A great crowd of over 100 people turned out in London yesterday to hear me give a slideshow and talk on my travels in Central Asia in the footsteps of the Atkinsons. The talk was hosted by the Globetrotters Club, which has existed for more than 70 years and specialises in those who are interested in travel that is off the beaten track.
Thanks to everyone who came to what was a very enjoyable event.
Siberian Steppes 
Well done everyone, we need to honour and protect these places, what a pity I missed it partly due to travel chaos at home! Is there a recording?
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Ah.. I did not know about the talk. I would have definitely attended. I am actually in London for two days.
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As a member of Globetrotters, I greatly enjoyed Nick’s talk, and seeing his photos of him and others on horseback. The horses reminded me of the two feet long, 18 inches high plaster model of a Mongolian horse that my wife bought in London some years ago. It still stands on the floor in my lounge. The Mongolian head and neck are very distinctive.
Crossing mountain rivers and trekking along winding hillside paths took me back to the 1970s when I was using horses and mules in the mountains of Lesotho; first on the survey for the Katse Dam; then on a Kimberlite Exploration Project. On horseback at 8 to 10,000 feet – sometimes in bad weather – was quite an experience.
Is there an email address for Nick Fielding?
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Hi Eric. Nicholas.fièlding@btinternet.com
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Hi Eric,
On horseback at 8-10,000 ft is indeed quite an experience. I imagine that Lesotho back in the 1970s must have been a remarkable place. And I agree with you on the head and neck of Mongolian horses, which are incredibly strong.
Nick
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Thanks Nick, for coming back to me.
I went out to Lesotho in 1969, to manage the Crocodile Inn at Butha Buthe, but fell out with the owners. A regular guest was one of the engineers on the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme. We became friends, and after leaving the hotel I joined the scheme’s survey. The Katse Dam is part of the result. When the survey work came to an end, I moved to the Mines Department on a project to find new occurrences of kimberlite – there were already two company-run diamond mines in the country, and the diggings at Kao.
With time on my hands in the evenings – living in the work caravan I towed behind a Land Rover to the survey sites – I wrote the Lesotho-set action story I called Black Dragon, Yellow Dragon. Much of the background is based on my work in the mountains. It’s available on Amazon Kindle.
On leaving Lesotho in 1974, I backpacked up through Africa, as far as Dakar. From there I worked helping the cook on an ore carrier going to Grimsby. That illustrated story – also on Kindle – is called African Odyssey.
Other travels took me to Australasia, north Africa, the Americas and the Far East. From 1962 to 1964 I was in the army in Aden.
I spent four months of 2016 travelling in Sri Lanka.
I’d like to send you pics of the plaster horse and of mountain scenes in Lesotho. How can I do that?
Happy days!
Best wishes – Eric.
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Thanks for that Eric. The best way to reply is via email nicholas.fielding@btinternet.com
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