Africa - Part 1

By Jim Smith

 

Africa Part one

After a restful summer playing with the trains and walking up and down the Millenium Way the pace of life for an International President now picks up. This was the start of the epic travel period across 3 continents with 7 AGM’s during 7 weeks. Leaving on the 16th August via his own gate 41 Barry won’t return to the UK until October.

As Barry said this is the trip of a lifetime and it started in Botswana. Barry was joined by Rachel for the first part of the trip and after a 22 hour, 3 flight trip via Istanbul they arrived in Maun to join a group of 18 International travellers, unfortunately arriving without suitcases which we are pleased to say did catch up with them 24 hours later. Fortunately, the hand luggage had contained some antiperspirant!

A wonderful welcome awaited them from 41 clubbers and in traditional fashion they were taken to a local bar that night. The second night a wonderful BBQ at a local craft brewery. Do we detect a theme here? The AGM had 50 attending and was well organised and conducted formally by Chairman Fatzi. The challenge for the 41 club is to work hard to re-activate the 3 Round Tables. They are interested in affiliation to the International Association and hopefully an application will follow soon.

The next day they embarked on a 4 day safari. Botswana is known as the country of the Big 5 for a reason and the big animals were seen regularly in a wonderful trip. Even the elephants seem to be going full steam ahead!

After thanking and leaving their hosts they travelled to Zambia but with a first stop at the Victoria Falls on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Barry explained that the day they were at the falls was his and Rachel’s 10th Wedding anniversary. What a spectacular place to spend it.

Zambia 41 club is a well organised organisation with 6 clubs and 83 members who have a strong link with the other members of the Round Table family. Interestingly they have a 5 Club Liaison Officer at National level. Circle is particularly strong with over 130 members one of whom, Leisha, has just been elected as LCI Vice President. The AGM itself was well conducted by Chairman Moses before the hand-over to Fidelis who announced his theme as “Firing on all Cylinders” which he said was inspired by “Full Steam Ahead”. The evening concluded with  a colourful and energetic gala dinner and lots of dancing.

The post tour was to the Copper Belt and a visit to a chimpanzee orphanage centre before they were ready to move on to the next stage of the Africa tour, South Africa. That visit will be covered in the next blog 



– Africa Part 2

Does this man from Switzerland get everywhere? Hi to Noe, oh and the other bloke is Dr Livingstone!

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