November 2007 London Meeting

Our first speaker was Phil Koniotes who took us to southern Africa to see the vaired wildlife, particularly the bird life of the area. Phil and his wife Linda took in parts of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia on their trip. Phil explained that to see the animals and birds at such close quarters they had to endure long hard days of travel to remote areas, this included what Phil described as one of the most boring bits of road on the planet, the Caprivi strip. But it was worth it for the wonderful photos of Fish Eagles, snorkelling Elephants and an extremely close up picture of a Hippo.Their trip was not all hardship, after flying into the Okovango Delta they stayed in tents with en-suites and enjoyed floodlit evenings by the side of waterholes.

Our second speaker was Jules Stewart whose talk was called Spying for the Raj. This was the fascinating story of how the Himalayas were mapped, during the period of The Great Game. The Pundits were trained in the art of taking an even stride length, whatever the terrain before being sent out to measure distances using sets of Mala beads to keep count, with 8 removed to make an even 100. The Pundits would be gone for up to 4 years before returning with their information.

By Padmassana

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) 020 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk