........… Next stop Iran…
The eight Renault Trucks that set off from Lyon on the epic Silk Road route on 2nd April have covered over 5000 kilometres, taking in the cities of Munich, Venice, Ljubljana (Slovenia), Budapest (Hungary), Bucharest (Romania), Varna (Bulgaria) and Istanbul (Turkey).
On arrival in Istanbul, the team was joined by Portuguese ‘Woman of the Year’ and seven-time winner of Portugal’s Ladies National Four-Wheel Drive Championship, Elisabete Jacinto, who immediately took to the steering wheel of a Renault Kerax for the next challenging phase of the Silk Road route.
The team has already experienced the semi-desert region of Cappadocia, renowned for its grottos and caves, minerals, magnificent countryside and whirling dervish ceremonies, and has now crossed the Asia border to head to Iran, one of the most challenging and spectacular terrains of the off-road adventure so far.
Adults and children have been lining their paths as the convoy passed through main cities, where they’ve already received warm welcomes from diplomats of no less than eleven countries.
The Renault Trucks (six Kerax and two Sherpa) are taking on the deserts of sand, stone and salt, passes of up to 3,800m high, stony valleys, muddy and rocky tracks and vast extents of steppe between the two silk capitals, Lyon and Peking, aiming for a June arrival date.
Covering an incredible 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometres) through Europe, Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China, including Mongolia, Silk Road 2005 is an exciting real-life demonstration and test of the robustness and sheer endurance of the Renault Kerax.
The expedition is the first time that Renault trucks have covered such a distance and areas as harsh as the famous Gobi desert and the Taklamakan desert, which means “he who goes in, will not come out”.
Euan Harron, Marketing Director of Renault Trucks UK, commented: “It’s exciting to monitor the progress of the Renault Kerax and Sherpas so far away from the UK. The terrain so far has been challenging but nothing the trucks haven’t coped with easily. The adventure is a true demonstration of the versatility and robustness of these vehicles.”
