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.

24 more sites of “outstanding universal value” have been designated world heritage sites by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). These include the ancient Iraqi city of Ashur and Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley, where towering statues of Buddha (see picture right) were destroyed by the former Taleban regime.

The first eight of the new UNESCO heritage sites are as follows:

· Purnululu National Park, Australia: Located in the state of Western Australia, it covers an expanse of nearly 250,000 hectares. The park's Bungle Bungle Range contains sandstone eroded into the shape of beehives over 20 million years.

· Three parallel rivers of Yunnan protected areas, China: A 1.7 million hectare site in Yunnan province, containing parts of three of the great rivers of Asia: the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween. The rivers run parallel through steep gorges, from 3,000 metres (10,000 feet) to 6,000 metres high.

· Monte San Giorgio, Switzerland: A wooded mountain shaped like a pyramid. Contains some of the best fossil records of marine life from about 250 million years ago.

· Uvs Nuur Basin, Russian Federation/Mongolia: About a million hectares. Contains a rich diversity of birds and is home to the gerbil, jerboas, the marbled polecat, snow leopard, mountain sheep and the Asiatic Ibex.

· Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, Vietnam: A dramatic, forested highland which includes underground caves and rivers and is mainly covered by tropical rainforest.

· Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan: Previously home to two colossal statues of Buddha, which were blown up by the Taleban in February 2001, provoking worldwide condemnation. UNESCO says the choice “symbolises the hope of the international community that extreme acts of intolerance, such as the deliberate destruction of the Buddhas, are never repeated again”.

· Quebrada de Humahuaca, Argentina: A major trade route over the past 10,000 years. Shows traces of the Inca Empire (15th to 16th Century) and of the fight for independence in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

· Historic Quarter of the Seaport City of Valparaiso, Chile: An interesting example of late 19th Century urban and architectural development in Latin America.

Source: BBC News

Globetrotters meeting on July 12^th

The Texas branch will celebrate their 2 year anniversary – 24 months of meetings – in July! Their monthly meeting participation averages around 20. People come and go. Since their first meeting in 2001, close to 200 people have attended. Thanks to Christina for keeping the meetings on track and Mary Jane for spreading the information about the meetings, the Texas branch is a definite success.

The Texas Branch of the Globetrotters Club will meet July 12th 2003 at the New Braunfels Public Library – note back to old location. Dan and Jensie will present the July program. The topic is China. As always, there will be time for sharing and networking.

If you like independent, adventuresome, fun, daring, exciting, “off the beaten path” travel, this club is for you. Our meeting begins at 2 P.M. Come early so you won't be late! Enjoy handouts, travel talk time, and door prizes!

Dates of future meetings: August 9th and September 13

For more information about the Texas Branch or if you would like to help Christina, please contact texas@globetrotters.co.uk or register for e-mail updates at our website (click here) or call Christina at 830-620-5482.

Gary, from the US is planning to cycle 1,500 miles around the UK. He started his journey on the 16^th of May 2003. Since that date he has travelled over 1,100 miles on a recumbent bike. At the time of writing, he has approximately 400 mile to go to complete the trip. Gary says: “The trip has been a real adventure. It's been absolutely fantastic!”

I had an interesting day today. I left Banff this morning around 9 am, and was heading for Elgin. It was raining, but not hard. Fifteen miles into my ride my rear tyre went flat. It was a good spot on the side of the road and the rain had stopped. I managed to get a new tube installed, but, evidently, I damaged the tube and the tyre immediately went flat – again. Well, I was on the edge of a village so I pushed the bike to town for help. There wasn't a bike shop or garage in town. The first person I met was a chap taking pictures of the bay. We started driving around in his car looking for help.

We came up to some workers working on the water mains. The boss wound up taking me to the next town five miles up the road to a bike shop. He wouldn’t hear of me compensating him for his troubles. He said he needed to do his part in increasing tourism. Luckily the bike shop was open. They are closed on Wednesday's. The fellow that owns the bike shop had his wife make me up a cup of tea. She also invited me in her home so that I could clean the grease off my hands. By this time it's three o'clock in the afternoon, so I decided to call it a day, and found a lovely four star B&B. People here are so friendly and generous here it's unbelievable.

One thing I've learned, it doesn't take much to survive. I'm on a seven week trip with roughly two of everything. I have to keep clothes in three groups – clean, only used one or two days, and definitely need to be washed. If I can't find anybody to wash them or too embarrassed to ask, I wash out a set in the sink with hand soap and hope they dry by morning. More than once, I had to put on wet clothes. I'm sure this isn't the kind of news you were waiting to hear, but that's the reality of the trip.

I've tried almost everything on the menu, but one of the things I haven't tried is black pudding. They tell me it's very good, but someone said it's fried pigs’ blood. I haven't been able to bring myself to trying it. Maybe it's something I'll never have the opportunity of experiencing.

I'm still slugging along. Today I was feeling so smug. I was ready to bestow expert map reader after my name till this afternoon. There were conflicting signals on the trail and I went left instead of right. The outcome was too bizarre to go into much detail. The upshot was I was lost and in the middle of a field that a farmer was cutting hay. The hill was steep and slippery. When I tried to apply the brakes, my feet snagged the cut grass and I was catapulted headfirst. Luckily, I had a soft landing. Well, I finally made it to my destination of Falkland at 6 pm. It's a real small town with a castle and huge cathedral. Yesterday I was talking to the sheep all day.

I was in Inverness. I don't know how everybody keeps putting up with me. I'm constantly asking for directions to somewhere- bike shop, streets, B&Bs', you name it. Everybody is so patient and willing to help in any way they can. I'm not shy when it comes to asking for directions. When you're on a bike you can kill a half hour real quickly going in circles. I met a couple of hikers around my age (nearing retirement) over breakfast at the last b&b I stayed at in Buckie called the Rosemount who are from the Orkney Islands. They looked at my map and it so happens I'll be passing within a half mile of their house. They asked me to stop by for a cup of tea. What a small world!

When I was eating dinner last night I noticed on the menu they were featuring lamb imported from New Zealand. Now, of all the things the Scotts need to import you would think the last thing would be sheep. Somebody said in a grocery store a couple of days ago, “You've seen more of the UK in the last four weeks than I've seen in my whole life”. I suspect that's true!

If you enjoy writing, enjoy travelling, why not write for the free monthly Globetrotters e-newsletter! The Beetle would love to hear from you: your travel stories, anecdotes, jokes, questions, hints and tips, or your hometown or somewhere of special interest to you. Over 7,500 people subscribe to the Globetrotters e-news.

To see your story in cyber print, e-mail the Beetle with your travel experiences, hints and tips or questions up to 750 words, together with a couple of sentences about yourself and a contact e-mail address to Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk

European no-frills airline Ryanair says it is to stop accepting American Express charge cards. They say Amex makes higher charges than most other companies and that they will refuse to take bookings on the cards from the end of June 2003. Ryanair emphasized that it would continue to accept other credit cards.

Ryanair reported a big rise in net profits in its last financial year. Net profits of EUR239.4 million (USD$281.4 million) were 59 percent up on the previous year and the carrier says it expects to see passenger numbers in 2003/04 to soar to 24 million from the present 15.7 million. They are predicting that they will overtake both British Airways and Germany's Lufthansa within three years.

And finally here is a very sad website, for all those who would like to “virtually” fly a Ryanair plane. http://members.lycos.co.uk/virtualryanair/AboutVirtualRyanair.htm

Tokyo Haneda airport is the largest and the busiest airport in Japan – over 300 flights take off and same number of flights land each day and around half are Japanese domestic flights.

There are two railways connecting the airport terminal building (Haneda Kuko station) and Tokyo city center. The Tokyo Monorail line from Hamamatsu-cho on the JR Yamanote line is a circular line connecting to major places in Tokyo. The monorail runs every 4 or 5 minutes and takes 24 minutes journey from Hamamatsu-cho into the town centre, costing 470yen (US$4 or £3).

The other train is the Keihin Kyuko (Keikyu) line from Shinagawa also on the Yamanote line. There is a direct service every 10 minutes, although you must change train at Kamata station in the early mornings and late at night. The journey takes between 30 and 35 minutes from Shinagawa, and costs 400yen (US$3.50 or £2.50).

There is also a direct train to and from Narita every 80 minutes, taking 105 minutes journey. There is also a bus service between the terminal building and major places and hotels in the Tokyo area.

Facts about the Oceans and Seas of the world

I’ve been to Japan before, to Honshu, but have not explored the southern parts, so this trip was designed at seeing Kyushu. I flew into Fukuoka as an entry point via Seoul that is a lot cheaper than going to Nagasaki. My trip had three bases: I used Beppu as a base to see the Hells, and Usuki, Kagoshima to see Sakaragima (a volcano), Ibosuki (sand baths), Shiran (the kamikaze museum) and finally Kamomoto for the city itself and Mt Aso.

Kyushu is nothing like as busy as Honshu and doesn’t seem quite as affluent. The trains and buses all ran on time. Kyushu is probably cheaper than Honshu for accommodation – I spent on average £23 a night in mostly Ryokans – good value – and can all be booked through the Japanese Inn group. There are also far fewer foreigners and tourists in Kyushu than Honshu.

It's less than a year since I last came through Seoul airport. A year ago it was a busy, heaving place with all the restaurants and shops packed out. Today you can go in anywhere and do anything without waiting. I think SARS is having a big effect. There are lots of people walking around with masks on, should I have got one I ask myself? There’s not even much in the shops. I just cannot believe how quiet this airport is, there's nobody rushing, no announcements, there's only about 10 flights on the departures board.

Arrived in the city with the best 3-letter airport code I know Fukuoka (FUK)!!! Got the shuttle bus then the ultra efficient metro in to the city. I was glad that I had my compass to come out of right exit. Then a 10 min walk to my hotel: very nice, tiny room, probably big for Japan, but it has a bed, shower, TV and its own ultra efficient kettle, very handy! Apparently a rice breakfast is included but as I didn’t wake up till 9am, I missed it! Fukuoka is a big modern city, nobody here has a mask on there is not much for a tourist to see, it is more of an entry port.

I took a side trip from Fukuoka to Dazaifu to see a shrine and a couple of Zen gardens. They are great with all their symbolism. Loads of parties of school kids going “Herro” i.e. “hello” and “England number 1”. All of it is good natured, and people have been so helpful: I had 3 old dears put me on the right train this morning!

Took ages to cash travellers cheques, because they are issued by Barclays via Sumitomo Bank. This meant that I had to find a Sumitomo Bank to cash them. It rained yesterday afternoon, so I went to a baseball match in the Fukuoka Dome, which was fun. I like baseball, and went to lots of games when I visited the USA. The Japanese cheerleaders are nuts, they keep up this constant barrage of noise and at 7th inning stretch they all let off balloons with whistles in – you should hear it! Also visited the museum of contemporary Asian art, some nice things and some so decidedly strange that they would not look amiss in the Tate Modern in London!

I’m surviving with the food ok, (Padmassana has been known to be a bit of a picky eater – the Beetle!) bought some hot tofu on sticks and stuck them in some bread rolls with my pea crisps for a picnic today, they even have little pods! KFC etc for major meals. Body clock not happy, keep waking between 2am-4am, then can’t get back to sleep till 6am.

Up early today, getting the train to Beppu. Took about 4 hours to get from Fukuoka to Beppu. Beppu is famous for the Hells. If anyone tells you Beppu is a “Hell” of a place it’s true! I checked in at Beppu Hotel and went to the tourist office to ask for directions. The man at the tourist office took me right to the door. I don’t think that would happen in London!

The Hells, as I have already said are Beppu’s claim to fame: a series of hot springs that are different colours due to the underlying rocks and minerals etc, one is bright red. A 2,000 yen ticket allows you visit all seven. Some are boiling mud pots, but most are steam. The last one is a sort of geyser that explodes every 20 minutes. It took me 4 hours to go round them including a bus ride between two sets.

