When I catch up, via FaceTime, with Jeff Gunn, he’s lounging in the sunshine at a campground in El Calafate, Argentina.
He’s also rocking a COVID-era and overlanding-trip extraordinaire mane of beyond-shoulder-length blond hair.
The retired CIBC banker from Kelowna and his retired City of Kelowna staffer wife, Lois, are elated, having just completed a life mission, a milestone, an incredible journey.
The odyssey was the 30,000-kilometer Pan American Highway from the northernmost point of continental North America to the southernmost point of continental South America in a pop-up truck camper.
The couple started their 43,000-kilometre odyssey at the Arctic Circle.” class=”img-responsive” src=”https://www.kamloopsbcnow.com/files/files/images/Jeff%20Gunn%20(Arctic%20Ocean) .jpg” style=”margin: 5px;”/>
When the couple retired in early 2019, they finally had the time and opportunity to go big and drive the entire Pan American Highway, the network of roads spanning the length of the two continents, which the Guinness Book of World Records declared the longest motorable road on the planet.
While the Pan American is 30,000 kilometers, the Gunns have actually covered 43,000 kilometers on their pilgrimage.
The extra mileage started right off the bat in May 2019 when the couple drove the 5,500 to the Arctic Circle to start the Pan American near Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
They made some detours, adding more kilometers, by driving the same road as they do in the TV show Ice Road Truckers, following the Dempster Highway in Inuvik and taking the all-weather road to Tuktoyaktuk.
Those following the Pan American are called overlanders, a term inspired by those in Land Rovers with rooftop tents who travel long distances over land.
The Gunns’ pop-up truck camper is a little bigger than a Land Rover with rooftop tent, but not by much.
It was custom-made with an extending roof and pop-up queen-size bed, miniscule kitchen with fridge, stove, sink and dinette for two and a tiny bathroom that’s little more than a toilet.
“Our vehicle is the perfect combo of size and maneuverability,” says Jeff.
“It’s big enough to have everything we need, but small enough to navigate narrow South American streets and get on and off ferries.”
Jeff and Lois Gunn completed their trip at one of the ‘ends of the road’ (translated to Fin de Camino), south of Punta Arenas, Chile.” class=”img-responsive” src=”https://www.kamloopsbcnow .com/files/files/images/Jeff%20Gunn%20(Fin%20de%20Camino).jpg” style=”margin: 5px;”/>
The Pan American continues down South America through Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile before ending in one of two places — Fin de Camino (which translated means ‘end of the road’), just south of Punta Arenas, Chile or Ushuaia, Argentina .
The Gunns detoured several times to visit the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, veered off into Brazil and taking the Carretera Austral, a remote 1,250-kilometre dirt road in Chile that traverses rain forests, fjords and glaciers.
The trek was completed in two distinct parts.
From May 2019 to March 2020, pre-pandemic, the couple made it from the Arctic Circle to Santiago, Chile before the world shut down and they had to put their truck in storage and fly home to Kelowna.
In November 2021 when Chile reopened to travelers who are fully vaccinated, the Gunns returned to finish the last bit from Chile into Argentina.
They plan to amble around South and Central America for four or five more months before ending up in Buenos Aires where they’ll ship their truck from so they can fly home to Kelowna.
Pre-pandemic, the couple’s plan was to ship the truck from Argentina to South Africa, where they would reunite with it for another epic road trip — 12,000 kilometers on the Trans-Sahara Highway, the entire length of the African continent.
COVID has scuttled that possibility, so the couple is considering Jeff’s birthplace of Australia for their next overland adventure.
Jeff and Lois chronicled their Pan American quest at OneEndlessRoad.com.
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