Defender Trophy
Welcome to Defender Trophy
The Defender Trophy started in 2004, and is a family friendly overlanding event for Land Rover Defender enthusiasts.
Make-up
Our group size is limited to 30 vehicles and approximately 60 people – participants, support crew and media.
Traditionally, the Defender Trophy visited Provincial Parks, National Parks and TFCA’s.
Only eco friendly routes are selected with care to ensure minimum impact with maximum enjoyment by participants.
Participants need to be self sufficient in terms of food, drinking water and camping equipment.
Humanitarian Outreach
On each Defender Trophy the participants donate food and/or clothing to the needy.
Media: The Defender Trophy also enjoys wide media coverage on various social media platforms, to magazine articles, video productions and even Television
Where Defender Trophy Started
The original Defender Trophy was the brain child of Johan Kriek.
He organised, managed and guided the first 3 events.
The inaugural event took place in 2004 in Lesotho, Limpopo province in 2005, and in 2006 we followed the Limpopo river into Mozambique and into The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park – and what memorable events they both were!! 🙂
In those days the Defender trophy was squarely aimed at the average Defender owner and offered great Defender adventures with fun-filled competitions focused around the Defender and its rich heritage.
Standard vehicles were the order of the day, and “obstacles” along the way were selected with great care to ensure the vehicles were not damaged in any way. Bonding and camaraderie between the guys was something out of this world! (The event was never intended to be the extreme competition that it later became).
We re-created the Defender Trophy in 2016, and based it on the original winning formula! Come and experience one of the greatest Defender events for yourself!
OUR SPONSORS
Media Partners
About Our Event Organiser
Johan Kriek, is a qualified Tour Guide and Tour Operator, and besides the Defender Trophy Event, also owns ZA TRAX (www.zatrax.com)
He has over 30 years of experience in both guided and non-guided 4×4 self drive tourism products, was the first South African tour operator to introduce self drive tours to the Wildebeest migration in the the Serengeti in Tanzania.
Johan was also a shareholder in Transfrontier Parks Destinations (Pty) Ltd (2005 – 2012), and developed the Shingwedzi 4×4 trail in the Parque Nacional do Limpopo, as well as the Luvuvhu 4×4 Trail in the Letaba- and Makuya sectors of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.
While doing work for Land Rover, he launched the first Defender Trophy Overland Event in 2004. That first event attracted nearly 20 vehicles, and took place in the now Maloti Drankensberg TFCA. The 2005 Defender Trophy took place in the Limpopo province of SA, and the 2006 Defender Trophy took place in Parque Nacional do Limpopo, in the Great Limpopo TFCA.
From 2007 onwards (Johan was now busy with product development for TFPD), Land Rover hosted the Defender Trophy and unfortunately changed it into a driving competition. This eventually became too expensive, and the event died a natural death in 2014.
In 2016, during a Land Rover Defender “get together”, Johan was asked to re-introduce the Defender Trophy, based on the original ‘Overland” concept, and the rest is history.
2016 took place in Limpopo, which included the Lekgalameetse NR, and the Letaba Ranch sector of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park.
2017 took place in the Makuya Park sector of the GLTFP, 2018 took place in the Blouberg NR as well as the Mapungubwe National Park (GMTFCA), and 2019 took place in the Greater Mapungubwe TFCA.
