In November we have:

AGM: The clubs 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:  (Get Tickets)

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.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 GMT (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

For forthcoming meetings we have

• £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.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking in January we have:

• 1st: Sheila Robinson – Georgia and Armenia

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.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 GMT (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

Admission costs in advance:

• £3 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £6 for non-members. (save 50% if you join at this meeting)
• 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 in person tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking this month we have:

1st: Sophie Ibbotson – Fergana Valley: The Hub of the Silk Web

Sophie Ibbotson is an explorer, writer, and consultant specialising in Central Asia. In this talk she will challenge the popular understanding of the Silk Road as a single route, presenting it instead as a web or wheel with the fertile Fergana Valley at its heart.

This extraordinary but little-visited region is shared between the Republics of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Sophie will share her reflections of more than 10 years of trips to the area, the most recent of which was in November 2021.

She will cover megalithic civilisations and ruined cities, palaces and shrines, the flourishing of handicrafts and gastronomy, and even Central Asia’s largest statue of Lenin.

Find out more at:

• Twitter https://twitter.com/uzambassador
• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/uzambassador
• LinkedIn

2nd: Claire Nelson – Things I Learned from Falling.

Independent hiker Claire Nelson finds herself seriously injured in the California desert, and over four days she not only fights for her life, but is forced to reconsider the way she’d been living it.

Claire tells her incredible story of courage determination and survival against the odds.

Claire was in her thirties and was beginning to burn out – her hectic London life of work and social activity and striving to do more and do better in the big city was frenetic and stressful. Although she was surrounded by people all of the time, she felt increasingly lonely.

When the anxiety she felt finally brought her to breaking point, Claire decided to take some time off and travelled to Joshua Tree Park in California to hike and clear her head. What happened next was something she could never have anticipated.

While hiking, Claire fell 25 feet, gravely injuring herself she laid alone in the desert – mistakenly miles off any trail, without a cell phone signal, fighting for her life. She lay in the elements for four days until she was miraculously found – her rescuers had not expected to find her alive.

“I remember the sound my body made as it hit the ground, a sharp crack, one that cut through the thump of my weight against the desert floor. Then the white heat of pain that stabbed through my body, escaping through my mouth in an almighty howl. I tried to scramble to my feet – the instinctive reaction to falling – but I couldn’t get up. Again and again, trying to lift myself off the ground, my body, everything below the arms, remained a dead weight.”

In Things I Learned from Falling, Claire shares her story of what it taught her about loneliness, anxiety and transformation and how to survive it all.

Claire is a New Zealander who spent more than a decade in London working in food and travel journalism.

Find out more about Claire on Twitter @clairenelson, on Instagram @ladyeclaire and at www.clairenelson.co.uk

Date & Time:

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Doors open at 14:00 BST in London.

For conditions of entry for COVID-19 please see https://globetrotters.co.uk/covid-19-status-at-meetings.html

We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.

Last month’s meeting was very successful, the hall is well ventilated and we had no outbreaks following the meeting.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 BST (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

For forthcoming meetings

• We charge £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.
• We charge £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.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

This meeting is the 2nd weekend of the month due Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Holiday.

Speaking this month we have:

1st: Sandra Reekie – From Istanbul to Islamabad along the Silk Road

Sandra Reekie was offered the journey of a lifetime:  to spend three months travelling along the Silk Road, the fabled trading route between Asia and Europe.

One condition: she would be travelling with a woman she had never met. What could possibly go wrong? You only live once, after all.

Her journey led her through eight countries bumping along from Istanbul to Islamabad and along the way encountering awe-inspiring ancient sites and lost cities from Persepolis to Palmyra, Kashgar to Kiva and at every turn experiencing the timeless kindness of strangers.

2nd: Shafik Meghji – Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia

For his new book, Crossed off the Map: Travels in Bolivia, award-winning travel writer and journalist Shafik Meghji journeyed from the Andes to the Amazon to explore Bolivia’s turbulent history and contemporary challenges.

On the way he uncovered the story of Bolivia’s profound and unexpected influence on the wider world over the past 500 years – fragments of history largely forgotten beyond its borders. Once home to one of the wealthiest cities on Earth, Bolivia kickstarted globalisation, influenced the industrial revolution in Europe, helped to trigger dynastic collapse in China, and played host to everyone from Che Guevara to Butch Cassidy.

The book also explores how ordinary Bolivians in and around the world’s highest city, largest salt flat, richest silver mine and most biodiverse national park are coping with some of the touchstone issues of the 21st century: the climate emergency, populism, mass migration, indigenous rights, national identity, rapid urbanisation, and the ‘war on drugs’.

In its pages, Shafik illuminates the dramatic landscapes, distinct cultures and diverse peoples of a country – in the words of one interviewee – that ‘was the building block of the modern world, but is now lost in time’.

• Website: www.shafikmeghji.com
• About me page: http://www.shafikmeghji.com/#/shafik-meghji-biography/
• Twitter: @ShafikMeghji
• Instagram: @shafikmeghji

Date & Time:

Saturday, June 11, 2022 2nd weekend due Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

Doors open at 14:00 BST in London.

For conditions of entry for COVID-19 please see https://globetrotters.co.uk/covid-19-status-at-meetings.html

We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.

Last month’s meeting was very successful, the hall is well ventilated and we had no outbreaks following the meeting.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 BST with the talks starting 14:30 BST (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

For forthcoming meetings:

• we charge £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.
• we charge £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.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking this month we have:

1st: Jane Wilson-Howarth – health work and wildlife encounters in Nepal

Jane is a medical doctor and wildlife enthusiast and has been privileged to have been able to spend six years in Nepal in the 1990s and a further four years most recently including during the pandemic. She will give an illustrated talk about her health work and introduce you to some of her favourite wildlife characters.

She is undecided whether Machhapuchare or Ama Dablam is the more beautiful mountain. Jane has written nine books including three health guides and five set in Nepal. Her author website is www.wilson-howarth.com and she’s on Instagram as @longdropdoc.

2nd: Nori Jemil – The Travel Photographer’s Way 

Nori Jemil is an award-winning photographer, writer and videographer. Her work has appeared in publications including National Geographic Traveller UK, BBC Travel, Adventure.com and Conde Nast Traveller. Over the past decade she has won several awards, including Travel Photograph of the Year from Wanderlust travel magazine, and Photographer of the Year from the British Guild of Travel Writers. She teaches film and photography in London and on specialist overseas tours, including for an expedition company
 in Chile. Her photos have been exhibited in London, Milan, Barcelona and Madrid. She takes on regular public speaking engagements at travel photography events and as part of National Geographic Traveller UK’s Masterclasses and Travel Geeks programmes.

The Travel Photographer’s Way – by NorI Jemil and Bradt Guides

SHORTLISTED IN THE Edward Stanford Travel WRITING AWARDS: Photography Travel Book of the Year

A ground-breaking practical photography book considers not just how to get better images, but also why and when we should take them. It guides the reader to become a more confident and reflective travel photographer, as well as covering the technical know-how they will need.

Taking a journey around the seven continents, each chapter focuses on the main areas of travel imagery, from people and landscape to architecture and adventure. Bite-size advice on how to get the best from your camera is contextualized throughout the The Travel Photographer’s Way so you learn as you go.

Nori’s book is not an attempt to replicate other reference works on the subject, top-loading technical information and addressing an expert reader. Nor does it focus on gadgetry – the proliferation of new hardware means camera-based information can become obsolete quite quickly. Instead it is a travel companion, a book that can be read for the prose and stories, as well as the information it contains.It covers the main elements of travel photography in eleven sections, including advice from some of the best travel photographers working around the world. Technical information is embedded, given in the context of each shot, but personal travel stories are at the heart of every chapter.

Find out more at:

• Twitter: @andeanimaging
• Instagram: @nori.jemil.travel
• Web: The Travel Photographer’s Way 

Date & Time:

Saturday, May 7, 2022

Doors open at 14:00 BST in London.

For conditions of entry for COVID-19 please see https://globetrotters.co.uk/covid-19-status-at-meetings.html

We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.

Last month’s meeting was very successful, the hall is well ventilated and we had no outbreaks following the meeting.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 BST (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

For forthcoming meetings:

• we charge £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.
• we charge £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 recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking this month we have:

1st: Kat Towers – Solo Female Vanlife in the UK and Beyond – Destination Bulgaria!

World traveller, podcaster and campervan fanatic Kat Towers from She’s At The Wheel Vanlife Podcast shares her experience as a nervous female driver travelling solo through France, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Romania to Bulgaria and how the challenges she faced along the way helped her conquer her fears and discover a love of challenging herself! 

Kat is a professional musician, podcaster and writer who fell in love with travel at a young age. She has flown in a rickety plane over Everest, picked fruit under Mount Fuji, ridden sled dogs in Alaska and spent a birthday at the Taj Mahal!

