thanks are due to...

Tiso [Belfast branch]

Providing a large proportion of our gear for a very generous 20% off, these guys were very efficient and helpful in getting together a large order. Granted, the delivery didn't arrive at Team HQ until 4pm the day before we left (at 7am), but this was solely the fault of DHL and were it not for Neil and Mary from Tiso chasing them persistently we may have found ourselves with no sleeping mats, stove, etc, etc.  They appear to have a much larger range of equipment in their shops than they have online, so you should pay them a visit or give them a call.

Merlin Cycles

Not to be confused with their stateside titanium specialist counterparts, Merlin Cycles is the UK's largest independent cycle manufacturer.  Their frames are designed by themselves and get excellent reviews in the MTB press.  Ordering 3 custom-specced bikes and having them shipped to London, N. Ireland and Madrid was never going to be the easiest of procedures, but John P at Merlin was incredibly helpful in his recommendations and in his ability to get everything correct. Merlin's prices are extremely competitive, to say the least, and they gave us an extra discount on the entire order, which included various spares etc. Had we bought similar bikes from Specialized or Trek, for example, we'd have gotten a hodgepodge of components with little or no ability to customise.  This would have meant some SRAM transmission parts, Avid brakes or the like, and a wheelset aimed squarely at MTBing, not heavily-loaded off-road touring. While all these parts are quality, the ability to ask Merlin for a complete Shimano XT groupset meant that spares would be much easier to find and the local bike shops would be much more likely to be able to help with maintenance etc.

Bank Of Ireland

It's not often one wants to thank a bank, now is it?!  Well these guys may not take care of any of our personal banking needs, but they employed Alastair for some considerable time (a charitable act alone, surely?!) and when asked if they would like to sponsor us they said "yes please" and donated a considerable sum to help us pay for equipment and the like.

Lap Fuels/Cheers Off Licence

Huge thanks to local Limavady (N.Ireland) businessman, Ivan Lapsley, who was generous enough to donate some money to ensure we had a roof over our heads! The tent's still going strong, Ivan, Cheers!

Limavady Rotary Club

Many thanks to the kind members of Limavady Rotary Club, and especially Sam McCrea, current President.  They've given generously to our charity and we're very thankful for that.

Dude #1, from Ferreteria Bahia Blanca, El Calafate

Now El Calafate may be an overpriced tourist dump, but this guy eased our pain enormously by taking the time to scour the stocks of brackets and clips so as to get one which we could bastardise to attach our rear racks to our bikes in much stonger fashion than the gay numbers which Old Man Mountain provided for us.

Dude #2, from a random workshop/garage about 2 blocks away from Ferreteria Bahia Blanca, El Calafate

Imagine being overworked and underpaid in a shitty town, and then 3 twats on bikes descend on your workshop and ask you to bend some steel brackets into a shape which will attach some racks to their bikes. Would you help them?! This guy did so, all in very good humour, and charged next to nothing despite it taking about an hour and a half of his time.

Dude #3, from another random workshop/garage in La Junta on the Carretera Austral

10k from this town, Col noticed his rear rack had broken - one of the main, load-bearing tubes had simply broken right through.  About to take some bags off and stick them on Al's bike, Al noticed his rack was broken as well in exactly the same place.  We crawled into La Junta and somehow found this guy who said he'd have a crack at it.  We have Aluminium racks and no-one was capable of welding it, so we were very pleased to find that he'd managed to rivet, bend and weld some steel tubing around the broken racks.  Despite his pessimism, they're still going strong as we await the replacement racks from Old Man Mountain to turn up in Puerto Montt.

Dude #4, yet another random workshop/garage, this time in Calingasta, Argentina

An absolute mess of a yard, but this guy fixed up Al's rack with what we referred to as "The Big Bolt Bodge".  He didn't even want paying (but we gave him something, obviously).

Gravity Assisted Mountain Biking, La Paz, Bolivia

Al and I did the World's Most Dangerous Road with these guys and were impressed with their whole setup. Ok, so they tried to pick up the boss and another guide on the way home (who had been checking out a potential new route) using our minibus and it took us an extra 2 hours to get back to La Paz, but they did buy us beers for the bus!  On finding out we were touring, Alistair, the owner, was keen to help us out with any spares etc, so we headed down to their impressive workshop facility the following day, got a chainring fitted, some new gear cables, and picked up 3 new inner tubes.
Their website is crap, mind, and they've ignored my email asking if they want me to do them a new one while I'm stuck on a couple of boats on the Amazon...