We are sitting together as a team in the house we will be living in until we leave. Looking out over the white cliffs of Dover we can see Calais, our first 'port of call'. We have moved to St Margaret's Bay in order to live together and fully coordinate our efforts for what promises to be the most important four months of the preparation stage. We have a daunting amount to achieve in preparation for our departure on Saturday 4th August. (We have changed this date from 1st August to allow more people to attend our send off from Demelza House). Perhaps you could pencil this into your diaries, invitations will be sent out shortly. Since our last feature article we have come a long way.

First things first, we now have our two Land Rover Defender 110's! In late March we all trooped down to the MoD auctions in Somerset. We had a good look at all the vehicles on display and decided to bid for lots 02 and 18. Surrounded by Land Rover buying veterans we entered the arena and prepared to bid. Much to the disappointment of a group of professionals we emerged an hour later the proud owners of our chosen vehicles having only spent £5500.00, a veritable bargain. The vehicles have just cruised through their MOT's, been insured and are now registered and on the road. Barretts Land Rover dealership in Canterbury have kindly agreed to give the vehicles a comprehensive service and will also be helping us modify the vehicles for expedition. Land Rover's central office in Warwick, although not directly donating expedition equipment are kindly sponsoring us both mechanical and driving training which is essential for an expedition of this nature. Within the next two weeks, the vehicles are receiving a full suspension and shock absorber refit, donated by GKN Driveline and Frogs Island 4X4. They are also to be re-sprayed in their expedition colours. This is the just the start of a long line of modifications that need to be done in order to ensure the vehicles will cope with the journey ahead. Roof racks, bull bars, roll bars, under body protection and numerous other essential accessories also need to be fitted.

The media coverage that we are receiving is increasing all of the time. An article was published earlier this month in the Canterbury Times and the Kent Messenger Group have agreed to provide us with continued exposure in the region by follow the entire expedition on weekly basis. Meridian television will also be covering us very soon and we are hopeful that this will prove to be the start of a fruitful relationship with them. Land Rover Owner International magazine will also be giving us a four page spread in an upcoming issue which we hope will lead to the some excellent exposure. The Daily Telegraph have also expressed great level of interest in following the progress of the expedition thus allowing us to break into the national media arena and spreading the word of kent2CapeTown.com beyond the south-east.

Our fundraising is also going well. A fundraising meal at Rory's Mother's house in Devon raised £500 and led to some useful contacts being established. The raffle now has some excellent prizes to be won, including the use of a Kentish holiday cottage for one week, restaurant vouchers, wine and lots more. Tickets for this will be available from the beginning of May. A James Bond theme night, organised by Mark and Charlie, is to be held at the Canterbury Christchurch Student's Union on Saturday 4th May, with much of the beer for the evening being donated by Shepherd Neame Breweries. Pizza Express in Canterbury have generously given us the use of their restaurant on Sunday 17th June to further promote the project. We hope that many of our sponsors and supporters will be able to attend and take the opportunity to discuss progress with the team. Rory has raised £545 for the project by having his 'Hugh Grant' style hair shaved off and, although complaining of the cold, is delighted that it proved such a successful fund-raiser. Our search for corporate sponsorship is also going well. GlaxoSmithKline have recently decided to make a donation towards Demelza House of £7500 thanks to kent2capetown.com. Various other Kentish companies have made significant donations and many more are currently considering sponsoring our initiative.

The kent2capetown.com website has received many visitors and continual praise from all, further testament to the generosity and skill of our website design company, Designation. Our website now has an online donation facility and we hope that this will raise further funds for Demelza House both now and whilst we are in Africa. A teaching material page will be appearing soon and we hope that many of our visitors will find this both interesting and informative. Many schools in the area have been fundraising on our behalf and we expect this new facility will give them and others an educational insight into our expedition.

Kent2CapeTown is 'rolling along' well, but there's still no room for complacency. The costs of the expedition itself have not been fully covered yet and we hope to raise far more for Demelza House. Equipment still needs to be procured for the vehicles and the journey. The more we equipment we can have sponsored, the more we will be able to give directly to Demelza House. We are gelling well, growing in knowledge and confidence about what the expedition will require from us and are busy cementing sponsorship, getting the vehicles ready and putting all of the hard groundwork into fruition.

Jonathan Besley - Project Leader

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