Interview with Kim L. Palmer: Discovery 4's Trip to Chernobyl

Last week I have attended the Jaguar Land Rover’s PR event and guess who I met? Kim Lawrence Palmer (Senior Press Office at Land Rover), one of the team members of Journey of Discovery from Birmingham to Beijing, however he attended to stage where they visited Chernobyl!

One day ago, I wrote about the 1.000.000thDiscovery 4’s journey to Chernobyl and I was thinking, is it possible to meet someone from the team? And it happened! So, I took this opportunity with Kim and did an interview.

We talked about the Chernobyl, what he saw, how he felt and details of the journey. Probably I will never have chance to meet with someone who visited the Chernobyl.

And thank you very much Kim to take time for the interview during the tight schedule.

Here is the interview!

Journey of Discovery is a fund raising project and here is the information.

The Journey of Discovery expedition aims to raise £1,000,000 (GBP) for Land Rover's Global Humanitarian Partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The money will be used to support a much needed water sanitation project in Uganda(www.landrover.com/million).

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Interview with Roger Crathorne (Mr. Land Rover)

Yesterday I attended to Jaguar Land Rover’s PR Event. I had the opportunity to experience with various Jaguar and Land Rover models. However, and the most important moment was meeting up with Technical PR Manager of Land Rover, Roger Crathorne (as known as Mr. Land Rover). Roger has been working in Land Rover for 49 years; he started from the junior level and worked in different positions in Land Rover during the years. His nearly half a century of experiences made him the most experienced off-road specialist and engineer in the business. All those years, he worked as engineer for the first generation Range Rover, and developed the four-wheel drive system, transmission and drive train. Later on he was involved with the Discovery project and also took important roles during the development.

He has a well-respected experience and knowledge on four-wheel drive vehicles and currently works at PR department to explain the Land Rover’s technologies to us. You will find more details during the interview. We talked about why Land Rover never introduced front differential lock, the details of the journey from Birmingham to Geneva with the first generation Defender and 1.000.000^th Discovery 4, how he perceives the contemporary SUV market and experience at Land Rover. We didn't skip the Mercedes G-Wagon, Porsche Cayenne and BMW X6!

Land Rover Discovery 4 in Chernobyl

1986 was a normal year like the previous ones, we were getting closer to 1990s; technology was improving, computers started to appear in real life, telephone was still the most favourite communication instrument until April 26.

I was only five-year old at that time, attending to nursing school. I barely remember those days. However I remember one thing very very very clear, Chernobyl. On 26^th April 1986, the worst ever nuclear disaster occurred. A nuclear power station exploded.

I remember how my parents, our family friends were concerned about the incident. Actually, nobody had any idea about what had happened and what would happen next, but a silent wave of fear was growing inside everyone. This fear was so strong, at the age of five, I learned the word radiation and for that age it was really hard to understand what does it mean. You perceive the world through psychical objects and the scariest can be a barking dog outside your window, and an invisible object appears in your life.

Many people were talking about the incident on TV, each friend visit had the same conversation all the time, endlessly. So, I learned the word radiation and Chernobyl at the age of five.

Years have passed, we all forgot the incident. Time-to-time there were some documentaries about the incident and they were saying that no one lives in Chernobyl and it is a restricted zone. Until last couple of minutes, I was thinking the same.

But, I have just saw the press release of Land Rover’s fund raising trip of 1.000.000^th Land Rover Discovery 4’s trip from Birmingham, UK to Beijing, China through 15 different countries. And they stopped at Chernobyl! I thought I read it incorrectly; it cannot be possible to send a team to visit Chernobyl. I read it again and again but, it was correct. A team of people driving Land Rover Discovery 4’s visited the restricted city and visited the exploded power station. I wish that the team did not expose to anything but the press release mention that, there is still radiation around the area.

This press release just recalled my child memory. I remember one phrase from that time "don't drink tea".

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