John Sunter & Nikki Young – Rapa Nui A UNESCO world Heritage site – Rapa Nui National Park is a protected Chilean wildlife area located in Easter Island, which concentrates the legacy of the Rapa Nui culture.
Christine Stockton – Armenia Armenia today is a democratic nation with an ancient cultural heritage and was the first country to adopt Christianity as the state religion. It has 3 UNESCO World heritage Sites.
Chester Globetrotters meeting – 15th July 2023
Doors open at 1pm for 1:30pm start until 4:00pm, The Grosvenor Museum, 25-27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD.
The format is talks by ten speakers for ten minutes giving a fast-paced journey around the Globe.
There are five talks before the break and five after, with each speaker having between 10 slides of 1 minute each to 20 slides of 30 seconds each.
If you are interested in doing a short talk please fill out this form (members slides).
By tradition, we follow this meeting with a New Year Party post-meeting
Date & Time: Saturday 6th January 2024
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
A journey that includes a boat on the Congo River, Kinshasa, pygmies, Virunga, (gorillas), Ruwenzori, the Rift Valleys, Mt Kenya, Lengai (an active volcano), Kilimanjaro, ice caps on the equator, Tsavo and the Kenya coast.
2nd: Rosemary J Brown – Train Pass Tales 2023: On track through Switzerland, Iberia and Japan.
Have train pass, will travel. Join Rosemary on her rail trails across Europe and around Japan exploring cities, mountains, shrines and World Heritage Sites. All aboard for scenic Swiss trains like the Glacier Express and Bernina Express — trains in Spain along the Camino de Santiago — and super-swift journeys on Japan’s bullet trains — with plenty of stops along the way.
Date & Time: Saturday 2nd December 2023
Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
Admission costs:
£7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
AGM: The club AGM starts at 12:00 pm (card-carrying members only), then at 2.30 pm the meeting begins
Speaking at 2.30 pm we have:
1st: Kevin Brackley – DC monuments and museums
Exploring, the sights, monuments and museums of Washington DC and the surrounding area.
2nd: Atlantic Escapade – One couple in close quarters rowing across the Atlantic Ocean
Andy and Rosalind from Atlantic Escapade will be talking about their expedition to row 3,000 miles unsupported across the Atlantic Ocean in a very tiny boat.
Date & Time:
Saturday, November 4, 2023
Doors open at 14:00 in London.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.
1st: Francesca Jaggs – Northern lights, and the world’s northernmost permanent settlement.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to witness the spectacular Northern Lights in person or live in the northernmost city in the world?
Francesca did not contemplate this much until a friend said that it was his dream but doubted he would ever fulfil it. She could not bear to hear this and found herself saying “Let’s do it!”
Francesca will share insight into the northernmost city in the world, Longyearbyen, located on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Talking about the unique challenges of living in this remote and isolated community, including the 24-hour darkness of winter and the constant threat of polar bears.
This was not a long trip but one that challenged the speaker considerably as she normally mostly heads to very warm places. As someone who had a deep fear of the cold, she will give an insight into how going completely out of her comfort zone ultimately led to a sense she would never be afraid of the cold again.
2nd: Mary Fogarty – Places I was dragged to by my Dad.
This talk will focus first on our life as a family in a newly-independent Kenya, where my father Noel worked for Nairobi City Council and we lived on a council estate in a field. Over the next five years we travelled all over East Africa, my father’s general goal being to see as much as he possibly could of his surroundings.
In his VW Variant we went on long trips into Uganda and Tanzania, climbing mountain craters, searching for the Big Five in the great national parks, and taking boats on lakes and rivers infested with crocodiles and hippos. Christmases were spent camping near the beach in Mombasa, and on his long leave, we went back to the UK on two different passenger ships, going down the African coast on the Indian Ocean, and putting in at exotic cities in Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.
It wasn’t just Africa either – we also visited the Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, Turkey and more on trips to and from Nairobi. And when we came back to the UK for good, Noel bought a campervan, and off we set across Europe. Also Scotland and the North! Was there never a rest?!
Date & Time:
Saturday, September 2nd, 2023.
Doors open at 14:00 in London.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participates via Zoom.
a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
Please reserve seats in the hall in advance as this speeds up entry at the meeting and allows us to plan staffing, we may charge more for unreserved tickets.
Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.
Linda’s talk will provide an informative and inspiring exploration of the world of gorilla tracking, offering a deeper understanding of these magnificent creatures, the challenges they face, and how responsible tourism can contribute to their conservation.
Gorilla tracking is an exhilarating and transformative adventure that offers a unique opportunity to observe and connect with one of the world’s most remarkable and endangered species – the mountain gorilla.
Join us on this virtual expedition into the heart of the wild and discover the magic of gorilla tracking.
2nd: Alan Palmer – On the Edge of the World.
In the autumn of 2022, political stability having finally been restored to the region, Alan returned to northern Pakistan after an absence of 24 years and some 35 years after his first visit in 1987.
He drove for six weeks, off road and along rough jeep tracks, through some of the tallest and wildest mountains on earth – the western Himalayas, the Karakorum and the Hindu Kush.
While revisiting some cherished old haunts, he also discovered other new, infrequently visited corners, hidden deep within this fabulous landscape, as he reached out towards the remote borders of Afghanistan and China.
In his talk, Alan relives his adventures, some old and some new. He relates his encounters with tribal groups whose homes lie deep within the territory’s hidden high valleys, from the Pathans of Peshawar to the Kafirs of Kalash, and from the Afridis of the Kyber to the Ismailis of forgotten Shimshal, while not forgetting the times he spent drinking tea with refugee Mujahideen fighters on the outskirts of Chitral. All this while he kept an ear close to the ground, listening intently for any lingering echoes of Kipling’s imperial Great Game.
Alan is the founder and director of his own company, Yak Travel – www.yaktravel.co.uk – which specialises in both gentle holidays and not so gentle expeditions to Pakistan, North East India and Morocco. He is a regular speaker at travel shows and travel clubs, both at home and abroad, and is a respected travel writer, too.
He wrote Moroccan Atlas the Trekking Guide, co-wrote Insight Guide Pakistan, and has contributed to numerous other travel books and magazines besides, including The Rough Guide to The Best 100 Places on Earth.
At the end of his talk, Alan will be selling copies of his books, “Moroccan Atlas the Trekking Guide”(rrp £14.99), and “Insight Guide Pakistan” (rrp £18.99), each at the reduced price of £10. All money received will go directly to the Morocco earthquake appeal via the British Moroccan Society’s GoFundMe appeal.
a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
Please reserve seats in the hall in advance as this speeds up entry at the meeting and allows us to plan staffing, we may charge more for unreserved tickets.
Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.
1st: Alexis Parrinder-Nicholls – Travelling with music: The power of music to navigate difficult situations and bring people together
Alexis has travelled with a guitar to over 30 countries, including Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Iraq, China, Senegal and The Gambia. These trips have often focussed around hitchhiking and exploring the most remote areas.
From jamming his way out of trouble with the Burmese police, to rapping at a wedding in a village not visited by foreigners for ninety years, a touch of music has often proven invaluable along the way.
Considering the music cultures in the different regions he’s visited, this talk will explore the role that music can play in traversing barriers, connecting people and generally being a force for good in the world.
2nd: Sharon Cunningham – Miss Honeyjam’s Mid-Life Cycle
Sharon is a mild mannered, mechanically challenged, middle aged school teacher who mostly likes sitting still. This is a talk about what happens when you watch too many YouTube videos about cycling during lockdown. It is about life at 15 mph, along the Rhine River, starting at its source, in Oberalppass in Switzerland and going all the way to Hoek van Holland, on a folding bike. By the end, you too will have all the information you need to plan your own cycle!
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participates via zoom.
The zoom meeting opens at 14:15 with the talks starting 14:30-14:45 BST (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please join early so we can deal with any issues with joining, if you have issues please try updating your zoom client first, we are very limited in what we can do once the meeting has started.
Admission costs in advance:
£3 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
Please reserve seats in the hall in advance as this speeds up entry at the meeting and allows us to plan staffing, we may charge more for unreserved tickets.
Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.
