Category: online-meeting

Speaking on Saturday, February 7, 2026, we have :

1st: Laura Coffey – Enchanted Islands.

Join Laura for on a mythical journey through the real world. Together we will travel through tiny archipelagos and explore mystical Mediterranean islands thought to be the setting of Odysseus’s epic journey.

We will encounter sea monsters and sex goddesses, fragile masculinity, toxic gods, polyamory and plenty of narcissism as we look again at this old text with fresh eyes. Together, we will explore what myths are, the importance of the stories we tell ourselves, and the magical task of mapping imaginary worlds. 

Laura Coffey is not a classics scholar, she cannot read Ancient Greek, often finds herself utterly lost, and so is an unlikely author of a book on mapping The Odyssey.

Stephen Fry said it’s “a magical and hugely captivating journey – a simply marvellous read, hugely recommended”. 

Laura’s book Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey, has also been selected by Wanderlust and Citizen Femme as a top travel book for 2024, and by Blackwells as recommended summer reading. It has been long listed for the Anglo Hellenic League Runciman Award

Laura is happy to sign copies after the talk.

You can find out more about the book: Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey

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2nd: Nick Fielding – Crossing from Almaty to the Aral Sea basin.

In May 2025 Nick Fielding took part in an expedition with a group of Kazakhs for more than 2000 miles across southern Kazakhstan, from Almaty to the Aral Sea basin in the west of the country.

For at least the last 50 years the Aral has been drying out as water has been extracted from its two feeder rivers, the Syr Darya and Amu Darya, for agriculture. Fielding travelled to the north of the sea, where there are signs that at least part of the Aral Sea is being regenerated, due to the construction of a new dam.

Further south, there is only sand and scrub where there was once an inland sea. He visited the former island nature reserve of Barsa Kelemes, which is now surrounded by an ocean of sand.

He was also able to visit some of the many impressive archaeological sites along the route.

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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For in person tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking on Saturday, June 6, 2026, we have :

1st: Helen Spencer – a Last Degree Expedition to The South Pole

2nd: Speaker to be confirmed

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, July 4, 2026, we have :

1st: Mary Fogarty – From mountains and men to Speedos and souks.

2nd: Speaker to be confirmed

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, September 5, 2026, we have :

1st: Speaker to be confirmed

2nd: Speaker to be confirmed

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, October 3, 2026, we have :

1st: Speaker to be confirmed

2nd: Speaker to be confirmed

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, November 7, 2026, we have :

1st: Speaker to be confirmed

2nd: Speaker to be confirmed

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, December 5, 2026, we have :

1st: Tiffany Coates – Tiffany’s Travels – How It All Started

he story of how Tiffany Coates went from being a non-rider to setting off heading to India two-up on a BMW just two months later. A journey that was to lead to two and a half years of motorbike adventures before Tiffany eventually made it home having crossed Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.

Since that initial journey, Tiffany has gone on to become the world’s foremost female motorbike adventurer, covering over 300,000 miles. She was the first motorcyclist to have crossed Asia on all three classic routes. As well as trips to Timbuktu, Borneo, Tibet, Madagascar and Outer Mongolia. 

When not out on the road Tiffany lives on the cliffs above Lands End and is an international tour guide guide, leading groups across Asia, Africa and Latin America

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2nd: Speaker to be confirmed

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, January 3, 2026, we have :

Around the world in eighty minutes.

8-10 presentations of 10 slides

The format is talks by eight to ten speakers for ten minutes giving a fast-paced journey around the Globe.

There are four talks before the break and four to five talks after the break, with each speaker having around 10 minutes to speak. 

The running order is:

• 1 Sandra Reekie – Biggest Recycling Centre in the World in Mumbai
• 2 Doreen Tayler – Vienna and Slovakia
• 3 Mike Smith – ‘Uninhabited Islands’ in the Outer Hebrides
• 4 Elizabeth Mioduchowski – 3rd Year of University in Spain
• Tea Break
• 5 Mary Fogarty – Pilgrimage and Purgatory in Međugorje
• 6 Peter Payne – Yangshuo, Southern China, ‘the Most Beautiful Place in the World’.
• 7 Simon Finnamore – Vietnam Cambodia & Thailand
• 8 Sheila Robinson – Portugal – A Whistlestop Tour

We still have a few spots open, if you would like to give a talk, please sign up here.

https://forms.gle/YmP6AheWexDGZqeWA

or email london@globetrotters.co.uk

Traditionally, we follow this meeting with a New Year’s Party post-meeting.

Everyone is invited to bring food, wine¹, or soft drinks (we are not allowed beer or spirits) and participate!

We have now received permission for wine at the post-meeting New Year’s party, everyone is invited to bring food and wine or soft drinks.

