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Over 50 BATW members and guests spent a lively and interesting few hours in the Middle East last Saturday, with John Montgomery’s images, our colleague Alena Bartoli who flew in from Jordan for the occasion (and runs educational tours there), my summaries of some of the highlights of our recent month...

“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.” – George Bernard Shaw Diane LeBow speaks about her and John Montgomery’s recent trip to Syria, Jordan and Lebanon at the August BATW meeting. (photo © Jim Shubin) It was clear from the August presentation on Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, that our...

Thanks go to Janice Nieder for sending this link an article in the Guardian about the reasons someone took a press trip to Rwanda: “Why I Went on a Press Trip to Rwanda.”

Fun news from Marybeth Bond, who has just ridden all the way across America on a bicycle: Marybeth Bond & the Bond Girls I finished the 3,115 miles bike ride across America on July 29th in Yorktown, Virginia. We dipped our back wheels in the Pacific in the SF Bay area two months ago and celebrated...

Congratulations to Lee Foster, who has won four awards in the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) writing contest.  Lee writes: Lee Foster won four awards in the Society of American Travel Writers recent writing competition for its Western Chapter. The awards were announced at the Boise, Idaho...

Morton Beebe is about to return to the South Pole after an absence of 50 years.  What an adventure!  The blog for his “Return to the South Polar Plateau” expedition is at http://www.jerney.org/antarctica.

Lots more news from Lee Foster – congratulations, Lee.  He sends this information:

Congrats to Peter Delevett, whose latest monthly travel column is now live at Alister & Paine magazine. It’s culled from a longer piece from his RedRoom blog.

Georgia Hesse was one of the faculty members at the August Travel, Food & Photography Conference held annually at Book Passage in Corte Madera.  Georgia joined a distinguished group of professionals for the information-heavy four-day conference. BONUS: We’ll all get a chance to absorb some...