GEORGE NEWS - U3A is not taking a mid-year break and the lecture programme continues with interesting events for July that include two centenary talks.
On Wednesday 13 July in Armchair Travel, Rob Berry will continue with his talk on the South West Coastal path of England, with a hike from Land's End to Minehead in Somerset.
The whole hike stretches for more than 1 000km and Berry's love affair and addiction started in 1984 and continued every year until 2014. This beautiful hike offers a variety of geology, vegetation and wildlife and visits some of Britain's most idyllic fishing villages and coves. The trail involves a cumulative climb of over 35 000m which is about four times the height of Everest.
Clearly this is a talk not to be missed and it starts at 10:30.
On Friday 22 July, Johan Viljoen will present "The centenary of the founding of the SA Navy". The forerunner of the SA Navy, the SA Naval Service was formed on 1 April 1922, when personnel were appointed, and three Royal Navy ships were taken into service. This lecture will give an insight into the establishment and history of the SA Navy, as well as information on losses at sea incurred by the navy and an explanation of some of the traditions of the navy.
After matriculating, Johan Viljoen joined the navy as an intelligence officer. His other appointments ranged from serving as a navigating officer and personal adjutant to the chief of the Defence Force, to spending two years in Chile as the naval attaché. He left the navy in 2008 and worked for a private security company compiling security reports on African countries. He has now retired and is the U3A IT guru.
Tea is at 10:00 and the talk starts at 10:30.
In 1922, the SA Naval Service commissioned the HMSAS Immortelle, a minesweeping converted trawler.
At the general meeting on Wednesday 27 July, Case Rijsdijk will present "The Astronomical Society of Southern Africa (Assa) Centenary - 100 years of amateur astronomy in South Africa".
It was the advent of Halley's comet in 1910 that led to the loose formation of an astronomical association - in Cape Town and later in Johannesburg. These merged in 1922 to form a national society called the Astronomical Society of Southern Africa.
Now a significant national body, the society publishes the annual Sky Guide, a bi-monthly journal, and has centres in most major cities. A broad variety of specialist groups specialise in topics from planetary and variable star observations to cosmology. Case Rijsdijk is a regular and popular contributor to the U3A lecture programmes.
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