Meeting news from our branches around the world.

As a result of the item about place names, Tom from N. Carolina wrote in to add: in the US state of Georgia we have Cairo, Athens & Rome. There is also Moscow in the state of Idaho; Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Frankfort, Kentucky and Odessa, Texas. The state of Connecticut has a bunch of place names reminiscent of England – Norwich, Devon, Stratford, Manchester, Windsor Locks, New London, etc.

Crystal from California wrote in to say: “isn't the joke about Simpsons that they called the town Springfield because there's one in every state? That's the rumour, anyway. Anyone know if there is some truth about this?”

Kim from Massachusetts also spotted Moscow, Russia and Moscow, Idaho and Moscow, Vermont.

Doug from Maine e-mailed the Beetle to say that although he lived for 11 years in London, he and his family now live Maine, topmost on the east coast of the USA. Doug goes on to say that Maine residents came from all over the world over the last 3 centuries, primarily from Europe. Many of those first immigrants liked to name their new homes after their previous homes in the “Old Country.” (Many, many came from Britain and we have too many British town names to mention here.) Some of the more interesting names of Maine towns include:

Carthage Orient, China, Paris, Lebanon, Peru, Levant, Poland, Madrid, Rome, Mexico, Smyrna, Moscow, Sweden, Naples, Troy, Norway, Vienna.

Many thanks to all of those who wrote in.

OK, don’t look – can you name the five largest lakes in the world? A quick clue, one of them is a sea.

Globetrotters meeting 5^th July 2003 by Padmassana

This month we enjoyed slides from club members encompassing destinations all round the Globe. So going (very) roughly in a westerly direction from London this is what we saw. The architecture and vineyards of Paris and London (Dick Curtis). We headed north to the spectacular Northern lights (Dan and Dwayne). In southern Europe we saw what the Aeolian Islands have to offer for walkers (Jeannie Copland). Across the Med’ we saw the sand and towns of Libya (John Williams).

Heading into Asia we saw the Teji Festival in Mustang (Marianne Heredge) before heading north-west via the Karakoram Highway to the Silk route of western China. (Neil Harris). In Thailand we saw the Karan people with their decorative neck wear. (Helen Barnhill). Our next stop was the wonderful South Korean island of Cheju. (Kevin Brackley). We then crossed to Japan for views of Kyoto. (Sue Baker). Across the Pacific to the Argentinean capital Buenos Aires. (Phil Ferguson). Finally we saw a series of slides on the theme of water which took us from Iguacu Falls and back across the Atlantic to Iceland’s geysers and waterfalls. (Gavin Fernandes).

There is no London meeting in August. Our next London meeting will be on Saturday 6^th September:

John Gimlette will talk on Paraguay – The Island surrounded by Land. Award-winning writer, John, takes us round a country that has emerged from centuries of isolation. As one of the most beguiling and eccentric places there is, we visit a vast lost ocean, the battlefields of the bloodiest war man has known, picked Victorian warships, cannibals, a highland ball and plenty more. John's book “At the Tomb of the inflatable Pig.”

Richard Snailham, a Globetrotters Club Vice President will talk about On Reed Boats down rivers in Bolivia and Paraguay. Following a hunch that cocaine and nicotine might have reached the Old World from the New in very early times, John Blashford-Snell had three reed boats built on Lake Titicaca and tested them out on the Desaquadero river and subsequently reaching Buenos Aires and Belem in similar craft.

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 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk

Scotland's first long distance walk, The West Highland Way, is 152km (95 miles) long and links Milngavie (north of Glasgow) to Fort William. It takes walkers along the shores of the country's largest freshwater loch, Loch Lomond, and on passed the foot of its highest mountain, Ben Nevis. What follows is a look how at how two new walkers got on through one particular day in June 2003…

A day’s hard walk along the West Highland Way ran ahead of us. From the Kingshouse Hotel lay 18 miles of military built roads, graveled tracks and rocky footsteps as our trail crossed Rannoch Moor and wound its way onto Tyndrum. Alan and I edged nervously out of the warmth and noticed that the darkly shrouded Buachaille Etive Mór seemed to regard our departure with disdain and scepticism. The reason probably lay in the near horizontal rain that drove hard at our fellow walkers, and us, as we made slow progress over the shoulders of early hills.

The weather used many tactics in its onslaught that day – from rain clouds swooping down from the high peaks of the Glencoe/Grampian mountains through to swirling winds and persistent downpours. Our quality clothing and boots struggled vainly to protect us from the worst but the unremitting nature of the elements soon ground down our resistance! The only respite came and went if the old military road changed direction out of the wind or if a forest plantation shielded our steps.

