Category: Events

Speaking this month we have:

1. Richard Wain-Hobson – Cornwall to Cape Town: My First Taste of Adventure

   In October 2012, three doctors left their jobs, friends, and local sea shanty group, and set out on an adventure that took them closer to ruin than they had ever been in their lives. Armed with a rusty old land rover and minimal experience, they packed their vehicle and started south. 9 months, 30 countries, 21,792 miles, and 19 punctures later, and they found themselves in Cape Town, elated, amazed that they had actually made it. Along the way they worked in a Ugandan hospital, helped with international research in Malawi, and supported a specialist surgical unit in Ethiopia. Their experiences have shaped them, and for one have led to many more adventures since.

   Dr Rich Wain-Hobson is an Accident & Emergency doctor at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. He is developing a specialist interest in Expedition and Tropical Medicine, and regularly accompanies expeditions as the doctor and photographer. Come and hear him tell the story of Cornwall to Cape Town: how three normal people took their first steps into the world of expedition and adventure.

   Find out more at www.cornwalltocapetown.com and www.wain-hobson.com

2. Z W Bates – Travelling by container ship with the poetry of Louis MacNeice

   Z W Bates has always enjoyed the company of words. Her interests include walking with a notebook and travelling with a camera. She lives in south London and is habituated to the Northern Line but in 2013 she decided to do something many of us dream about. She left her job in the corporate world to write a book. Or at least that was the plan.

   In fact she wrote two books: one book explored places associated with the Irish poet Louis MacNeice and one book took her readers behind the scenes, seeing the view from her keyboard and sharing her journey. In between being side-tracked by sparrows in her south London garden and England’s cricket team winning the Ashes in that distant memory of summer 2013, she went from the spring sunshine of Texas, past discovering ‘nurslings of wit’ and a memorable staircase, through Icelandic rainbows and rain-washed Ireland and into the quieter waters of research libraries.

   In her talk to Globetrotters we will travel with her across the north Atlantic on a containership, the ideal place to start writing a book (or two), away from the usual excuses of displacement activity. Or at least that was the plan.

   Find out more at http://www.ypdbooks.com/479_z-w-bates

• By tradition we follow this meeting with a New Year Party post-meeting – everyone is invited to bring food and drink and participate!
  (We have permission from the church for you to bring wine, but beer, cider and spirits are not allowed.) (R.O.A.R)

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.

Speaking this month we have:

1. Jason Lewis – To The Brink

   What can a terrifying crocodile attack, a year at sea in a tiny boat, contracting blood poisoning and malaria, and getting hit by a car and left for dead with two broken legs tell us about global sustainability and safeguarding a healthy planet for future generations?

   As the first person to circumnavigate the Earth using only human power – biking, hiking, and inline skating five continents, and kayaking, swimming, rowing, and pedalling a boat across the oceans – Jason shares tales from his extraordinary journey and the overarching question that kept him going for thirteen years, taking him to the brink for an answer.

   Find out more at Blog, Books, Twitter, and Facebook.

2. John Pilkington – A Balkan Adventure

   Our president John Pilkington spent five months last year exploring the Balkan mountains. “I’d been to Yugoslavia briefly in the 1970s,” he says. “Since then they’ve abandoned communism, suffered brutal conflicts and taken small steps towards coming together with the rest of Europe.

   In Bosnia and Kosovo I found people still traumatised, but many were working hard to create a peaceful future.” John also met people in the remotest villages of Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria.

   His stunning photos and inspiring commentary will make this a talk not to be missed.

   Find out more at http://www.pilk.net

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.

