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Due to technical hosting problems, we are going to run last month’s
travel quiz again for those who did not receive last month’s Globetrotter
e-newsletter.

Win a copy of a map and guide of Scotland, courtesy of Harper
Collins who make this excellent series of map/guides.

1.The Cairngorms includes some of Scotland’s highest peaks. What
stone are they made from?

2.Which Scottish city, on the northeast coast of Scotland is connected
with the oil industry?

3. What is the name of Scotland’s oldest University – and
the current place of learning of Prince William?

4.In which county is Balmoral Castle?

5.Which polar explorer had a ship called the R.R.S. Discovery?

YourName:

Your e-mail address:

The next Texas meeting will be completely open: please come and talk
about your favourite place, travels, anecdote or listen to others!

Congratulations to Christina, Chair of the Texas branch of Globetrotters
on her new job on the San Antonio Riverwalk. Because of this, please note
that Texas meetings will start one hour earlier, at 2pm and not 3pm.

Meetings are held at 2pm at the New Braunfels Public Library, 700
E. Common Street in New Braunfels, Texas. The meeting ends at 5 p.m. If
you would like to continue travel talk on a more informal basis, we plan
to adjourn to the Hoity-Toit, a local New Braunfels establishment. If
anybody would like to enquire about meetings or help Christina, please
contact her on: texas@globetrotters.co.uk

The last Ontario/Toronto GT meeting was held on Friday, May 24th; members
Ray & Inge Bates spoke on “Six Months in Asia Following 911”
and Dan Ramrose spoke about “Five Months' South American Adventure”
and Paul Webb gave a talk on “Eight Weeks in Ghana”.

We are planning our annual GT picnic this summer. Proposed dates include
one weekend in July or the beginning of August. The location could be
at Meaford (on Georgian Bay,) at Vera Blowers' place or Toronto Island.
To be advised when arranged, so stay tuned – we just hope the weather
improves a little bit.

Bruce Weber has just left for a month-long trip to Vietnam and the Philippines
and he is planning to tell us all about it in September.

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.

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.

Hello Globies!

June 1st is our next meeting. A timely and interesting topic; Afghanistan.
We will NOT have a July meeting due to all of our summer travel plans
and the July 4th holiday. Hope to see you June 1st.

See below for a glimpse into Jason's adventure in Afghanistan.

Travels in Afghanistan August 2000 and August 2001 by Jason Florio When
I journeyed to the Taliban controlled region of Afghanistan in August
2000 it was by default. I was on my way to Kashmir when I got a call to
join a journalist colleague who said, “This [Afghanistan] is where
it is happening”. In August 2001 my Afghan journey to the North eastern
region was fuelled by a need to complete a picture of a divided country.
The North eastern area of the country under the control of the Northern
Alliance (who opposed the Taliban,) was a Shangri-la compared to the Taliban
held region where I constantly felt a great sense of general and personal
paranoia (I was arrested by the Taliban Vice and Virtue police for taking
pictures of a football match, and then being accused of spying by their
military). I wanted to experience Afghan life without the confines of
the extreme Deoband form of Islam practiced by the Taliban.

My first attempt to cross into the Northern Alliance region (2001) from
Pakistan by horseback, disguised as an Afghan woman in a head to toe burqa
failed. After subsequent weeks of waiting. I finally made it in after
landing a flight on an Russian made Northern Alliance helicopter crossing
from Tajikistan into the Panjshir valley, the lair of the legendary “Lion
of the Panjshir”, Commander Massoud. This idyllic valley is the gateway
to the north, and who ever controls it controls the region. Being allowed
to roam freely and shoot photographs without the constant monitoring of
the Taliban was liberating. Working closely with the Afghan Ministry of
Foreign affairs, I was granted permission to photograph on the front line
at Bagram as well as deep in the Panjshir valley where multi-national
Taliban POW's were held. In addition, I also photographed girls'
schools (non-existent in Taliban territory) and fighters en route to the
front line.

While waiting for the Massoud interview I was promised by the Ministry
upon my arrival, I headed deep into the mountains with five Kalashnikov
carrying mujahideen fighters to find the Kuchi nomads. After twenty-two
years of fighting in the country, their life style had changed very little.
They were still camel-riding transients who showed they were virtually
immune to the effects of the war by crossing through the frontline without
hindrance from either side. The Kuchi we encountered greeted us with open
arms, until one of them thought I was trying to photograph his wife. We
were then asked politely to leave in the form of a group of young nomads
palming rocks at us. Before heading to the sandy wastelands of the northwest
and eventually onto our UN flight back to Islamabad, we finally were granted
audience with Massoud, “The Lion of the Panjshir” met us in
his fortified bunker office and gave us forty -five minutes to interview
and photograph him.

Within a week of returning to NYC on Sept the 5th, commander Massound
would be assassinated by Al Qaeda operatives posing as journalist, and
the attacks in the US would indelibly link the US and Afghanistan, finally
giving the Afghan “Silent Majority” a world voice.

New York meetings are held
at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington
St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday
of each month. Meetings start promptly at 4:00pm and end at 5:30pm. $10.00
for non-members, $8.00 for members.

Our first speaker was Mark Honigsbaum, whose talk was entitled
The Fever Trail, after his book of the same name, which documents the
discovery of the Cinchone tree (Cascarilla), which was found between 4,000
& 10,000 ft up in Ecuador. This tree provided the cure for malaria
and was brought back to Europe and then planted in other malarial regions
of the world such as India and Indonesia.

Mark’s slides however showed us a trip he made to Ecuador in April
this year. He travelled into the mountains with a guide following an old
treasure hunter’s trail for seven days and a distance of around
30 km’s. His scenic photo’s reflected this stark area that
the sun hardly seems ever to penetrate, the mountains seemed to always
be covered in cloud. As well as the scenery he showed us the revered grave
of an old treasure hunter, where today’s treasure hunters leave
an offering.

Our second speaker was Toby Green whose talk was entitled Travels
in West Africa to Senegal, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. Toby’s mission
had been to find the Marabout, who are shamens and charm makers who can
reputedly make you invisible with their ju-ju magic! Toby’s slides
were not for the squeamish as they depicted what goes into the making
of the charms, such as parts of black cats and used funeral shrouds.

Toby heard of cases where these charms were used to cure snakebites,
but this did not stop him coming down with malaria! His pictures showed
us the regions green valleys, volcanic cones and waterfalls and scenes
of village life including millet pounding and tea making. We saw a photo
of a “Magic stone” these stones miraculously come back to
the same place even if removed; this has resulted in dead straight roads
taking diversions around them.

Toby did finally meet a Marabout who for a price would make him invisible,
but he wouldn’t divulge whether he managed it, we’ll all have
to read his book, “Meeting the invisible man” to find out.

The next London meeting will be on the June 8th (the second Saturday
due to the golden jubilee bank holiday weekend). Speaking will be Peter
Eltringham — Travelling in the Maya World and Mary Russell
— Travelling around Syria, digressing to Baghdad.

London meetings are held at The Church of Scotland, Crown Court,
behind the Fortune Theatre in Covent Garden at 2.30pm the ussualy onfirst
Saturday of each month. There is no London meeting in August, but we will
be back on Saturday 1st September. For more information, you can contact
the Globetrotter Info line on +44 (0) 20 8674 6229, or visit the website:
www.globetrotters.co.uk

Meeting news from our branches around the world.