PHOTOS | 2020 Defender Mzansi Expedition

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2020 has been a tough year all round. For Land Rover South Africa it meant cancelling its local Defender launch scheduled for mid-year.
Mercifully the government-implemented lockdown levels opened up and the British carmaker was able to host a media event.
Labelled the 'Defender Mzansi Expedition', it's a three-day trip around the Western Cape in the new Defender.
Apart from my luggage, my driving partner and I packed in six packs of DoMore porridge meals into the Defender's 646-litre boot.
The porridge is heading to schools in the Cedarberg to feed and add nourishment to the lives of families in the Western Cape.
For day one of the trip we'd be behind the wheel of a Defender 110 P400 First Edition model.
The 3.0-litre straight-six mild-hybrid (MHEV) engine in P400 with 294kW made heading up Bainskloof Pass a breeze.
The in-line six-cylinder engine has a lovely throaty rasp on start-up and under hard acceleration.
The Defender boasts a maximum approach angle of 38 degrees, departure angle of 40 degrees and a breakover angle of 28 degrees.
On the early evening of day one, the convoy arrived at the Kromrivier Cederberg Park. This would be our rest stop for the night.
We were joined by famed explorer and humanitarian Kingsley Holgate and his team, including son Ross and grandson Tristan.
Mzansi Edge expedition leader Ross Holgate telling us a wonderful story around the fire.
Mountain biker 'Shova Mike' Nixon, one of only four people in the world to have completed every ABSA Cape Epic shares some memories of the trip so far.
One of Holgate's traditions is cooking steak on a spade over hot coals. Here, Ross shows us how it's done. The meat was delicious in case you were wondering.
Holgate's team is currently on a 70-day, 10 000km Mzansi Edge Expedition, following the entire land border of the country and track the Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines.
Day two saw the Defender Mzansi Expedition and Mzansi Edge convoys traveling together.
It was a privilege to help out in a small way as we off loaded the nutritious porridge packs to school children.
It is a team effort to deliver these food parcels, soap and puzzles to the school children.
Land Rover has equipped the Holgates with two new Defenders to take on the Mzansi Edge Expedition.
Holgate said: "This journey, along with so many before it, has highlighted once again how the teamwork and camaraderie among the expedition crew and those we meet en route make us all capable of great things."
We bid farewell to the Holgate crew and wished them well as we got back on the road.
On the way back to Cape Town, we 'found' a large boulder that looked like a good spot to test the Defender.
The Defender really made mincemeat of this obstacle. It has a maximum ground clearance of 294mm.
The auto setting on the terrain response system is more than capable of dealing with whatever is thrown at it.
Descending or ascending, the Defender's 4x4 crawl mode means I could take my foot entirely off the brake and let the car do all the work.
'Hey ma, look at me!'. The Defender really showed off its 4x4 credentials in this scenario.
An all-encompassing SUV that was as comfortable on the road as it was excellent off-road. A simply remarkable bit of kit.