Did a day trip from Beppu, about an hour and a half by train to visit some stone Buddhas, dating from the 10th century. You walk up a short hill and then see lines of Buddhas carved into the hill. These are reputed to be the best and oldest examples of stone Buddhas in Japan. Also visited Usuki from Beppu. The town itself is quite nice, has an old street of houses that are interesting. There was torrential rain, so the rent a brolly lady was doing a good trade! I am staying in a business type hotel that has free tea on every floor. I managed to sleep through the night for the first time since arriving. Despite the weather, another nice day, a country where you feel safe and the people are fantastic.

In Part 2, Padmassana tells us about Miyazaki and the clay statues and the journey to Kagoshima. If you would like to contact Padmassana to ask him about his time in Japan, he can be e-mailed on: Padmassana

Still in Argentina, after El Chalten, we journeyed on to another place called El Calafate where again we spent three nights and it was here that we saw our most spectacular glacier ever, the Perito Moreno glacier which is enormous, rising many metres in the air and looking like a massive landlocked iceberg but much more spectacular than any other iceberg.

We took a trip on a catamaran to go right up to the face of the glacier and the catamaran stayed an hour, just circling so that we saw the glacier from every angle and were able to photograph it ad infinitum. Some people used up an entire film or more just on this incredible natural phenomenon, as following the boat trip we were taken to a viewpoint on land where we could carry on gazing at the glacier from different levels. Many of our group refused to leave at the stated time as they were convinced they were going to see great chunks of ice break off. One chunk did fall off, which I didn’t see.

Then we moved on from El Calafate to the Torres El Paine National Park in Chile. Judith and I weren’t too impressed with the actual walks we went on there as they just did not match up to the 12 hour one we had done before and the glaciers we had seen then, as the weather was not good in the park, very misty and although we managed the walk (8 hours again but we did it in 7 hours), we considered it mediocre, and a lot of hard work climbing for very little reward. However, the camp site where we stayed, on Lake Pehoe was superb with the most magnificent view of the mountains with their snowcaps and this marvelous lake beneath them.

The actual facilities at the camp were atrocious, as the camp site was large and well used by an incredible number of people but there were only two loos for the women with one sink to wash at, and similar for the men, and only four communal showers in a different location which only produced out hot water from 8 to 11 in the morning and from 1900 to 2200 in the evening and very often we had to leave to go on our excursions before the showers were hot in the mornings and often arrived back too late to take advantage of the evening sessions!

The only good aspect of the camp was the tiny shop which was hardly bigger than a garden shed but sold the most amazing range of wines, beers, biscuits, snacks, cigarettes etc to suit just about every taste and did not rip us off as other places appeared to be doing. While there, we also went on a bus ride to a glacier (yes, this particular area both on the Argentine side and the Chile side is renowned for its glaciers) and although we could only see the end of the glacier at a distance we were able to walk around a beautiful lake with the most fantastically shaped and coloured blue icebergs which obviously had broken away from the glacier at some point. And this little place in the middle of nowhere had the most beautiful toilets we had seen in a long time as it had obviously just been built, was brand spanking new and had toilet paper as well as soap and hand driers and doors that actually locked and believe me that really is luxury in the public loos here!

And now I am in Ushaia, the city at the end of the world, on the little island at the base of South America called Tierra del Fuego and we discovered, Judith and I, with a visit to the little well run and very informative museum here that it was so called because when the first white men arrived they saw all these fires burning on the hills that the natives had lit, but whether this was to welcome or frighten away the intruders or just to keep the natives warm, is not known!!

It is extremely cold here all year round and 15 degrees is considered hot! The sun does shine but there is always a cold wind blowing and that gets worse in winter and spring apparently! We took a boat trip up the beagle channel yesterday and saw a colony of cormorants and a colony of sea lions and circled the lighthouse at the end of the world and yes, we took dozens of superfluous shots of everything in sight! But the boat was also a luxury as it was the first boat trip we had been on which actually served food on board and hot drinks and alcoholic drinks and for the men provided these two very attractive young ladies to serve it! And these young ladies would dress up in their navy blue topcoats with brass buttons to come out on deck and tell us all about the sights and scenes we were seeing, and informed the more ignorant of us that no, that wasn’t a colony of penguins we were viewing but cormorants! (They looked very similar with black backs and white chests and from a distance and even close to looked very penguin like).

Next month: en route to Buenos Aires and real penguins.

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