This edition has been delayed by about 2 weeks due a combination of travel and technical issues, hopefully these are now fixed. ~ Paul, GT Webmaster.

Hello all,

I think that this is going to be a bumper edition, as not only have I got to catch up with not managing to produce a July eNewsletter, IÂ’ve also got plenty of good material to get through !! So what happened to JulyÂ’s edition you might ask ? Well I ran out of timeÂ…the twin calls of work and then spending three weeks with Tony Annis, undertaking an adventure of life time in Brasil, squashed everything into too short a space ! I will tell you more about Brasil but now I need to move on and let you know about the following:-

July was a notable month for the Globetrotters Club, particularly for the London Branch, on two fronts:-

· Dick Curtis has retired as London Branch organiser and all round good guy ! As you can see from the picture below, courtesy of Dan Bachmann, Dick was completely surprised by the presentation of a signed card and an engraved glass globe ! In fact I think he was speechless for a few seconds whilst he registered what Jacqui and the Committee had organised in commemorationÂ… Many of you can recollect Dick being a constant, as the club changed most of its regular attendees, meeting venues and advanced through its own 60^th birthday. How many of you also noted DickÂ’s passions for Wasps rugby union club, strong English beers and slightly eccentric travel trips to London, the Basque country and beyond. I think for me Dick epitomises what drew me to the club and has kept me coming back for more, in one shape or another. IÂ’m sure we havenÂ’t heard the last of Dick and weÂ’ll get to catch up with him in slightly less busy moments, enjoying the club and its members Â… All the best and thank you for all your efforts Dick – regards from us all!!!

· The new programme of events for September 2008 was announced and as you can see it lists a whole host of interesting and well accomplished travellers – http://www.globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/lon09it1.html. Not only do we have Legacy 2007 winner & club member Katie Fahrland speaking about her once in a lifetime trip to Bamako, we also welcome back regulars Justin Marozzi, Jonny Bealby (GT heartthrob !!), Amar Grover & John Gimlette all before the end of 2008 ! A very strong line up indeed as we head towards the winter months and the start of 2009Â…

ThatÂ’s all for nowÂ…,

The Ant

theant@globetrotters.co.uk

The July meeting was the popular Members Slides, though nowadays digital is beginning to take over and in the first session:-

Liz Cooper took us first to Belize showing us the “Blue hole”, which you reach by a combination of scrambling and swimming, she also showed us examples of the abundant bird life and the native Margay cats.

Rene Richards showed us her trip to Peru , including bodies preserved by the dry atmosphere at high altitude, Rene visited the reed islands on Lake Titicaca, worrying that she would sink through these bouncy constructions, and the spectacular Valley of the Condors.

We headed next to Asia as Sue Baker showed us her 2 month’s working in a school in Darham, Mongolia . As well as helping teach the children and taking them into the hills, Sue also got to experience living in a Ger which can be erected in just an hour (not IKEA then!) and trekking around salt lakes.

Next to the Middle East as David Shamash showed us some old pictures of Jerusalem.

Last up before the interval was Jacqui Trotter, who showed us that Spain is not just for the summer, Jacqui visited Madrid and Sevilla, taking in the Moorish architecture, Sevilla cathedral and photographing some of the ornate doorways and peaking behind them. She also showed us Cordoba cathedral, with its wonderful forest of nearly a 1000 columns from its days as a mosque.

After the break we returned to the following varied set of short journeys:-

Tracey Murray took us down under to the Oodnadatta Track, taking in the delights of Coober Pedy, Lake Eyre and the wonderfully named “Plane Henge” where 2 old aircraft are tethered noses upwards. At Maree Tracey showed us a camel made out of railway sleepers, a monument to the Ghan railway.

Eric Hayman then took us to Lesotho where he worked during the 1970’s helping to build dams on the Orange river, this also involved building an airstrip with some very rudimentary equipment, he must have done a reasonable job as its still there and you can book a flight to it on Expedia, its designation code is PEL!

Jeanie Copland, showed us the trip she did earlier this year with Matt Doughty, walking in Big Bend National Park in Texas, Matt is obviously fitter than he looks 🙂 as some of the walks were quite hard, but worth it for the views.

Dan Bachmann made quite an entrance dressed in his Tunisian headscarf to show us his trip into the dessert, where he camped under the stars and his guide baked their breakfast bread under the ashes of the camp fire. Dan was amazed to find plants growing in a dessert that hasnÂ’t seen rain in decades.

Dick Curtis fittingly brought the meeting to its close, showing us Lyon airport, which is an architectural delight, but completely devoid of any passengers due to its not very well thought out location.

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.

For information on Ontario meetings, please contact Svatka Hermanek: shermanek@schulich.yorku.ca or Bruce Weber: tel. 416-203-0911 or Paul Webb: tel. 416-694-8259.

Ontario meetings are held on the third Friday of January, March, May, September and November. Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street in downtown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

It’s the time of year again when I drop a line to Globies about the BBC-Royal Geographical Society “Journey of a Lifetime” award, which is always of great interest to Globies. I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with this since it started eight years ago. Last year’s winner Emily Ainsworth made a cracking programme about touring with a Mexican circus, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 29 August at 11.00 am.

If this isn’t too late for your eNewsletter, please could you give the programme a mention? And most importantly, please could you tell Globies how to apply for the 2009 award, for which the deadline is Friday 26 September.

In a nutshell, up to £4,000 is on offer for an original and inspiring journey anywhere in the world. The winner will receive training in radio broadcasting from the BBC and will record their experiences for a BBC Radio 4 documentary. What they want is to inspire an interest in the world and its people and at the same time discover new radio broadcasting talent.

Full details are at: http://www.rgs.org/OurWork/Grants/Journey+of+a+Lifetime.htm

Info about previous programmes (with “Listen Again” links) are at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/journeyofalifetime.shtml

Background

Your Journey of a Lifetime – it’s the territory of imagination and dreams, the lure of the distant horizon and the tug of the unknown. The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), in partnership with BBC Radio 4, offer you the chance to make that journey and to tell the world about it in a memorable piece of radio documentary-making. Each year the RGS-IBG and the BBC support the best idea for an original, exciting, and exceptional journey. It’s important that the project takes you somewhere fresh, different and original. Therefore it’s a good idea to bear in mind where previous winners have been (such as Mexico in 2008, Kenya in 2007 and Egypt in 2006).

Your journey needs really to matter to you: we need to feel your passion and enthusiasm and Radio 4 listeners need to be fascinated. The BBC already broadcasts a lot of documentaries about faraway places. When developing your idea, make sure it’s the sort of thing journalists rarely have the time to cover. Most reporters can only afford the time and money to make short visits to meet important people and don’t get immersed in the local society.

The programme you’ll be making needs to tell your story – and that of the journey and the place you’ll be visiting – in a graphic and attractive way. Think of all the audio potential in the idea – not just indigenous music and sounds, but how you are going to find interesting sounds within the substance of the journey (by keeping an audio-diary, for example). Radio is very good on atmospherics and imaginative pictures, but you need to think about what your journey and your destination offer to create those pictures.

Eligibility guidelines

* You’ll be travelling between January and July 2009.

* Applicants must be aged 18 or over.

* BBC and RGS-IBG staff and their close relatives are not eligible to apply for grants.

* The BBC will retain editorial control over any programme it may make. It can’t guarantee that any programme it may make will be broadcast.

* Interviews will be held in November 2008 in London. You must be able to attend these interviews in person.

* Applications from small teams rather than solo travellers are accepted, but please make it clear in your application if this is the case.

* The award is for independent travel. We will NOT consider any journey joining a commercial expedition or pre-paid tour, including organised charity fundraising tours.

How to apply

Applications may be submitted by email (in MS Word format) or by post or fax, to arrive by Friday 26 September 2008.

Initial proposal – applying for the Journey of a Lifetime award is easy. We’re only looking for the ‘pitch’ of your idea at this stage – the core idea that makes this your Journey of a Lifetime. Your pitch should be no longer than 550 words and should provide:-

A two-line summary – A very brief description of your planned journey. Think of this as what would appear as your headline in the Radio Times.

A 250-300 word description of the journey in more detail. You don’t have to include everything listed here, but it may help you to consider:

* Why is this a journey of a lifetime?

* Why will it make a good radio broadcast?

* Why is it of interest to the audience?

* How will you achieve the journey?

* What will you get out of it?

* What will the audience get out of it?

* Why you and not somebody else?

Please remember to keep this brief. At this stage we’re not looking for detailed route plans or budgets.

Send your initial proposal by email, post or fax to the RGS-IBG grants officer at the address below to arrive by Friday 26 September 2008. From the initial proposals, up to ten projects will be shortlisted by a panel of judges. Those selected will be asked to prepare a more detailed proposal.

Note: Digital photographs should be in JPEG or TIFF format, A5 size, with a resolution of at least 300dpi.

Enquiries and applications

Grants Officer Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) 1 Kensington Gore, London, SW7 2AR T: 020 7591 3073 F: 020 7591 3031 E: grants@rgs.org W: http://www.rgs.org/grants

This trip of ours to Brasil was brought to life by two men and their visions of what the Amazon Forest means to its indigenous peoples & what it could mean to the wider world, if experienced responsibly. Benki Piyako, respected member of the Ashaninka people, is at 35 years old a possible future of the indigenous peoples interactions with the modern states of South America, he is articulate, educated & has a sense of how his cultural identity can play a positive role. Meanwhile Tony Annis a long time Globetrotter member and established photographer, was raised in Brasil during his school years and has over the years has grown more passionate about what makes Brasil tick and how it should be enjoyed.

We six tourists first met up with Benki & a number of the Ashaninka at Marechal Thaumaturgo’s airstrip (in Brasil’s western most state – Acre), perfectly timed for a step into the unknown. On departure day, four flat, metal hulled motor boats were loaded with our packs, food, umbrellas & guns and iced drinks and after what became the regularly fluid morning chats about what might happen for the day, the word was given and we’re off ! Turn right after the town and up Rio Amonia we went !!

Those umbrellas were vital in this supposed dry season  continuous rain for the first few hours could have easily sapped our keenness before we reached our first stop at Apiwxta (pronounced aputure). Bizarrely it was water that probably got us into enjoying this adventure‚…the boat with John, Trish & I in hit an unseen & very underwater log and our world was instantly turned upside down. Despite the best efforts of Chico our driver, all of our goods were dunked into the brown, muddy & very fast flowing river frantically we grabbed the most precious items – our cameras – and let the following boats rescue everything, including ourselves. Tony was most disappointed that he had not been around to get any pictures of the upset. Adaptable is a byword for getting the most out of their surroundings – everything was stripped down, dried and within an hour or so we were on our way again. I had images of us being marooned over night, but no the Ashaninka soon had us underway.

Apiwxta is so, so different from most places I have ever experienced before. It epitomises the symbiotic relationship the Ashaninka have with the forests buildings, food, clothes and even socialising are derived from materials found within their surroundings. Only functional, hardwearing objects such as machetes, outboard motors and cooking ports come from our outside world. These people only take what they need for their communities at this point and further up river there is little evidence of the destructive practices of forestry that have many up in arms. In fact the rapidly rising & sinking levels of the river have wreaked more damage, as its course varies with the seasonal downpours. We evening’d over a meal of freshly caught fish, manioc, paste & cold, cold beers. This, including the beer, became our staple diet for most of the whole trip along the river though it was sometimes varied by what ever could be hunted by bows & arrows or very ancient rifles sometimes even Benki failed to bring back anything extra ! We also got to experience herbal medicines, as I’d bounced Francesca off a wooden balcony and she had the resulting bloody wound patched up with just honey & plant extracts despite having to wear a large bandage, just in case, she didn’t swear at me once and was most intrigued on what had been applied to her head.

