Dad India 1944-6

READ ME!

 Ahoy there people.

This is one of my retirement projects!  I am in the process of properly writing up my old  climbing and walking journals and anyone is free to peruse them. There will be some running entries before long but at the moment they are mainly accounts of rock climbing days I have had!  When complete they will be available in their entirety elsewhere, but this Blog will do for now

New stories will appear on the list on the right hand side of the blog

This is very much a work in progress and what is so far written here is by no means the finished product, but feel free to read and praise or criticise as the fancy takes you!

Introduction

Breathless I paced the haunts of childhood, Earth seem’d a desert I was bound to traverse, Seeking to find the old familiar faces.   Charles Lamb, The Old Familar Faces.

This little collection of short stories is an attempt to pass on some of that feeling of adventure and perhaps more importantly, fun that rock climbing, hill walking and fell running have given me over the past thirty-five years. I suspect that the “enjoyment” aspect is the more important and enjoyable times certainly outweighed the disappointments and occasional near disasters.  In particular whenever I think of my rock climbing years the overwhelming impression is of a time of non stop fun and laughter, so much so that I sometimes have to look in my journals just to convince myself that this "golden era" was real. Needless to say the proof is always there.

That these days were so enjoyable wasn't down to me or the climbs or the beautiful places where I climbed. No, rather it was due to the people I had the good fortune to spend those days with.  I couldn't have wished to know a better bunch of people. Many years ago the climber Colin Kirkus wrote a few words which happen to also sum up my feelings to perfection. And so this book is dedicated to all the people with whom I’ve shared my days on hill and crag, and who have proved to me on countless occasions that Mr Kirkus got it absolutely right when he said, "Going to the right place, at the right time, with the right people is all that matters, what one does is purely coincidental.