Centre line

The Range Rover Vogue, flagship of the Land Rover fleet, glides into El Questro trailing red dust and miles of memories. Memories of dust hovering in billowing clouds, of stones flicking up and spitting sideways as Goodyear Wranglers pounded down the Gibb River Road.

Our convoy of eight Land Rovers is heading to a well-earned break at the Kimberley resort.

The Range Rover Vogue and Sport, the Freelander, three Discoverys, Defender wagon and ute have been comfortable, reliable and capable on this long, dry run from the Alice up through the Tanami Desert.

Through corrugations and bulldust, chill desert mornings and gold-red sunsets, the Land Rovers have run easy through a rugged and remote piece of the continent.

At the end of the trek, as we head for our first shower in five days, there are few more suitable — and suited — vehicles than a Vogue to roll into the greens of the El Questro oasis.

Here, in this stunning part of Western Australia, gateway to a land of geographical treasures, the Vogue and all its comforts and conveniences makes a driver feel extra-special.

Inside is soft and quiet, apart from unintelligible Olympic commentators fading in and out on the radio. The Vogue ignores rough, nasty patches of ancient landscape passing beneath.

Its mighty turbocharged diesel V8 powers on, its six-speed sequential transmission slurring through the changes, rounding up 50m roadtrains or pushing on through the talcum-soft bog of bulldust.

This year, the Range Rover Vogue has benefited from minor changes including a four-zone air conditioning option and Bluetooth connectivity.

But the basics remain the same in a majestic off-road machine that sails through this wild country with supreme comfort.

The Vogue and its Land Rover mates have crossed the Simpson Desert from Birdsville, then on to Alice Springs. The next leg — Alice to El Questro — was a further 1700km.

During this epic drive to mark Land Rover's 60th anniversary, there has not been a single drama aside from the odd flat tyre.

And, thanks to the attention paid to build quality under BMW and Ford's ownership of the famous British brand, the fleet is pleasantly free of rattles and loose bits.

All of them prove to be great touring and rough-track machines on this run across Australia (despite outback tales of certain Japanese makes being the only means of travel out here).

The Vogue is — surprise, surprise — the pick of the Land Rover bunch: elegant and effortless.

The Range Rover Sport is very good but, for desert tours, the Discovery wagon is probably a better bet. The Sport is quite capable but with a bias towards on-road handling, while the Discovery sits on a longer wheelbase.

If the Vogue is the flagship of the fleet, the acclaimed Discovery is the battleship and the Defender the minesweeper: a tough wagon to send out if the going turns really gnarly and some forward scouting is needed. This square-jawed, 2.4-litre machine is hard to stop, and dings and scratches will only enhance its character.

Where the Defender loses out is in cabin ergonomics, ride comfort and noise levels on rough, corrugated roads.

The wagon, priced from $48,990, is acceptable if the sweet spot can be found — up the Tanami Track, that was around 90 km/h.

That leaves the surprise packet of the convoy, the Freelander. This is the patrol boat, quick and game for anything.

Unlike the Range Rover or the Discovery, the Freelander has no low-range gearing or suspension height adjustment (the bigger wagons have air suspension that adjusts the ride height according to the terrain).

But the diesel Freelander, with its six-speed transmission and clever four-wheel-drive system, is forever willing to tackle both high-speed runs down dirt roads or off-road crawls.

Like its bigger mates, the Freelander has Land Rover's All Terrain System, which sets engine and transmission parameters to suit the work involved — more torque and lower gearing for rocks, more power and quicker changes for sand.

On all Land Rovers (aside from the Defender) this system is best proved by setting the centre console dial to the wrong spot.

Try to slip through sand and mud with the rocky road setting, and the vehicle bogs down. Try to climb a rock-strewn hill with the sand setting, and it bounces around with too much ground speed.

The system does help the Freelander (from $49,990 in petrol form, $52,490 for the diesel) get further than may be imagined; this is arguably the best of the premium compact SUVs for combining good road manners and some rough paddock ability with a fair degree of comfort.

It's also a fun machine on a soft dirt road, stability control turned down to allow more tail slides, driver's arms crossed in rally style.

All the while, the Freelander's 2.2-litre diesel is returning better than 10 litres per 100km through the scrub. The big Vogue can achieve close on 10 litres on a run down the track, out to a reasonable 13 litres when it's needed to work harder down a bush track.

These machines allowed a disparate group of travellers to explore some of Australia's most desolate country, then the magnificent Kimberleys.

There are many vehicles capable of such a trip, but this fleet of Land Rovers added extra style and comfort to the journey.

For, despite some hiccups over the past 60 years, the British maker (now owned by India's Tata) has been doing it with a passion for the brand and the adventure — characteristics not always seen among the Johnny-come-latelys of the four-wheel-drive business.