Or do you know someone who could benefit from a helping hand into the wider world?
What is the award?
Each year the club offers up to two £1,000 awards to give out for the best independent travel plan, as judged by the club’s Committee.
The deadline to receive applications for the next award is 31 May 2011.
See the legacy page on the club’s web site for more details, where you can review previous winners’ trips and/or apply with your plans for a totally independent, travel trip.
If your idea catches our eye we’ll take a closer look at what you’re proposing and give you feedback & maybe a helping hand on your journey of a lifetime !!
If you enjoy writing & travelling, why not write for the free Globetrotters eNewsletter ! The Ant 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 15,000 people currently subscribe to the Globetrotter eNewsletter.
Email The Ant at theant@globetrotters.co.uk with your travel experiences / hints & tips / questions. Your article should be approximately 1000 words, feature up to 3 or 4 jpeg photos and introduce yourself with a couple of sentences and a contact e-mail address.
For an extra busy London branch meeting (courtesy of Jacqui’s superb organising efforts with the speakers recently me thinks) we had two contrasting & excellent speakers:-
John Gimlette – Wild Coast Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge. Returning favourite John talked about travelling through the three Guyanas of north east South America…Guyana, Suriname & French Guiana – a very unknown & underdeveloped series of destinations. John’s knack as a traveller is get involved locally in all his destinations, in all aspects of society & then recall his travels warmly and intelligently through books, radios & talks J His style is less “this is what I did !” and much more “come with me on a journey”. I hope that paints John in light that does him justice J
Sarah Outen – A Dip in the Ocean. Sarah’s talk was so different in so many ways and yet equally entertaining. At twenty years old Sarah set of to fulfil a dream and grieve over the loss of her father – she rowed solo from Perth, Western Australia to Mauritius ! Her recollection of 4000 miles of that epic ocean crossing held us rapt late into the afternoon – her mishaps, frailties & doubts were exposed to the audience…but her story telling style made those seem core to her record breaking journey. I think back a long way to my first travels at a similar age, inter-railing around Europe, and wonder where Sarah found the courage & determination…congratulations to you Sarah J
London branch 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, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.
There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.
First of all we would like to thank everyone for a great turnout in January, it helps us greatly and gives us all new energy to continue!
Saturday the 19th of March is slowly getting closer and it looks set to be a great meeting again with two fantastic speakers and the usual refreshments in the break so that you all can have a chat over tea and biscuits.
CYCLING THROUGH EUROPE – helping kids in Nepal and Mexico, speaker Saul Soto
INDIA “A STEP BACK IN TIME” – following in the footsteps of Rudyard Kipling, speaker Doreen Taylor
Hope to see you there
Cheers
Hanna, Angela, Eve
The meeting is at The Grosvenor Museum, 25 – 27 Grosvener Street, Chester, CH1 2DD. Tickets £3 including refreshments.
Contact Angela, Hanna or Eve for further information of this & future events at Chester via email atchesterbranch@globetrotters.co.uk
Portobello Gold…party celebrating Mike Bell’s 26th year as Landlord !!
Gaz Mayall and the, eight piece, Trojans trying to set up in a space that a three-piece combo would find small! So like a jigsaw being slowly put together it took about forty five minutes to set up, as each musician emptied their instrument cases and then had to carry them out through the milling crowd filling into the bar, to give room for the next musician to set up. The Portobello Gold Hotel/Pub with a large and extremely visual restaurant with good food is not small but the area where the bands play is smallish. The popularity of this place is renowned round the world, with President Clinton having been here for the food as well as to appreciate the ambiance of a very different bar.
Especially on Sunday nights when the music is live with free entrance and where there has been live music for many years. A place where many groups get a chance to show off their talents in Portobello Road, West 11, getting rarer and rarer in these small venues in London. This is one of the places that I take foreign visitors when they visit London, this night was even more special than usual and I took a Brazilian presenter, who wasn’t familiar with Portobello and she loved it.
The sound of a great rocking band and as Gaz says, “We do what we want. Where else will you hear Little Richard, old ska, drum’n’bass and a Louis Armstrong record from 1928? We’re like musical chefs, mixing the ingredients.”Gaz Mayall is a musician, DJ, producer and record label owner. He’s the host of London’s longest running one-nighter, Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues – now in its 28th year – and the founder member of the ska band The Trojans. He also runs his record label Gaz’s Rockin’ Records. The son of legendary British blues musician John Mayall and a friend from way back when; Mike photographed many of the famous groups when he travelled with a friend who worked for the ‘Melody Maker’ to many of the gigs of that era. The bar is full of the images of groups and famous musicians of that time. Interestingly Gaz played a Hohner Melodica, not often seen or heard around now. It was basically a windblown mouth organ – built into and operated by a keyboard. The band played Rockabilly, Rock’n’Roll and Ska and as one of the musicians was Scottish and it was nearly ‘Burns’ night, we heard an amazing hard rocking bagpipes for a couple of numbers, like I’ve never heard ever before!
The crowd of all age groups and mostly regulars of this bar jumped with no room to jive, clapped and stamped their feet in appreciation of a great night of enjoyment and fun. So much so it felt like it was being at a friend’s party – Which of course it was: Mike Bell’s party in Portobello land.
Tony is a long time GT member and widely involved in many adventures, including my trip with him to western Brazil & the Ashaninka people 🙂
This edition is a whirlwind catch up on a raft of articles, news & anecdotes. Since mid January this year I’ve been somewhat distracted – I’ve moved house and welcome my daughter into the world ! There is no doubt my priorities are changing quite rapidly as I realise the full nature of the changes that I’m part of, but travel remains a key part of my life and something I’m looking to share with said daughter 🙂
As to this edition – regulars Tony Annis & Mac are back with us, there’s a quite a few meetings from all branches to read about and there’s some items to make you smile I hope 🙂
What else is happening across the wider travel world?
John Pilkington – A stroll through the axis of evil – Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Iran
Photographer, documentary maker, traveller but above all brilliant lecturer on his travels around this wonderful world of ours and in doing so gave an excellent, entertaining slide show on his latest trip. “A Stroll Through The Axis Of Evil” A play on George Bush senior’s words of a few years ago…John’s route took us through the Euphrates, the Caucasus and the Valley of the Assassins to finish on the Persian Gulf.
To read more about John & his travels visit his web site at http://www.pilk.net/
Dick Curtis – It all started in Kashmir ….
Former London meetings organiser, Wasps rugby union number one fan & all round personable chap Dick took us back to an earlier point in his life and explained what first set him on his travels and his subsequent adventures in Kashmir. Many of the audience appreciated Dick’s standpoint and in listening to him, remembered their own experiences of independent travel…an excellent compliment to John’s engaging first half.
London branch 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, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.
There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.
