A road journey of remarkable scale
Rainer Behrendt and Jan Bongers began a journey in spring 2026 that took their second-generation Porsche Cayenne from Ushuaia, near the Beagle Channel, to Deadhorse in northern Alaska. Porsche's 25 September feature records 41,600 kilometres across 15 countries over 100 days, excluding their outward and return travel.
The trip carried a charitable purpose as well as a personal ambition: the travellers wanted to draw attention to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and support research after a death in Behrendt's family. Its long route is a very different experience from a short coastal drive, but the two can share an appetite for changing landscapes.
Patagonia and the high Andes
Starting at the southern end of the Americas brought the pair into Patagonia and then onto roads rising through the Andes. Their journey included time near the Perito Moreno Glacier, with later high-altitude travel testing both the people and the diesel vehicle.
Porsche recounts a problem with the Cayenne's diesel particulate-filter regeneration in thin air, which was eventually addressed with support from technicians in Lima. The account does not portray the expedition as trouble-free, and the mechanical interruptions form part of its practical story.
The value of people along the route
Fuel quality and availability created further challenges in some regions, while finding AdBlue became an issue on the northbound passage. Meetings with local enthusiasts and helpful strangers repeatedly changed how the travellers navigated setbacks, turning the journey into a series of encounters rather than only a route plotted on a map.
Professional photographers joined in Peru and Canada, and the article combines those pictures with material from the pair's own archive. The resulting record connects places, people and vehicles without suggesting that every road was suitable for an ordinary touring holiday.
From the Pacific coast to the Arctic
The final stages led through North America and Canada, including the west coast and mountain landscapes, before the pair crossed the Arctic Circle and arrived in Deadhorse in June. The charitable message continued through the final miles, with the Cayenne serving as a rolling reminder of the cause.
For luxury yacht travellers planning a land-based addition to a wider itinerary, the story is an example of how preparation, local knowledge and flexibility affect ambitious journeys. Porsche's original feature gives the distances, dated route and official journey photographs.