(We will not have access to the kitchen to heat food, so please bring food that is ready to eat.)

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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For in person Tickets at the hall:

For Zoom online tickets:

Speaking on Saturday, May 9, 2026, we have:

1st: Lindsay Castro – More Than a Summit – How travel and trekking opened the door to reinvention and connection

What happens when life’s next chapter begins just as society expects you to slow down? In her late fifties, facing an empty nest, shifting identity and physical change, one woman chooses to trek in the high mountains of Kenya, Nepal, India and Ecuador.

What begins as a personal challenge becomes a journey of reinvention and purpose. Each step reflects transformation through uncertainty and growth, proving identity evolves rather than diminishes with age.

Along the trail, encounters with local communities and women’s initiatives deepen perspective, revealing how adventure can expand empathy, connection and meaning in later life.

Find out more at

• Webpage – www.tierratrekking.com
• Instagram:  @tierra_trekking
  

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2nd: Alan Palmer – Bhutan From Head to Tail – Journeying Along the Back of the Thunder Dragon.

In the past two years, Alan has travelled the length of the country, from the infrequently visited homelands of the semi-nomadic Merak peoples in the furthest east, crossing the land’s higher, cloud-covered central mountains, and arriving at the more recognisable sights of Bhutan’s classic west, all the while uncovering the country’s intricately interwoven history, religion and mythology.

Not content with this, however, he next trekked into the country’s spectacular north-west to attend the Royal Highland Festival, where, to his continuing embarrassment, he unexpectedly kept bumping into the king and queen.

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.

Speaking on Saturday, April 11, 2026, we have :

1st: Steve Foreman – Maasai Memories

Steve Foreman lived in East Africa for 30 years, spending much of that time working in the safari tourism sector.

He became involved with the Maasai people in Tanzania while managing a luxury tented camp perched on top of the Rift Valley Escarpment overlooking Lake Manyara National Park. On a regular weekly supplies trip to Arusha, he gave a young Maasai woman and baby a lift to the hospital there.

Taking her back the next day to the manyatta where she lived led to Steve growing close with the Maasai community there, learning about their culture, customs, and traditional way of life. He took part in several activities with the warriors in the bush and the elders eventually granted him honorary moran status, which permitted him to have a Maasai girlfriend.

He chose Marita, with the elders’ agreement, and stayed overnight with her on several occasions. Marita, like many adult Maasai women, was circumcised. Steve briefly addresses female genital mutilation (FGM) – a practice he firmly believes should be eradicated – and recounts a funny but slightly alarming incident that occurred when the warriors discovered that he himself was not circumcised.

Steve will also speak about his broader experiences in the manyatta – sitting around the fire at night, drinking fresh milk and cow’s blood, and one occasion when he became so ill that he had to be driven for treatment all the way to Nairobi, Kenya.

When his son Zak came to visit, Steve – and two Maasai warrior friends – also climbed Ol Doinyo Lengai, Tanzania’s only active volcano, situated out on the Maasai Steppe. Ol Doinyo Lengai means ‘Mountain of God’ in the Maasai language and is sacred to them. Although his warrior friends had heard of the mountain, they had never seen it, and Steve describes some of the delightful incongruities of the experience—such as the warriors later staying in his house, watching television, and sleeping on the floor with their swords beside them.

Steven James Foreman is an HM Forces Veteran (Army). In Africa for over 30 years, he worked as a safari guide, camp manager, and mountain and expedition leader throughout East Africa and Botswana. Now retired, he lives back in the UK with his teenage daughter.

Steve is an elected Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS). He has written articles for many magazines including BBC Wildlife, Soldier, SCUBA, African Travel Review magazine, Land Rover World, The Dar Guide (Tanzania), and the Daily Mail.

His website is: https://bushleader.com/

Steve’s book Nomads and Volcanoes: The Shahsevan and the Maasai – and Their Sacred Mountains is a lively and often humorous memoir in which he explores the traditions and daily life of these two nomadic peoples. Through vivid storytelling, he reveals striking parallels between the groups, showing that time and geography have done little to diminish their shared ways of living. After the talk, Steve will be happy to sign copies of his book.

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2nd: DAMIEN GABET – Details to be announced.

Details to be announced.

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Date & Time: [meetingdate]

Doors open at 14:15 in London and on Zoom with the talks starting around 14:45 (London see Event Time Announcer for local times), please arrive before 14:45 and switch your phone to “do not disturb” or silent.

We would ask that anyone with respiratory symptoms participate via Zoom.

Admission costs:

• £7 for members. (Members can access a ticket code below or from the members area.)
• £10 for non-members. (save £3 if you join at this meeting)
• a recording to watch later will be available to members and non-member ticket holders.

Please sign up for meeting updates to get notifications for future meetings.

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Tickets go on sale just before the meetings.