Category: Main article

Hello all,

A new year edges out of the wintery days and we have a raft of articles, news & anecdotes to recount for you…

Hot off the press – introducing the Globetrotters Club new President John Pilkington 🙂

John arrived at the London branch December meeting, expecting to renew a number of friendships & acquaintances and deliver his booked talk on travelling through the ‘Axis of Evil’.

However John left London with more than he bargained for – club members Jeanie Copland & Jacqui Trotter also invited him to become our President…and according to Tony Annis who was in the audience he  “was enthusiastically endorsed by the whole audience”.

John’s involvement in the club has now come full circle, as he once helped make tea [during a meeting] for the club many years ago.

You will get to hear more from John over the coming months but like me I’m sure you’ll welcome him aboard & wish him luck !

Congratulations John 🙂

What else is happening across the wider travel world ?

· UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph is running an ongoing 2010 travel writing competition…seehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-writing-competition/ for more details

· 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 🙂

If you don’t fancy volunteering you can still benefit from the club’s friendship with the show’s organisers…members can get a discounted entry to the show itself…simply the club’s Members’ Area on the web site or contact me for details via email.

· 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

· I’ve also got news of another discount for club members – this time it’s courtesy of www.travelwritingworkshop.co.uk.  Organiser Peter Carty is offering “…[for] the workshop…in central London…there is a discount of £10 for your members…the next workshops are January 29th and February 26^th 2011″.

· And finally a bit further into the future & the London Olympics of 2012…the BBC reported that a cultural Olympiad will run alongside the games…http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11934812

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

The Ant

theant@globetrotters.co.uk

John Pilkington – A stroll through the axis of evil – Lebanon, Syria, Iraq & Iran

Photographer, documentary maker, traveller but above all brilliant lecturer on his travels around this wonderful world of ours and in doing so gave an excellent, entertaining slide show on his latest trip.  “A Stroll Through The Axis  Of Evil”  A play on George Bush senior’s words of a few years ago…John’s route took us through the Euphrates, the Caucasus and the Valley of the Assassins to finish on the Persian Gulf.

To read more about John & his travels visit his web site at http://www.pilk.net/

Dick Curtis – It all started in Kashmir ….

Former London meetings organiser, Wasps rugby union number one fan & all round personable chap Dick took us back to an earlier point in his life and explained what first set him on his travels and his subsequent adventures in Kashmir.  Many of the audience appreciated Dick’s standpoint and in listening to him, remembered their own experiences of independent travel…an excellent compliment to John’s engaging first half.

The London branch’s future meetings are detailed at London Meeting Programme.

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 each September.

For more information, contact the Globetrotters Info line on +44 (0) 20 7193 2586, or visit the web site:https://staging.globetrotters.co.uk/local-meetings.html.

The next Chester meeting is detailed at https://staging.globetrotters.co.uk/blog/15th-january-2011.html and features Matthew Proe living in Japan & a very  different charity cycle ride through Europe by Saul Soto.

The meeting is at The Grosvenor Museum, 25 – 27 Grosvener Street, Chester, CH1 2DD.

Tickets £2 including refreshments.

Contact Angela or Hanna for further information of this & future events at Chester via email atchesterbranch@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….seehttps://staging.globetrotters.co.uk/local-meetings/ontario-ca.html for further details.

If like me, your idea of a long distance cycle trip is a mountain bike ride around Richmond Park, then you might wonder whether Stephen Lord’s “Adventure Cycle-Touring Handbook” is for you. My review copy sat with me for six months, waiting for me to find a way in and to answer that question…

See TrailBlazer’s web site for more details of this updated edition including ordering information, reviews & excerpts to browse –

http://trailblazer-guides.com/book/adventure-cycle-touring-handbook.

And for more of an insight into Stephen Lord, trying reading this interview with him by the Travelling Two web site http://travellingtwo.com/5032.

I should have had no fears about tackling “Adventures Cycle-Touring”…its narrative is ‘full of get out there and do’. Consequently I felt myself drawn into this particular long distance world. Through both the Globetrotters club & the Royal Geographical Society I have met & talked to a number of long distance cyclists but I was never sure I understood their drive & reasoning. Now by sifting through this hardcore almanac of matters cycling I can shine some light on what motivates these ultra travellers…

On a general level “Adventure Cycle-Touring” had me reminiscing about my early days of planning my round the world trip – full of possibilities & differing uncertainties. It is absolutely crammed with help, facts & anecdotes…at times its detail could overwhelm nervous travel planners J There is an absolute bank of information within…what to look for in a bike, what you need to know about maintaining the bike & your fitness and what you should pack for your very own epic !

New travel names also help to widen the possible enjoyment & reach. Bill Wier writes engagingly on India & China…how can a reader not got charmed by his opening paragraph on the sub continent as it reads – “Exotic, enticing, though sometimes exasperating, India will entertain you like no other country – and cycling provides the best way to experience it!”. Or Tom Kevill-Davies as he adds a culinary taste to adventure cycling via his alter ego ” The Hungry Cyclist” from page 233 onwards. These guys show us the diversity of adventures to be had…

As with any review it is not easy to succinctly critique what you read and still convey the subject matter in such a tightly packed review. So as pointers for potential readers I thought on some of the following:-

What I Liked ?

· I enjoyed reading about cyclists such Peter Gostelow or Alastair Humphreys…people who have a wider, more well known public appeal and yet are keeping true to enjoying what set them off in the first place. These hardy souls get back into their saddles almost immediately their current trip has finishes, searching for new challenges that they can take on & then recount to attentive audiences.

· Inserts throughout each of the chapters – giving a people perspective across a whole range of experiences, whether about routes travelled or the mechanics of a trip. I particularly liked “Planning Schedule” on page 12, the “Trailer Alternative” on Page 54 and “You cannot be said in Sumatra” on Page 172 – they are neat encapsulations that give the reader the sense that they can also dip into this text, as well as work their way through it.

What needs a touch more polish ?

· Whilst there are continental route maps, there is a lack of useful, detailed maps to illustrate journeys described within each unfortunately. Admittedly readers might buy their own or use internet based sources, but having all this information in one space builds up the reading enjoyment and usefulness of the guidebook.

· The final chapters of the guidebook seem to suffer from ‘packing too much in syndrome’. For example the glossary of terms is just a single page and the Appendices are neither overview or detailed help.

· A couple of final nitpicks that if resolved could help deliver an even more authoritative handbook. One being…do females not travel as long distance cyclists and/or they less publicised ? And the best is not made of all of the colour photographs, as some are not placed in context of the chapters they refer to – it would make for a stronger use of the images if they all illustrated their relevant stories.

Martin Wright, a Globetrotter who unfortunately died whilst in the saddle, covered much of the globe in a style that this handbook reminds me of – lightly impacting his surroundings, not rushing and engaging all experiences with an open mind. Overall Trailblazers Guides are up there with the best of the guidebooks on the travel guides market – they are for independent travellers by independently travelling authors. They are not glossy or hotspot orientated…they get you travelling. Long may they be on the road…

Competition time – the first person who can tell me who first cycled round the world & when, then they can have my review copy of this handbook for free ? Send your answers to theant@globetrotters.co.uk and announce the winner in a following edition.

The Ant