is over relatively quickly, as we start a drop in altitude, signalling our next and totally contrasting landscape: the Peruvian jungle.
The river valley is clad in dense, rich vegetation, with the only breaks in the wall of green the roaring waters of the Rio Pampa Hermosa, and the dirt track we are following. It is bumpy with river stone and wash-outs and it is here we see just why our leg of this LRE trip had to be re-routed: evidence of the power of the weather in this region is all along here – landslide damage and the resultant holes in the road remind us of the high rainfall this region is battered by.
Still, it is incredibly scenic, with the river punching its way down the valley to our left, and the wall of trees, plants and cliff faces on our other side, it is true jungle country. The bumpy surface is just that, without being overly jarring. The more challenging part of this section is the clay-like surface covering the bumps and rocks; the Goodyear Duratracs cop their biggest questions on this terrain but track true.
The bottom of the valley signals a return to civilisation; we time our arrival in villages dotting our way to Satipo with school children returning from their long days of learning.