THANK YOU!!!

It was as much as four years ago that I first came up with the idea of cycling from Cape Town to London, and from that moment until the moment we arrived at Trafalgar Square, I couldn't really imagine what it would feel like to actually see Nelson's Column and be able to finally climb off the bike for longer than a night at a time. When we finally did get to stop pedalling we had a day that we will never forget.

South Africa House

The reception at South Africa House was a perfect start to the finale, and we would like to thank the South African High Commission very much for their generous gesture of hosting this event. All events need preparation and this was no exception. Shayne Jackson was vital in liaising between the charity and the embassy and we would like to thank her for everything she did to ensure that it was a great success. At the same time, we are indebted to Michael and Gill Polonsky for their amazing generosity in providing the delicious celebratory drinks.
Thank you also to William Wilberforce whose presence and words of support meant a great deal to us.
The charity, and Raj in particular, also deserve our infinite gratitude. Thank you to every one involved for helping us and for presenting us with such wonderful awards!

THE BIG ONE

The party was of course the event that needed the most time and effort from the largest number of people. We had spent a lot of time imagining this party and it was better than we could ever have hoped. We haven't done the final count yet but it looks like we will have raised over £11, 000!!! Thank you of course to everyone who came, and everyone who bid in the auction, because without you we wouldn't have raised a penny.

Planning an event like this while dodging traffic in Cairo or cycling through the Alps would have been hard enough with all the resources in the world. To attempt to do so with absolutely nothing could well have proved obscenely over-ambitious. However, in accordance with our experiences for the rest of the trip, what we lacked in finances was easily compensated by what we gained from the generosity of others. Had it not been for the work of Tally, Ivy, our parents and countless others, we could never have put on such a successful event.

Tally- Tally@partium.co.uk

Thank you, thank you, thank you - you were nothing short of a miracle. To have a professional party organiser at the helm took all of the stress out of putting this party on and to have it done for free was too good to be true. It was true and it was amazing, and a huge amount of it has to be down to Tally, who is the most energetic and organised person we have ever met.

Ivy

Along side Tally in helping us put together the party was Ivy, who came up with a thousand fantastic ideas for the night and even managed to get along two chefs and a cameraman for free! Shockingly, she then proceeded to spend at least half the night washing up. Thank you Ivy, you're amazing and so are your friends.

THE VENUE

www.hmspresident.co.uk

Finding a venue that would take 350 guests, with a kitchen we could use, stages, PA systems and bars, in central London had been the most difficult part of organising the party until we found Chris, the captain of the HMS President. Chris gave us a fantastic charity rate and let us give away some drinks without any corkage charges. The boat, as most of you know, was an amazing venue, and immaculately looked after, so thank you to Chris and all the staff on the HMS President.

DECORATIONS

The boat very kindly provided the daffodils, the charity provided the eye-catching posters, we provided the photos, but the boat would never have looked as good without further unpaid professional help.

Andy Phillipou- www.creativeeventsuk.co.uk

All the decorations were provided and put up by the amazing Andy and his son. A whole day's work, balloons, lights and decorations that would normally add up to hundreds of pounds were given to us absolutely free. Without this kind of generosity we wouldn't have raised half of what we did.

MUSIC

No party is complete without music. All the musicians were of an unbelievable standard and yet again we were stunned by the generous reaction of those we approached.

Somesh- www.drumjam.co.uk

What a fantastic way to kick off a party. We had quite an eclectic mix of guests but everyone seemed to love banging the drums. Thank you Somesh for being brilliant at what you do and for trusting your drums to some of our more questionable invitees.

Jonny Berliner and the band- www.jonnyberliner.com

Jonny and the band arrived well before the event and were made to wait and wait and wait. Despite all this, they never once gave the slightest hint of impatience and, when they eventually took the stage, they played with as much energy, enthusiasm and finesse as is humanly possible. Their music was out of this world and everyone from my 83 year old great aunt to the oh-so-cool Jonny Polonsky loved them. Thank you guys for playing for nothing- how do we buy your CDs?

