On every trip undertaken by the Scientific Exploration Society, a supply of Stahly Quality Foods’ haggis is packed along with the essentials. Most recently a Burns Supper, with Stahly’s Royal Haggis, was held by members of the 2012 Senior Elephant Quest Expedition in Nepal, where the aim was to study the wild elephants and catalogue the tiger, rhino and wildlife in the Bardia Reserve.

We have included a few of the photographs which we have showing how far travelled our haggis has become. The walls of our office are lined with many of the postcards which ‘Blashers’ sends from these remote spots with up-dates of the Society’s good work. 

The central image of ‘McBlashers with haggis’ (above) is accompanied by a handwritten message to Ken Stahly:

For Ken – from John McBlashford! With many thanks for all the kind help… and Haggis.

(Left) Anne Scott serving Stahly haggis from a leaf-lined salver to an Indian tribe on the Kota Mama 1 expedition. Paraguay. September 1999.

(Right) Colonel John Blashford-Snell in Nepal during The Giant Elephant Quest Expedition. This originally began in 1992, with several return journeys over the following ten years.

Appropriately, considering his companion in the photo,

(Left) A Stahly Quality Foods Burns Supper tube in hand the speaker on the left addresses the haggis at a Burns Supper in the Pacific – Pitcairn Islands, 2003.

Expeditions with the Scientific Exploration Society range from two weeks to three months, with team sizes of 12-30 people aged 18-70+ years.

(Right) Scotsman, Brian Walker recites an Ode to the Haggis as Col. John Blashford-Snell prepares to serve it. Ecuador, South America – August 2008.

(Left) Andrew Brown’s address to the haggis on a trip to fulfil a promise made by Col. John Blashford Snell to the Wai Wai tribe’s chief priest, Elijah. In 2000 the team flew a grand piano to Trinidad, 375 miles from Georgetown, Guyana’s capital. From there, the piano was carried through the jungle, down a river and finally up a mountain to the tribe’s new village, built above the flood level. Within ten minutes, the villagers were playing the piano. The team returned 2 years later with specialist tuners to re-tune it.

(Right) Nagaland, India in December 2001.

(Left) Addressing the Haggis – a member of the Scientific Exploration Society team on the Kota Mama II expedition in August 2005.

(Right) McBlashers with haggis – Col. John Blashford-Snell enjoys his honorary Scotsmanship. Kota Mama II in August 2005.

What do the explorers say about Stahly Haggis?

Having just got back from Colombia Wiwa Expedition with Col. JBS I’d like to say a huge thanks you for the splendid Haggis, we’d really had enough of sardines and tuna and rapidly scoffed the lot, even the Colombians enjoyed it. I’d also done the Peru expedition in 2014 and again it was well received.

Hope JBS sends the wonderful photos of Col. Tom addressing the Haggis and stabbing it with a HUGE knife. Well done on a splendid product!

H.A. 

Read about Colonel John Blashford-Snell’s 2015 Costa Rica Expedition to the Osa Peninsula, Sea Turtles, bridge construction, health care, improvised banana leaf umbrellas and a Burns Supper with Stahly Haggis with the Carate people. Costa Rica photos.

In July 2011, Colonel John Blashford-Snell led a 16 day expedition to the remote southern Gobi Desert in Mongolia, including several days travel on Bactrian camels. Read more about the Gobi expedition on our News page. 

Colonel John Blashford-Snell first contacted Stahly Quality Foods not long after the business was established in 1994. Over the years, we have supplied haggis and other products for his Scientific Exploration Society trips and, in return, we have a wall full of postcards from all around the world including some of the remotest parts of the world.