When Patty Mercier jumped in Loren Upton’s 1966 Jeep CJ5, she knew she was in for an adventure. The man behind the wheel was on his fourth attempt to cross the Darién Gap. The first three trips had ended in death and disaster, but Upton, an intrepid adventurer, would not be deterred.

In addition to his determination to cross the treacherous Darién Gap entirely on land, Upton had raised the stakes on this voyage. For his fourth attempt, he decried that he would drive one American-made vehicle around the world. The route would be from North America’s Northernmost point to South America’s southernmost point. The only water crossing would be the South Atlantic. They would continue from the Southernmost point in Africa to the Northernmost point in Norway.

The trip started in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, on 15 June 1984. They traveled more than 56,000 miles and took five years to complete the drive around the world. The crossing of the 125-mile Darién Gap was an astonishing 741 days. The Sand Ship Discovery, the name that Upton gave his intrepid Jeep, reached the Sletness Lighthouse near Gamvik, Norway, on 4 July 1989.

The couple earned a citation in the 1992 Guinness Book of Records for the “First All-Land Crossing Of The Infamous Darien Gap From Yauiza, Republic of Panama to Ríosucio, Colombia 22 February 1985 to 4 March 1987.”

Loren Lee Upton died at 87 years old on 9 August 2022

Patty Upton is searching for a museum to house Sand Ship Discovery, the 1966 CJ5, and for a writer to capture the story of their around-the-world drive. Please get in touch with her through her website: www.outbackofbeyond.com

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