Globetrotters meeting Saturday 7th December 2002 By Padmassana
This afternoon our first speaker was Damian Welch, Royal Geographical Society (RGS) winner of a “Journey of a Lifetime “ Award, who took us to Tokelau, a group of remote Polynesian islands located north of New Zealand. His talk and slides demonstrating to us the effect that the 21st Century has had on the islanders way of life. Tokelau’s population of 1,500 souls crowd onto just three islands. Damian's graphic photos demonstrated just how dependant the islanders are on the imported barrels of oil, petrol and diesel, which arrive like everything else by ship. The islanders life revolves around the ship’s comings and goings. The islanders share everything, from the oil, to the work and the food that sustains them. Though this system is rapidly being overtaken by the introduction of money, people are asking how much?, before doing tasks they would previously have just done. Fishing is one area where the old way carries on, the fish are caught and shared equally among the people when the catch is landed. Tokelau’s women folk prepare the food and then play noisy games of dominoes. Afternoons on Tokelau are often spent playing volleyball under the scorching sun. Unfortunately the once healthy Tokelau diet of fish and coconut is being replaced by imported corned beef, beer and vast amounts of sugar, resulting in the 21st century diseases of obesity and diabetes. Damian’s idyllic photos of the islands peeping out of the blue sea and thought provoking talk on daily life made for a very interesting and educational 40 minutes.
Our second speaker was Robert Twigger, whose talk was entitled “Putting the adventure back into travel”.
Robert’s wanderlust was instilled in him by his Grandfather, who had returned from his own travels with Naga spears, which Robert has inherited, just as well as I don’t think you would be very successful at bringing them through Heathrow airport in the current climate.
Roberts’s plan was to try and replicate the epic 1793 journey of Alexander MacKenzie, who crossed Canada from east to west. Robert particularly wanted to repeat the last section down the Athabasca river in a birch-bark canoe. First though Robert and his friend Ben had to get the canoe to their starting point. They achieved this by delivering a van 3500 miles across Canada in three days, before being dropped off in the middle of nowhere to begin their journey. They set off paddling often against quite strong currents, seeing nobody else for days on end. Though they did see a lot of bears, which were not intimidated or scared off by the bear horn they carried with them. The locals all carry a gun for this job! Robert and Ben camped by the river and we saw some beautiful sunset photos, however this didn’t tell the whole story, as wherever they stopped they were set upon by millions of mosquitoes. Unfortunately Robert’s trip was limited by time and they have had to leave the canoe in storage having completed 600 miles until next year when he hopes to complete the trip all the way to the Pacific.
London 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. There is no London meeting in August, but we will be back in September. For more information, you can contact the Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk