Tribes and people are of course the lifeblood of human civilisation, and we all came from somewhere? Right? It is easy to forget this, and we all have amazing journeys and stories to tell about our origins. In a time when belonging to a group has become increasing important, it is easy to get fixated on being a particular race or being from a particular culture. Our story is a case in point.

“So you say you want a revolution, well we are all trying to change the world” or so the Beatles lyrics went…. but the fact is mankind is often cruel and violent, and when we visit countries they are often shared by war, revolution and revolt. War is both destructive and a tremendous accelerator of technology and ideas. We have had many trips curtailed or cancelled by war.

What is the difference between Religion and Spiritualism? For us Religion is organised by a state or group, often as a control mechanism of the populous, where as spiritualism is more about person beliefs and how you interact with your god or gods. We have seen many differing religious believes around the globe and hope to update you soon on what we have found.

The art of making things out of metal has been around for many years, indeed our own Ancestors (though DNA) were amongst a group that had metal working skills in the UK, the so called “King of Stone Henge” one of the first people to be found in the UK with gold, in the form of hair braids. We love metal

We have many wooden items in the museum collection such as this delightful wood & bone drinking spoon, with etchings of mountains and elk. It came from Hammerfest in Norway. Other items include a Tibetan monkey jug, and beautifully carved lanterns from new Zealand and Australia.

This is a section of fabric from Peru featuring “ancient aliens” in fact zoomorphic figures of deities from the Mayan civilisation. These rare survivors are fascinating and we have pottery and fabric examples these gods which were worshiped from Central America and `South America, with different groups from Aztecs to Mixtecs and Mayans often sharing the same diety

Having been to Antartica, down the North West passage and many times to the polar circles, including two trips to the geographic North Pole we love this region. Now sadly under threat from greed and exploitation. This is us at the Geographical North Pole, well Ice Camp Barneo. The 1968 film Ice Station Zebra - a spy thriller was one of the inspirations to come to this part of the world. With global warming the Paolr North as we know it may soon be gone..

In 1981 we were part of the Rio Mazan expedition to a pristine Ecuadorian Cloud Forest, trying to save the habitat for future generations. We succeeded and it it is now part of a wider biosphere run by the local people. This magnificent art work was produced by our good friend Maria from Argentina and features some of the wildlife that lives in this thriving habitat.

We have many items from the natural world including shells, insects and corals (Living animals). featured here is mother of pearl made into a neckless from the `South Pacific Isle of Fiji. Pearls are from Tahiti and river pearls from Vietnam. The corals date back to a time before we realised the harm of taking them, from Antigua in the Caribbean.