Mark Kalch — Solo Crossing, on foot, of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Mark was proudly born in Australia and has spent the last 12 or so years of his life working towards becoming a professional adventurer and explorer. Expeditions have taken him from Everest to North Africa, from Ethiopias Omo Valley to the mighty Amazon and from AustraIia’s outback to the forests of South-East Asia. He has run rivers in Southern Africa and trekked for weeks on end in the Andes of Peru, forged trails through dense jungles in East Africa and explored deserted tropical islands off the coast of Australia by sea-kayak. A true Globetrotter…

However this time round his plans for the club went askew an injury to Mark meant that he spent his return from Iran recuperating rather than being able to prepare for us…this meant he talked about his rowing epic down the Amazon. See http://www.expeditionamazonas.com/ from more details of that trip or more generally about Mark on http://www.markkalch.com/.

Jennifer Barclay — Return to South Korea

South Korea is often called the best-kept secret of Asia, with most westerners hearing more about the closed state to the north and the DMZ that divides them than the fascinating country to the south. Jennifer Barclay, author of Meeting Mr Kim, has been researching and writing about the country for years and went back in September 2009 to dig deeper. She was served strange fish by one of the oldest diving women of Jeju, went walking in a volcanic lava tube, got a rare view of North Korea, met a robot and watched old men playing chess. See for more details about her travel & writing career generally.

The next London Meeting will be on April 10th, this is the second Saturday of the month due to the Easter public holidays.

Details of the London branchs forthcoming meetings, 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.