wilderness LECTURES

SKYCAR - A Journey to Timbuktu in a Flying Car…

Neil Laughton - 12/02/2020 19:30

A boyhood ambition of one day flying a car became a possibility on an expedition to Everest. This is a remarkable story of fulfilling a wild dream, of building the world’s first road legal, bio-fuelled flying car and of undertaking a hazardous 10,000 km journey from London to Timbuktu, including crossing minefields, the Straits of Gibraltar and the intimidating Empty Quarter of the Sahara Desert.

Canoeing 3000 miles through the Canadian North.

John Harrison - 26/02/2020 19:30

After 7 long canoe journeys on Amazon tributaries, John has chosen somewhere cooler for his new exploits. The huge triangle of tundra to the west of Hudson Bay was called the Barren Lands by trappers and early explorers, and is the remotest area of the North American continent. A pristine wilderness populated with wolves, musk-oxen, wolverines and grizzly bears, and where herds of caribou numbering several hundred thousand animals migrate through the region. Very large trout and arctic char populate the rivers.

This beautifully illustrated lecture tells of four expeditions that John and his Czech companion have made to this region, canoeing the Thelon, Hanbury, Anderson and Kazan rivers. They also canoed 200 miles of the Beaufort sea.
They have learnt that even in the brief summer it’s wise not to get too relaxed. Large lakes remain frozen until late July, and temperatures can plummet from 25 degrees to near freezing in a matter of minutes. All the rivers have challenging rapids and canyons where to capsize in the near-freezing water could be fatal. Sudden gales can transform calm lakes into deadly hazards for canoeists, or keep the traveller cowering in his tent for days. Close encounters with grizzly bears happen frequently and John tells the story of travellers who have starved to death when trying to over-winter here.

And the biting bugs are worse than anywhere else on earth.

Where is the Limit?

Tim Emmett - 04/03/2020 19:30

Tim’s talk is a collection of stories from his quest to search out what is possible. Whether its pioneering Deep water soloing, winning an international competition, establishing the hardest ice climb in the world, flying his body, or pushing to breaking point as a 45 year old dad on the most popular 9a in Spain. Tim explores the mindset, training and dedication to truly find out - where is the limit?