Rainer Zietlow (right of photo) and team happy to have completed first leg without incident.
CNG adventurer Rainer Zietlow has completed the first leg of a two-part world expedition driving a VW Caddy Maxi EcoFuel that will utilise as far as practicable a network of CNG fueling stations to reach journey’s end in Alaska. Setting off from Portugal in October Zietlow and his intrepid team travelled the ‘Eurasia Highway’ to Vladivostok before embarking on a ferry to Japan to end this section. Zietlow detoured briefly to Donghae, Korea in time for ANGVA 2009, where he hand-delivered a certificate from NGVA Europe to ANGVA Executive Director Mr Lee Giok Seng.
The Eurasia leg, completed 4th November, is claimed to be the first time a natural gas-powered vehicle has completed this epic journey. Zietlow’s on-line diary describes a ceremony at a beach in Tokyo where “… we emptied our little bottle of Atlantic Ocean water that we brought with us from our starting point in Portugal, into the Pacific Ocean. That was the symbolic end to the “EcoFuel-Eurasia”.
The Caddy has now been delivered for shipment to South America. “It is there that we will soon be attempting to be the first to drive the Panamericana [47,958 kilometres (29,800 miles)] using natural gas. The ‘EcoFuel TransAmerica’ will begin in January 2010. My heart felt thanks go out to the team and our sponsors and all of you that followed our adventure here online and supported us on our long and strenuous stages through Europe and Asia,” the diary concludes.
(Este artículo también está disponible en Español)
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