The Main Event with Denise Phillips

and

Joel Stratte-McClure

The Idiot and the Odyssey

By Denise Phillips…..

With the summer holidays arriving it has been necessary to re-schedule some of my shows so by popular demand my interview with Joel Stratte-McClure is being broadcasted again. Joel who was born in 1948 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and became a Journalist came to talk to me in the The Main Event Studio. He covered the Woodstock Music & Art Festival in 1969 which was his first decent front page cover story and he ended his career in Hollywood, California, writing a column in the LA Daily News until 2009.

It was in the early 1980’s, with the advent of faxes and modems, that Joel realised he could live anywhere and he lived outside the US for 33 years, mostly in Paris and the south of France. In 1984 Joel wrote a piece in Time Magazine entitled Mediterranean Destinations. At that time he travelled by aircraft around the Mediterranean but he had always been an avid hiker and had hiked in the Himalayas and the Andes in the 1970s and 1980s. After writing the piece in 1984 he decided to plan to walk around the Mediterranean Sea.

The planned Mediterranean walk was to be mainly a meditative experience, hence the name MedTrek, and he was not intending to write about it but on the first night he stayed at a Cistercian Monastery outside Cannes and continued with other interesting accommodation and so wrote 2 articles about this experience which was published by Time Magazine and this then prompted him to continue writing about his experiences on the walk and his first book “The Idiot and the Odyssey – Walking the Mediterranean” was published in 2008 and covered 4,401 kilometres around France, Algeria, and Spain, ending in Rome. In Morocco he went into the Spanish Enclaves and in Gibraltar as far as the sign which states Ministry of Defence, but otherwise he covered every inch of the coast where there are no military restrictions.

Now on his third book, The Idiot and the Odyssey III – In the Steps of Alexander the Great”, Joel had to make a decision to by-pass Syria, he was advised to avoid a possible national incident by not walking in Syria and so he and his partner Liz Chapin came to Cyprus. Joel and Liz have been friends since 1997 and they enjoy walking together and enjoying the scenery, culture and history of the many countries in which they have walked.

Initially, in Cyprus, Joel and Liz have walked the Mediterranean on the south side of the island, having to avoid the military areas and with very few incidents, except when they entered the British military base, feigning ignorance of course, but nevertheless they were treated very courteously there. Joel and Liz have spent some time with their friends Michael de Glanville and Viola Edward when they started their walk on the north side of the island and I am pleased to learn that they have now walked to the Karpaz and this weekend when this tranmission is made, they will be heading south before leaving Cyprus.

If you would like to follow the adventures of Joel and The Idiot and the Odyssey please click here

We will also be listening to some of Joels favourite music which you can hear on the Main Event on Saturday 18th July at 15.00pm and you can reach this show wherever you are online by following the links below.

This show will also be repeated on Sunday 19th July at 11.00am to 12.00 noon.

Happy listening and do have a great week

To go direct to Bayrak International Live to listen to these shows by live streaming on your PC at Cyprus local time go to http://www.brtk.net

For you Radio lovers :

Do tune into Bayrak International Live where you can join Denise Phillips on her great radio shows that bring you music and thoughts and comments of the day,

We are transmitting these shows on 6.150 MH/z. Short-wave, 87.8 and 105 FM Stereo and these great shows full of entertainment as follows :

The Main Event: A very interesting show with visitors calling into the studio to talk about themselves and their interests and of course their favourite songs or tunes which you can hear.

Radio Angel: A bubbly show giving listeners a lighthearted look at life.

Monday 19.00 to 21.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips

Tuesday : 19.00 to 21.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips

Thursday : 19.00 to 21.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips

Friday : 19.00 to 21.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips

Saturday : 11.00 to 12.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips

Saturday : 15.00 to 16.00 The Main Event with Denise Phillips

Sunday : 11.00 to 12.00 The Main Event with Denise Phillips

Sunday : 12.00 to 14.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips

Sunday : 14.14 to 14.00 Radio Angel with Denise Phillips