DJ Drew

Having such a wonderfully professional DJ allowed us to be absolute muppets without anyone noticing. Whenever there could have been an awkward silence, Drew was there with another great tune. The fact that the party went (or appeared to go) like clockwork was largely thanks to him. Thank you, mate.

DRINK

Thanks to the captain's generosity, the President allowed us to serve our guests two free drinks on their arrival. Alcohol is always guaranteed to ensure a successful night and so we were incredibly grateful both for the astonishing quantity and delicious quality of the booze kindly donated to our cause.

Western Wines

Thank you to JD Rowe of Wines of South Africa for putting us in touch with Helen Cheshire of Western Wines who was responsible for what was probably the most valuable single donation to the party. So impressive was this contribution that none of us could quite believe it until we saw the boxes and boxes of delicious South African wine being loaded on to the boat that Saturday afternoon. Thanks to this company's fantastic generosity, our profits were greatly increased and we were very (very) easily able to provide our guests with their free drinks.

Kenya Breweries

Our alcohol bonanza didn't end here. For those of our guests who preferred to start the party with beer we were able to offer the ultimate taste of Africa- Tusker beer was something for which we were very grateful on the road in Kenya and something that seemed to be equally appreciated on the Thames. Thank you so much to John Wheeler for so kindly donating and delivering three cases, two of which we were able to offer in the raffle.

FOOD

Since the party, nearly everyone to whom we've spoken has had something positive to say about the food. It was indeed delicious and interesting- it was everything we could have hoped for and more. Again, this success lied solely in the generosity of those who provided and prepared the food, always at an unbelievably cheap rate and often for nothing at all.

Mandola Sudanese Restaurant, 139-143 Westbourne Grove W11 2RS

This Sudanese restaurant, described by one critic as producing 'the best African food in London', provided huge, beautifully displayed trays of falafel, tahini and fule pittas sandwiches for next to nothing and arrived with two wonderfully dressed employees to help prepare and serve the food. Some of the best food of the entire trip was when we arrived in Khartoum, and this food was at least as good as that. The delightful manager Katie will be very happy to reserve you a table on 020 7229 4734. You can check out menus and maps at www.mandolacafe.com

Menelik Ethiopian Restaurant, 277 Caledonian Road, London N13EF. Telephone 0207 700 7774.

After months of goat and maize, arriving in Ethiopia was a huge boost for the group, and not just because the roads suddenly became tarmaced. The food in Ethiopia is delicious and made a massive difference to our everyday life on the bikes. 'Ingera', 'tibbs' and 'watt' made up most meals and the dishes provided at a great rate by Sammy and his staff at Menelik restaurant provided fare- just as good as anything we could have eaten in Addis Ababa.

La Rose Baclawa and Somersault Café, Rugby

Remember those trays of delicious baclawa? Provided completely free of charge by two extremely generous small businesses. If you want any baclawa provided for a function, or want to find out about where you can buy La Rose baclawa then you can ring on 02089650919.

Daylesord Farm Shop, Daylesford, Gloucs.

It was very special to be able to offer such high quality English cheese at our party. This Organic Cheddar, hand-made by traditional methods in the Daylesford Creamery, was the winner of Best English Cheese in the British Cheese Awards 2002 with cheesemaker, Joe Schneider, named Cheese Person of the Year. Being aware of the Cape Town to London bike ride and the work of ASI, Lady Bamford most kindly donated a mammoth truckle (10 kilos) of this superb cheddar together with some delicious home made organic chutneys. Excellent produce 01608 731 700.

Mostly Smoked

James at Mostly Smoked very kindly gave us Belgian chocolates, Italian anchovies, Amé, napkins and Soya milk. This was another example of someone we had never met before being amazingly generous and giving us all sorts of stuff for free!

Henrietta the Chef

My friend Henrietta donated 8 kg of humous and 300 pittas from her catering company, and the rate at which they disappeared was testament to how delicious it was. Thanks Hen.

Maby's of Stow on the Wold

The brie provided by Keith Maby was delicious. Thank you.

Sainsbury Supermarkets

With two days to go, a tiny budget and lots of things still to buy, Sainsbury's came up with £250 of vouchers to donate to our cause and I am sure you could taste the difference with some of the food. Thank you very much to Camilla Woodward for all the help in getting these for us.

