1st: Gill Suttle – Scorched Earth: Bedouin if the Syrian Desert.
Gill Suttle recounts her journey starting from Palmyra (the spectacular Roman site so tragically destroyed by ISIS) and crossing the Hamad – a plateau forming part of the Badiat ash-Sham (Syrian Desert) between Damascus and the Euphrates – to the Jordanian border.
In the uplands of the Hamad, the Bani Khaled bedouin run vast herds of sheep, producing milk and cheese in the spring season. Gill spent time with these bedouin people, following their fortunes through the springs of two years, when they were hit by a terrible drought which threatened their entire way of life.
Further details at http://scimitarpress.co.uk/travel-talks/.
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
Date & Time:
Saturday, March 4, 2023
Doors open at 14:00 in London.
We would ask that anyone with symptoms or who needs to isolate participates via zoom.
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 future meetings.
Fifty years of road trips: from the early days of Greyhound buses and hitchhiking, to over a dozen self-drives. In two parts: the first on the joys and challenges of being ‘on the road’ in North America, with journeys through the East from the Canadian border to Key West. The second part will focus on the glories of the American (and Canadian) West, its scenery, its history, and its people including encounters with fundamentalist Mormons and Native Americans. And with accompaniment of the music that accompanied me (Chris) out on the Open Road!
Chris Forse recently spoke to Globetrotters on his Thirty Years of Travel in China. He was a resident of Hong Kong for 33 years, and is now enjoying retirement in Warwickshire where he has been chairman of a U3A for six years, while enjoying travel, self-publishing and setting his travel photographs to music!
We are trying out a different format this month, Christopher Forse will be speaking before and after the break.
The programme starts with announcements followed by
Part 1 of the illustrated talk for 45 to 60 minutes
A break for 20 minutes with complimentary refreshments (tea, coffee, squash, biscuits)
Part 2 of the illustrated talk including some time for any questions
Date & Time:
Saturday, July 1, 2023
Doors open at 14:00 in London.
We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participates via zoom.
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 future meetings.
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 future meetings.
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.
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.
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.
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 themembers 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.
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’.
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 themembers 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.
