Hello all,

November’s edition see’s us gathering some global miles/kilometres as we catch up on our world of travel.

As you can see we have the return of Mac to enjoy, feedback on Doreen Tayler…the club’s travel award winning BBC guest speaker and highlight’s from London’s latest branch meeting. A good solid travelling starting to these darker, wetter months for us in the northern hemisphere J

South Africa & the USA are covered in no less detail both from quite an adventurous perspective…perhaps inspiring future trips for any of us? And all rounded off with a dash of travel news & web sites to give some breadth.

What else is happening across the wider travel world ?

• The Adventure Travel Show returns to London in January 2011, http://www.adventuretravellive.com/, where the club’s very own Dick Curtis will be organising a travel advice stand once more. Hopefully the volunteers can continue to help would be travellers make sense of all the possibilities the exhibitors highlight J
• Hot on the heels follows London & Birmingham’s Destinations Travel shows – http://www.destinationsshow.com/, where more mainstream travel options get their airing as well

That’s all for now, enjoy the read and keep sending me more of your stories, adventures and articles J

The Ant

theant@globetrotters.co.uk

Denise Heywood – A Cambodian Odyssey Part 2

Denise returned to the London branch and focused on one of her many Cambodian passions the role of dance & its cultural impact on the country’s history. Starting at Angkor Wat intricate temples and moving up through the ages to Pol Pot’s regime, Denise led us knowledgeably & enthusiastically through why she is so fascinated by her subject matter ! Now I’m not a dance person but I found myself listening intently to all that she had to present to us.

Read many more details about Denise’s various south east Asian adventures on http://www.deniseheywood.co.uk/

Paul Archer – The It’s on the Meter Expedition: Hard Hearted Hannah – the Meanest Gal in Town!

The second talk was such a contrast on a number of levels three university friends Paul, Johno & Leigh are driving their black cab Hannah from London to Sydney, in aid of raising much needed funds for the British Red Cross charity and having as many adventures as possible. At the moment the guys are learning to repair their cab, be safe in challenging locations and ensuring that Hannah can look after them for eight months ! As Paul says “The planned route travels through some of the most inhospitable and beautiful regions in the World covering four continents, thirty-nine countries, ten time zones and over 35,000 miles”.

See Paul & the guys on their equally lively web site for more details of the trip & progress – http://www.itsonthemeter.com/ and/or join them on their Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-on-the-Meter-World-Taxi-Challenge/204322509549?v=app_4949752878.

Details of the London branch’s future meetings are detailed at https://globetrotters.co.uk/meetings

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: https://globetrotters.co.uk/meetings/.

Hello to you all

Saturday 27th of November is our next meeting and again and we have two fabulous talks lined up for that day, the first one is by Don and Eve, who have spent time travelling through the outback in Australia. They will have lots of information on the “must see” list and what to avoid, places to stay and help for travel overland.

We will have our usual break where everyone can swap stories and relax over a nice cup of tea or coffee and biscuits.

Then after the break Madeleine is going to introduce us to the Great Wall of China and in addition going off the beaten track into Inner Mongolia.

We started a year ago with our Chester Branch of Globetrotters and we really have appreciated your support over the last 12 months, but it is essential to maintain attendance at the bi-monthly meetings to make Chester Globetrotters a viable society and therefore hope you will support us again in the coming year so that we can continue with our success and enjoy the benefits of a travel club locally.

The meeting is the Grosvenor Museum, Chester.

Tickets £2 including refreshments.

Contact Angela or Hanna for further information of this & future events at Chester via email at chesterbranch@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.

The Ontario branch 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.