This month we have:

1. AGM : The clubs AGM starts at 1:00pm (card carrying members only), then at 2.30 the meeting begins

Speaking this month we have:

1. Jeanie Copland – Trans-Siberian & beyond
   September Globies, 2013 – after a couple of pints, rashly stated that I would leave on 1st Nov. 2013 for my trans-Siberian journey. 1st November I Easyjetted to Moscow and the adventure began. A six day train journey, Moscow to Beijing, via Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) taken over 4/5 weeks, 7,200 kms and travelling (in part) in a dormitory on wheels — Later I travelled south through China, over the border to Vietnam, finally flying Ho Chi Min to Australia, but that is another talk.
2. Rosemary J Brown – Around the World with Nellie Bly

   Flash back 125 years ago: Victoria was on the throne, the Eiffel Tower was inaugurated and feisty journalist Nellie boarded a steamship in New York Harbour and sailed into history. Seventy-two days and 28,000 miles later, she broke the record for the fastest trip around the world and became a global celebrity.This spirited 25-year-old American set out to beat the travel time of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne’s *Around the World in Eighty Days*. Breaking free from prejudices that kept women ‘in their place,’ she made history her story.

   As freelance journalist, member of the Globetrotters Club and devoted Nellie Bly fan, Rosemary has just returned from tracing Nellie’s voyage to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the start of her world race on 14 November 1889 and her triumphant return to New York on 25 January 1890.

   Rosemary’s journey — registered with the Royal Geographical Society and endorsed by Women in Journalism — covered 22,500 miles, seven countries and three continents. Many of the ocean liner routes Nellie travelled no longer exist or are now closed by political tensions, so I opted to fly. More information can be found on my blog Nellie Bly in the Sky

3. Adrian Bridge – In the footsteps of Franz Ferdinand: has had to postpone his talk.

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting about 40 minutes.

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.

Speaking this month we have:

1. Rob Self-Pierson – Twinned with…. An adventure through the twin towns of Europe

   In 2012, I hopped in my trusty car KT with my girlfriend RG and drove 10,000 miles around 45 twin towns on the European continent – towns that friends, family and strangers had asked us to visit.

   Why? To discover what happens in these twins. And find out what we could about this cultural phenomenon, from the people who keep it going.

   House party invitations with dreadlocked strangers in Ghent, 6am sunrises in Clermont l’Herault, flat tyres in Italy, hairpin bends in the Pyrenees, drunken arguments in Praha, new nieces, Inquisitions, Austrian earthquakes and lots more. All in just three mad months.

   Welcome to a town twinning experience like no other.

   Find out more about Rob’s website wearetwinnedwith.com and follow him on twitter @robselfpierson

2. Nigel Watt MBE, Hannah Smith, Olivia Ng – three continents, 9000 miles, one idea.

   How much adventure can you pack into 18 months working in the coldest, and one of the most polluted city on this planet…? It turns out, a fair bit. From falling through the ice at minus 30 degrees C, diving for the first time of my life, in Siberia, in relatively balmy temperature of minus 7 degrees, to organising a charity ball celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee in, er, Mongolia.

   “All of these started with one idea – a two weeks volunteering workcamp in Ulaanbaatar. As it turns out… it changed the way I look at the world forever”. Olivia

   This talk brings together the stories of three travellers: Nigel, who first took part in workcamps in the 1950s, dedicated his life time to the beautiful continent, joining the International Volunteering Service, founding workcamp associations in Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia. Nigel later worked for Christian Aid in Burundi and was awarded an MBE for his work. He is the chairperson of Volunteer Action for Peace (VAP).

   Hannah volunteered in Germany – in an Island where the main form of access is twice a day by car, when the tide is low. (If it so turns out that you are still there when the water is back… yeap there are emergency poles that you can climb up and wait for rescue).

   How much difference can one individual make…? We look forward to sharing our stories with you and would love to hear your experience and your view on how we can do more.

London branch meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court, behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden the first Saturday of each month, unless there is a UK public holiday that weekend.

Admission costs, £3 for Members and £6.00 Non-members. You do not need to be a member to attend, and we do not sell advanced tickets, please just come on the day, the doors open at 2:15pm and the program starts around 2:30pm with each talk lasting approximately 40 minutes.

There is no London meeting in August, but we start afresh each September.

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the Globetrotters London meetings and to be sent email reminders prior to the meeting, please sign up here.