Garry Sowerby: A Memorable Interview

Over the Christmas holidays, a select group of people received my limited edition signed and numbered Holiday card, and their responses were overwhelming.

















One of the recipients was local automotive journalist, record-breaker, adventurer, and event planner Garry Sowerby. I was always intrigued by his exploits, so I thought I should send him one of the cards.

In turn, Garry was intrigued to receive this card sent to him by a person completely unknown to him. So he called me to do an interview for his “Road Less Traveled” weekly feature in the “Wheels” section of our local Halifax Chronicle Herald paper.


I was thrilled to meet Garry. He has been described as the Indiana Jones of adventure driving, and has 4 world distance/time records under his belt, including 1980 world circumnavigation by car “Odyssey 77” in a Volvo station wagon in a record-breaking 74 days! His next record-breaking drive was the 1984 fastest drive from the bottom of Africa to the top of Europe “Africa-Arctic Challenge” (28 days), where he was shot at by Shifta bandits in Kenya. His third was the 1987 fastest drive from the bottom to the top of the Americas “Pan American Challenge” (23 days), and his last was the 1997 world circumnavigation by car “Frontera World Challenge” where he beat his origin record, with his new record being an amazing 21 days! All have been published in the Guinness Book of World Records.


He has published a great book of his adventures called “Sowerby’s Road – Adventures of a Driven Mind”. His company Odyssey International Limited does event planning and product launches for the major automotive companies, including General Motors, Honda, Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Saturn, Saab, Vauxhall, Subaru and Ford.

Like I said, I was honoured to be interviewed by such accomplished adventurer. You can read his feature below; I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.