Off the beaten track with the Land Rover Defender

DESARU, MALAYSIA - Desaru is just a short two hours drive from Singapore typically, and is a popular destination for folks here looking for some quick rest and relaxation away from the stresses of the city. However, Malaysia also offers plenty of opportunities to go off the beaten path, and it is with that in mind that Land Rover invited us on a drive to Desaru like no other.

The car of choice for this trip is of course the Defender, Land Rover’s rugged and no-nonsense off-roader that has been reinvented for the 21st century. Critics might lament that the new Defender, with its ‘softer’ design and modern conveniences, detract from the true off-road essence of the old Defender. But Land Rover is here to prove that the modern version is just as capable as taking on the rough stuff as its predecessor.

To that end, the organisers planned a route that took in plenty of off-road exploits. Not that we would know it initially, as the early parts of our trip saw us driving on the usual highways and B-roads that would usually be more suited to regular cars like the string of Volkswagens and Skodas that our very own Jay drove to the same destination just a month earlier.

Nevertheless, the Defender 90 that myself and contributing editor David Khoo were assigned to for this leg proved very much up to the job. The 90 is the three-door version of the Defender range, and the shorter wheelbase seemed to revel in the on-road experience in a manner that betrays its rugged image. It’s still a sizeable car undoubtedly, but it felt nimble enough on the B-roads to deliver an enjoyable drive, without feeling too cumbersome and clumsy as it can be with some other large SUVs.

After our first brunch/coffee stop at the Rainforest Tree House Cafe (which is exactly as the name describes), we headed off into our first off-road adventure of the trip. This bit was relatively straightforward as compared to what we would be encountering on the next day, and mostly saw us traverse through sandy dirt roads through oil palm plantations.

It’s the kind of roads that any half decent off-roader would be able to take on with ease, and so the Defender naturally went through them with aplomb.

Nevertheless, we still took our own sweet time regardless, and after we checked into our resort for a late lunch, we prepared ourselves for the return trip the next day with some much-needed rest. At this rate, we’ll be home in no time.

Or so we thought. The next day greeted us with some morning rain, and with it, wet roads. Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be a problem, but as we were supposedly going to tackle some slightly challenging hill climbs off the beaten track, the wet weather threatened to throw a spanner into the plan.

After some consultation and deliberation (and waiting for the rain to ease), it was decided that we would proceed with our off-road adventure as planned. It probably speaks much about the confidence we had in the Land Rovers in tackling tricky conditions, but it didn’t make it any less sketchy.

We ended up at a place called Tangga 7, which is essentially a hill accessible via a narrow dirt path, and consisting of some pretty steep slopes, with some of them up to 15 degrees. Even in the dry, the climb looked pretty formidable, but the wet weather threw in an unexpected element as it turned the surface into a clay-like consistency, making it both slick and slippery, and potentially treacherous for the inexperienced.

David took the ascent, which was arguably the slightly easier task, and left me to tackle the descent. With potentially steep drops down the side of the hill awaiting us should things go wrong, I approached the slopes with trepidation.

Truth be told, the car did much of the work, with the Hill Descent Control system coming in particularly handy on the downhill segment by automatically controlling the brakes on the descent. The Terrain Response System meanwhile, with its selectable drive modes that’s easy to configure, sends power to the right wheels appropriately according to the conditions.

Still, there needed to be a degree of skill and finesse from the driver in these tricky situations, and most of the time we were going at crawling pace (like 1-2km/h), all the while trying to maintain steering control and preventing the car from slipping off the track. But credit to the Defender, as well as the experienced crew guiding us along the way, we made it down unscathed and in one piece.

It certainly wasn’t an ‘easy’ trip to Desaru by any means, but the capabilities of the Defender made the whole thing feel effortless. It’s not something we recommend unless you really know what you’re doing, but if you have the right car and the requisite skills, going off the beaten path can be truly rewarding in many ways.

ALSO READ: Land Rover Defender 90 officially lands in Singapore

This article was first published in CarBuyer.