Strangely, this battering and the never-ending numbers of switchback turnings never caused me to want to stop – enough was never enough! Before this holiday I never knew I had it in me to enjoy such experiences. A large part of this was down to Alan’s brilliant idea of using a luggage transfer service – apologies to the many walking purists, but this choice seemed to liberate our efforts and we were able to enjoy the walk for walking’s sake. Another help was that forest plantations allowed us take breaks when we needed to – previously I would have cursed at these eyesores on Scotland’s landscapes but now the relative shelter allowed us to recharge our batteries and watch the countless stream of north to south human traffic pass us by. In some ways I got so accustomed to the day’s weather patterns that if we caught ourselves enjoying a respite and maybe the sun nearly breaking through, we knew we were probably due to receive a severe soaking within minutes!

And yet despite the weather dominating our day, there was still plenty to notice and marvel at. Rannoch Moor is a patchwork of grasses, wild flowers, granite, gushing streams and rugged settings. The professional road building efforts of Wade and Caulfield lifted our trail across bridges and allowed the downpour to drain off into nearby lochans. Foxglove, rhododendrons, buttercups and daises flourished where the suggestion of clinging on for dear life was the order of the day. Whilst I’m not much of an ornithologist, Alan was more than happy with his day’s bird watching – our tramping disturbed many a skylark and further down the way he was surprised to come across the pitched cheeping of an Oyster Catcher.

Comparatively, the day’s route was far easier going than the mountain walks of Glen Nevis down to Kingshouse and as such we made startlingly good progress to the halfway point at Victoria Bridge. We had covered almost 10 miles in 3 hours or so, which was well above my expected average of 2 miles an hour. Nonetheless the warmth of coffee and a glass of Macallan at the Inveroran Hotel did much to ready us for the struggle of the second half of the day, particularly up the contours of Mam Carraigh. My faltering steps were eventually rewarded with the descent into the Bridge of Orchy, where a sturdy military bridge has stood dominating the scenery for over 200 years. What really caught my eye though was the simplicity of the River Orchy flowing past all manner of colour from its merging with the Allt Kinglass river – the yellow gorse, green pines and red poppies all enhanced the location’s contemplative worth.

Away down the Way our trail crossed back and forth across the train tracks of the West Highland Railway, as we traversed our final valley into Tyndrum. As this valley narrowed considerably and the railway, our path and the main trunk road (A82) all sought the easiest route through it. However the stern munros (little mountains – Beetle) of Beinn Dorain and Beinn Odhar hampered all, and our weary efforts over the last 6.5 miles slowed as the day’s weariness compounded into our legs and another gusting wind met us head on. Even surly Highland Cattle seemed nonplussed at our presence and the fell runners who appeared from nowhere strode past us with an enviable ease.

Finally the last of these 18 miles were left behind and Tyndrum drew us into its warmth and left us to reflect on how and why we had enjoyed such a day.

If you’d like to contact Matt, to ask him any questions or ask advice, please e-mail him on: matt

Iris, a British lady of considerable character and pluck, is on a 23 week overland expedition from Quito in Ecuador to Caracas in Venezuela. After this, she plans to do a 3-month voluntary placement in Ecuador, and then visit Central America for another overland trip between Panama City and Mexico City, ending up with perhaps another 2-month voluntary placement somewhere in South America again. This amazing journey will take Iris one year. Here is an extract from Iris’ journey notebook.

15 of our overland gang left us in Ushaia – not because they had come to the end of their trip but because they wanted to spend more time in Ushaia and so, at their own expense opted to stay on in hotels longer and to fly up to Buenos Aires (BA) in order to spend more time there as well. They would then join up with us in BA when we arrived there after spending five days travelling overland.

The remainder of us, 8 including our drivers/tour leaders, then travelled up to BA in a marathon 3,000 km plus journey, so that most of our time was spend on the road, with only two short visits to a petrified forest and a penguin colony to break the monotony and to give us a bit of extra comfort, we opted to drive further on one particular day so that we could spend a night in a hotel! The rest of the time was spent in rough camps along the way!

The petrified forest was in the middle of nowhere. It was very low key, just a park warden looking after a solitary outpost, guarding relics from some 5 million years ago and which they considered were the remains of an enormous forest full of gigantic trees which had suddenly and catastrophically been buried after several natural disasters and which had miraculously been uncovered again in subsequent earth movements. It comprised some enormous trunks lying on the surface of the ground over an extensive area and looked to this lay person’s eye like the remains from some ancient logging ground where the chain saws had been removed and the trunks just left fragmented where they lay. But they were of course now turned to stone. We arrived in the evening at about 1800 and had about an hour to walk round and look at these relics, but unfortunately none of us could really appreciate them because we had such little information as to why they were considered so significant. There was a museum housing fauna and flora of the region and depicting the course of events over several 100 million years but as everything was in Spanish and only one sparse leaflet in English, it was rather disappointing that we did not have a suitable guide to explain it all to us.

