Find out what happened at previous meetings in London and about future events
Saturday 6th December 2003 London meeting
Our first speaker was Paul Goldstein whose talk
was entitled “Africa: An adventurous wilderness”. Paul has
led many tours into sub Saharan Africa for adventure tour
operators over the last few years. We started with shots of
Victoria Falls and White water rafting, followed by bathing
in a Kenyan mud spring! Paul’s passion is for the wildlife
of Africa and we saw some wonderful pictures of lion,
leopard, cheetahs and jackals. But the stars of the show
for the globies audience were the mountain gorillas. Paul
finished up in India with a great shot of a lion taking it
easy in the middle of the road.
After the break John Pilkington gave an
intriguing talk on his journey up the Mekong river to its
source in Tibet. We started off in the markets of Saigon,
not a place for vegetarians! John followed the river’s
course but not always by travelling on it, he also used
local trucks that served as busses. As he headed north into
these Buddhist lands we saw Buddhist architecture and
playful orange clad monks who thought nothing of playing
with a mountain gun left over from a previous war. John
took an unusual route over the border into China, he
hitched a ride on a Chinese cargo boat delivering noodles
and Red Bull! When the Mekong was no longer navigable John
took to jeeps and finally onto horseback to become the
first Britain to reach the source of the Mekong. (Find out
more about John at http://www.pilk.net/lecture.mekong.html)
Saturday 3rd January 2004 London meeting
Our first meeting of 2004 was a series of 4 mini talks
given by Globetrotters members. Many thanks to all those
who took part, some at very short notice who made it a very
enjoyable afternoon.
Our first speaker was London organiser Dick
Curtis whose talk covered part of his “Gap
year” from teaching. Dick slides took us through
India, beginning as most Indian journeys do in the capital
Delhi from where he took a train to Kashmir, all very
exotic, especially to someone who had not ventured beyond
Europe before. Dick’s wonderful photos showed us
houseboats, temples and the very photogenic people. Dick
met up with some other travellers and with them trekked to
Ladakh taking in some beautiful mountain scenery and
travelling from Hindu India to Buddhist Ladakh.
Our second speaker was club Membership Secretary
Kevin Brackley, who took us to a now virtually
impossible to reach destination, Saudi Arabia. His journey
started in conservative Riyadh, with its fortress and
modern Faisal Tower, then north to Sakaka where he showed
us the 6000 year old standing stones in the desert. His
trip then followed the old Hejaz Railway through the desert
to Medina. We saw beautiful red desert colours, including
slides of rocks carved by wind and sand and the spectacular
Nabatean city of Maidan Saleh. At Al-Ula we saw old
locomotives from the railway abandoned in the desert,
before arriving via Medina at Globe Square in cosmopolitan
Jeddah on the Red sea.
After the break Martin Wright showed us a glimpse
of his marathon cycle ride to Australia. Martin illustrated
his trip with great photos and narrative, particularly of
some of his ailments along the way! He showed us eastern
Turkey, before crossing into Iran, the photos of the tiled
mosques at Esfahan were superb. Martin couldn’t get a visa
for Pakistan so had to back track before ending up in Nepal
and then via some hard uphill cycling into Tibet and Lhasa.
He continued down through Indochina before crossing to
Australia, where the “Pommie on a bike” was
made very welcome, especially in places where according to
road signs the population was outnumbered by sheep or
flies.
Our last speaker was Globetrotters Legacy Coordinator
Jeannie Copeland, who showed us a trip she led in
Iceland for Ramblers. Starting in Reykjavik with its
colourful houses and lake she travelled up the west coast
to Akureyri, where some of her group made the boat trip to
the Arctic circle island of Grimsey. Husavik on Iceland’s
north coast was the chance for the group to try whale
watching. Jeannie’s photos showed the group climbing
mountains in a tropical for Iceland, twenty degrees, before
travelling through rain to Myvatn, with its rock formations
such as Dimmuborgir and natural hot spring pools, great
after a long days walking.
After the talks, thanks to Nadia and all those who
brought food and drink, we enjoyed the annual Globetrotters
New Year party.
Future meetings
Saturday 7th February
Chris Bradley — Walking Wadi Hadramaut
[Yemen] – a 550 mile solo unsupported trek and first
westerner and Rupert Attlee — The Trail to
Titicaca – a 7000 mile cycle adventure through
S.America
Saturday 6th March
Anthony Lambert — Railways on the Wlldside
– travel on a selection of the World’s railways and
Jacqui Trotter — Travelling South America – 8
months of overland and independent travel Part II
London meetings are held at The Church of
Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent
Garden at 2.30pm the first Saturday of each month. There is
no London meeting in August, but we will be back in
September. For more information, you can contact the
Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit
the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk
