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!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All Ready for the Year ahead

By Jim Smith
Image
Barry, our pony-tailed hero, is almost ready for the AGM and World Conference in Stratford-upon-Avon at the end of this week. National President Steve James and his conference committee have been working tirelessly (so Martin Green says) for the past 3 years to make this a memorable conference for the 450 plus visitors who are now descending on Stratford. 27 countries of 41 INTERNATIONAL together with members of Tangent and Agora are represented and, as I write, the pre-tour is now underway. Over the last couple of months Barry has been very busy travelling. He went to Estonia at the beginning of March for the joint meeting of the 41 INTERNATIONAL Board with RTI and this was followed by a visit to go ice-fishing in Finland, although I think he went to a meeting as well. On to the GB&I conference in Jersey  and then just back in time from Denmark and Italy, where he joined Napoli's party when they won the Italian Serie A, for the World Meeting. For those of you who don't kno
Read more

Ending 2023 on a High

By Jim Smith
Image
  Ending 2023 on a high. We left our pony-tailed hero having finished the half-year meeting in Cyprus and the halfway point of his year as 41 Club International President. His next visit was to Switzerland for their AGM in November.    First stop was a visit to stay with Swiss IRO, the irrepressible Noe Zanotta.   Noe of course provided wonderful company but also was happy to show   Barry around. A trip to one of Noe’s shops was followed by visits to   Montreux and a highlight visit to “Barryland”. Yes there really is one, in   Martigny, but unfortunately it is not dedicated to the Barry we know but to a   very worthwhile cause, that of the Great St. Bernard Dog breed. They then   moved on to the beautiful city of Lausanne for the AGM where many friends   met for the last International AGM of 2023.  The final trip of the year was to be in Merano for the renowned Chestnut Festival. Squeezed in between Switzerland and Merano Barry and Rachel joined five other past GB&I Presidents (in
Read more

The Half-Way Point

By Jim Smith
Image
  The Half-Way Point After spending 7 weeks touring around Africa, India and Romania Barry returned home, but only for a very short while. Quite clearly he has a phobia about sitting still for even the shortest of time. One could describe it as ants in the pants but even the ants need a rest some time! Barry reminded me that although I mentioned his short visit to Ukraine he hadn’t told me much about it. During his time in Romania he had the opportunity to visit Ukraine (pictured in Cernau). For obvious reasons it was a long way from the war zone but nevertheless an important visit to show support for that ravaged country and its people. Many of you will know that Barry has been part of the Christmas gift transportation for a number of years which goes to Ukraine and other surrounding countries. Barry has regularly travelled to Moldova as part of that. In fact, his two charities are both from that country. If you get an opportunity, please buy a badge or make a donation. Having a
Read more