We stayed that night in a really rough camp site, again, in the middle of nowhere, which seemed frequented more by roaming labourers from local roadworks rather than the normal tourist place. We lit up a barbecue and ate good steaks that night, all the food having been purchased in bulk before leaving Ushaia.

The next day we pressed on, without pause to a place called Rio Gallegos, eating our lunch on the truck. We prepared it too in the truck on the move. Because the truck was so empty with just 6 instead of the usual 22 people in the back, it bumped and rattled and lurched over the rough roads perhaps more than it would have done if it had been fully laden, and so some accidents did occur with chopped salad etc, as we attempted to fill baguettes for the lunch-time snack!) But Rio Gallegos, gave us a welcome respite from camping as we stayed in a hotel that night and so had the luxury of beds and en suite showers! We went for a meal soon after booking in, and chose the restaurant on the other side of the road to the hotel, where family groups were eating three course meals at midnight! This is the norm in Argentina, as people tend to go out to eat in the late evening, but not before 2130 and even later!

Our next excursion was to a penguin colony that was situated near a place called Camarones, where we camped for the night close to the beach. We spent just an hour and a half at the colony. Penguins breed there and apparently stay for three years, growing up, before making any sea journeys. The whole area was full of young penguins, some already moulted, others younger and still covered in baby fur and all sorts of others in the in-between state looking as if they had all rescued their coats from moth infested wardrobes! However, although it was great to walk among them (along a designated footpath from which we were not allowed to stray) the penguins ignored this. They were allowed to stray on to the footpath and so we had a few very interesting encounters, as they are inquisitive birds, totally unfazed by humans walking around, and so they would pause and swivel their heads almost through a full 180 degrees to try and focus on us and work out who we were!

These two visits were the sum total of sightseeing on the 5 days it took to travel in our overland truck from Ushaia to BA and so we arrived in that capital city ready for a rest and some comfortable beds!

Next Month, Buenos Aires and Uruguay.

If you’d like to contact Iris, whether to wish her luck with her trip or to ask questions about her itinerary and places visited, I am sure she would like to hear from you. She can be contacted on: irisej2002@yahoo.co.uk

New York meetings are having a summer break, Laurie and New York meetings will be back in September.

For details of forthcoming meetings email: newyork@globetrotters.co.uk.

New York meetings are held at The Wings Theatre, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month (except August) at 4 pm.

As a result of our discussion on guidebooks, the following people have sent in their recommendations for guidebooks not on the Beetle’s list. They are:

From Globetrotters webmaster Paul, Sunflower books, based in London, are travel guidebooks with topographical maps for walking and touring in southern Europe, specialising in Mediterranean and Atlantic islands. For more information on titles covered etc, see http://www.sunflowerbooks.co.uk

Tracy from Illinois wrote in to say that she is a pretty big fan of the Rick Steve's Guidebooks, http://www.ricksteves.com. Tracy says: “He only covers Europe and fairly limited on Eastern Europe but I lived by these books for travels to many countries. I like his common sense approach to travel and his recommendations are pretty sound.”

Do you have a favourite guidebook that we haven’t covered, or one that was just terrible? E-mail the Beetle and let us know about it!

Some more travelling medical hints and tips for people on the move. If you find yourself under the weather, there is almost always an alternative remedy to finding the local doctor – but if in doubt, seek proper medical advice.

· Sore Throat?? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take 1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

· Cure urinary tract infections with alka-seltzer. Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly even though the product was never been advertised for this use.

· Hard trekking? Got toenail fungus? Get rid of unsightly toenail fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic leaves your toenails looking healthy again.

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.

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.

The Travel Industry Association of America (TIAS) recently warned that several new security measures intended to deter terrorists from entering the United States will also quite likely put off foreign tourists. The rules, which will take effect over coming months, means that all tourists who require a visa to enter the US will be interviewed by immigration officials. The TIAS notes that by January, the government will expand its tracking system for foreign visitors, which will include fingerprints and photographs. Officials say the changes are necessary for protection against terrorism. Travel executives, representing the largest airlines, hotels, cruise lines and car rental companies were critical, saying that the measures could further weaken the tourism industry. Since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, there has been a 20% drop on the number of international visitors to the US.

What does this mean for foreign visitors? US visa staff in embassies and consulates around the world will begin to interview almost all tourists who apply for visas, and this will create significant delays. In the past, consular officials had the option of allowing tourists who did not present security risks or did not seem likely to overstay their visas to apply by mail. In countries assessed likely to be sources of terrorists or illegal aliens, consular officials already routinely conduct interviews of visa applicants. For visitors from the 27 or so countries, mostly in Europe, who are not required to obtain visas, they will be required to produce computer-readable passports. Most British and Japanese visitors already have such passports, but travellers coming from France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland do not routinely carry computer-readable passports.