DefenderX: the last great overland challenge. London – New York. Episode 1

Talking with Jeff Willner about his ongoing overland expedition from London to New York.

Not entirely dissimilar to First Overland, where six Oxford and Cambridge students embarked upon an impossible journey from London to Singapore in two Series One Land Rovers, Jeff Willner is endeavouring to complete what is possibly the last overland challenge from London to New York – a journey that includes mounting large pontoons to the vehicles and crossing the Bering Strait, which is approximately 82 km at its narrowest point between Russia and Alaska.

JEFF WILLNER is an entrepreneur. His first business venture was a computer training company that he sold to Microsoft. After a spell as a McKinsey consultant, he founded Kensington Tours in 2007, which, through acquisitions and growth, has since developed into the Travel Edge Group.

The seed for Jeff’s passion for travel was sown at an early age when he was growing up in South Africa.
Jeff, this is by no means your first adventure.

Can you summarise your earlier trips and tell me how the idea for London to New York was born?

I did my first overland trip in 1999. Six months through twelve countries in Southern and Eastern Africa. And then, after my MBA, I decided to take a year off and drove around the world taking in around 70 countries and almost every continent. So, that was Cape to Cairo, through the Middle East, to the top of Sweden, and then back down to Spain. From there, I shipped to Brazil and explored South America, before continuing on to Singapore, through Southeast Asia, across China to Everest, India, back across the Middle East, and all the way to England. Then, I shipped back to Toronto where I started a job, got married, had kids, and basically stopped travelling.

I did manage a short six-week trip down to South America again. I also crossed Iceland in one of those tricked-out large-tyre Defenders.

But then came the COVID shutdown. We really couldn’t do anything and were getting a bit stir crazy. That was when I read the article in Overland Journal about the Steve Burgess and Dan Richards expedition. One thing led to another, and I started firing e-mails to different people asking if they thought it was possible. From there, it just picked up steam.