• Liam D’Arcy-Brown – The Grand Canal of China

  Liam D’Arcy-Brown was born in deepest southeast London in 1970 but raised in Yorkshire. Sent one day into a school storeroom he discovered a discarded Mandarin primer and so his interest in China began, helped on its way by such diverse influences as oriental cookery and Roland Rat’s Hong Kong summer special for TV-am. After reading Chinese at university he went on to study China’s ancient history in Shanghai on a British Council scholarship. He worked as a tour escort for Voyages Jules Verne before turning to travel writing. His first book, Green Dragon, Sombre Warrior, took him from lengthy researches in the British Library and the Bodleian and onward to a great 10,000-mile circuit of China’s four most far-flung compass points. His 1,115-mile journey from Hangzhou to Beijing in 2006 made him the first Westerner in more than two centuries to trace the length of China’s Grand Canal, the world’s longest and oldest man-made waterway, an adventure he captured in his second book, The Emperor’s River. For more information see http://liamdarcybrownschina.blogspot.com

• Ann McCarthy – Uganda

  Ann has travelled to many different parts of the world but since first visiting Uganda has returned many times and has helped to fund the building and development of Uganda Lodge, Ruhanga Resource centre and Ruhanga Nursery and Primary School

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.

At 1.30ppm the clubs AGM (members only)

Then at 2.30 the meeting begins

• Denise Heywood ~ A Cambodian Odyssey Part 2

  Read many more details about Denise’s various south east Asian adventures on http://www.deniseheywood.co.uk/

• Paul Archer ~ The It’s on the Meter Expedition: Heard Hearted Hannah- the Meanest Gal in Town!

  A brief overview of the expedition to break the world record for the longest ever taxi journey by driving a classic Black Cab from London to Sydney. Paul Archer will run through the origins of the trip, the route, the team, the plan, the cause and the preparations of the expedition before it depart early 2011

  See Paul & the guys on their equally lively web site for more details of the trip & progress – http://www.itsonthemeter.com/ and/or join them on their Facebook group – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-on-the-Meter-World-Taxi-Challenge/204322509549?v=app_4949752878.

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• James Littlewood & Tracey Dornan – Boy girl bike road

  She dreamt of seeing the world, but couldn’t justify the carbon. He had always dreamed of the challenge of cycling to Hong Kong. With no previous experience of cycle touring, lycra or life together this is the adventure of one couple and their view from the saddle on an attempt to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle and boat.  A cycle ride of 18,000 miles through 23 countries.

• Lord Ian Strathcarron – Byron and the Grand Tour

  Two hundred years ago, between 1809-11, Lord Byron completed his Grand Tour of the Mediterranean. He was 21 when he left London. After catching a packet from Falmouth to Lisbon, his entourage rode down to Sevilla and Cadiz. He then sailed from Gibraltar to Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Greece, Albania, back to Greece then Turkey, Malta again and then with a heavy heart home to England. His voyage was exotic and poetic, erotic and eccentric.

  On June 14th 2008 British sailors Ian and Gillian Strathcarron boarded their yacht ‘Vasco da Gama’ in Hampshire and sailed off to recreate Lord Byron’s Grand Tour. Their own voyage was propitious and perilous, mysterious and mischievous – but seldom abstemious.

  The presentation is taken from the resulting book ‘Joy Unconfined! Lord Byron’s Grand Tour’

John Pilkington

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

Dick Curtis

“It all started in Kashmir ….”

A year away from work and travelling by “whim” was a life-enriching revelation.

Four 20 minutes Mini-talks and our New Year Party

Our January meeting gives four speakers to present 20 minute talks, an opportunity to introduce subjects within a tighter format. We hope that talks may include topics that couldn’t be sustained over a normal 40 minute talk or offer a launch for new speakers.

Speaking this month we have:

1. Neil Harris – Myoko Festival: Apatani New Year, northeast India
2. Sohail Azhar – Pakistan
3. Richard Timmis – Naukluft Hiking Trail, Namibia
4. Liz Cooper – Wildlife of the Okavango Delta

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).

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.