Days two & three had us heading further up towards the Peruvian border  each day was spent bouncing along, dodging fallen trees and attempting to avoid numb bums & sun burn. Each night we slept on a river beach, underneath palm tree lean shelters with our hammocks swung into place & the much needed mosquito nets added ! Swimming in the muddied swirls of the Amonia became the best way to exfoliate the day away. But those damned flies & mosquitoes nearly rubbished all this serene pleasure for us, we had to use industrial quantities of deet, soothing creams & sun protection in an unequal battle to fend off bite after bite even back in Rio de Janeiro week’s later people still remarked on my pock marked legs !

The fourth day found us crossing the border into Peru and up into the village of Sawawo to support our Ashaninka in a football tournament organised to commemorate the country’s independence. Through the heat & mixed of indigenous/state communities we cheered on Benki & his rock of a player brother Bebito, as they defeated all comers to seal the title. The evening’s celebrations descended into a cacophony of Peruvian disco, shuffling dancing and a boatful of fermented manioc & sweet potatoes and Don in particular paid the price for over indulging as we began our return in a haze the next day.

Picture courtesy of The Ant: Tome boat at SawawoÂ…the morning after!!!

Our final leg was particularly poignant, I sat up front on the lead boat on the last day, getting splashed and dodging so many hanging branches, as we left behind the more traditional Ashaninka way of life and navigated our way down past the small homesteads and onto Marechal’s blurred junction of Rios Amonia & Juru. A sense of departure & change pervaded my thoughts, we were heading eastwards towards Brasil and ultimately home, the joy of sharing our unknown was almost over all too quickly.

Want to know more about the Ashaninka and their lives ?

• their cosmology and more –
• about their community at Apiwxta –
• BenkiÂ’s role in environmental & indigenous issues for the Ashaninka and the Brasilians – http://www.ashoka.org/node/3954

We were in El Chalten (there are good campsites and also plenty of hotels around to stay in although February is high season so book pretty early) and we did part of the Fitz Roy circuit that I think takes anything from 4-7 days. We went to El Lago de los tres (which takes you right to the base of the Fitzroy Glacier and is just past the base camp for climbers) and also started the walk into Cerro Torre but the weather was bad. Both the Fitzroy and Cerro Torre circuits are accessible from El Chalten. If I remember I had the Bradt guide to Argentina and Chile and that had some really useful information in it about the circuits and where to get maps etc. In terms of kit etc you can either hire it or buy it in El Chalten, but a word of warning the prices are pretty expensive (even more so now as all the prices have gone up).

While youÂ’re in Patagonia and that far south itÂ’s definitely worth going to the glacier ‘Perito MorenoÂ’ as itÂ’s spectacular. The nearest town to that is El Calafate. Also, if you have time itÂ’s also possible to go to ‘Las Torres del PaineÂ’ in Chile where you can do various circuits of trekking (for example, the ‘wÂ’ route – thereÂ’s more info in Bradt) and is also amazing.

Further up in northern Patagonia there is also Volcan Lanin that is a 2 day trek/climb with crampons. It is in Parque Nacional de Lanin and the nearest place is Junin de los Andes. You need all the kit to be checked by the park rangers (guardaparque) and also to hire a radio to take up with you (you can do this in Junin de los Andes). Again thereÂ’s more info in Bradt and although people will try to sell you a group climb with guides if you have some knowledge of mountains they will let you go alone – however you will need to provide a first aid kit etc to take with you. If you decide to do this itÂ’s worth keeping a few days (4-5) to spare to allow for weather, booking a place in one of the refuges for the 1st night and also to get the kit together.

In terms of transport (assuming youÂ’re flying into Buenos Aires) from Buenos Aires you can get a ‘cochecamaÂ’ – a bus with seats that recline to become a bed (well nearly) to El Chalten, El Calafate, Bariloche and I think Junin de los Andes. If not to Junin de los Andes you can definitely go via Bariloche. Most buses go from Retiro bus station but itÂ’s worth checking. I think the main company that sells tickets is ‘FlechabusÂ’.