If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 10,000 people currently subscribe to the Globetrotter e-news in over 150 countries around the world.

The Globetrotter e-newsletter is completely free and you do not have to be a member of the Globetrotters Club to receive this. We are a not for profit organisation, run by unpaid enthusiastic well travelled volunteers. We are not affiliated with any commercial organisation. You will not be spammed as a result of receiving our e-newsletters and we do not sell, give or share our e-newsletter or membership list with anyone. Recommend a friend by clicking on: Join up for the free Globetrotter e-newsletter

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New regime, new management, new ideas! Only taking over the show from last November, so how did it work out? Did they rejuvenate it or did they blow it?

The Photographic competition exhibition was gone, bad news – good news the sound system was much improved in all the talk areas. Travel lecture open theatres, did well for Nomad and even attracted more audience. Not so good for lectures using slides but I’m told made little difference for the ones who used digital presentations.

Amongst Gap year, and the sports adventure stands were others that believed in sustainable tourism; in fact, now a days all companies say they believe in this type of tourism; some I believe more than others! Dragon Overland, Queensland and even Gap for grown ups, were among the many exhibitors.

Wanderlust Magazine, Editor in Chief, Lyn Hughes led from the front by not only by having her large stand but also by putting her travel Advice Theatre next to it and importantly kept the sides covered to concentrate attention on her speakers and it worked very well in her case.

The Globetrotters Club had their own Travel Advisor Stand, (see picture left with some of our members and committee members) a little bit more out of the way than usual but it received many visitors and I hope new members. Personally I spoke to several who said they would check out the web site and think about joining. Dick Curtis who runs the London Globetrotter meetings (see photo below right) as usual did sterling work and organized everything with the new management. The members and committee covered the three days, each of them with an expertise in some part of the world or other.

Guys and girls from Adez fruit juice kept us supplied with cold juice which made up for the fact that food and drink is so expensive at the show. As is the custom with the Globetrotters Club, after the event in the evening, Matt our chair, guided us to a fine pub behind Olympia, without the aid of GPS and a compass – later I rolled off my bus outside my flat and thought a good night was had by all.

The climbing wall and the diving pool were good to see but I think the show lacked a few visual events; otherwise it is too much like one stand after the other. All the exhibitors were on hand to help or cajole us into going on to some amazing trip or other. Plus presentations on nearly every place you could wish to visit.

Visitor numbers seemed a bit down, but the new regime (ATS Events, UK Ltd) is going to have a few more visitor participant companies in next year’s show, and that they will start to plan for this, as this year’s show ends.

How did it work out? I think the jury still out but as they only had from November to plan and as they are continuing the rejuvenation process, we will know by next years Adventure Show. Every show of every type, whether west end musical or travel show, needs a shake up now and again as nothing can stay the same without starting to look tired and the boring. Visitors need to think they need to come every year and not just once every five years or so.

About the author Tony Annis: have camera will travel. Over the top but not yet over the hill. Past sixty five and still alive, my get up and go has not entirely got up and gone – like good whisky, I’m still going strong. I am always available for writing and photography commissions and still work professionally in journalism and broadcasting.

See you over the next horizon, Tony, e-mail: tony@annis.co.uk

If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 14,000 people currently subscribe to the Globetrotter e-news in over 150 countries around the world.

The Globetrotter e-newsletter is completely free and you do not have to be a member of the Globetrotters Club to receive this. We are a not for profit organisation, run by unpaid enthusiastic well travelled volunteers. We are not affiliated with any commercial organisation. You will not be spammed as a result of receiving our e-newsletters and we do not sell, give or share our e-newsletter or membership list with anyone. Recommend a friend by clicking on: Join up for the free Globetrotter e-newsletter

Write for the Globetrotters Club e-newsletter! To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words. If you have photos, we can include up to 6 good quality JPEGs, and let us have a couple of sentences about yourself. Please contact: Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

Mac is still not very well but is still e-mailing strong. In this month’s Globetrotter e-newsletter, he writes about American Samoa, his friend Frank adds some of his reminiscences about British Samoa and other random thoughts on travels that we love to hear about.

Sending picture postcards to self. For a while when travelling overseas I would go to a department store or cheapest place to buy picture postcards or go to travel bureau and see if they hand any free ones.

I would usually put down name of cheap budget place I stayed and how much and anything else I might forget and would have the foreign stamp on card date etc. This was before e mail. Unfortunately I wrote so small on some of the cards that I can’t make out what pertinent information I wanted to save, but here’s some notes that I made that I can read.

Apia Western Samoa, November 20 1978. Stayed first night at Hotel Tiafu US $19.26 and then moved next door to Appian Way Nala US $11.6l. The owner of the budget place was the sister of a famous sister that owned a more famous more expensive place in Apia.

In WWII Michener met this sister and supposedly got the idea for one of his characters in his South Pacific tales. Anyway, my landlady told me of a trip she and sister took to Rome to have an audience with the Pope (one for the public.) A friend of mine here in Washington DC who was a travel agent had booked an around the world trip for one of the officials in Western Samoa and had asked him to look after me. Mr Pinata Ah Ling, ex member of Agriculture.

He took me to beautiful government sponsored Hotel Tusitala (teller of tales) and then across the island to a beach where some of South Pacific was filmed etc. We passed cattle under Coconut Tree project. Samoans dressed in white carrying bibles were on the way to church where they sing beautifully. I was told Samoa has the most churches per capita of anyplace on earth including Rome. There was a new brewery operated by a German brew master. Valima (pure water,) was the name of Robert L Stevenson’s home on W Samoa.

Later while on my own a laughing Samoan policeman told me that Samoans consider it discourteous to drink or eat while walking. He was not reprimanding me but using this piece of information to open up a conversation with me. An American was running the Returned Serviceman’s Club instead of a Samoan veteran. To keep club open, they took in associate members that had not been in the service. He told me that he taught the children of man that befriended me and that this gentleman was dying and that is why he took a trip around the world and why so much of his conversation was about religion and how we should all try to get along. I am glad I got to meet him. If you write picture postcards to yourself write more legibly than I did.

Frank, also an American retired serviceman adds to Mac’s e-mail: British Samoa was one of the finest places in the Pacific. I was there from December 1942 to May 1943, then went to American Samoa to June 1943 next to Wallis Island French Polynesia and then in October 1943 back to American Samoa for one month, then to Maui until January 1944. I left there and went to Marshall’s for combat etc.

British Samoa was a great place. Frank explains that the woman who ran the expensive place in Apia was Aggie Grey. She was the girl friend of MG Charles F. B. Price, CG of Samoan area. He used to send his PBY, (airplane) over Apia to bring her over to his place in Am Samoa.

I still speak a little Samoan. It came in handy in early 90’s when I was working in Hawaii. A lot of Samoans live there. When they found out I could speak some Samoan they couldn’t do enough for me. I like British Samoa better than any place I was in WWII. When someone died, there would be a feast and I would go out to the village Luemwinga, can’t spell it, that is a phonetic version. It was about two miles from airport. If I heard the drums being beaten, they actually were hollowed out logs, I could tell which were from Luemwinga. I would go out to the village and go in the bush and shoot a couple pigs for them. I always made it to the feast. I was sort of adopted by the village. Have never been back to British Samoa but have passed through American Samoa several times, last time in December 1999. I could tell you many tales about the place…

Mac is a huge fan of Lew Toulmin who wrote book The Most Travelled Man on Earth wrote about a rare British (Scottish) Medal, The Order of the Thistle which is granted to only sixteen distinguished Scotsmen, making it the probably the most exclusive order in the world.

In one chapter of his book, he wrote about the last Japanese soldier hiding out in Guam – seeing Guam the hard way, living twenty eight years in a hole. The ironies of his situation are amazing. While Yoki crouched in his cave, planeloads of Japanese tourists arrived every hour delighted to sun themselves on Guam’s beaches just miles from his cave.

Within nine months of his return to Japan he married a younger woman. They took their honeymoon where many Japanese couples do – on Guam. His call up letter in Japan had read, “Leave home as if you were going out for a stroll. Do not pack. Do not say goodbye to your family.”

Nearby Johnston Atoll is a chemical weapons facility southwest of Hawaii and run by the US government and Raytheon. The only way to really see the island is to get a degree in chemical warfare and join Raytheon.

One time I wrote a fan letter to a deal lady that travelled on her own in China and wrote book I Never Heard the Temple Bells. She answered that she was leaving that morning driving to California.

Another interesting nugget: I read somewhere that Paul Warren of Pitcairn Island descendent of Fletcher Christian has two necklaces that include nails from HMS Bounty.

If you would like to get in touch with Mac, he is happy to correspond by e-mail when he is well. His e-mail address is: macsan400@yahoo.com

I realise that in my first edition I spoke of starting with six publishes a year… I have had good encouragement from a band of regular contributors and positive feedback from readers– this has led me to believe I can up the pace a little. However I’m not going to get all complacent because I need to immediately apologise to Chris Hampden for losing his article “Spotlight on… Hampden’s travel blog”, from the January edition. Somehow it went missing from the draft and failed to make it into the final publish !! Anyway read away and leave Chris your thoughts on his blog…

A sadder task is to note the death of Sir Edmund Hillary, who died on 11 January 2008. Many of you will have read a range of obituaries, some like the UK Guardian newspaper’s http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2239122,00.html which painted a broader picture of his life or some like the BBC’s version, http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3740536.stm, which focused his Everest achievement. I didn’t know the man but like many I’m fascinated & envious of the being first to top of the world, and I was quite touched as the Royal Geographical Society observed a minute’s silence at the following Monday night lecture. Do any of you have any stories or anecdotes about EH that you’d like to share… on what you send me, I’ll try to include the most original ?

And what are your travel plans for 2008… Which destinations are firing you imaginations, causing you to spend hours surfing the internet or reading guide books & maps ? And why are you choosing these destinations – what is the attraction ? Let me know your thoughts & plans… if you need some additional help, we can provide via the eNewsletter. One such person who is after travel advice is Eleanor – see Write in (1)… in small groups by Eleanor H Borkowski for her requests.

Another person on the move is Tony Annis – long time and very active member of the Globetrotters Club ! Tony is organising a trip to Brazil this July and is potentially looking for a few more adventurous people to join his very individual & very local tour. As to what his trip is about, well in his own words:-

“Basic idea London to Rio de Janeiro, a couple of days in Rio before setting off to Brasilia to change planes to arrive Rio Branco in the State of Acre. The next day pick up air taxi to Marachel Thaumaturgo. Across the river is The Ashaninka College of the Forest. A few days there (Festival on the 24th July). Moving on down to the village by canoe – around the village and further up river for the more adventurous to a water fall (a couple of days camping under the stars in the forest). Back in Rio de Janeiro by 6th August and free time or I take you to sample some of Rio’s fantastic night life ( Not expensive).”

I understand that the three plus weeks of a unique insight into Brazil is likely to cost in the region of £2000 and will include international flights from the UK and most accommodation. Talk to Tony at tony@annis.co.uk for more exact details and the chance to join in something quite different.

Hot of the press – Walking the Amazon : the world’s largest and longest river !!

Ed Stafford & Luke Collyer’s aim to be the first men to walk the length of the Amazon unsupported and unguided. I think that these guys are tops this month for adventurous travels in 2008,so far ! Enjoy their experiences of their journey at www.walkingtheamazon.com and who knows maybe when they return we might be able to welcome them to a London Branch meeting to share more of their time & what they found. Hopefully in the next eNewsletter I’ll be able to print more details of the launch party and the guy’s progress…

Enjoy your eNewsletter and keep feeding back on what your read…

The Ant

This year I received quite an unusual Christmas card from Myrna & Gene, who I’d met whilst sailing aboard the Soren Larssen in the Pacific Ocean – they related some of their latest adventures and I thought I share some of them with you, as there’s plenty of travel related detail in what they had to say. The Ant!!

As we were in South Africa at Christmas, our greetings to all of you are a little late! We were gone from mid-Oct. until the end of Jan. sailing as crew from Madagascar to Mozambique through part of the Bazarito Archipelago and on to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique before heading to Richards Bay & Durban in South Africa. The sailing vessel we were on was a 40′ sloop named “Juno” captained by Tom Hildebrandt, who had been on the boat since he bought it in Australia in 2004. School teacher Frances from San Francisco joined us in Madagascar and participated as crew until we reached Maputo. We helped with all manner of jobs whilst on board – from sailing the boat, scrubbing decks as well as the sides of the boat, stood watch, baked bread, cook meals, washed clothes in buckets on deck and helped with repairs as directed by the skipper.

