Our first speaker this month was Chris Bradley, whose talk was called “Walking Wadi Hadramat”. Chris made a 550 mile solo trek through this barren area of Arabia. Yemen is another country that is unfortunately on the No-go list just now, so this talk was a fascinating insight. Chris showed us Shibam, also known as “The Manhattan of the desert” thanks to its 500 tower houses, some dating back 500 years. On his travels, Chris took part in local events including a shooting competition and a wedding. His nights spent under the stars, sometimes literally when one hotel had no room he slept on the roof and on another occasion he slept on a garage forecourt in the middle of nowhere, only for his evening meal to be delivered in shifts by a local family. Chris succeeded in his attempt to walk the Wadi, ending up on the beach of the Arabian Sea.
Our second speaker was Rupert Attlee, The Trail to Titicaca – 7000 mile cycle adventure through South America. Chris and companions decided to do this epic trip from the tip of South America following the Andes up to Lake Titicaca in aid of Leukaemia Research. The trip didn’t start well when they were all hospitalised after eating some shellfish. But once recovered they set off up through Chile to Santiago, though they found it hard going, having done very little training before setting out. Before setting off they had assured their sponsors that they would ride the whole way. This meant that on one occasion a road tunnel which would have been too dangerous to cycle through with all the fumes, was closed for them so they could ride through safely, on the other side they were met with cheers from the drivers who had been kept waiting. Rupert’s views of the Andes were superb, culminating in their Bolivian goal at Lake Titicaca.
£82 was collected after the meeting in aid of Leukaemia research, thanks to all those Globies who contributed.
Next month, on Saturday 6th March, Anthony Lambert will talk about railways on the Wildside – a look at a selection of the world’s railways. After the break our very own Jacqui Trotter will be talking about travelling 8 months overland in South America.
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 Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk