The meeting for May been postponed to a future date due to the Corona virus and the national guidance on self-isolation and social distancing.
Presents
Maggie Davenport – Our introduction to travel, and beyond, in Indonesia.
In 1998, 2 middle-aged untravelled people set off for Java and Jakarta where my brother was working. We had no idea of how to travel or where we would go when we arrived. This is the story of that first adventure which led to our ongoing wanderlust, and the subsequent return holiday to celebrate my brother’s 60th birthday
Pat Jones – Cradle of Voodoo – Togo and Benin.
Pat has enjoyed travelling for many years. She would like to share her experience of a recent trip to Togo and Benin. The trip covered many aspects of life in these two West African countries.
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
Due to the effects of the Corona virus in the UK now officially a Global Pandemic and bearing in mind our next Chester Globetrotters meeting in just over one weeks time when the contagion will have likely increased, we have taken the reluctant decision to postpone our meeting for Saturday the 21st of March to a future date.
We have spoken to the management of the Grosvenor Museum and have also taken current advice into consideration to limit social gatherings in order to slow down the spread of the virus.
Consequently we have to take positive action at least one week in advance to be able make a timely decision so that attendees and our speakers can be prepared.
This is the first time in ten years that Chester Globetrotters have been forced to postpone an event, and whilst we hope the situation resolves itself quickly we want to err on the side of caution and therefore make a responsible and timely decision.
From all of us in the Chester Globetrotters committee we wish you all the best and thank you for your understanding at this time.
Chris Prior – Kerala and Tamil Nadu
We went on a two-week motorcycle tour around the South Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. From the coastal town of Cochin we rode 1950s Indian-built Royal Enfield 350cc Bullets to Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu. We passed through tea growing areas to Madurai, famous for it highly decorated temples.
Dr Emma Roberts – From Shanghai to Xian, Futuristic and Ancient China
Dr. Emma Roberts is Associate Dean for Global Engagement at Liverpool John Moores University and also heads the BA (Hons) History of Art & Museum Studies degree course at this organisation. Emma’s academic research is largely based in China as she works with Chinese partner universities to advise on how former industrial sites can be revitalised as hubs for the creative industries.
This talk begins in Shanghai and discusses some of the delights and highlights that travellers may experience in this cosmopolitan, vibrant city. Following this, we move to Xian, the home of the iconic ‘Terracotta Warriors’. The history, meaning and creative processes behind these mysterious statues will be explored. Our ‘travels’ in this talk will therefore move between the absolutely new and the very ancient that China has to offer.
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
Travelling by Tandem from Chester to Istanbul”
speakers: Simon Brown and Diana Wilderspin-Jones
“National Parks of the USA and Canada”
speakers: Kevin Jones and Hanna Bastiaansen
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
1st. Lindy Pyrah – Riding the Mauritania iron ore train
The Mauritania iron ore train is the true definition of a cult classic: an epic overnight train journey involving hopping on a freight wagon full of iron ore in zero comfort through a dangerous country while experiencing the amazing Sahara desert and night sky.
Lindy is a train journey enthusiast and a London branch Globetrotters committee member, she did the Mauritania iron ore train solo in January 2018 and would love to share her story of how she prepared, experienced and lived to tell the tale of this amazing journey. Normally desk bound for most of the year, Lindy tries to make the most of her small holiday allowance to undertake memorable adventures.
2nd. John Brinkley – the white South – the Antarctic wilderness
A geology lecturer, both on land and on cruise ships, John will present an illustrated talk on one of the World’s last wilderness, the Antarctic. Using his own material from recent visits, John will discuss both the geological history and natural scenery of this remote region.
Chester Meeting Poster, September 2019
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
1st. Sarah Crofts — Veedub adventures – travels with my daughter
When Sarah took her ten year old daughter Tabitha out of school and embarked on an epic road trip the only thing they knew for certain was they would head north whilst it was warm and south when it got cold, 382 days and nearly 28000 km later they landed back on British soil.
This is the tale of their epic adventure from the Arctic Circle to the Sahara desert.
2nd. Don and Eve MacPherson — Myanmar Revisited
We took in a brief itinerary of Yangon, then journeyed on to Maymyo to see the Hill Station. Then we went to British Burma. The journey continued to Mandalay cruising along the Irrawaddy river to old Bagan. Next stop, a flight to Inle Lake to visit local villages along the canals before returning to Yangon, and ending the journey in Singapore.
Chester Meeting Poster, November 2019
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
A journey to Riga, Vilnius, Minsk, Kaliningrad and Gdansk gave an opportunity to compare the post-Soviet states which have turned westwards towards Europe with those which have stuck with Russia, and also to study the relics of the Teutonic Knights, the Hanseatic League, the Polish-Lithuanian empire and the long struggle between Germany and Russia.