On a small boat quarters are cramped, water is at a premium and mainly used for drinking & cooking, refrigeration is very limited and provisions are shopped for & brought to the dinghy and taken to the boat at anchor. On boats there is always something breaking down…just in the time that we were aboard “Juno” the boom broke off the mast, the windlass for bringing up the anchor chain quit working, the water intake plugged and the engine overheated & part of it melted! As a result we stayed tied up to the wharf in Richards Bay for a month while most of the major repairs were made. During this time Gene and I took off for two weeks to explore inland. Lyn from Malule Safaris took us to some wonderful nature reserves and escorted us personally through Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park, Dumazulu Cultural Village, the greater St. Lucia Wetland Estuary & Reserve and Kruger National Park. We saw white rhinoceros’s, elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, cape buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, nyala, duikers, water buck, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, hyenas, elands, steinboks, lions, leopards, and a great variety of birds. We also went up to the pinnacle at Blyde River Canyon to see the spectacular view from what is called God’s window. The day after our tour was completed Lyn took us to the farm where she grew up to meet her mom and dad and they invited us for Christmas dinner. What a treat!!!

We spent 6 days and nights at Imhambri Lodge in Meerensee which was a delightful place to stay. From here we were able to walk to the Methodist Church close by for a Christmas carol sing-a-long and a potluck Christmas morning service. They truly made us feel welcome. Back to the boat by the end of December and after two weeks we reached Durban, where we again were able to tie up to the wharf. Here we made friends with a number of the other yachties and were able to take real showers at their club. We also took a couple of day tours – one to The Giants Castle in the Drakensburg mountains to see the San bushman rock art paintings from thousands of years ago and the other to explore historic Pietermaritzburg & Howick Falls. The big thrill was to be zip lined on a canopy tour over the Karkloof falls and forest – what a ride harnessed and zipping along on the cable to eight different platforms.

We decided to get off the boat on 16th January and caught the backpackers Baz Bus to Capetown, where we had a marvellous eight days in Cape Town and then two days in Simons Town on the beach. Our spots visited list included the top of Table Mountain in the Cable Cars, a winery tour and walk through the Kristenbosch Botanical Gardens. There are frequent power outages in Cape Town and one night the tourists in the cable cars had to be rescued by the Search & Rescue team by crawling out the hatch on the top of the car and then being lowered down in harnesses & ropes to safety far below! Eating conjured up a number of good restaurants – my favourite being “Mama Africa” where I had crocodile kabobs and Gene had springbok steak! Our last two days were spent near the beach at Top Sails lodge in Simons Town where The Boulders National Park, spending a delightful day on the beach with the penguins, protected by the large boulders so the wind which always blows wasn’t quite as strong.

Love and have a very happy New Year! Myrna and Gene

We dragged ourselves ever upwards and onwards, I thought my get up and go, with the help of Guarana and good whisky was still going strong; but rather than over the hill – I was finding it difficult too even get up this hill! My friends and I were on a steep walk that was just short of being able to be described as a climb – fifty minutes of mud steps, not cut out but worn into the so called path by travellers over the years, always at least eighteen inches in height. We climbed through a rising rain forest of trees and roots that would make their way up to a cold pool that was fed by a lovely waterfall, the highest of two that finally spilled their waters into the rushing river below. The roots would act as handholds or footholds as we dragged ourselves up from the 35ºC at the start to a comfortable 27ºC at the top. This was the sort of tough but pleasant tramp that would be banned by Heath and Safety committees in the UK, but with care, no problem for anyone at all, not even for me! My companions were two lady lawyers, a female translator and a fit young man, arrogant and confident, much as I must have been at his time of life.

My brother had recommended me to visit Boissucanga, locally known as ‘Boi’ and stay in a lovely rustic house owned by ‘Jenny’ not far from the beach in this yet as unspoilt resort, used by ‘Paulistas’ as a weekend escape from their large pulsating city that is the driving engine not only of Brazil but also of the whole of South America. Around three hours drive from Sao Paulo or about nine from Rio de Janeiro, Boi is to the south, just passed Ilha Bella, near Sao Antonio. Boi comes after the fashionable towns of the ‘Costa Verde’, therefore much cheaper to stay, much less crowded and practically no foreign tourists. There is always a place to stay, whatever the size of your budget – Extremely well designed 5* small Hotels (for example Juquey Praia Hotel – R$ 300 [with breakfast] R$ 390 [with breakfast and dinner] per day); Pousadas [Guest Houses] (various standards of simplicity, from R$ 100 to R$ 200 per day) as well as Jenny’s very reasonably priced rustic haven (self- contained houses at R$100 per day).

No crowds on very different beaches, some with waves and some calm and the three Islands just offshore, make this just the resort to take some time out! Not to say there is nothing to do!

The three islands provide perfect picnic beaches, not spoilt by vendors of any type. We took our own beer, sandwiches, prawns and fruit. We swam, went snorkelling and generally explored the small area but mostly wallowed in the warm clear water. A short, pleasant, forty minute boat ride from the mainland and costing only about £6-00 a head to taken there and then to be picked up again in the late afternoon. Two days of my visit I spent enjoying myself on these relaxing three Islands.

Boissuganga, itself a small simple town but with a bank I was able to draw money out of with my plastic from its electronic cashier (Bradesco Bank). A curved empty beach, calm water, excellent simple bars right down by the water side with marvellous fish, prawns meals straight out of the sea and on to your table -The sound of the sea lapping on the shore, mixing with the gentle playing of guitars at the start of sunset. The splash of yellow and gold of the sky, reflecting off the locals as well as the water and the sound of their clapping as the sun went down and day turned into night.

This was the signal for the waterside bar (Parati), to awaken and the sound of Brazilian Popular Music, to drift across the moonlit beach. Brazilians love to party and as usual many of them joined in the singing – Dancing is something you cannot stop them doing once they hear the sound of exciting music.

Two of the evenings I thought I would pop out for a dance and though a small town, there were always three or four places one could go to dance. Music of all different types in Bistro bars round the town where I could dance the night away or least until the early hours of the morning, after which I would stagger home, not drunk, just exhausted from having such a good time with my lovely companions.

As I gathered my thoughts together, sitting on the bus awaiting it to start my journey back to Rio de Janeiro. I had made sure it was taking the coast road and I was sitting on the seaside of the coach so that I could see this lovely coast line as I made my way back north up the ‘Costa Verde’

Every now and again I discover or hear of a gem of a place, still not exploited or spoilt and I pass them on to the Globetrotters Club via the e-news or GT Magazine. So guys, Boissucanga is another such place – Why not, just go for it!

Send Jenny an e-mail for more information. jennym@uol. com. br & boijmr@aol. com .

All photos © by Tony Annis.

While thinking of ways to celebrate Globetrotters’ Club’s 60th anniversary we came up with the idea of awarding people who have been members for 30 years or more, with a certificate. Our President, Janet Street-Porter has signed 17 certificates.

Using my own membership of exactly 30 years I was able to use my membership number of 1202 as a useful gauge. However, some members ended up with new numbers if they renewed slightly late at one point in our club’s history and the original numbers were destroyed. So, if you are one of these people and you know you joined before 1976 then please contact me: e11fdj@yahoo. co. uk We offer our sincere apologies to anyone omitted from the list below.

At our London meeting on 7th January 2006 we presented the certificates to those there, the rest will be sent out. One member, who was omitted deserves a special mention. She has been coming to our meetings in London for many years and has been a member since 1968. Joan McConn will receive her own presentation at a future meeting.

The list of long serving members:

• Norman Ford
• Jean Clough
• Betty Dawes (Browning)
• Joan McConn
• Susan Mew
• Anne Ross
• Isabel Ramsay
• Margaret Hayward
• John Baker
• John and Julie Batchelor
• Jill Dunisthorpe
• Sylvia McMaster
• Francesca Jaggs
• John Barnes
• Winifred Manders
• Malcolm Kier
• Irene Richards