Not only did Doreen enjoy her Globetrotters’ travel award part funded trip earlier this year, she also gained herself an interview on national UK radio J As part of BBC Radio 4’s Excess Baggage show, http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/excessbag, Doreen was interviewed by John McCarthy & for 15 minutes, where she recalled her adventures around India as she travelled a route much trodden by Rudyard Kipling’s iconic character Kim. If you listen to the Podcast you might even hear Doreen mention Globetrotters J

Other listeners & readers also enjoyed Doreen’s adventure and here are some of the most positive comments:-

Barbara at barbara.arndt@btinternet.com commented that After listening to Radio 4 this morning I checked out Globetrotter’s web site. Doreen Tayler’s story is really great. I can totally sympathise as I travelled on my own in India and her article brought back many memories. Well done, Doreen and many more happy travels

Angela at vic.angela@btinternet.com wrote of her enjoyment at the show & said…

Hi Doreen.

Read your article with great interest as we to discovered India in our prime and pleased to say we had a great experience despite all the misgivings of others who went before us.

I help run the Chester club and on 17th July we are privileged to hear about the travels of another couple who did very much the same as we did. Found a taxi driver we felt we could trust and paid him by the day to show us his home land. We got far more than we bargained for as he had a relative in almost every place we visited including one who owned one of the many reed boats in Kerala so yes we spent a night on one. What it cost us to hire him we certainly got back in cheap deals and wonderful experiences including meeting his family and being treated to a welcome and a banquet fit for a visiting king.

Perhaps we saw India as everyone should see it through the eyes of someone who is passionate about his homeland and not through a package deal which protects you so say from harm and influence..

Happy travels keep on trekking. Regards Angela Blundell. Chester Travel club.

“Wanted: The World’s Greatest Travelers To Compete in Around-the-World Travel Adventure Competition” SANTA MONICA, CA 2 November 2010

Looking for all would-be Magellan’s, promising Indiana Jones-types, adventurous Nellie Bly hopefuls, and Phileas Fogg contenders!

The annual around the world travel adventure competition known as The Global Scavenger Hunt, that will begin April 15th taking participating teams to at least ten countries over 23-days before crowning The World’s Greatest Travelers on May 7th, wants real travelers to compete in a real travel adventure event.

Novice wayfarers and jaded travel veterans always ask who the greatest travelers are Are they independent globetrotters, backpacking travel junkies, business travelers (aka road warriors), do travel writers make for great travelers, what about tour guides or travel agents, maybe travel bloggers have an inside edge these days, or even former reality TV contestants?

It just makes such great on-the-road travel conversation: Who are the best travelers? asks Event Director and author William D. Chalmers, But our event adds a new wrinkle to that simmering debate, because for the first time all those Amazing Race wannabes who claim that I could do that!’ finally have the opportunity to prove it in a real life travel adventure competition. The rubber meets the highway–literally in our event.

The Global Scavenger Hunt travel adventure is designed to test not only participants travel IQ, those well-honed travel skills that serious international competitors bring to the event; like overcoming language barriers, intercultural competence, logistic challenges, team dynamics, the heat of competition, and three week’s worth of real-world creative problem solving, while traveling to at least 10 countries performing cultural scavenges; but this real-life event is also about getting travelers to trust strangers in strange lands and about personally and actively participating in sight-doing scavenges, not just passive sight-seeing while traveling the globe.

The travel competition is now accepting applications at the GlobalScavengerHunt.com website for a limited number of 25-two person team slots available for the 2011 event that will at the end, crown The World’s Greatest Travelers. The reigning 2010 champions are excited about defending their title and crown in this life-changing event against other international travelers.

Life-changing because not only are there bragging rights and The World’s Greatest Travelers trophy at stake, but because Teams will be collectively traveling more than one million kilometers in travel-a-thon fashion to help raise funds towards a $1 million goal for ongoing global charitable efforts including micro-loans supporting entrepreneurial women, and the continued building of co-ed elementary schools in developing nations such as: Kenya, Niger, Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and Ecuador, among others.

The event is limited to 25-two person teams, and the $9,900 per person entry fee (about $400 a day) includes: all international airfare, first class hotels, 40% of meals, along with special event gear. All travelers will be interviewed for suitability! Single travelers are welcome to apply.

Apply online at www.GlobalScavengerHunt.com or by calling GreatEscape Adventures at 1.310.281.7809. (CST#2071053-40) or email Pamela at MediaRelations@GlobalScavengerHunt.com for more details.