We had two excellent speakers in February! First was Alastair
Lee who gave us a multi-dimensional view of his travels in China
and his very close up views of climbing various horrifically vertical
mountains in Northern Yunnan. He spoke of the friendships he and his
girlfriend struck up with people who lived close by who were
fascinated by some of his climbing equipment, the weather which
looked like it was going to defeat them and entertained us with some
great poses and a dancing finale! Alastair has published a fabulous
climbing guide on New Zealand. Take a look at his web site: posingproductions.com
After the tea and coffee break, Ben Nimmo spoke of his
cathartic pilgrimage complete with trombone from Canterbury to
Santiago de Compostela, in Spain. He regaled us with hilarious
tales of some of the larger than life characters he met en route, the
amount of beer and wine he sampled, all out of a sense of duty and
through a spirit of comradeship, of course, and in particular the
story of how he became a god father to a little girl in France. Funny
stories, great pictures, wonderful trip, Ben! Ben has written a
highly moving and entertaining book called Pilgrim Snail documenting
his pilgrimage. Pilgrim Snail is available now in bookshops and
the following website fireandwater.co.uk and Ben's
next book 'In Forkbeard's Wake' is out in January
2003.
Coming next, on Saturday 2nd March, we have Philip Koniotes
talking about “The Antarctic Peninsular.” Philip has
regularly travelled to the Arctic dog-sledding and has travelled
extensively, including diving around the world and making five polar
trips – the Antarctic has been his most recent journey. He loves the
space and trying to capture it on film. After the break, Mark
Elliott will be talking on “Saving Kilum Forest” set in
NW Cameroon – about curious kingdoms and unique mountain forests.
Mark is standing in for Juliet Coombe who is unable to attend the
Globetrotter meeting due to a car accident in Australia. She is okay
but not yet fit to fly
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 on Saturday
1st September. For more information, you
can contact the Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or
visit the website: www.globetrotters.co.uk