Lunch Meeting, Speaker Alex Galloway

Rotary club of Stirling meeting of 26th January 2018.

President Stewart Wilson welcomed members to a well-attended meeting of the club.

Our speaker was Rotarian Alex Galloway who gave us his talk, postponed from last week by the heavy snow. His story, as on previous occasions, was of Canada and one Don Starkell, who rose from a very disadvantaged beginning to great athletic achievement. Don's family broke up and he was fostered, unfortunately not happily, but this left him with a great desire to make something significant of his own life, turning him in the end to canoeing.  Later when his own marriage broke up and he was living with his two sons, he conceived the idea that the three of them should travel by canoe from Canada to the tip of South America, some
12,000 miles down rivers and canals but much of it on the open sea. They would be entirely dependent on their own resources during the journey. 
They set off on what was clearly a very dangerous journey in a specially designed canoe on 1/6,80 and reached Belem on 1/5/82.  Along the way they had several brushes with death, from weather, animals and most dangerous, other humans.  Don managed to find a freighter to take them and most important the canoe, back to North America where it now sits in a museum in Canada.  By the end of the trip only one son was still with him, but he has gone on to make extensive solo canoe trips himself.

Peter Mehta gave the vote of thanks. We had been well entertained by this tale of a virtually unknown man.

Next meeting 2nd February Speaker's host Frank Kelly. 

Ian Richardson