Kazama lands in Cape Town

This time, though, he's done it in comfort - at the wheel of the latest-generation all-wheel-drive Subaru Forester SUV.

Among his achievements, Kazama, who hails from Japan, has climbed a world record 6005m up Mount Everest, on a bike. He has also faced other daunting adventure challenges, including reaching both North and South Poles by motorcycle.

Now he has led a two-vehicle Forester team from Alexandria, Egypt, to Cape Town. His final destination was the Subaru dealership at Culemborg.

Kazama competed in the 2004 Paris-Dakar Rally, but suffered serious injuries to his left leg, which forced him to abandon the race. He is still not fully recovered.

Shinji Kazama: promoting WHO’s Bone and Joint Decade.

“It was those injuries which indirectly brought Shinji to South Africa, “says Grant Bowring, Subaru SA National Brand and Marketing manager. “After his accident he came to understand personally the high importance of medical treatment skills, and the functions of bones and joints.”

In 2007, after his appointment as international “Ambassador” for the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) Bone and Joint Decade, Kazama led a motorcycle challenge spanning Europe and Asia - from the Pacific coast of Russia to Portugal.

Bowring added that, “After the bone-jarring hardships of motorbike travel, Kazama has now done it in the safety and comfort of our Symmetrical All-Wheel-Drive - and in the same good cause. At the same time he demonstrated how brilliantly the vehicle handled everything the African continent could throw at him.”