Sponsors

As increasingly impoverished students make up a large proportion of the expedition, which is very far from a "cheap holiday", we are grateful for the sponsorship we have received over recent years. Here we detail those who have supported the expedition & how. We also receive monetary support from a number of grant-giving bodies.

NB This list is a provisional pre-expo list. A more complete list with some more info on how products performed will be on the site soon after the expedition returns in late August.

Our 1999 sponsors were:

Morning Foods

Mornflake oats: tradition holds that you will have an epic if the porridge doesn't thicken, so a foolproof product is essential. The empty tins have a multitude of uses, and the full ones are good to sit on!

SeaFrance (Warning: need a browser with all the latest widgets to use this link - not a "best with any browser" site )-:

25% off standard return ferries: last minute organisation often means that you can't do the required jumping through hoops to cross the pond with two day-returns bought on opposite sides, so this discount brings fares at least within sight of the cheapest achievable, saving no end of effort.

Sharwoods

Sauces and noodles: Student cuisine is apt to be monotonous unless livened up a little, so a selection of stir-in sauces is essential to keep us all sane. Egg noodles are ready quicker than almost any other carbohydrate, which is very welcome when you arrive back late and have to cook in a hurry.

Thomas Tunnock Ltd.

Tunnock's Caramel Wafers: Have proven very popular over all the years that Tunnock's have helped us: light, high-energy camp & cave food.

Twinings

Select Blend Tea Bags: Cavers cannot function without tea, and this definitely does the job!

We also received discount (contract pricing) on gear from:

BCB International

Cotswold Outdoor (framed site)

Field & Trek (framed site)

Westler Foods

Wayfarer Meals

GP Batteries

The portable battery-powered drill has revolutionised exploration of difficult vertical areas. The technology is demanding of batteries. GP(UK) donated a set of 20 18650 4Ah NiMH cells to make a 'second generation' drill battery, which is less than half the size and weight of the previous one, for much the same power. We will be testing NiMHs in this application at the edge of their specifications.

Tadpole Technology

J-Slate (for evaluation): The basecamp PC is too big, too heavy, too fragile and needs mains power so a lightweight weatherproof computer for the expedition sharp-end is a very useful innovation, allowing us to run our Tunnel cave-survey software at Top Camp, and to use live GPS-plotting over maps to locate cave entrances.

Aleph One Ltd.

Expeditions have come some way since the days of candles in jam jars, and CUCC uses computers for the cave surveying and documentation (eg. this website). With the J-slate we will have several computers this year, so we need a network too. Aleph One loaned the expedition network hub, as well as providing workshop facilities for a variety of other gizmos such as radios and GPS units.

1978 Expedition
1989 Expedition
1990 Expedition
1991 Expedition
1992 Expedition
1993 Expedition
1994 Expedition
1995 Expedition
1996 Expedition
1997 Expedition