Let’s talk about the first of the really well known explorers: Christopher Columbus, whose name can be seen all around Central and South America as Cristóbal Colón. Although Columbus was born an Italian, in Genoa, he obtained sponsorship from the rulers of both Portugal and Spain and made four trips to the New World. He was amongst those who believed that the world was round – not a widely held view at the time – and he longed to sail west to the Azores and further, to the legendary lands described by Marco Polo.

As every schoolchild in the UK knows, “In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. Even though the Scandinavians had reached North America a long time before Columbus, Columbus’ trip was important in that he was amongst the first Europeans to set foot on so many islands in the Caribbean, and land masses in Central and the northern part of South America. The sad thing is that Columbus thought he had reached the East Indies and that the islands of the Caribbean were in islands off mainland China.

Of course, there were commercial motives in all these great ocean-going trips, which often took years to undertake and in dreadful conditions on board. These lay in buying new and exotic spices, although Columbus was not too successful in this – he found capsicums and is also attributed as having bought back tobacco, known locally as a “bewitching vegetable” from the West Indies in 1496. On the one hand, he is believed to have possessed great courage and explored parts of the world that were completely chartered territory – his crew were in constant fear of toppling over the edge of the world. On the other, historians reckon that he was really quite greedy, constantly looking for increased wealth and a terrible administrator (although a fearless explorer) and was cruel to the local people he found in these new territories.

Next month: Vasco da Gama

Members slides: we had a veritable marathon of Globetrotters showing slides. Part 1 included Dan Buckman showing slides on Belgium and Poland; Ernest Flesch showing slides on how people make their living: rice growing in China and Sumatra, threshing, picking and fanning rice; rubber tapping in Sri Lanka, and oxen pilled water wheel in Rajasthan and tobacco farmers in Yemen. Jean Clough , the Globetrotter gate keeper and more, showed slides on the funeral pyre of the grandson of the last king of Bali and regaled us with some of the more ghoulish facts on how bodies are burned. PhilKoniotes , always good for excellent slides and anecdotes showed us some fabulous slides of fish. Not just ordinary fish, but sharks, huge bump head wrasses, parrotfish cocoons, unicorn fish and er…porcelain toilets. The Beetle was on the edge of her seat, salivating and counting the days to her next dive trip!

Part 2 consisted of Philip (The Whisperer) Ferguson who showed us slides of vintage cars and lorries and a train with Australia written on the side…in Cuba. Peter Mann started off with some slides of pubs in London called The Globe, yes, we know, any excuse Pete! He then sobered up and we visited a series of structurally and visually amazing bridges in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Dick (Curtis) made a couple of appearances at the projector and showed us a series of slides, all of which he reckoned had St Pauls in them. After much good humoured derision, he handed over to Jacqui (Trotter) his erstwhile stand in who finished the Members Slide show with some pictures of Tasmania and lots of people riding penny farthings…

Saturday 1st September

Next on 1st September, we have Beth Wooldridge talking on “My Many India's”, as a tourist, traveller, student, travel-author, and woman – Beth's experiences around the sub-continent were often coloured by her different guises. After the break, Justin Marozzi will give a talk on “The Slave Routes of the Libyan Sahara”, retracing the ancient routes totalling 1500 miles, 1200 of which were by camel. Justin is also the author of “South of Barbary” a story of the expedition.

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 on Saturday 1^stSeptember. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotter Info.line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/