With host Jeanie Copland at the lectern and with Jacqui Trotter reporting queues to get into the Church of Scotland venue, the new season got off to a fine start with:-

The front cover of the last Globe featured Katie Fahrland and her Wm Wood legacy trip to Mali. The September meeting began with Katie giving a talk on her trip and the 3 day music festival that takes place at Segou on the Niger River – the legacy gave Katie the chance to make a dream come true and visit the festival. Katie was thrust into Mali life from day 1, pushing and shoving her way onto a bus to reach Segou. The music festival attracts 14,000 people, who enjoy the music from the stage that is almost in the river. The visual effects being provided by one box with a stream of wires coming out that just sits on a chair. After the festival Katie took the opportunity to see some more of the country, showing us sights such as the Great mud Mosque at Djenne, which has to be patched up after rainfall. She also made a side trip on a motorbike with a guide into Dogon country, seeing a village that makes pottery and fires its pottery by literally having a big fire. Katie’s trip has prompted her to enrol for a Masters degree at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies http://www.soas.ac.uk/).

Our second speaker was Fran Sandham who talked about his walking trip across Africa. He explained the whole idea came during a drunken New Years eve party, when he decided that if he was going to make a New Year’s resolution it was going to be a big one ! January 1st dawned, despite the hangover and the cold light of day he decided it was still a good idea, so he spent the next year working every hour to save up the money to make it possible. His walk took him from the Skeleton Coast in Namibia via Zambia, Malawi and Tanzania, finishing in Zanzibar. The 3000 mile walk took him a year, it would have been quicker but for an abortive idea to get a donkey to carry his pack, the donkey refused, he then got a mule, but the mule arrived on a van that it had kicked to pieces, so Fran abandoned that idea as well ! He downsized his pack and carried it himself, avoiding Lions in north Namibia and narrowly avoiding treading on a lazy Puff Adder that was sitting in the middle of the road, surprising himself at how high he could jump carrying a 30kg rucksack ! He arrived in Zanzibar a year after setting off 3 stones lighter and wondering what to do next. He has written the book, so if you want to read more about Fran’s trip visit www.traversa.co.uk or check it out on Amazon.

For details of the forth coming meetings of the London branch, September 2008 through to July 2009 – http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon09it1.html.

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, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend. There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh in September. For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk.