There is no meeting in August.

Venue Change: Due to the coronation on our regular date we have a venue change for this meeting, the meeting will be held at Covent Garden Dragon Hall  17 Stukeley Street, London WC2B 5LT

Speaking in May we have :

1st: Alexis Parrinder-Nicholls – Travelling with music: The power of music to navigate difficult situations and bring people together

Alexis has travelled with a guitar to over 30 countries, including Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Iraq, China, Senegal and The Gambia. These trips have often focussed around hitchhiking and exploring the most remote areas.

From jamming his way out of trouble with the Burmese police, to rapping at a wedding in a village not visited by foreigners for ninety years, a touch of music has often proven invaluable along the way.

Considering the music cultures in the different regions he’s visited, this talk will explore the role that music can play in traversing barriers, connecting people and generally being a force for good in the world.

Find out more at: https://www.youtube.com/@LaffCotchTV

2nd: Sharon Cunningham – Miss Honeyjam’s Mid-Life Cycle

Sharon is a mild mannered, mechanically challenged, middle aged school teacher who mostly likes sitting still. This is a talk about what happens when you watch too many YouTube videos about cycling during lockdown. It is about life at 15 mph, along the Rhine River, starting at its source, in Oberalppass in Switzerland and going all the way to Hoek van Holland, on a folding bike. By the end, you too will have all the information you need to plan your own cycle!

Instagram: misshoneyjam

Date & Time: Saturday, May 13, 2023

Doors open at 14:15 BST in London. (TBC)

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participates via zoom.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:15 with the talks starting 14:30-14:45 BST (London time see Event Time Announcer for local times), please join early so we can deal with any issues with joining, if you have issues please try updating your zoom client first, we are very limited in what we can do once the meeting has started.

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 future meetings.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking in June (on the 2nd Saturday of the month) we have :

1st: Candy Whittome – Wars, words and (cycle)ways: Cycling at 60

Books can be dangerous. When an old friend sent Candy “‘A Bike Ride” by Anne Mustoe, she took it more seriously than was probably intended.

Inspired by Anne, she set off on her bike in the summer of 2021 with zero experience of touring or bike maintenance, just curiosity and multiple questions about the nature of travel in the 21st century. Her journeys took her across Europe, into SE Asia and up north into the Baltics. She met Albanian law students working to develop their country’s legal infrastructure, Vietnamese whose livelihoods had been trashed by the pandemic, Estonians for whom exile to Siberia is part of the family history. The questions about travel remain, but the relevance of wars, words and cycleways were revealed.

Find out more at:

• https://www.cyclinguk.org/biography/candy-whittome
• https://cycletouringfestival.co.uk/whatson/
• https://www.polarsteps.com/CandyWhittome/3954031-cycling-east?s=BD69468D-8AF1-47F1-BCE0-A8E65A9C6650
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3RgaLVr0Yc
• https://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-Hunters-Crab-Fishermen-Cromer/dp/0957152809

2nd: Adam Weymouth – Kings of the Yukon

Kings of the Yukon tells the story of Adam Weymouth’s 2000 mile canoe trip across Canada and Alaska, from the source of the Yukon River to the mouth, following the longest salmon migration in the world. With the numbers of king salmon crashing in recent years, the journey examines what might be causing the declines, and explores how the many people and ecosystems that depend on the salmon are being affected as they disappear. The book won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and the Lonely Planet Adventure Travel Book of the Year.

Find out more at:

• www.adamweymouth.com
• @adamweymouth

Date & Time:

Saturday, June 10, 2023

Doors open at 14:00 in London.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participates via zoom.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 (London 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 future meetings.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking in April we have :

1st: Nick Fielding – Tracing the Atkinsons: On horseback in Central Asia and Siberia.

Nick’s talk is about the numerous journeys he has made on horseback through remote parts of eastern Kazakhstan, Tuva and Buryatia following in the footsteps of Thomas and Lucy Atkinson in the 1840s-50s.

Nick Fielding is a writer and traveller. He was Senior Reporter on The Sunday Times, where he covered the aftermath and implications of the 9/11 attacks, reporting from Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Far East. Prior to that he was Chief Investigative Reporter of the Mail on Sunday, where he worked on many international stories, and a reporter for The Independent. He has published books on Britain’s intelligence services and on the detailed planning for the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

For six years Nick edited Asian Textiles, a magazine which covers the history and ethnography of textiles. He continues to travel extensively, mostly on horseback, over long distances in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Siberia. In particular he has travelled widely throughout the Djungar Alatau Mountains in Zhetysu.

Nick writes a blog about the Atkinsons called Siberian Steppes https://siberiansteppes.com.

Find out more: https://siberiansteppes.com/

2nd: Rosemary Alexander – Alternative Italy

Following on being invited to an acupuncture conference in Bologna, Rosemary decided to do a tour around some of the other cities in Italy, not just the tourist sites.

From the bustling beaches of Rimini to the art-filled streets of Florence, from the charming town of Lucca to the relaxing thermal baths of Bagni di Lucca, and the glamorous seaside resort of Viareggio, this talk will take you on a journey through some of the most stunning and diverse destinations in Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.

Date & Time:

Saturday, April 1, 2023

Doors open at 14:00 in London.

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 (London 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 future meetings.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking in March we have :

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/.
• and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063620760267.

2nd: Chris Burrows – My Berlin

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.

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.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 (London 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 future meetings.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking in July we have :

Christopher Forse – On the Road in North America

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.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 (London 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 future meetings.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking in February we have :

• 1st: Noel Perry -Travels in a Van called Speedbump

  Noel will talk about his travels in 20 countries in his van Speedbump.

• 2nd: Jeanie Copland – Interrailing with my granddaughter.

  Jeanie travelled with Hattie, her 20 year old granddaughter, we looked at each other with amazement, did we have a plan?

  We both wanted to travel in Europe, summer 2019, why not step out together.  

  We quickly scribbled a list each of six destinations and compared notes – Budapest, Venice and Rome were hot favourites – the planning began. 

Date & Time:

Saturday, February 4, 2023

Doors open at 14:00 in London.

The zoom meeting opens at 14:00 with the talks starting 14:30 (London 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 future meetings.

For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets: