This month our two speakers are:

• Russell Maddicks — Exploring Venezuela: A Land of Natural Wonders

  Russell Maddicks, the author of the Bradt Guide to Venezuela will highlight some of the most fascinating areas of Venezuela to visit and what you can expect to see and do. Drawing on his experience of adventuring in Venezuela for more than 20 years, the Russell will take you to:

  • The “Lost World” mountain of Roraima and the unique ecosystem of its summit
  • The unique thunderless lightning phenomenon in the south of Lake Maracaibo known as Catatumbo Lightning
  • The magical mountain of Sorte where devotees of Maria Lionza practice a syncretic religion unique to the country
  • The record-breaking and awe-inspiring waterfall of Angel Falls, known as Kerepacupai-meru to the local Pemon people.

  One of the 17 most megadiverse countries in the world, Venezuela is home to Caribbean beaches, dense rainforests, high Andean valleys, mysterious table-top tepui mountains, and seasonally-flooded plains that are literally teeming with birds, beasts and creepy-crawlies.

  Venezuela is also alive with the sound of folk music, from the Afro-Venezuelan tambores of the coast, to the harp-driven Joropo songs of Los Llanos and during his talk Russell will present several examples of the music to be found in the regions he discusses.

  For more information see:

  • http://venezuelanodyssey.blogspot.com/
  • http://www.bradtguides.com/Book/225/Venezuela.html

   

• Rona Cant — Just do it – become the best you can be!

  Once an unexceptional, single parent she took part in the BT Global Challenge Round the World Yacht Race (the toughest yacht race in the world); two days later she embarked on the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island (one of the world’s toughest), encountering bears and cougars. Rona helped organise and was on The Nordkapp Expedition, dogsledding in the Arctic Circle to the northernmost tip of Europe, a trail thought to be impossible.

  Rona tells how she has achieved her goals using stories from her childhood, her marriage, how she entered into a life of adventure, her diverse adventures and what she has accomplished.

  For more information see: http://www.ronacant.com

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.

• Mary Kinipple ‘Tapestry & Tibet’
  Mary had travelled 3 times to Tibet in the past but always in a group and the trip mainly focused on schools and monasteries. As  a practising weaver Mary wanted to find out about domestic weaving in Tibet and travelling with just a guide and driver sought out weaving in the domestic scene.
• Jonny Bealby – Pakistan as a travel destination. Over the last 18 months Pakistan as really picked up as a tourist destination. Despite the on-going political problems of the country, and despite the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the mountains of the north continue to be a popular pull for the adventure tourist. So what is it that makes the place so special and what do tourists and traveller do once there. Jonny Bealby, who has written a book about the region and set up his travel company Wild Frontiers on trips to region, will explain why www.wildfrontiers.co.uk

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.

Admission: Members £3.00 Non-members £6.00

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

Members Slides : Around the world in eighty minutes.

8 presentations of 12 slides

This month we have a fast paced journey around the Globe..

1. Dan Bachmann Troms (Norway)
2. Agata Zborowska Peru & Brasil
3. David Shamash Israel
4. Doug Allen India
5. Kevin Brackley KGB Museum, Tallinn, Estonia
6. Brian Lawrence Morocco
7. Roger Turner Lebanon
8. Philip Ferguson New Zealand
9. Dick Curtis My Big Fat Cretan Wedding
10. Jacqui Trotter Venice or South of France

Probably the best meeting of the year and your last chance to meet up before the summer.

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.

• Justine Hardy: Paradise Lost? The Kashmir Valleys

  Justine Hardy has been reporting from Kashmir for much of the past twenty years. She is the author of six books about India, three of these being about Kashmir. The latest one, In the Valley of Mist, was a winner of the 2010 Dayton Peace Prize, and it was her third book to be broadcast on Radio 4’s Book of the Week. In addition to writing and reporting, Justine is also a conflict trauma therapist. She is running a suicide helpline and mental trauma centre in Kashmir.

• Tim Hannigan: Murder in the Hindu Kush

  Tim Hannigan is a freelance writer and photographer, originally from Cornwall. He has travelled widely in India and Pakistan, and is usually based in Indonesia where he writes on travel, history and culture for a variety of newspapers and magazines.

  His first book, Murder in the Hindu Kush, tells the story of the mysterious 19th Century explorer George Hayward.As part of his research for the book Tim travelled for four months through Kashmir, Ladakh, Xinjiang and Pakistan to discover how the political decisions of Hayward’s era still reverberate in this troubled region today. For more information see http://tahannigan.blogspot.com

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.

Sarah Outen – A Dip in the Ocean

In 2009 Sarah rowed across the Indian Ocean, Alone. On the way Sarah broke 2 oars, ate 500 bars of chocolate and still lost 20 kg body weight. The journey took 124 days and scooped three Guinness World Records along the way: first woman & youngest person to solo the Indian; youngest woman to solo any ocean. It was raw and elemental – just as adventure should be. Sarah’s first book ‘A Dip in the Ocean‘ will be published in February 2011 by Summersdale.

Sarah is due to start her next expedition ‘London2London:Via the World’ on April 1st 2011, from Tower Bridge, London. Click here to find out more.

John Gimlette – Wild Coast Travels on South America’s Untamed Edge

The Guianas have always defied human kind.  Despite 400 years of colonial effort, they remain some of the wildest, weirdest and most beautiful lands on the continent.

Visit John’s website for more information http://www.johngimlette.com

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.

• Mark Kalch – Solo Crossing, on foot, of the Islamic Republic of Iran

  Mark was proudly born in Australia and has spent the last 12 or so years of his life working towards becoming a professional adventurer and explorer. Expeditions have taken him from Everest to North Africa, from Ethiopia’s Omo Valley to the mighty Amazon and from AustraIia’s outback to the forests of South-East Asia. He has run rivers in Southern Africa and trekked for weeks on end in the Andes of Peru, forged trails through dense jungles in East Africa and explored deserted tropical islands off the coast of Australia by sea-kayak. A true Globetrotter

• Alastair Humphreys –  Call of the Wild

  Alastair Humphreys is a British Adventurer, Author and Blogger. He spent over 4 years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and 5 continents. More recently Alastair has walked across southern India, run 6 marathons through the Sahara desert, completed a crossing of Iceland, and participated in an expedition in the Arctic, close to the magnetic North Pole. He is currently training for a return journey to the South His website is www.alastairhumphreys.com

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.

We do not sell advanced tickets, entry is payable on the door on a first come first served basis.

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

• Liam D’Arcy-Brown – The Grand Canal of China

  Liam D’Arcy-Brown was born in deepest southeast London in 1970 but raised in Yorkshire. Sent one day into a school storeroom he discovered a discarded Mandarin primer and so his interest in China began, helped on its way by such diverse influences as oriental cookery and Roland Rat’s Hong Kong summer special for TV-am. After reading Chinese at university he went on to study China’s ancient history in Shanghai on a British Council scholarship. He worked as a tour escort for Voyages Jules Verne before turning to travel writing. His first book, Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior, took him from lengthy researches in the British Library and the Bodleian and onward to a great 10,000-mile circuit of China’s four most far-flung compass points. His 1,115-mile journey from Hangzhou to Beijing in 2006 made him the first Westerner in more than two centuries to trace the length of China’s Grand Canal, the world’s longest and oldest man-made waterway, an adventure he captured in his second book, The Emperor’s River. For more information see http://liamdarcybrownschina.blogspot.com

• Ann McCarthy – Uganda

  Ann has travelled to many different parts of the world but since first visiting Uganda has returned many times and has helped to fund the building and development of Uganda Lodge, Ruhanga Resource centre and Ruhanga Nursery and Primary School

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.

At 1.30ppm the clubs AGM (members only)

Then at 2.30 the meeting begins

• Denise Heywood ~ A Cambodian Odyssey Part 2

  Read many more details about Denise’s various south east Asian adventures on http://www.deniseheywood.co.uk/

• Paul Archer ~ The It’s on the Meter Expedition: Heard Hearted Hannah- the Meanest Gal in Town!

  A brief overview of the expedition to break the world record for the longest ever taxi journey by driving a classic Black Cab from London to Sydney. Paul Archer will run through the origins of the trip, the route, the team, the plan, the cause and the preparations of the expedition before it depart early 2011

  See Paul & the guys on their equally lively web site for more details of the trip & progress – http://www.itsonthemeter.com/ and/or join them on their Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-on-the-Meter-World-Taxi-Challenge/204322509549?v=app_4949752878.

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• James Littlewood & Tracey Dornan – Boy girl bike road

  She dreamt of seeing the world, but couldn’t justify the carbon. He had always dreamed of the challenge of cycling to Hong Kong. With no previous experience of cycle touring, lycra or life together this is the adventure of one couple and their view from the saddle on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle and boat.  A cycle ride of 18,000 miles through 23 countries.

• Lord Ian Strathcarron – Byron and the Grand Tour

  Two hundred years ago, between 1809-11, Lord Byron completed his Grand Tour of the Mediterranean. He was 21 when he left London. After catching a packet from Falmouth to Lisbon, his entourage rode down to Sevilla and Cadiz. He then sailed from Gibraltar to Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Greece, Albania, back to Greece then Turkey, Malta again and then with a heavy heart home to England. His voyage was exotic and poetic, erotic and eccentric.

  On June 14th 2008 British sailors Ian and Gillian Strathcarron boarded their yacht ‘Vasco da Gama’ in Hampshire and sailed off to recreate Lord Byron’s Grand Tour. Their own voyage was propitious and perilous, mysterious and mischievous – but seldom abstemious.

  The presentation is taken from the resulting book ‘Joy Unconfined! Lord Byron’s Grand Tour‘

John Pilkington

A stroll through the axis of evil – Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Iran

Dick Curtis

“It all started in Kashmir ….”

A year away from work and travelling by “whim” was a life-enriching revelation.