After travelling 16,000 km, a third of the missions’ entire distance, “Overland 12” arrived in the Republic of Congo.

Cut in two by the equator, Congo and its weather are distinguished by high temperatures and abundant daily rainfall. These atmospheric conditions favour the growth of dense and luxuriant vegetation, the jungle, which grows in some areas of the rainforest.

The orange convoy travelled through extremely difficult and unviable conditions which allowed the Iveco “Overland” vehicles to perfectly demonstrate their incredible performance.

The two legendary “Big mugs” (Power Stars), model code 330.30 ANW 6x6, built as a canteen and a dormitory, have formed part of the convoy since 1995. These gigantic, 20 tonne, air cooled 300hp engine trucks are the backbone of the entire expedition.

The new Trakker AD380T45W, 6x6 with its 16 gear servoshift box, performed the role of workshop for the convoy. The vehicle’s 450hp engine has been “tropicalized” to be able to face high temperatures and all the rigorous efforts required to travel over the African terrain: kindly named the “ship of the desert”, this new Trakker owes this specific configuration to Iveco’s experience established and matured on the extreme off-road competition conditions.

The modern Daily 55S18WD 4x4 5.5 tons is the real new innovation in the “Overland” caravan. This van hosted medics and equipment from the University of Parma and it was “jealously” driven by Beppe Simonato of Iveco.

The light range included in the expedition was composed of two Massif 25S15SW 4x4 “Gran Raid”: as per their name, they are extremely agile and robustly strong at the same time. These carried the expedition leader, Overland network team and TV operators.

And thanks to these extraordinary IVECO vehicles the expedition continued on towards the Angolan Republic, on schedule, despite the difficult climate and itinerary.