November’s very entertaining speakers were:-

Mark Smith — “The Man in Seat61”. Mark worked in various roles within the rail industry for many years and started his own website www.seat61.com as a hobby – it has proved so successful that it has now become a full time job ! The website aims to help people who want to travel by train or ship and get all the information they need to do this from one source. Since it was set up in 2001 in has won many awards, including: Wanderlust Top Travel Website in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and First Choice Responsible Tourism Award in 2006. Mark has since written a book based on the development & stories of his very original website.

Joff Summerfield — Pennyfarthing World tour. On his 3rd attempt after two and half years on the road and over 2,000 miles, Joff completed his “world journey” in November 2008 on a Penny Farthing cycle ! Through his talk Joff shared his unusual journey, with Globetrotters, which took him through Europe, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, China, Tibet, India, USA and Canada. Many of the audience were particularly intrigued by how he mounts the back & copes over difficult terrain without brakes or gears.

See Joff’s website http://www.pennyfarthingworldtour.com for more details.

December’s speakers were quite different in their stories:-

Neil Rees – From Chesham, Bucks to Chesham, New Hampshire. Returning speaker Neil journeyed to his hometown’s namesake in USA, whilst on a trip to North America and in his entertaining style Neil enlightened us on the similarities & differences between the two Cheshams.

Rob Lilwall – Cycling the extremes. Travelling alone & by bicycle through the thick jungles of Papua New Guinea and the lonely passes of Afghanistan, Rob returned to Globetrotters to this time focus on these two of most exciting & dangerous parts of his 30,000 mile cycling home from Siberia expedition.

See Rob’s website www.cyclinghomefromsiberia.com for more details.

And now for something a little more personal J Here are some of the London Globies at The Sun Tavern after December’s meetingÂ…considering all manner of topics. Thank you to all of them for another enjoyable meeting and credit to Tony Annis for producing the photosÂ…

Details of the London branch’s forthcoming meetings, September 2009 through to July 2010, can be found at https://globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon10it.html

The London branch 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 7193 2586, or visit the web site: www.globetrotters.co.uk.