Brothers cycling from Devon to Australia for charity

Two brothers have set out to cycle from Devon to Australia to raise money for a suicide bereavement charity.

Bobby and Conrad Saunders set off from Crediton, Devon, on 12 April with a target of £1,000 for Pete's Dragons and are currently in Slovenia.

Bobby said the aim was for the entire journey to take between 11 months to a year, with a three week break so they could attend their sister's wedding.

He said: "We've got a load of strangers who are seemingly just invested in the journey. It's all just been positive."

He added: "We've raised, I think, £1,770 so far for the charity that we're raising money for so it's been awesome."

Conrad said they chose Pete's Dragons because "one of my best mates, three-and-a-half-years ago, he decided to take his life and Pete's Dragons was really helpful to his family in the aftermath of his death".

He said his friend Ben was a "larger than life character, a big yes man but he had his own mental battles".

He added: "He would definitely be very proud of what we're doing and I'm sure if he was still around he would joining us for a big leg."

He added: "Luckily I've got a good support system. We all sort of rallied behind each other.

"Everyone deals with it differently but no one should deal with it alone, he's massively missed by a lot of people."

The charity was founded in 2010 by its chief executive Alison Jordan, after her younger brother Pete took his own life and works to support people in Devon who have experienced a bereavement by suicide.

The charity said it was "honoured" the brothers were doing the journey to fundraise for them.

Conrad added: "There's still a long way left in the journey so hopefully that number can keep rising."

Conrad continued: "We cycled down to Plymouth, so that was just a day cycling, and then we got the overnight ferry to Roscoff."

From there, he said they put Australia into Google Maps but it could not find a route so they had to figure something else out.

After getting off the ferry the pair cycled through France, into Switzerland through Geneva, went through Italy and have reached Slovenia.

Bobby added: "We kind of set a main city as our goal and then we'll stop in places along the way."

During the journey they will take two flights, between Kathmandu in Nepal and Guangzhou in China and a flight from Bali to Australia.

In the route they shared on instagram they showed they would also get a boat across the Caspian Sea.

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He added of their journey so far: "As we're getting further along, people are starting to take it a bit more seriously when you talk to them."

He said his family probably thought they were a bit crazy but also believes his dad might also be a bit jealous.

"Growing up, our dad was always climbing mountains and stuff, so it's kind of like trying to outdo him, pretty much," he joked.

"He's waiting to come out and join us for a stretch."

Bobby added about some of their downhill rides: "The massive descents are awesome... just going downhill for 30 to 40 minutes, it's just incredible."

He said the best part of the day was at the end when they got to have some food and beers.

Conrad added: "We're also both big fans of cold water swimming so jumping in the lakes have been unbelievable."

The pair have been sharing their journey daily on social media and have been taking turns to video edit, which has turned into a "little competition".

Conrad said: "Bobby seems to be winning it at the moment."

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