Frozen adventure

Awesome day. After yesterday's hairy drive in a zero visibility blizzard, and last night's howling wind across the bleak winter landscape of Iceland, today dawned bright and calm for our day-long drive in the new Land Rover Discovery Sport.

This is the successor to the old Freelander, and it is a more sophisticated vehicle with a longer body and seven seats instead of five. It is a highly competent and civilised car to drive, and we made full use today of its clever Terrain Response system in the grass/gravel/snow setting. It was hard to tell how quiet it is in normal conditions on normal roads, because we were running all day on ice and snow, and riding on tyres with 200 metal studs in each one to ensure sufficient grip in very tricky conditions.

We had a morning coffee stop in huts specially commissioned by Land Rover for the event, and that will be donated to the Icelandic Alpine Club of rescue volunteers when this two-month international press launch is concluded. Lunch was in a converted barn with stunning views across the Hvita river. These 12-feet high wellies were Land Rover's temporary British flag-waving landmark in the car park.

After a mega day's driving we are now in Reykjavik tonight before an early flight home tomorrow. It has been an amazing trip.