Land Rover Discovery drives from UK to China for charity

Now here’s an offbeat news coming from Land Rover. Not content with just packing their things and flying them over to Beijing, the Brits decided to saddle up the Land Rover Discovery and drive there. And arrived just in time. This stunt, however, is done for a good cause.

The Discovery in these pictures is actually the one millionth Discovery to roll of the plant at Solihull, February 29, 2012. It had its ceremonial send-off at the Geneva Motor Show that happened in March. The journey took the team across 13 countries and cut through some of the beautiful yet harshest places on earth, like the Alps and Taklimakan Desert.

Right, back to the good deed. The ‘Journey of Discovery’, which four vehicles travel more than 10,000 miles (or 16,093.44 km) from Birmingham to Beijing. It aims to raise £1 million for the company’s Global Humanitarian Partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

Land Rover says that the journey is all about discovering stories of people and places along its route. Among the things the Discovery experienced was joined the Aosta Valley avalanche team in Italy, visited the Chernobyl reactor, drove through a secret Soviet submarine base in Ukraine, inner Kremlin, toured with a Bolshoi ballet dancer in Russia, met fishermen in the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan, drove on the spice and silk routes to China, then to the Great Wall and took a trip on a sheepskin raft… just to name a few.

The Discovery appeared in Beijing, unwashed, over 50 days since it first started on the journey. This one millionth Discovery will be displayed at the British Motor Industry Heritage after the expedition.

While the team has reached their destination, Beijing, they are still short of their fundraising goal. The team will continue to push for fund right till the end of May. If you’d like to help the cause, visit www.landrover.com/million.