Brian Joss –
The arrival of Rainer Zietlow, team leader, Marius Biela, photographer and cameraman, and blogger Sam Roach at the northernmost point of Norway, Norkapp at 2pm on Sunday September 19 marked the end of a gruelling 19 000km route across 21 countries they completed in just 9 days, 4 hours and 8 minutes (The Gremlin, September 21). Their target was to do the journey in under 10 days, so to complete 20 hours earlier was beyond their expectations. Kristina Hansen, Mayor of Nordkapp, Norway was waiting to welcome them and when she stamped and signed the papers the world record became official.
“We are overjoyed to have completed the Cape to Cape 2.0 Challenge without any problems in such a spectacular time. All three of us are now pretty tired, a little achy and in need of a hot shower and good night’s sleep (in an actual bed) after our non-stop 24 hour driving for the last nine days – but we’re thrilled with our achievement, and buzzing with the memories.
“Our Goodyear Wrangler tyres performed exceptionally well and we made the entire journey without any punctures or having to replace a tyre”, said team leader, Rainer Zietlow.
“We are happy with our amazing time of 9 days, 4 hours. This feeling makes up for the disappointment of 2014’s delays when we couldn’t set a competitive time. I am also very proud that our route took us on the maximum possible driving distance, keeping our permitted flight over Syria to the absolute minimum, otherwise we completed every possible kilometre driving on the ground. It’s really important for me to know that we completed every possible kilometre driving on the ground,” Zietlow said.
