We are into the longest day, driving over 1,000 kms down The Caprivi Strip. It's arrow straight to far horizons through thick green vegetation - two-metre tall grass lines the road. Good feeding ground for herds of elephants. David Tomlin and Nick Adcock stopped their Land Rover to allow a bull elephant to cross the road.

On the map, The Caprivi Strip appears like a strange finger pointing inland, narrow but long, a relic of the times when Africa was carved up in Colonial fashion to give Germany access to the sea from the centre through their adopted Namibia.

Flatdog have recently launched their own itinerary for fully escorted Adventure Tours. Kicking off with two 12-day Moroccan trips in March 2012 their full itinerary will also include D-Day anniversary and battlefield tours in France and Belgium as well as destinations to Poland, Greece and Portugal.

Each tour is designed to cater for travelers in standard off-road vehicles without the need for major surgery or the addition of a massive kit list. They will have a qualified first-aid responders and a mechanic on every trip.

As mentioned elsewhere, it is not every day you get handed the keys  to £300,000 worth of British Motoring Excellence. Even rarer that you get free reign without someone from LR HQ 'assisting' you. So welcome to LRW's own version of 'Four go mad in Kent'

Words and Photos: Simon Ward-Hastelow, Damian Turner and Lee Ballard

Firstly I think we should make
something very clear, the four people assembled here on this fine autumn day are not professional car testers, none of us has ever driven the Nurburgring in under 10 minutes, none of us has competed in the Dakar an none of us own vehicles where you push a button to start it.

So, that out of the way, we should reassure you that we are all Land Rover fanatics with a ridiculously long 'previously owned' list between us. However at the moment the newest Land Rover that any of us own is already 15 years old.

What this means, as we step inside the very best vehicles that Land Rover currently offer, is that this is a real-world reaction. We are not judging the Vogue against the X5 or the Evoque against a VW Toureg. I'm judging these vehicles against a Defender 130 and Discovery 300 tdi, because that's what I drive every day. Damian drives a 300tdi Discovery too and Lee, photographer and general dogs body for the day, drives a 200tdi Defender 110.