wilderness LECTURES

A winter series of public lectures in Bristol the theme of which is world-wide adventure.

Our lecturers are well known explorers, mountaineers, travel writers, TV personalities, adventure sports personalities or anyone who has an epic story to tell and can enthral our audience with a rattling good yarn. The talks are invariably illustrated with slides and/or film.

Featured Speaker

Charlie Walker

Charlie is a full-time adventurer, writer, and speaker. His largest journey began at just twenty-two when he set out on a 4-year, 43,000-mile solo bicycle journey through 60 countries. During that adventure he survived a Tibetan winter, a Saharan summer, several arrests, suspicion of espionage, malaria, and a beating from an Ethiopian village mob. Other expeditions have included a 1,000-mile solo trek across the Gobi desert, a 600-mile horse trek across the Mongolian steppe, a crossing of Papua New Guinea, and a dugout canoe descent of the Lulua - a little known Congo tributary abounding with crocodiles, hippos, rapids and waterfalls.

Please check our Whats On to see this season's line-up.

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Coming Up Next...

Following The Line: a traverse of the Europe/Asia border

Charlie Walker - 20/11/2019 19:30

In February 2017, Charlie Walker began an eight-month, 9,000km ski, canoe and bicycle journey spanning the length of the perceived border between Europe and Asia, from the midwinter snowfields of the Russian arctic to the Bosporus in Istanbul.

‘Following the Line’ was an exploration into what it means to be Asian or European, what divides or unites the peoples on either side of the line, and the diversity of landscape, environment, religion and culture along the border that has traditionally demarcated East and West.

During this expedition, Charlie and Callie (his American expedition partner, a virtual stranger upon departure) experienced temperatures as low as -40˚C, several arrests, and the challenges of survival in some of the world’s remotest and most inhospitable landscapes.

11/11/19 This lecture has almost sold out online although there are tickets remaining in Stanfords Bristol shop

Chris Moon ‘The Speaker Who Walks the Talk’

Chris Moon - 04/12/2019 19:30

In 1995 Chris Moon was blown up whilst working for a charity clearing landmines and lost his lower right arm and leg. He survived against all odds and within a year of leaving hospital did the London Marathon and became the first amputee to complete the Marathon De Sables. He’s run many of the world's toughest ultra races, including the Badwater Death Valley 135-mile race in the hottest place on earth at the hottest time of year. Chris shares his extreme experiences in a humorous and uplifting way to challenge the concept of limitation.

Underwater Adventures: Beneath the Frozen Surface

Andy Torbet - 18/12/2019 19:30

Andy had been involved in underwater exploration and adventures around the world for over 20 years. Narrowing down which ones to cover in his talk was made easier by the date. So this Festive period he’ll be covering some of his more wintery aquatic exploits. His dives into frigid waters have included exploring underwater in ice-caves at the bottoom of Blue Lakes, diving under icebergs in the Arctic Ocean, filming in the submerged passageways and chambers of abandoned mines in Finland and freediving under Alaskan lake ice or flooded crevasses in Greenland... and even the extremes of solo cave-diving in Scotland…in February. With in-water temperatures touching on -2 and air temperatures hitting -28 expect the talk to be cold, Christmassy and full of blue adventures.