Kat has been obsessed with campervans for years and has designed and renovated two vans with her friend Pavel. She recently completed a 4000 mile solo round trip to Bulgaria and back passing through 8 different countries which taught her a lot! She documents her adventures and chats with other UK vanlifers on She’s At The Wheel Vanlife Podcast. You can find out more about Kat and the podcast at www.shesatthewheel.com

2nd: Alan Palmer – Vainglorious pursuits – The Everest Base Camp Trek.

In April 2019, Alan, founder and director of Yak Travel, finally visited Nepal as the guest of a Nepalese trekking company wishing to work in partnership with him. He elected to hike to Everest Base Camp.

Clutching his battered 1985 edition of Lonely Planet’s ‘Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya’, he quickly discovered that the Everest trail continues to evoke all the drama of the great, early Himalayan explorers. He also saw that the region truly exudes the glorious natural beauty that has been acclaimed for it – and much more besides.

As he wound upwards through traditional Buddhist villages, taking time to stop off at their monasteries for moments of quiet reflexion, and then headed along the full length of the mighty Khumbu Glacier to Everest Base Camp itself, he found, too, that the region is not without a few recent changes.

Alan is Founder and Director of Yak Travel, his own company, which organises bespoke treks and tours through rarely explored regions of Morocco and North-East India, as well as Nepal. He has also recently begun to offer a series of guided walks from the front door of his eighteenth-century cottage in the heart of the North York Moors.

He is author of Moroccan Atlas the Trekking Guide (Trailblazer Publications) and has also contributed to three other guide books, Pakistan and The Silk Road (both published by Insight Guides), and the Rough Guide to Morocco. Most recently, he accepted an invitation to write about his favourite aspects of Morocco and India for The Rough Guide to the 100 Best Places on Earth 2022. Additionally, he regularly writes articles for travel magazines and delivers talks and presentations on Morocco, North-East India and Burma (Myanmar) at travel clubs and travel shows, both in England and in India.

He is:

• a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)
• a member of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs (RSAA)
• a life member of the British Moroccan Society (BMS)
• a member of the Pakistan Society
• a member of The Globetrotters Club
• TripAdvisor Destination Expert (DE) for Morocco

Find out more at:

• http://www.yaktravel.co.uk/
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbeFQsXbenMiGh9bhm50TdQ

Date & Time:

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Doors open at 14:00 BST in London.

For conditions of entry for COVID-19 please see https://globetrotters.co.uk/covid-19-status-at-meetings.html

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 outbreaks following the meeting.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 BST with the talks starting 14:30 BST (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

For forthcoming meetings we have

• £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.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking this month we have:

1st Pip Stewart – Life Lessons from the Amazon: A Guide to Life From One Epic Jungle Adventure 

Fuelled by a zest for life and the desire to explore the world around her, Pip Stewart took on a world-first challenge: following Guyana’s Essequibo River from source to sea. With the help of guides from the Waî Waî indigenous community, Pip and her teammates journeyed through the rainforest, facing peril every day as they kayaked rapids, traversed waterfalls and hacked their way through the mountainous jungle of the Guiana Shield, before finally reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

Survival skills and a flesh-eating parasite weren’t the only things Pip took home from the rainforest. From contending with snakes to learning about the value of community, forgiveness and self-belief, in her talk Life Lessons from the Amazon Pip shares many pearls of wisdom that we can all apply to our own lives. Her hard-won insights invite us to embrace the wildness within ourselves and live more every day.

Find out more at:

• Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Lessons-Amazon-Jungle-Adventure/dp/178783980X 
• Instagram http://instagram.com/pipstewart/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/pipstewart
• TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@pip_stewart
• Website: https://www.pipstewart.uk/ 

2nd John Gimlette – Madagascar: The Gardens of Mars

An improbable world beckons.  We think we know Madagascar but it’s too big, too eccentric, and too impenetrable to be truly understood.  It if it was stretched out across Europe, the island would stretch from London to Algiers, and yet its road network is no greater than tiny Jamaica’s.  There is no evidence of any humans at all until 10,000 years ago, and then, when they did finally settle, they came all the way from Borneo, 3,700 miles away on the other side of the Indian Ocean.

During three months’ of travel, John Gimlette delved deep into the county’s past, in order to understand this magnificent country.  As we join him on his journey, we meet politicians, sorcerers, militiamen, lepers and the descendants of 17th century English pirates. Strap yourselves in for a bumpy ride.

Date & Time:

Saturday, March 5, 2022

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.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 GMT (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive early so we can deal with any issues with joining.

For forthcoming meetings we have

• £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 watch later recording will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.
• We will be running this meeting as an in person at the hall event plus we will be streaming it on zoom and will be following the same procedures as the west end theatres.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets: