"Neither of us snore, so that was a big help.”

It’s a very basic requirement for two people who have to share a tent for four nights, but not one that was in the manual of hints and requirements for the Land Rover G4 Challenge contestants at the International Selections, held last month at Eastnor Estate in England.

So, while Paul McCarthy of Ventry in Kerry and Warren Keogh from Blessington in Wicklow were both team-mates and competitors - only one of them would go through to the G4 global challenge that runs through April - at least they weren't poking each other with their elbows in the middle of the night to try and get some peaceful sleep.

"I know that wasn't the case with everybody, because I could hear some of our neighbours honking away," Paul (above right, grabbing lunch with Warren) said when I met them both at the latter end of their week at Eastnor, the 5,000-acre park that has been Land Rover's development HQ for the past 30 years.

The G4 Challenge is a spectacular project, and during the month of April the 16 contestants from the same number of different countries will be travelling an adventure down the east coast of the US, across South Africa, through a tough region of Australia, and ending with a week-long trek up the west coast of America.

On each leg they will use a different Land Rover vehicle, special G4 versions of which have been built in Defenders, Freelanders, Discoverys and Range Rovers, with all the extra gear for serious work - winches, special roofracks, containers for spare water and fuel, tents, ropes and climbing gear, kayaks, and much much more.

"These are very special machines, and just 169 have been built," says Dave Harpur, MD of Land Rover Ireland. "Though we're already getting requests from owners who want one, the three G4s that we'll bring into Ireland are only for promotional purposes."

Paul and Warren qualified for the International Selections after a day event at the Land Rover Experience Centre in Aughrim, Co Wicklow. They beat 38 other contestants that day.

When they went to Eastnor, they met up with 30 other people from from Arabia, Canada, Netherlands, Spain, US, Australia, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, Germany, Japan, South Africa and the UK.

Outwardly these were sane people. But unless you're into the outdoor life in a big way, you'd think them mad to willingly submit themselves to a week of endurance testing, off-road driving, kayaking in a particularly foul-looking lake, risking their lives in mountain-climbing and abseiling, eating evening meals made from rather unappetising NASA-developed 'boil in the bag' concoctions, and sleeping under the modern equivalent of canvas in temperatures that froze any stinking clothing they left out to air overnight.

The G4 Challenge is so much more than just wilderness driving. It is a survival adventure of almost military standard. And it was apparent even in the short time that I watched the concluding days of the Eastnor session, that it is a team-building exercise of outstanding quality.

The camaraderie between people from so many nations that developed in that few days was apparent in the way that everybody mucked in (literally) to help out anyone else in trouble, even though in the event they were competitors.

Among the 32 semifinalists were three women - one of them a US marine - and the group members' backgrounds ranged from a 31-year-old Belgian fighter pilot who jockeys an F16 for a living, to Warren's accountancy work, to Paul's craft as a stonemason.

"Just getting to know people, and having a good time was part of the real buzz about the week," Paul recalled. "We were all competitors, but everybody nevertheless pulled together."

Warren remarked on that comradeship also, particularly in the off-road driving. "You're always going to get stuck, and you will need help," he says. "Everybody gathers around, and almost instinctively pick on some way to be of help."

A component of the off-road events which showed that last especially well was in the winching exercise, where the lead vehicle got stuck in a seriously difficult mudhole, and it was 'all hands on deck' from each of the teams in that particular group to deal first with that particular problem, and then with the subsequent towing of the other vehicles out of the same situation.

Another important element drilled into the teams by the instructors was 'convoy procedure', where every vehicle's crew must be sure that they are in visual contact with the vehicles behind them at all times. It is a vital procedure in dangerous and difficult terrain.

"The vehicle which dictates the speed of the whole convoy is the last one, the slowest one," instructor Nigel Smith cautioned. "If somebody at the back gets into trouble, and maybe their radio has gone down, they'll be depending on their colleagues in the other vehicles to realise it and get them out."

That was why the off-roading work was very much stop-go-stop in style. And yet non-stop. There was no 'downtime', particularly for the contestants, a point emphasised by Warren.

"It was constant momentum, constant movement, you only had a few minutes for a break, a few minutes for lunch, then you went straight out to your next activity, then to make camp, cook something to eat. It is constantly on the go, and that was what was most physically and mentally demanding. You lose track of time - we just waited to be told what to do, when to eat, when to put up our tent and when to go to bed. You don't think of days or hours or anything like that."

Paul suggested that there was method in that system, that if the contestants had been given any time at all to sit around, that they'd then get tired. "When it's all go, physically you are still warm, and mentally you're thinking ahead to the next activity, and I think that keeps you going."

Some activities were easier than others, depending very much on the individual contestants and what they were familiar with in their own lifestyles.

"I used some muscles that I hadn't used for a long time," says Paul, who also admitted to some initial apprehensions about rock-climbing, which he hadn't tried before. "You see all this gear hanging out of people and you wonder where it all goes, but it worked."

"I came away with a lot of new skills," says Warren. "Climbing, driving Land Rovers offroad, boil-in-the-bag food, trying not to speak too fast or with a strong Irish accent, so that people from other countries could understand us."

Those of us brought to observe learned a number of things too. Like the mechanics of the 'volcano kettle' in which the contestants boiled water for hot drinks and for heating their 'Wayfayrer' food packs. The kettle is an intriguing invention, with a fire running up the centre of the 'kettle part', fed by twigs and dry grasses after being initially lit in a mixture of diesel and scrap paper.

"You learn to be a scavenger very quickly, realising that a bit of scrap tissue paper might be of great use and putting it in your pocket," Warren grinned.

"And slipping a couple of bread rolls into your jacket at the lunch is useful when it comes to our evening meal," added Paul.

Filch enough of them and you also have something to barter with other teams, who might have appropriated different goodies. Such as a banana or two that would make a breakfast after a night under the modern equivalent of canvas. Or that little bottle of chili sauce which could add some zest to the Wayfayrer meal.

There were night exercises too, including one particular session where the participants thought they were just on a night drive in the woods, but were surprised by finding an overturned Range Rover complete with 'bodies' and blood. They were marked on their reactions to the incident, and how they dealt with the 'emergency', including bringing the vehicle back up onto the 'road'.

Overall, the first four days of the week were long ones, with wake-up calls at 6am and then a constant state of activity until 9.30pm. The Wednesday evening had a treat - a 'pub dinner'. But with a difference - no alcohol was allowed during the whole week.

"It was strange sitting in a pub and drinking non-alcoholic beer," Paul grinned. It wasn't a problem for Warren, who doesn't drink.

The last day, as we journalists and the relevant market representatives followed them, the individual teams went through a composite session of the kind of things they had been learning all week, under pressure of finishing in mid-afternoon for the most difficult task of all - listening to whether their names were called out by CEO of the Premier Automotive Group Bob Dover for the April global final.

There were tears, there were cheers, there was a lot of hugging and high-five handshaking, and then there was the last 'transit' for the whole group, to a hotel for a night in real beds after a celebratory dinner.

For 16 of them, a few thoughts forward to March 30, when they begin what will undoubtedly be the greatest adventure of their lives, in New York.

The marine's going to be there, and the fighter pilot.

And so will the stonemason from Ventry. Hoping that he might be lucky enough again to be bunking with somebody who doesn't snore ...