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Best beach in the world (2) has to be the Whitsundays off
Queensland. The pale white sand is so pure there that it squeaks
between your toes. To get there, you can take a boat from Cairns,
Airlie Beach or even Brisbane.

Meetings are held onthe third Friday of January, March, May, September and November.Usually at the Woodsworth Co-op, Penthouse, 133, Wilton Street indowntown Toronto at 8.00 p.m.

Meeting news from our branches around the world.

In London: Westminster Palace and Abbey and St Margaret's
Church, Tower of London, Maritime Greenwich.

Near London : Stonehenge and Avebury, Blenheim Palace, Bath,
Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's
church.

England : Durham Castle and Cathedral, Ironbridge Gorge
(Shropshire), Studley Royal Park, (Yorkshire) incl. the ruins of
Fountains Abbey, Hadrians Wall.

Wales : castles and town walls of King Edward in Gwynedd and
Blaenarvon Industrial landscape (near Cardiff).

Scotland : the island of St Kilda (Hebrides), Neolithic
Orkney.

Please contact Beetle@globetrotters.co.uk
for your suggested country itinerary

You need to allow yourself at least two weeks to do this whistle
stop tour! Arrive into Colombo and take a bus north east to Kandy a
100km so not too far. Take time out to see the Temple of the Tooth,
explore around the lake, visit the botanical gardens, the elephant
orphanage etc.

Then another bus to Nuwara Eliya, some 80km away, up in the hill
station region of Sri Lanka. Great hikes here, visit tea plantations
etc. Then by bus again to Dambulla, Visit the cave temple of Dambulla
there are 5 caves containing 150 images of the Buddha you are going
to be Budda'd out by the time you finish this!! Fantastic views
from the top of the temple.

Take a bus to nearby Sigiriya (19km north-east of Dambulla about
half an hour) where there is an amazing fortress built into and on
top of a mountain. It is quite steep and if you have problems with
heights, you may not be able to go all the way up the Beetle
couldn't. It started as a fortress, then turned into a monastery
sort of retreat. There are fabulous frescos of dancing women inside
the cave half way up.

From here, go back to Dambulla and continue north by bus to
Polonnaruwa. This takes about three hours. Visit the ruins of the
ancient civilisation and see the enormous seated Buddha. After
Polonnaruwa, take a bus up to Anuradhapura, (about four hours), the
site of another ancient city, and there is a sacred Bo tree.

You've done enough cultural stuff! So take the bus all the way
back down to Colombo – about five hours. Don't hang around in
Colombo – it's not a nice place, but if you have funds and want
to go to the Maldives, try the big hotels and see if they have any
special deals – they can be quite good value. From Colombo, take the
train to Galle (around three hours) and a taxi to Unawatuna and relax
on the beach before returning to Colombo by train.

If you are interested in surfing, stop off at Hikkaduwa, a real
hippy and surf place on the south west coast.

April's meeting was cancelled due to Passover and Easter.

Next, on May 5^th, we have Bob Fisher.
He is a contributing Editor to both Arthur Frommer's Budget
Travel Online and Magazine and is a former Editor for Fodors. Bob is
also an expert on Japan and Hong Kong.

He will be speaking on both those topics and will be talking about
getting work as a travel writer. He should know, he takes seminars on
travel writing!

We're looking forward to it!

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 at 3.30pm.

Jason Lewis, spoke about his human powered
journey to circumnavigate the globe, starting by pedalling across the
Atlantic from the UK to Florida, in a specially designed boat, then
across the USA, via roller blades and bicycle. TheX360 project is currently
in Hawaii after pedalling across the Pacific whilst Jason raises
sponsorship to continue the journey.

John Pilkington , radio presenter and broadcaster, spoke about his
millennium journey, long planned, along the “Royal Road of the
Incas”, which stretched 1,700 miles from Quito to Cuzco. John
had many experiences along the way and made some surprising
discoveries about both the Inca civilisation and modern Peru. (For
talks, books and expedition updates visithttp://www.pilk.net

Next on May 5 it's Marion Bull, Into print –
Images from Alaska to Zanzibar, Marion a freelance press photographer
and travel writer will show a range of her pictures and Gina
Corrigan, The Miau of South West China, Gina is a
photographer/traveller who runs specialist textile tours to
China.

Should be a good one!!

London 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.