Saturday, August 13, 2022 any time after 1:30 p.m.
at Bruce Weber’s, 3 Oneida Ave. Algonquin Island.
Potluck: Bring some food and drinks to share
Pedicab, rowboat and canoe will be available.
Ferry to “Ward’s Island” leaves at 10:30, 11:30, 12:00 , 12:30, 13:30 (mask required) Get your tickets on-line and leave early (you can deposit your ‘stuff’ at Bruce’s house, take a walk around the island, or go to the beach).
We invite you to prepare a short presentation (20 pictures – 20 seconds each – see the attached info about Pecha Kucha format) and bring it on a memory stick. Any questions? – contact Svatka 416-503-2933
For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka: hermaneks@yahoo.ca or Bruce: at bruceaweber@hotmail.com. Meetings and travel presentations are held on the 3rd Friday in January, March, May (4th Friday), September and November at 8.00 p.m. at Old York Tower, 85 The Esplanade ( corner of the Esplanade & Church St.) – two blocks east of the Union station. A public parking garage is at the foot of Church Street right next to the Old York Tower.
“On the Road Again” speakers: Hanna Bastiaansen and Kevin Jones
“Round the Horn of Africa” Speaker: David Redford
Hanna Bastiaansen and Kevin Jones
Over the years we have travelled far and wide not only to other countries, whilst starting the Chester Globetrotters Travel Group from 2009, but also in our faithful 1986 Syncro VW camper covering much of Europe and beyond, including Turkey and the former Eastern block countries right up to North Cape in the Norwegian arctic circle. After so many miles and with a two year restoration of the VW plus a two year Pandemic delay we are finally off to visit Europe again including the Hanseatic trading cities on our way to spend the Mid-Summer in Sweden, famous for its celebrations and historical significance for Europe … at least that was the plan … so what happened to us?
David Redford
A report of two visits to the Horn of Africa, in 2018 and 2019, taking in Addis Ababa, the new railway to Djibouti, Lac Assal, Harar in North Eastern Ethiopia and Hargeisa and Laas Gaal in Somaliland. Along the way are hand fed hyenas, a camel market, a cheetah sanctuary and the cultivation of Khat.
Doors open at 1pm for 1:30pm start until 4:00pm, 25-27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD. Entrance fee £4 (£3 Globetrotters members). We recommend you arrive early. For more info contact Hanna on 01244 383392 or Eve on 01606 301762
“Travels in my Yellow Parka” speaker: Brian Anderson
“Japan – Bowing to Tradition” Speaker: Jim Holmes
Brian Anderson
Is a photographer, adventurer & lecturer, has captured nature, travel and landscape images from trips to 60+ countries and territories in Europe, Africa, Asia, S America, and further afield into the South Pacific, Arctic, the Geographic North Pole and the remote Antarctic.
Funny anecdotes, amazing facts and illustrated with stunning images from Brian’s trips to cold places wearing his thick fleece and all weather parka.
We visit polar bears and walruses in the Arctic, to penguins in the Antarctic and snow monkeys in the mountains of Japan. A most entertaining and informative talk and not to be missed.
Brian lectures and runs courses at Adult Colleges and teaches Photography in Shropshire, Somerset, Cheshire and Wirral.
Jim Holmes
From the country that gave us ‘high tech’ it comes as a surprise to find that many aspects of Japanese society defy modernity. Farming with hand tools, villages of thatch and deeply held superstitious beliefs about foxes; there is much more to Japan than mega cities, volcanoes.
Travel with Jim through the unexpected sides of Japanese life and see how simple, handmade and contradictory it really can be. Jim Holmes lived in Japan for two years while working on photographic projects and this talk is his personal journey through Japanese life.
Jim is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a professional documentary photographer specializing in worldwide humanitarian and environmental assignments from his base in Chester. Jim lived in Asia for over 30 years, and has travelled to over 50 countries on his travels around the world.
Jim’s talks are unique, entertaining and informative, bringing together the best of his photographic career and the experiences his assignments have brought, all from some of the world’s most fascinating locations.
Doors open at 1pm for 1:30pm start until 4:00pm, 25-27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD. Entrance fee £4 (£3 Globetrotters members). We recommend you arrive early. For more info contact Hanna on 01244 383392 or Eve on 01606 301762
Chris lived in Germany from the late seventies to 1996. Chris was first in Munich and then I went to live in Berlin. After I came back to London I took members of the Hampstead Photographic Society on many visits and road trips around Germany.
