Sponsors

Over the last seven months we have been shown extraordinary kindness at every turn. From a glass of clean water from a Sudanese farmer to a £3, 000 donation from a corporate CEO, we could not have lasted a day without the generosity of thousands of people. There are hundreds of people who gave personal donations, every penny of which has been very gratefully received, and who have contributed to a total of over £50, 000 in funding. These people have every right to remain anonymous and we would not want to deprive them of that without their permission, but the role they have played in this trip will not be forgotten by us as a team, everyone at Anti-Slavery International and the victims of this terrible phenomenon. Thank you.

There are organisations that we would like to thank, as we have been very kindly sponsored, firstly, our equipment:

Team Saracen Tuff Trax, www.saracencycles.com

Now although we could not get full sponsorship for our bikes because of the time we were applying, we are and have been every day for seven months, enormously grateful to Saracen for providing these magnificently resilient and adaptable bikes. We needed something that could deal with a massive range of conditions, from sharp rocks to thick mud to deep sand, while still being able to keep us going quickly over the tarmac, which made up about two-thirds of the miles.

Through all of this the Tuff Trax remained very strong and reliable, and only needed relatively minor repairs. Even when some Ethiopian children ripped out Rob's gear cable, he was able to carry on for the rest of the day in his top gear and then easily replace the cable in the evening. The aluminium alloy frames held up perfectly and the Shimano Deore rear mechanisms were extremely efficient, even in awful conditions. Over miles and miles of jagged rock roads and corrugated desert roads (which busted all the springs and cracked the alternator on the Land Rover) and a couple of very big run-ins with pot holes, the wheels did not buckle a millimetre, which is nothing short of a miracle. These bikes were only mid-range at £500-600, but they held up to as varied a set of terrains as could be experienced in one trip.

Thanks especially to the infinitely busy Paul Hinton at Saracen for his time and kindness.

Schwalbe Tyres, www.schwalbe.co.uk

One of the first things that most people asked us when they saw us by the side of the road was: "So how many new sets of tyres have had to buy so far then?" The answer is none. We were very kindly sponsored one set of slicks and one set of Marathons by Scwalbe, and they survived the whole trip with hundreds of miles still left in the Marathons. As with the wheels, this is exceptional, and showed us that investing in top quality tyres saves enormous amounts of money in the long run.

Thank you very much to Chris at Schwalbe.

Motorola TALKABOUT® T5600 Two-Way Radio, www.motorola.com

Now when you have a support team that travels in a 1963 Land Rover, and a cycling team that travels at 15mph, you spend most of time apart, and this made radios essential. As soon as we got to South Africa we thought these Motorolas would be perfect, but we just didn't have the funds to spend on them at the time. A few phone calls from Denise O'Callaghan, Jono's very dedicated mum, and Motorola were on board with eight brand new radios, top quality radios.

These little beauties have been perfect for our needs as they are small enough to be able to carry them on our person while we were cycling, easy enough to use to be able to talk on them from our bikes and with a good enough range to be able to get in touch almost whenever we needed to. At times it would have been very dangerous without them, and when the road disappeared into sand in the North Sudanese desert, the range was excellent because of the terrain and we needed them more than ever. Jono may have had a GPS in the Land Rover, but the cyclists had to have way of finding their way through the endless sand without one, and these radios were the answer for finding each other whenever the Land Rover was out of sight.

These TALKABOUT® T5600 Two-Way Radios come very highly recommended from some very grateful cyclists.

cleveraspaint.com

This small Wibtoft bases company that specialises in IT and design work very kindly sponsored our camera equipment and took on the responsibility of designing and maintaining our website, designing and printing all our publicity material and editing our documentary footage. A huge set of jobs that along with every other conceivable ask was completed with the dedication that only a father and brother could provide. A massive thank you from all of us to Michael and Alex Stanhope. For IT and web design work contact 01455 220328 or stanhope@almahouse.com.

Forever Living Products

Although it might seem as if the major concerns of the trip were taking on extreme conditions every day, crossing unpredictable borders and watching beautiful scenery fly by, the actual day to day things that concerned us were far more mundane. Health was our first priority, and without enough money to eat properly or time to sleep for very long, we found ourselves in need of a lot of bits and pieces to keep us on our bikes. Forever Living Products, with the help of the endless enthusiasm of Carol Hadman, Rob's mum, gave us some absolutely invaluable products:

Aloe Vera Sun Block

We really couldn't have done without infallible sun lotion, because for the vast majority of the trip we were cycling in the bright sunshine, in African summers that went up to over 40°C every day. Apart from a couple of occasions when people forgot to put any cream on, I can't remember any times when we had to deal with sunburn, and on a trip like this that is amazing. We were sweating and spilling water on ourselves all day but vitally we were protected from would have been serious problems from the sun.

Aloe Vera Gel

This did everything for us, from healing infected cuts that Savlon seemed to give up hope with, to quickly easing very painful saddle sores and rashes. We used it on minor burns, spots, cuts, bruises and scars and when even a little ache or pain was a real drag it was indispensable.

Bee Pollen

This isn't something that many people seem to know about, which seems bizarre after seven months of almost relying on the stuff for a nutritional supplement and source of long term energy. We soon realised that sugary drinks and chocolate weren't that suitable for 6/7 hours of exercise a day, so we needed something more long term. These bee pollen tablets not only kept us going when we got tired, but also gave our immune systems a huge boost when we were ill, which was a lot.

Virgin Atlantic, www.virginatlantic.com

We were helped out on our way out by Virgin and also with two flights for our auction at our finale fundraising party. They made literally hundreds of pounds of difference to our budget and for this we are extremely grateful.

Thank you to Peter and Geoff, whose Virgin air miles paid for the bulk of our outward flights.

DHL

A few more phone calls from the extraordinarily persuasive Denise O'Callaghan and we had our Motorola radios sent out to us in Durban free of charge with DHL. This would have costs us a small fortune, and bits of sponsorship like this helped us budget for things much more comfortably.