Into Africa at the Wilderness Lectures

Heard of Wilderness Lectures? If you are interested in travel then you probably will have. This Bristol based organization has been running for 25 years now. The organisers are all adventurers themselves, and easily attract top names from the world of adventuring. Who was that guy who walked across the Amazon? Who is that woman who parachuted down the side of Everest? And Colonel John Blashford Snell? Ted Simon?

I was delighted when, earlier on in 2011, I was invited to present at Wilderness Lectures. I have to say that with this roll of honour I was really rather nervous – not my natural state!

We were lined up for the 14th of December and by the 7.30 kick off time, the 320 seat lecture theatre at Bristol University was well on the way to being full. The atmosphere was great. What a friendly bunch these people are. The people who attend the lectures are very experienced travelers themselves and, I was told in advance, a very passionate set of people. So they proved to be.

For once, Birgit managed to come with me to help set up and with book sales afterwards. She was also there to make sure I didn’t talk too much and overrun! I do get a bit carried away when I’m doing presentations. After all, it’s travel, and that means there’s always plenty to talk about!

The presentation was about riding through Africa and I started off with asking the audience how many of them had been to Africa. More than 80% of the audience put their hands up! At first I thought, that’s it. You are going to struggle now, but I think that the reality was that all the Africa experience in the room just helped the stories to flow.

The only down side of the evening was that we didn’t have much time to book sign. Why? We all got far too stuck into the question and answer session!

A great evening and if you live in the Bristol area I can highly recommend Wilderness Lectures as being a great way to spend an evening.