Speaking this month we have:

1. Brian Anderson – Tierra del Fuego – ‘The Land of Fire’

   ‘The Uttermost Part of the World’ – In 1519 Magellan became the first European to navigate a wild and remote channel linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Sailing in search of a westward route to the Spice Islands, Magellan sighted many fires along the coastline.  His sailors christened this uncharted area “Tierra del Fuego”, or ‘the Land of Fire’. Sailing the same waters in 1577, Sir Francis Drake described this southern tip of South America as “the uttermost part of the earth”. Charles Darwin visited the region in 1832 and 1833 and described the Fuegian tribes as the “most uncivilised savages” he had ever encountered. 

   Join Brian for the incredible story of Tierra Del Fuego and to view his stunning landscape and wildlife images from 4 expeditions to the region. You will see the Fuegian red fox, penguins, sealions, magnificent Caracas, skuas and shags, plus many other animals and plants which survive in this most remote and inhospitable region of the southern hemisphere.  

2. Richard Evans – Laid Back around the World in 180 Day.

   From the vast deserts of Kazakhstan to the Pyrenees via the monsoons of Southeast Asia, the Australian Nullarbor, the Canadian Rockies and Great Lakes, this is Richard Evans’s travelogue of his six-month journey around the world by recumbent bicycle in 2014.

   Averaging around 1,000km per week, Richard shared treacherously potholed highways with speeding juggernauts, faced freezing nights and scorching days, and battled headwinds strong enough to blow him off the road. Having lost 7kg in the first seven weeks and with 19 weeks still to go, it was important to stabilise the weight loss. A cure was found in beer and dumplings.

   Find out more at http://laidbackaroundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

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

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here

Speaking this month we have:

1. Tom Fremantle – A thousand mile walk along the US-Mexico border – and other stories!

   Tom Fremantle talks about lessons from the road with a focus on the US-Mexico border. His latest book – just launched – is called Pancho’s Song, a young adult novel set on the US-Mexico border.

   Tom’s website is https://booksandblisters.com

   Tom is also speaking to support the amazing work of Shiksha Rath, at The Troubadour, 263-267 Old Brompton Rd, Earls Court, London SW5 9JA on Friday, 14 October 2016

   

2. John Gimlette – Elephant Complex – Travels in Sri Lanka

   John Gimlette describes his three months of travels in Sri Lanka. Few places are as contradictory. The island is home to over 7,300 wild elephants and yet it’s only the size of Ireland. For the last three decades, it’s hosted not only an alluring tourist industry but also the most savage civil war Asia has ever known (1983-2009). Venturing into the remotest corners of the country, John will be offering advice for those wishing to share in the beauty and strangeness of this remarkable country.

   

   

   

   

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

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

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here

Speaking this month we have:

1. Members Slides : Around the world in eighty minutes. 10 presentations of 10 slides This month we have a fast paced journey around the Globe..

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk session lasting approximately 40 minutes.

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

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.

There is no meeting this month.

Speaking this month we have:

1. Jeanie Copland – on to Ho Chi Min (Trans Siberian Part 2).

   Having travelled the Trans Siberian railway from Moscow, via Mongolia, to Beijing; now continue on China’s railways to Nanning, crossing into Vietnam to connect with their reunification rail network – “adventuring en route!!”.

2. Russell Maddicks – Ecuador: Where to Visit After April’s Earthquake

   Ecuador is one of the most interesting and rewarding countries to visit in the Americas. A small country blessed with a hugely varied geography – encompassing Andean peaks, Amazon rainforest, Pacific beaches, and the wildlife-wonderland of the Galapagos Islands – it has been described as a microcosm of South America. On 16 April a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated communities along the northern Pacific coast and a massive relief effort is still underway. Meanwhile, the rest of the country is operating normally and more than ever needs tourism revenue to help fund the rebuilding on the coast.

   Russell Maddicks, the author of the “Culture Smart! Guide to Ecuador” will give an illustrated presentation explaining the current situation on the ground, why you should visit now, and a taste of the country’s main tourism highlights.

3. Olie Hunter Smart – Kayaking the Amazon.

   Olie has a passion for travel, culture, adventure and photography, stemming from a trip to Belize in 2002. Since then he has continued to explore the world, spending two months in a village on a remote island in Indonesia, as well as travelling through parts of Northern African and Europe. In 2013 he took a break from the advertising world, backpacking his way overland through 16 countries across four continents, exploring and photographing different environments, cultures and landscapes along the way.

   In 2015, Olie and travel companion Tarran Kent-Hume completed an expedition to walk and kayak the length of the Amazon River, from its most distant source high up in the Peruvian Andes to where it enters the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil. The pair travelled over 4,000 miles fully unsupported, carrying all their own gear, food and supplies for the four and a half month journey.

   Find out more at www.oliehuntersmart.com or @oliehs

   

   

   

   

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

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

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.

Speaking this month we have:

1. Elizabeth Gowing – The Rubbish-Picker’s Wife: an unlikely friendship in Kosovo.

   This is the story of living and learning – being confused and comforted – with the excluded Ashkali people of Kosovo; an account of the challenges and delights of what happens when you find your community but it’s a long way from home.

   Hatemja, a rubbish-picker’s wife, lives in the poorest community in the poorest country in Europe. When Elizabeth Gowing is befriended by her, the women learn with, from and about one another. How can you find the best rubbish pastures for scavenging? How can you free children to go to school rather than to go out begging? How do you then convince the local school to accept them? Can mayonnaise deal with head lice? How best to teach the 36 letters of the Albanian alphabet? How would Facebook help evacuate a family from a rat-infested hovel? How do you make baklava? And through it all, how do you maintain a precious friendship that’s helped you find out the best you can be?

   To find out more visit Elizabeth’s website www.elizabethgowing.com or Twitter.

   The Ideas Partnership’s is the charity, which Elizabeth co-founded to work with the rubbish-pickers and their families and whose work is included in the talk: visit their website The Ideas Partnership or their Facebook page.

   Elisabeth’s book is The Rubbish-Picker’s Wife; an unlikely friendship in Kosovo.

   

   

2. John Pilkington – Europe & Russia: What Next?

   Our president reports that passions are running high in Ukraine and the breakaway states of the Caucasus. Vladimir Putin’s adventures in Ukraine took the West by surprise. But John thinks in some ways they followed a pattern that goes back more than a century to the legendary ‘Great Game’ between Russia and Britain in Victorian times. Since the Soviet Union’s break-up, Transnistria, Abkhazia and South Ossetia have become Russia’s ‘forgotten’ satellite states – unrecognised and unheard of by most outsiders. Now Donetsk and Luhansk have joined the list, and Russia has full control of Crimea.

   In 2015 John met people on both sides of these disputed borders, and promises some surprising insights.

   More at http://www.pilk.net

   

   

   

   

   

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

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

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.