2nd. Pat Jones – a journey through Sudan
Pat Jones loves travelling and tries to have 3 or 4 holidays a year. This is An interesting journey through Sudan , with some very basic accommodation yet a variety of different accommodation types and Pat was able to meet up with lots of locals in Sudan (old north Sudan and South Sudan are now separate countries)
Chester Meeting Poster July 2019
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
1st. Paul Gillingham – freewheeling in Chile and Argentina.
Paul visits Santiago and Valparaiso in Chile, rents city bikes to sample the Argentine grape in Mendoza and explore tango, Evita and Maradona in Buenos Aires. He joins his two sons on a cycle-camping expedition around the lakes and volcanoes of northern Patagonia.
Now retired, Paul taught history in UK, Canada, Tanzania and Hong Kong before becoming a journalist and broadcaster, producing travel features from around the world.
2nd. Chris Prior – from Tangier to the Sahara by motorcycle
Together with 17 other motorcyclists I rode my Triumph Tiger through Spain to Morocco. From Tangiers we travelled over the Atlas Mountains to the Sahara at Merzouga.
The return route included dirt roads around the Todra Gorge. After a stop at Ben Haddou we travelled to Marrakech and then headed north back to the port of Tangiers. Six days were spent in transit through Spain and eleven in Morocco.
Chester Meeting Poster May 2019
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
1st. Anna Manning & Howard Jennings – Mallorca to Venice by tandem, boat and train
We were offered 18 days of dog-sitting and wondered how best to use it. We love Mallorca and wanted to see where we could get to that was reasonably nearby. Our trip has five stops joined by tandem, boat, and train and takes us through three countries: Spain, France, and Italy. We’ll describe how we put the trip together, our adventures along the way, the food we ate, the views we saw, and the people we met.
2nd. Marion Round – A journey through Welsh Patagonia
In 1865 153 Welsh people embarked on a journey to Patagonia, they were promised a fertile land with fresh water; this is not what they found. The 2 main areas where the Welsh have settled are now thriving, with the Welsh language and culture is increasing. We travelled through the Welsh areas, and across the huge Desert separating them, looking at fascinating places where few people ever get to.
Marion comes from a Welsh family, and ais re-learning the language.
Marion enjoys travelling to interesting places with small group tour companies.
Chester Meeting Poster, March 2019
Doors open 1pm for 1:30pm Start till 4:30pm Entrance Fee £3.00 includes refreshments and two talks Grosvenor Museum 25-27 Grosvenor Street, CH1 2DD Enquiries to Hanna tel: 01244383392 or Angela tel: 01244 629930
Jim Holmes – the Mekong River, Water Wars and Wats
Jim Holmes is a documentary photographer that has lived and worked through Asia for over 30 years. He has worked on humanitarian and international development projects for agencies such as Oxfam and the UN. He specialised in the Mekong region countries for 20 years. The Lower Mekong flows through Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and into Vietnam, where through the mouths of the nine dragons, it empties its silt laden water into the sea. War ravaged these nations and maintained the poverty that was so evident until recent years. The river brought survival with its bounty of fish but now the flow is threatened by hydropower which could bring riches and poverty.
” Paint cannot touch it and words are wasted ” wrote Frederic Remington in 1895 whilst pony trekking through Yellowstone. At over 2.2 million acres, Yellowstone was the USA’s and the world’s first National Park when established in 1872. This awesome place contains some of the world’s biggest geysers and hot springs, magnificent landscapes, and mighty beasts, including bears, bison, elk and wolves. Share Brian’s stunning landscape and wildlife images from his 2013 trip to this simply staggering wilderness region. ‘Yellowstone’ is a must for all armchair nature lovers.
I visited Palestine/ Israel on an Alternative Pilgrimage, staying in Bethlehem and Nazareth in October 2015. I spent the majority of my visit meeting with local people and organisations working for peace with justice. The trip was life transforming and I subsequently became a Bethlehem Ambassador. The slides will show Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, Nazareth, Jericho, Haifa & the Galilee area. The talk will include information about the opportunities and the welcome visitors will receive in Palestine. I will also provide information about places to stay and organisations that can provide an authentic experience of the rich Palestinian culture which survives despite living under military occupation.
Barry and Cynthia Green – ‘A Journey through China’.
Images from a tour of China visiting historic sites, iconic landscapes and modern cities giving a flavour of life in China through the ages.
Barry is a retired engineer and Cynthia, a retired librarian who both volunteer at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port as well as travelling to interesting places.
