Round-the-world auto expedition

On October 2, 2024, at 22:50, the ship "Argus" with the Transglobal Car expedition on board entered Wolfis Bay in Namibia. So we can consider that another stage of the journey is over. On the 268th day of the expedition, on the morning of October 3, the team landed on the coast of Namibia.

The African stage was divided into two parts. From Morocco in the north, having covered more than 7 thousand kilometers across the Atlantic Ocean, the team moved to the south of the continent. There are 42 days of adventure ahead. Then from Cape Town the cars and crews on the same "Argus" will move to South America, to Punta Arenas.

In the meantime, the route goes along the West Coast of Namibia, through one of the largest and most uncompromising deserts in the world, called the Namib. For climbing, they found the longest dune in the world here. At +40, this is not easy.

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club: I am writing today, because the last 3 days have not been easy for us. In the area of the Vinson Massif and on the Antarctic Horn, bad weather has played out in earnest. It piled up to 1 m of snow.

Our Automobile expedition decided to complete the reconnaissance. Many conclusions have been made, equipment has been tested, and adjustments have been made to our subsequent crossing of Antarctica. Good luck to everyone in life and new adventures! We flew home on a private plane.

It also happens....

The team on the Vinson Massif attempted an ascent. But they went down because of the strong wind and snow from the High camp to the Low camp. They will be waiting for a new opportunity to climb the mountain. Now the members of the team are digging in tents and preparing for the approaching 2-day storm.

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club from Antarctica: Today Is December 7th. Our Vinson-2 team flew to Union Glacier. And literally 2 hours later they flew to the base camp of the Vinson Massif.  After that, the weather window immediately closed. And an hour later it was already snowing.

The team of the Round-the-world Automobile Expedition has very bad news. The weather on the route of our cars deteriorated for about 6 days. A hurricane is raging on the Peninsula (Antarctic Peninsula). We can't fly to our cars. There is a week of waiting ahead. The weather on Union Glacier has also deteriorated. It's snowing now. We don't give up.

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club: December 6th. So the Antarctic wait began. We didn't fly anywhere yesterday. Today, it looks like it will be too. We spend time chatting with our first team that climbed Mount Vinson. These are three Indians, led by Artem Rostovtsev. They brought a huge flag of India 15x50 m. We also looked at the invention of the century: a Porsche on tracks and skis.  In general, we are waiting for departure to Sky Blue, where our cars are already waiting for us. But the weather is bad there now…

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club: The team of the Round-the-World Automobile Expedition has prepared all the necessary equipment. And on the 5th of December in the morning we fly to Antarctica on the Union Glacier. We also take skis and sleds with us to conduct reconnaissance from the last point where the cars will reach.

We decided to make two flights at once, to Union Glacier 3,500 km and without delay another 1,000 km to Sky Blue. To the place of our start.  A lot of bags and trunks are flying with us. We will send photos and news daily, as we have new Iridium equipment for satellite Internet. The team is healthy and happy. We passed 3 tests for the COVID. Today we met a new team of the 7 Summits Club, which is flying to the Vinson Massif. These are 12 participants led by Volodya Kotlyar, Artem Rostovtsev and Nirmal (Nims) Purji. Hello everyone and see you soon!

Alexander Abramov, President of the 7 Summits Club: A new expedition of the 7 Summits Club and the Goodgear Company in Antarctica begins. Now it is an auto expedition.  The task of the team, which includes Alexander Abramov, Vasily Shakhnovsky and Alexey Safonov, is to drive 2000 km across Antarctica by car and explore the Antarctic peninsula for the possibility of driving through it by car.  This is a unique expedition, as no 4x4 car has ever passed in these parts. Only planes.

The difficulty is made up of glaciers, huge crevasses, deep snow. And absolutely unexplored areas are dangerous for the passage of cars.

Exploration is carried out on specially prepared cars “Arctic Truck”, which successfully run in East Antarctica, where there is thick ice and fairly flat terrain. But it have never been to the Antarctic peninsula, which consists of a mountain range with a complex terrain.

This exploration is part of the plan for a round-the-world automobile expedition along the meridian through the 2 Poles of the Earth, which we are going to make in a year. The circumnavigation is unique. Not a single car has been able to drive through 2 Poles North and South and cross 5 continents (Europe, Africa, North and South America and Antarctica).

Now we are exploring Antarctica, and on March 1 we are leaving for Canada for automobile exploration of the possibility of traveling through the Northern Islands of Canada and access to the Arctic ice.