\n February 2005 London meeting\n <\/p>\n
\n Gerry Brennan<\/b> was our first speaker and gave us an insight
\n into life in Botswana<\/b>. Gerry went there to teach Art &
\n Design. She began with slides showing some of her pupil's work.
\n The children are expert at making sculptures from wire. Gerry
\n showed us some of Chobe National Park's 11,000 square
\n kilometres, home to elephants, lion and buffalo, some of
\n which get extremely close. Gerry also explained some of the local
\n superstitions, my favourite being her picture of a house surrounded
\n by green fields, however the area around the house had no grass, as
\n the locals believe that snakes live in the grass and they are
\n scared of them!\n <\/p>\n
\n Our second speakers were duo Shally and Richard Hunt<\/b>, whose
\n talk entitled “No ordinary walk<\/b>” was their 2300
\n mile, 40 week walk from Cape Wraith to Nice. Though they did the
\n first part in reverse walking from Dover to the north of Scotland
\n before hopping over the Channel and walking in the summer heat
\n through Belgium, Luxembourg and France. They crossed both the Jura
\n and Vosges Mountains, sleeping in refuges and camping. After 40
\n weeks they finally made it to Nice in the rain.\n <\/p>\n
\n 5th<\/sup> March 2005 London meeting\n <\/p>\n \n Our first speaker was Matthew Leeming<\/b> who gave Globies a \n In Balkh we saw the worlds oldest mosque dating from 950AD, the \n Our second speaker was long time Globie Phil Koniotes<\/b> whose \n By Padmassana\n <\/p>\n
\n fascinating talk on Afghanistan<\/b>. Matthew began in the city
\n of Herat, where he visited the beautiful Friday mosque with its
\n wonderful blue tiles. We saw the tile factory where the tiles are
\n still made by hand today. From Shibagan he showed us the solid gold
\n jewellery which had escaped melting down by the Taliban by being
\n hidden in a bank vault.\n <\/p>\n
\n mosque of the 9 domes, which is housed under a roof now to protect
\n it from the elements. And the views of the spectacular mountains in
\n the east of Afghanistan finished off a great talk.\n <\/p>\n
\n slides took us to Svalbard<\/b> and Greenland.<\/b> The
\n Svalbard part was actually the honeymoon of Phil and fellow Globie
\n Lindy, who met at Globetrotters, all together, aaaaaaaahhhhhh! Their
\n trip took them to see the wildlife of Svalbard where they saw
\n Arctic Fox and all kinds of bird life, as well as enjoying Russian
\n hospitality including BBQ's on board their ship. In Greenland
\n Phil showed us the old whaling stations which are dotted around.
\n Phil's fabulous icebergs photos showed the deep blue
\n colours of the oldest chunks of ice. He was also lucky enough to
\n spot a Polar bear and to see a hump back whale feeding frenzy.\n <\/p>\n