Tesco Supermarkets

We are very grateful to Tesco's, Stow on the Wold, for providing us with £30 vouchers which we were able to use for pizzas and juice.

Masterfoods UK

Thanks to Sarah Corbett, we loaded 500 free Galaxy bars aboard HMS President….we were very glad to be able to give the guests a taste of the team's favourite energy booster! Galaxy make the best chocolate in the world and we ate tons of it in Africa, persuading kind relatives to ship it out by the shed-load. Since its delightful emergence on the shelves of Egyptian shops, our craving for the chocolate seems as strong as ever and so its presence was greatly appreciated.

British Bakeries- www.britishbakeries.co.uk

Just when things couldn't have got any better, British Bakeries turned up with 5 trays stuffed with the best of British bread. A complete surprise and yet another wonderfully encouraging example of corporate kindness. Thank you to everyone involved.

Koan Biltong - (01252781722)
The word 'Biltong' might not mean much to most people, but to Jono the thought of chewing on a strip of dried meat drove him wild with excitement. If we didn't see the Land Rover for a couple of days then we knew that there would be some biltong out there somewhere. Koan very kindly sent us a whole load of biltong to give everyone at the party a taste, and as there was nothing left at the end we can only assume you all enjoyed it.

AUCTION AND RAFFLE

Well over 300 of you boarded the boat that night and several others were generous enough to buy tickets despite the fact they couldn't actually make it to the party. With the invaluable help of all the amazing people listed above, it won't come as a surprise to you that we were able to keep our expenses to an absolute minimum and guarantee a huge, huge percentage of the money to Anti-Slavery International.

However, thanks to further incredible contributions from those we approached, our fund-raising did not stop at ticket sales.
We had always intended to sell off a few of the trip's memorabilia to make a little more for the charity and so we decided upon an auction. Thanks yet again to a fabulous response from all you wonderful people, we were soon absolutely inundated with fabulous extra lots. Indeed so numerous were the contributions that we decided to have a raffle as well.

Thank you to Jonny for being solely responsible for the sale of tickets and for doing a very good job. The raffle made the charity an extra £500 and also gave us the chance to give something back to a few lucky but deserving guests.

The auction was bound to be a great success thanks to the kindness of Lord Archer, renowned as the best auctioneer in the country, in giving us his valuable time. He did an absolutely fantastic job on the night, raising a further £5000 for Anti-Slavery, while donating three signed copies of his own books as well as a special edition Christie's catalogue of Diana's dresses worth a stunning £1000. Thank you to him for all his time and for his patience in waiting for so long.

We would like to thank the following people who also kindly made contributions towards both the auction and the raffle:

Sharron Davies for giving a signed T shirt and cap and for posing for some stunning (her not us!) photos with the team.

Saskia, Richard Branson's personal assistant, who so kindly arranged for the contribution of two Virgin tickets to New York and back.

Michael Polonsky for parting with his running machine! This was incredibly generous as it was virtually new and worth £2000.

Martin Johnson for agreeing to sign the shirts and books and (obviously) for winning the World Cup!

Jeremy Paxman for giving three signed best selling books and for showing a genuine interest throughout.

Christine Garvey for offering 300 euros of Lufthansa Airline vouchers on top of an already outstanding financial donation.

Joanna Lumley for the Absolutely Fabulous photograph - also signed by Jennifer Saunders.

Korky Paul for the wonderful book 'Sanji and the Baker' which was unique because he not only signed it but added a wonderful illustration.

John Wheeler of Kenya Breweries for giving us so much Tusker beer that we were able to offer two full crates as raffle prizes.

Ali and Duncan for their most generous offer of a night for two at Atherstone Bay which is located in a stunning position on the unspoilt Heritage coastline of the Isle of Wight.

Mrs Gisby for offering a night for two at her outstanding b & b - one of the four best in the country - in the Cotswold village of Lower Swell.

Frevds of Walton Street, Oxford for generously donating vouchers for a meal for two up to £30.

Thank you once again to all those who made the party the perfect fund-raiser and the perfect way to end our venture. We're sure that Anti-Slavery International are as indebted to you as we are.