Please login with your username and password to access members' contact details, members' news, obituaries, previous newsletters, the document library and the contact form.
Miles Harbot has kindly put this together about his TravelAward trip to Italy....
In (I think!) 1983 Paul Hickmott and I were lucky enough to be the recipients of the travel award. It followed a chance remark from the A level Biology teacher along the lines “why don’t you apply for the travel award and study the flora and fauna of the Dolomite mountains in Italy?” It didn’t take us long to work out the award would just about cover two rail tickets and a few weeks on a campsite there. We couldn’t believe our luck when we were told we had got it! The journey there was by several trains, sleeping overnight in a couple of train stations (Milan stank and was filthy!) and a hazardous bus journey over mountain passes which got us to the campsite at Corvara, our base for the next few weeks. The mountains around the village formed the most stunning natural amphitheatre. We were truly blessed.
We studied the flora and fauna at various altitudes taking temperature, humidity and acidity readings every few hours (including nights) at various altitudes, and drawing the flora for a report we submitted to the School afterwards. Most importantly though we had lots of fun. We were befriended by numerous Italian families while on the campsite who fed us and took us with them on trips, and met the most fabulous family - Gianni, Marie-Angela and their daughter Federica (with the surname Ferrari – but alas they drove a very dodgy Fiat powered by liquid gas that seemed to need to be fuelled up every 50 miles) who, when our money was running low, took us back to their home near Parma where we stayed for an extra week and were treated like kings (in those days there was not so much tourism in remote Italy and we got the distinct impression a lot of the villagers had not seen a British person since they last passed through in World War II). It was, and remains, one of the most fun experiences I have ever had and which taught me a lot. I think Paul would say the same even though his memory might be a little more fuzzy than mine due to the fact local wine was cheaper than water on the campsite!
.....thank you Miles