drive modes—my drive partner and I agree
to set the Terrain Response system into
Auto mode, which seems uncannily adept
at conforming to the changing landscape
faster than we can.
Ten hours and a mere 93 miles later,
we roll into our digs for the night on an
elephant conservancy just outside of
the town of Purros. Weirdly, I feel pretty
good—I have enough off-road miles under
my belt to know that I usually feel in need
of a stiff whiskey and a couple aspirin after
10 hours straight of bouncing over rocks,
dirt, and sand. This time, not so much. The
Defender’s comfortable cabin deserves
some of the credit, but the suspension
deserves even more.
I’m typically in the anti-air suspension
camp because vehicles equipped with
them ride harshly in their off-road ride
heights and lack articulation. But Land
Rover’s team has worked wonders on the
Defender’s setup. Like Ford’s Fox Shox on
the Raptor, the Defender’s air springs have
an uncanny ability to control ride quality,
provide ample articulation, and virtually
eliminate impacts from intruding into the
cabin—even, say, massive drainage ditchesor “surprise” boulders. Or jumps off sand
dunes, as it would turn out.The Skeleton Coast:
19° 0 3’38. 0 ”S, 1 2 °35’53.3”E
Gravity marries our heavily loaded but
still airborne Defender with the sand
soon after takeoff, none the worse for
the wear. Laughter fills the cabin as we
gun the gravelly diesel engine and chase
the leading silver Defender hard by the
watery graveyard of Namibia’s Skeleton
Coast and into the Hoarusib River.
We were initially pretty stoked to have
traded our trusty Defender P400 for a
Defender D240 that morning—mostly
because, well, it was green and came
equipped with 18-inch steel wheels,The Defender’s Explorer Pack was put to
good use during our lunch stops (top) while
giraffes look on curiously near the Hoarusib.the Marienfluss. Slick with loose rock and
steep drop-offs, the jagged path is punctu-
ated with carcasses of Toyota Hiluxes that
have gone over the side.
With Rock mode engaged and the air
suspension raised and making full use
of the Defender’s ground-view camera
(which looks like a view through an invis-
ible hood at the surface the front tires are
currently traversing), we slowly amble
down the pass.
Here, the Defender’s cross-linked
air suspension displays its excellence.
Capable of adjusting ride height at each
corner independently, all four corners
together, or any combination thereof, the
suspension mimicks a live-axle vehicle as
we make our way over the pass’ deep rocks
and ruts, quickly dropping any airborne
wheel to the ground, maximizing trac-
tion at each corner. That’s not to say the
Defender doesn’t occasionally have a tire
in the air, but the Land Rover’s electronics
do a fabulous job at helping me navigate
effortlessly down the pass and onto the
valley floor.
Louis L’Amour once wrote, “You can’t
fight the desert ... you have to ride with
it.” And although his tales chronicled the
American West, he might as well have
been talking about the Marienfluss.
Ahead of us sits a seemingly endless
two-track, with the occasional oil barrel
serving as a waypoint, the sand’s changing
tan, red, and brown hues broken up only
by fields of skull-sized rock that seem
ideally placed to ruin your day.
We soon find ourselves in a monot-
onous dance through the valley. First,
we charge hard and fast across the soft
sand, the Land Rover’s Sand mode giving
the Defender more aggressive throttle
response and, equally important, less
restrictive traction control intervention.
Then, it’s heavy on the brakes as the rock
fields sneak up on us. Emerging from
that, it’s down into Gravel mode for its
more aggressive differential programing
as we pick our way through the rocks.
Then Sand mode again.
After repeating this dance for the
umpteenth time—and after I ran off the
trail while looking at the screen to change
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