Glieneke Bridge Berlin Germany
2nd: Rebecca Lowe – The Slow Road to Tehran
In July 2015, as the Syrian War raged and the refugee crisis reached its peak, Rebecca Lowe set off on her bicycle across the Middle East. Driven by a desire to challenge preconceptions about this long-misunderstood region, her 11,000km journey took her through Europe to Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, the Gulf and finally to Iran.
This is Rebecca’s talk about an odyssey through landscapes and history that captured her heart (and her stomach), but one – plagued by punctures, fearsome heat, repressive police states and an obscene number of kebabs – which also frequently came close to defeating her.
Rebecca Lowe is a freelance journalist who specialises in human rights and the Middle East. Publications she has written for include the Guardian, BBC, Evening Standard, Independent, Huffington Post, Economist, Sunday Times Magazine, Daily Mail, and IranWire.
Rebecca’s book about her journey through the Middle East, The Slow Road to Tehran, was published in March 2022 by September Books in the UK and will be published in September 2022 by MVG Riva in Germany. She was previously the lead reporter at the International Bar Association, where she focused on human rights, and in 2018 she contributed to the adventure travel anthology The Kindness of Strangers: Travel Stories That Make Your Heart Grow. Rebecca is a Fellow at the Royal Geographical Society, and holds a BA in English from Cambridge University and an MA in Journalism from Stanford University.
Doors open at 14:00 GMT in London, a condition of entry is proof of vaccination or a COVID lateral flow test within 48 hours or a positive PCR within 90 days having completed any required isolation, the easiest way of showing this is with the NHS Covid Pass which lets you show your COVID-19 status in a secure way. We will be carrying out temperature checks and asking visitors to confirm they do not have any symptoms on arrival.
We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.
Last month meeting was very successful, the hall is well ventilated and we had no cases following the meeting.
£3 for members to cover our costs. Members will be emailed a ticket code link allowing access to this option or you can access it from themembers area.
£6 for non-members, non-members may join the club for £12 per year and get this and future meetings at members rate for £12, members can also watch the 3 previous online talks, members also receive Globe our members magazine and our annual members calendar, why not join and enter your pictures.
a catch up to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.
A description of two journeys to the Horn of Africa in 2018 and 2019, taking in Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somaliland.Encounters along the way include Lucy, a Chinese railway, one of the lowest places on earth, a camel market, hyena feeding, a Mig fighter and a cheetah sanctuary
David Redford is a retired hospital doctor who has fed his wanderlust by adding independent journeys to visits to low income countries on behalf of NGOs working in the field of maternal health.
2nd: Tharik Hussain – Looking for Muslim Europe
In 2016, following in the footsteps of the 17th century Ottoman traveller, Evliya Celebi, Tharik Hussain and his family went on a road trip across the Western Balkans in search of an indigenous Muslim Europe.
The result is his highly-acclaimed book, Minarets in the Mountains; A Journey into Muslim Europe, which was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize and shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Award.
In this talk, Hussain explains why he had to ‘search’ for a Muslim Europe that has actually been there since the 8th century and in the process helps us better understand why Europe remains so uncomfortable with its Muslim self.
Doors open at 14:00 GMT in London, a condition of entry is proof of vaccination or a COVID lateral flow test within 48 hours or a positive PCR within 90 days having completed any required isolation, the easiest way of showing this is with the NHS Covid Pass which lets you show your COVID-19 status in a secure way. We will be carrying out temperature checks and asking visitors to confirm they do not have any symptoms on arrival.
We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.
Last month meeting was very successful, the hall is well ventilated and we had no cases following the meeting.
£3 for members to cover our costs. Members will be emailed a ticket code link allowing access to this option or you can access it from themembers area.
£6 for non-members, non-members may join the club for £12 per year and get this and future meetings at members rate for £12, members can also watch the 3 previous online talks, members also receive Globe our members magazine and our annual members calendar, why not join and enter your pictures.
a catch up to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
1st Christopher Forse – Thirty Years of Travel in China.
Chris Forse travelled extensively through China from a time when only one city was open to foreigners, and all trips were officially sanctioned group tours. In time travel became as free as almost anywhere on earth. Chris travelled to remote regions (Yunnan, Xinjiang, Tibet) and through distant borders into Siberia, Mongolia, Pakistan, Nepal and Kyrgyzstan, experiencing adventures and culture shock, and breathtaking landscapes. Most of all Chris witnessed a civilizational transformation unparalleled in history, while accumulating treasured memories.
Chris was a teacher and resident of Hong Kong 1974-2008. He was also a part time columnist and radio panellist. Today he is chairman of one of the UK’s largest U3As.. He enjoys self publishing and is writing a 300 page illustrated volume of his travels in the USA over five decades.
2nd Anthony Britton – Motorcycling to Greece via Montenegro and Albania -August 2022.
As a welcome post-covId challenge, Anthony set out with a small tent to motorcycle to Greece. A meander through France, Germany Austria and Italy was followed by a ride along the entire length of the Adriatic coast through Montenegro and Albania. When someone called it ‘Mad but cool’ he said that’s exactly what attracted him to the idea!
The previously advertised talk by Simon and Lisa Thomas – 2 Ride The World.has had to be postponed due to the train strike.
Date & Time:
Saturday, November 5, 2022
AGM Doors open at 12.00 noon.
Doors open at 14:00 GMT in London for the main meeting.
We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.
£3 for members to cover our costs. Members will be emailed a ticket code link allowing access to this option or you can access it from the members area.
£6 for non-members, non-members may join the club for £12 per year and get this and future meetings at members rate for £12, members can also watch the 3 previous online talks, members also receive Globe our members magazine and our annual members calendar, why not join and enter your pictures.
a catch up to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
Boxing Day! What’s that all about? And why do we eat turkey and mince pies during the festive season? If you think we have our funny ways, how about the town where running in your red underwear on New Year’s Day is a custom, or the place where you celebrate the season by pooing?
2nd Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes, the sidecar guys – Siberia.
Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes are ‘The Sidecar Guys’. They are called ‘The Sidecar Guys’ as they hold the very niche Guinness World Record for the longest journey by scooter and sidecar.
During a 15 month trip they travelled for 34,000 miles through 35 countries and 5 continents to successfully circumnavigate the globe by scooter and sidecar.
Matt and Reece will be talking about the Siberia portion of their around the world journey by scooter and sidecar.
They still do all sorts of different 3 wheeled adventures and recently completed a 10 day trip from Seattle to Los Angeles on a Ural motorcycle travelling across the Idaho, Nevada and California Back Country Discovery Route.
They run a sidecar experience centre in the UK and are also the hosts of The Armchair Adventure Festival, a festival based in the UK with the sole focus of celebrating any kind of adventure travel.
Find out more at: https://asseenfromthesidecar.org/
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.
Sheila Robinson one of our Calendar 2023 competition winners is speaking about Georgia and Armenia which was their last pre-Covid jaunt!
Sheila Robinson is a retired Market Researcher who has always loved travelling since the 1970s when my husband and I spent 18 months travelling overland to India and SE Asia to more recent trips in Europe, Asia and North Africa.
2nd: Justyna Hellebrand – Seven Weddings Around the World in Under a Year
Justyna was invited to no less than 7 weddings in 12 months! They took place in Vietnam, South Africa, Poland, Iran, India, United Arab Emirates and Brunei. This gave her a good excuse to visit those countries so she will be sharing with you some of her travels and adventures during that period.
Justyna has been traveling the world extensively since she was 16 and still has not seen it all!
Justyna devoted over 16 years of her life to higher education in various fields and is still planning to study more when the correct opportunity arises.
Justyna has many interests among others: world/folk music, herbalism, origami, beekeeping and in recent years modern art aiming at saving the world from rubbish – making art from all sorts of recycled materials!
Justyna is also a polyglot and fluent in more than 2😀 languages and currently (over the past 10 years 😅) learning Hindi and Turkish.
Justyna treats solo travelling as a distraction from everyday life, not as a form of making money out of her adventurous trips or breaking any world records. With time passing fast she also speeds up her travels and tries to see as much as possible until life comes to an end.
Jeanie Copland’s talk has been postponed until February due to the rail strike.
By tradition we follow this meeting with a New Year Party post-meeting – everyone is invited to bring food and wine or soft drinks (we are not allowed beer or spirits) and participate! (Please RSVP if you will be coming to the party.)
Date & Time:
Saturday, January 7, 2023.
Doors open at 14:00 GMT in London for people with reservations, 14:20 for general entry.
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.
Doors open at 1pm for 1:30pm start until 4:00pm, 25-27 Grosvenor Street, Chester, CH1 2DD. Entrance fee £4 (£3 Globetrotters members). We recommend you arrive early. For more info contact Hanna on 01244 383392 or Eve on 01606 301762
