Free tickets for Ed Stafford's 'Walking the Amazon' talk in Wiltshire, UK

Royal Geographical Society Lecture - Ed Stafford - Walking the Amazon - 19th May 2011, 2.30pm at Stonar School, Nr. Melksham, Wiltshire.

At 4,000 miles the Amazon is the world?s second longest river. Ed Stafford had to trek an extra 2,000 mountain and jungle miles to complete the journey from its source to the sea. He began the walk on April 2, 2008, completing the journey 860 days later. Living off pirhana and rice, he and his occasional partners made their way through Peru, Colombia and Brazil. Sir Ranulph Fiennes describes it as 'truly extraordinary' in the top league of expeditions past and present. Ed has kindly agreed to give this presentation to help inspire those in the educational space and to demonstrate to them the potential excitement of geography as a subject to study and to illustrate where Geography might take them in the future.

There are a limited number of tickets available for others who are interested to hear Ed's amazing story. Due to the support of RGS and the hospitality of Stonar School, tickets are free. If you would like to attend please contact Sarah Rawlings at aspallsr@aol.com to request a ticket and any further details.

Beginner's Map Reading Workshops - Free!

Cotswold Outdoor's latest initiative is to run free map reading workshops in stores between now and June. Aimed at the map reading novice, these workshops take you through understanding what a map is telling you through map symbols, contour lines and topography.

You'll also cover how to effectively take grid references - 4 figure, 6-figure and the national grid system - and how to take a compass bearing. The following locations will host the workshops: 10 May - London Knightsbridge 12 May - Chester 19 May - Newcastle 25 May - London Holborn 2 June - Tunbridge Wells 7 June - Cambridge 9 June - Guildford 22 June - Exeter Contact you nearest store directly to book a place. It's also worth remembering that all participants are being offered 25% off Ordinance Survey Maps bought on the day!

So if navigation is something you'd like to know more about, this is a great place to start. Check out the website below.

community.cotswoldoutdoor.com

Fieldskills Course Offer

Dom Hall of Fieldskills is coordinating the brand new Kendal Explorers group. It'd be great to see loads of people for our first event in Kendal on the 4th May and to celebrate, Fieldskills is happy to offer at 10% discount on any of their upcoming courses to Explorers Connect Members. There are a range of Outdoor First Aid, Tropical Forest Skills, Polar, Desert courses and Expedition Leadership Courses. Many are run in Kendal, more down in Oxford and around the country. You can see full details on Fieldskills website. Just quote Explorers Connect when booking.

Where should I learn to skydive in UK?

Howdy folks, 

I haven't caught up with any of you for some time now. I have been based in NZ for the past 12 months and it is just that little bit too far to pop back for drinks every month! I have received a couple of emails of late from Bristol Explorers members asking for advise on where they can learn to throw themselves out of a perfectly good aeroplane in the SW. So I thought I would share this: Best bet for skydiving in the SW would be http://www.skydiveukltd.com/aff.html Great place to do a tandem and then look at their AFF (Accelerated FreeFall) course. I have jumped here a few times and they are a good safe operation with good planes.

Another option for AFF, hop on a plane to Spain, better weather, super fast planes and guaranteed to get jumps in. I have jumped here heaps and its a great place! http://www.skydiveempuriabrava.com/noticia-news-22-2-AFF_SKYDIVING_COURSES_IN_SPAIN___250_EUROS_DISCOUNT.html My friend is running an AFF course in Spain at the above dropzone in June, this will be a great chance to jump with a really good instructor throughout the course and do some solo progression jumps afterwards. Courses running from 01 June-15 July. 

You could get your course done in 4/5 days. His name is Geoff Mundy. Email: mundyg@hotmail.com (Tell him I put you onto him) One more dropzone not too far from Bristol is http://www.netheravon.com/ have never jumped there but heard it is good place to jump. It is an army DZ but civilians jumps here also. If you have anymore questions, get in touch. Here's how my skydiving journey began... [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2LbE8-FFGs[/youtube]

I am looking forward to catching up at the April drinks, see you then.

Holly

Sarah Outen "London2London Via The World"

On 1st April 2011 British adventurer, Sarah Outen, embarked on her ground-breaking two and a half year expedition, London2London: Via the World, which sees her use only human power to complete a loop of the planet.Sarahs dangerous journey is unique and will see her cycle, row and kayak over 20,000 miles. She will be breaking records, blazing trails and sharing her adventure as she goes. Welcome to her journey!November 2011 update:Sarah Outen arrived in Tokyo this week, successfully completing the first half of her round the world expedition. Sarah is attempting to make a completely human-powered circumnavigation of the planet. She set out from London on 1st April and has paddled and cycled through 12 countries to reach Japan. In the first leg of her journey she has covered 18,700 miles in 7.5months. Sarah will enjoy some rest in Japan before taking on the rest of her challenge. In 2012 she'll start a 4300 mile solo crossing of the Pacific - from Japan to Canada in a rowing boat. Then she'll cycle from Vancouver to New York ...and then she'll row the North Atlantic! Congratulations to Sarah for getting half way. We look forward to hearing more in 2012