The new kent2capetown.com HQ, perched on the famous white cliffs, has been buzzing with activity since our last update, earlier this month. Equipment for the vehicles has started to arrive and the vehicles themselves are beginning to be transformed to our specifications. We have all been busy, stripping out the additional heaters and equipment that were relics from their time in the army and both are now in Barretts of Canterbury undergoing a full service. Unfortunately for us, both Land Rovers will require new gearboxes, something that was impossible to foresee at the time of purchase, so work will continue on them for another couple of weeks. Despite this setback, the progress we are making has been excellent. An exciting addition to the teams portfolio has been confirmation from schoolzone.co.uk that they will design and implement our educational package for the website. This will allow staff and students, mainly in the eight to thirteen age group, to download educational packages about our route, the third world and Africa. This is aimed to give valuable background to national curriculum studies. The team are very keen to promote the educational value of this project and have done talks in local schools to explain to the children and staff the value of children's hospices such as Demelza House and those that we will visit in Africa. The response has been extremely good and we hope to continue to forge an ongoing relationship with many schools in the area for the duration of the project.

Jon and Rachel are continuing to work hard to raise corporate and private financial sponsorship. Local press coverage in both the Kent News Group and Kent Messenger Group has been of huge help to continue to raise our profile in the area. Meridian Television has confirmed that they will broadcast features on the project and we are optimistic that further coverage from other publications will be finalised. We are still hoping to find one major sponsor for the expedition to allow all efforts to be focused on fundraising for Demelza House. Mark's efforts in securing equipment for the vehicles are now bearing handsome fruit. We have already received high-lift jacks from Dingocroft, jerry cans from Famous Four and Off-road Stores have delivered our Garmin III GPS systems, fire extinguishers and torches. Other confirmed sponsors are Michelin for expedition tyres, www.4x4winches.com for a hydraulic winch, 4X4 Accessories Store for bull bars, Procom for VHF radios for both vehicles, Insafe for our vehicle safes, SPI for new seating and paint for both vehicles from Standox. Once the Land Rovers are out of Barretts, the logistical system that Mark has set in place will get this equipment fitted in the first two weeks in June in time for our meeting with our royal Patron HRH Prince Michael of Kent in London next month. The team have also been honoured to receive an invitation to attend a function, hosted by the most honourable and Reverend Archbishop of Canterbury at Lambeth Palace, at the end of the month to further promote the work of Demelza House.

The raffle, being co-ordinated by Charlie, is about to be launched, with the proceeds all going directly to Demelza House. The prizes will appeal to all, varying from children's toys to Kentish holiday breaks and we are confident that Charlie's hard work will prove to be a very successful fundraiser. Other kent2capetown merchandise will soon be available, varying from team designed T-shirts to cute key rings, all supplied by New Perspective. If you are interested in the raffle or merchandise, do not hesitate to contact the team. We are still working hard to secure some final large items for the expedition: flights back from Cape Town; roll bars for the Land Rovers; wood for our storage units. If anyone thinks they may have a lead on any of these, we would be eternally grateful. Despite the problems with the gearboxes, we have much to pleased with in the past couple of weeks and expect the next couple to be our busiest yet with more media coverage, schools presentation and fundraising dominating the agenda.

Jonathan Besley - Project Leader

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