About Celtic Rover

Celtic Rover site has been created to document a series of adventures around the world in Nelson a converted Land Rover Defender.

The history of the build of the Defender is covered in the site in detail but in summary it was a standard farmers Defender, 20 years old and converted by me for overland travel by Coastline Campers and Gemm 4*4 to my specifications.

Nelson, as we call the defender, has been proven in advance on a big baltic sea loop trip to St Petersburg and a run around Morocco for a few weeks with some experienced overlanders which really helped finalise the design and modifications.

I have now completed a 50,000km trip over six months starting in May 2018 and picking up Iran, the Stans, Russia, Mongolia, China, Nepal India and Pakistan. I called it “the roof of the world tour”, because we pick up the very highest border Himalaya passes and the Pamir Highway on the route, reaching 4600m.  You can see the full route in the location page.  I am now back in the UK, working a little bit and planning a tour of Ireland and Norway in the first part of this year.

The next big objective is a six month tour of South America starting in Columbia in July and finishing around Buenos Aires in March.

Along the way I am sometimes joined by my wife Lee or other friends and occasionally travel by myself.  Hopefully we will see some of you along the way or you will join us virtually as we travel!

Gerry Mulligan Jan 2019