Date & time

April 16th 2013
Drinks Reception  at 6.30pm
Lecture at 7.30pm

Location

Ming Hua College, Glenealy, Central

Price

HK$100 for Members
HK$150 for guests.
No Pre-bookings required.

The Royal Geographical Society is pleased to welcome traveller and photographer Marc Progin to speak on Mongolia: Nomads, Caravans and Migrations.  In this lecture, Mr Progin speaks of his extraordinary 20,000 km of journeys over 15 years from one end of Mongolia to the other by bicycle, on foot and on board camel and yak caravans, illustrated by his fine photographs and selected music.

For months at a time during each of the past 15 years, Mr Progin has ridden a bicycle alone across Mongolia, a land almost bereft of borders and fences, on journeys spanning some 20,000 kilometres. In all four seasons, he has spent between 10 to 15 hours per day climbing hundreds of lofty passes, crossing the gigantic steppe, cutting through Siberian forests, crossing the Altai and Kanghai mountains and riding the deserts that form the Mongolian Gobi.

During these trips, Mr Progin has encountered all of Mongolia’s ethnic groups, most of them of Turk and Mongol origin, residing with these tribes in the vast, simple, harsh yet strikingly beautiful surroundings of Mongolia.  He has designed his own maps, navigated with the sun, the stars and a compass in all four seasons, trading his bike for hiking boots and camels when tackling ice, snow, blizzard and temperatures of minus 40 degrees during his winter trips.  He has a collection of more than 15.000 photographs of Mongolia, some of the finest of which are used to illustrate the lecture.

Marc Progin is a Swiss watchmaker, photographer and adventurer.  He has been a resident of Hong Kong for the last 35 years.  For the last 15 years, he has devoted most of his energies to travelling in Mongolia, writing stories and poetry in addition to his photography.  Mr Progin is also a seasoned long-distance trail runner.