Lukas started sending an e-mail to VOLVO's Customer Care Center in Switzerland with the headline 'VOLVO challenge - driving from Switzerland to Australia' and asked VOLVO Contact if they could please supply them with a list of service stations for all the listed countries that they were going to pass through.

The VOLVO Customer Care Manager contacted Lukas immediately telling him she would provide them with all the distribution centers for VOLVO and that 'she had passed his amazing trip on to the Marketing Department'!

Lukas then put together a trip presentation for the planned trip, driving to Australia with the route plan, benefits VOLVO could gain from the trip, and the type of VOLVO vehicle which incidentally is a 14 year old '940 Polar' Station wagon (Estate) model with nearly 300,000 km on the clock.

At the same time, Lukas sent an e-mail to NOKIA, inquiring if the GPS mobile phone would work in all the countries they were passing through.
Seven minutes later, the Marketing Manager called back to tell him that she was very sorry, but this year they were not providing any more sponsorship.

Lukas explained he was not seeking for sponsorship: he just simply wanted to know if NOKIA GPS mobile phones would work in all the countries. She said they should do, but added "why don't you do a product test and then we will know! So, how many mobile phones do you need?" Great, isn't it?

Lukas suggested to them that it made sense to have two of the latest mobile phones N85 with GPS. The NOKIA Marketing Managers answered him: "OK, it's done, call you back in ten days in order to fix the supplies". Getting linked with the world was then sorted out.

In the meantime Lukas was dealing with SCOBALIT AG, in Winterthur regarding to their outstanding product called 'Scobamat', a product which can be used for emergency situations if bogged in wet, snow or soft sand, or any territory which is no good to drive . SCOBALIT have provided Lukas and Shaun with useful 'Scobamat's' for their trip.

From this point, a lot of companies became interested in joining with their own products. One partner contact after another jumped on board as they were very interested in the PR of the whole journey!

All necessary personal health preparations had to be done. As Shaun and Lukas had recently traveled to various locations, tests were done to see which vaccinations were current, then extra injections, tablets and liquids, as well as prophylaxis for altitude, malaria etc. had to be done. Lukas and Shaun think they look like junkies now!

First aid kit has been supplied by Lukas's Tropical Illnesses Doctor.

Syringe pen supplied by TMVC