Talk: The Silk Route

Speaker: Roger Butler

This colourfull talk tells the story of a journey following the ancient Silk Route through Central Asia with an extraordinary range of landscapes and cultures. Travelling by bus, truck and train the journey passes through the Himalayan chain and crosses Tibet to the fabled city of Lhasa. Wild mountain scenery then leads north to the edge of the vast Taklamakan desert (this translates as ‘go in and you won’t come out’!) where old oasis towns lead the way into Xinjiang – the westernmost part of China. From remote Kasgar, rough roads head south over the world’s highest international border, and through the jagged Karakorum mountains, into Pakistan.