Our crowdfunder has now ended and we want to say a big thank you to everyone who saw the value in what we're trying to do and supported us. Your support is a massive help in getting this project off the ground and very much appreciated.

This was the first time in 30 years of adventuring that I have tried to help fund an "adventure" trip through crowdfunding, and it proved quite a learning experience. I had no idea how it would be received, what reach it would have and how well it would do financially. Initial ambitions of our campaign gathering support from far and wide throughout the mountain biking community proved naive, but instead a solid core of supporters stepped forward, seeing the merit in what we are trying to do.

As always its often about seeing the big picture rather focussing on the details and while if we were travelling to another destination we may have gathered more support, fortunately at least 76 of the 10,000+ people who viewed our page did read about the true aims of this trip and donated. Getting people to understand why we needed to try to fund this trip this way was the biggest obstacle by all accounts.

So by helping this campaign you are now part of history in the making and whatever else we come back with, we will have stories, postcards, photo prints and slideshows to share with you.

But aside from mementos, the real aim of this trip is to open minds and you are part of that. Thankyou.