h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As a child I was fascinated with adventure stories. I can remember the first one I read which was when I was about ten years old. The book was called Gold of Peru.

Then I encountered Everest. Well my interest was aroused and I read every book i could get hold of and agonised when Mallory and Irvine never reached the summit...I seem to remember that it was iin the year of my birth 1928.

Well when I went to live in Zimbabwe when I was first married I was thrilled to bits when Sir Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Sherpa Tensing gave the present Queen of England her most precious coronation gift - and that was the one of conquering the highest mountain in the world in the year of her coronation 1953.

You can iimagine how thrilled I was when two members of his "assault team" came to Salisbury Rhodesia - now Harare Zimbabwe - and gave a talk. I had three small children at the time and after having arranged for a friend to care for them, I went and stood in a queue to obtain the cheapest seat as I really had no spare cash to indulge in such "frivolities" when I was first married.

And so it happened. That I sat in the theatre where two members of the expedition were describing their experience of having been members of Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition. I was totally enthralled and in wonderment at their courage.


Of course I bought the book which was a first edition and inscribed
with their names,

Sadly during our many moves first of all the inscription of the flyleaf the front of the book was removsd.

now I find that the book itself has diusappeared durinng my latest move. I have a dear h2g2 friend who lives in Zew Zealand. Every time I hear from her I am trnsported back to those wonderful heady days when I was in my early twenties and lived through the phenomenol expedition listening spellbound to those two mountaineers sharing their experience with us.

Even if I was in the cneapest seat in the theatre It was wonderful.

Christiane
AR80

28th November 2010 5.35 GMT

What a wonderful set of memories, Christiane! I haven't climbed any mountains since 1985, when I scaled Mount Washington in new Hampshire. The best I can do now is enjoy the tales that mountain climbers have told about their ascents of the world's major peaks.
"Into Thin air," by Kracauer, was full of suspense and a sense of great sadness at an expedition that ended disastrously. More recently there was "Between a rock and a hard place," by Aron Ralston, which has been adapted into a movie called "127 Hours." I hope to see this movie soon, though I plan to stand in the lobby during the amputation scene. He became trapped when a boulder fell on his right forarm. In order to escape, he had to amputate the arm.

Thirty years ago, a young man named Eric Ryback wrote a couple books about his hiking trips along the Continental Divide and the Pacific Crest trail. At one point he stopped to climb Mount Hood, with the help of professional mountain climbers.

More recently there have been books about climbing Mount Whitney in Alaska. Mountain climbing is a thrilling field, and great to read about for those of us who will never again climb any particularly hard peaks.

I remember one time when I was almost at the summit of a mountain, and my pants split at the crotch.

Hello Christiane,

I also loved adventure stories, my favourite one was the tales of Robinson Crusoe and later on I saw the film Lost Horizon (1973) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Horizon_%281973_film%29

Lost Horizon 1973 (part one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTFS4MSKgH8

Lost Horizon 1973 (part two)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkA0vsA2FSU&feature=related

I also enjoyed hearing about Scott of the Antartica as well as hearing about the various climbers who conquered Mount Everest. It must have been wonderful experience when you listened to two members of the Mount Everest exhibition talk about their experiences during the climb.

Katrine

My climbing days are behind me, but maybe someday they will build a road up to the top of Everest.

Hello there Christiane! Fascinating story, and I'm glad that you are remembering and writing it all down. I love mountain climbing though I've never climbed anything close to Mount Everest! The ones over here are mostly about 2 km in height (Everest is almost 9 km). But it's still a great joy to sit on top of a mountain after a stiff climb and look out over the world with a sense of peace with everything!

The view *is* great, isn't it? Nonclimbers can enjoy it by driving on the access road to the top of Mount Washington, or use the cog railway.

Very dear friends.

well I have experienced a week of complete forgetfulness. It was nice to come back to my computer and find that last weekend I was somewhat "nornal". My darling Dick really knew what he was saying when he said that "Getting old was not for sissies".

Thank goodness I can remember these events. I had completely forgotten that I had gone to hear those two climbers who had been on Sir Edmund Hillary's expedition to Everest in 1953. That was certainly something wonderful to remember.

When Dick ahd I were first together in 1970/71 in Cape Townm South Africa, we lived in an old house just on the slopes of Table Mountain. If the weather weas good we often went and took a picnic breakfast to have on the slopes oof table Mountain. We used to climb up a fairly easy path to just below where the cable car was. We had a view right across the Bay and to Robben Island, so used to think of those who were incarcerated there. WE then cooked our bacon and tomatores in a little spirit burner. . Gosh we were so happy and so enjoyed the wonderful surroundings of Cape Town. There is another p-lace that we used to go to on the way to South West Africa which is now called Namibia. It was a weonderful huge overlapping rock near I was it Wellington I wonder, called the Hereenlogement. But that must wait until tomorrow. I make so many errors with my wrotten sight it takes me ages to correct.
Thank you Paulh for your lovely long reply. It was worth all the problems of getting onto this website.And of course dea45r Kat4ine and Willem. You are so kind to me. Merci.

For the first time this morhning, when I switched on my comput3r I got a clean bill of health. Not a virus, not a bug no mess-ups or anything. One of my carers has put a "wall of fire" it think it is called around my computer so that no nasties can get at it. !!!

Off my dear fruends to my Bath , !!

With much affection.

Christiane

Saturday 4th Decenber 2010 9.55 GMT

I'm glad to hear about the "wall of fire." Go well!

Dear paulh,

Thank yyou for your very kind note to me which I have only just found this morning. I have had several months when i have reallly thought that this this is it. However for some reason or other i have recovered, and although much frailer thought I would like to chat with my friends again.

So it was extra good to find that lovely note of yours.

I must admit that I think these brain ezercises are quite extraordinary. I have been doing them regularly and they really have made an enormous difference to my memory. At the moment it is onoy the instant recall that I appear to have problems with, . However, it is quite estraordinary how so many things that happened many years ago are as if they happened yesterday. i am still doing my exercises.

My granddaughter who lives in Australia is going to New York at the beginning of May to a conferecee. She has represented her country at these annual events for the last four years and I am very proud of her. !! But even prouder of my great granddaughters!1. I now have six great grandchildren - I think, !! That is it. !!

Good wishes to you and I hope that you will find the time to drop me a line. I had to try and remember how to get back onto this website. and I did remember it so feel very pleased with myself.

AlsoRan80

Thursday 21st April 201 8.11 BST

Hi Willem,

I found your email addy the other day and wrote to you but the email was returned,. So you have obviously changed you email.

Hope you and Ma are keeping well. Keith and I miss south africa so much. We have had a few marvellous days here and it seemed just like it used to be.

regards to you and your mother.
Alsoran8

Thursday 21st april 2011 8.23 BST

Christiane just in case Willem doesn't respond yet perhaps you could look here for an answer to your question. Sorry I didn't tell you when I phoned. Willem I hope you don't mind me doing this. Apologies if it is upsetting. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F63395?thread=8066083 Websailor

Hi there - no problem Websailor! So anyways, Christiane, my mom passed away this February, so I'm a bit sad and alone. But I'm working on the art, and with the plants, keeping myself busy. My email appears on my USpace, and it is the right one.

At any rate I'm delighted to hear from you again! I rather worried about you for a while. I really hope to be chatting a lot more with you still!

All the best,

Willem

Dear Also Ran80,

It was a great pleasure to see that you had returned to us. Are the roses on your patio blooming now? Is your son happily situated? Do you still cook those delightful-sounding meals that you've described in the past? I look forward to hearing about what is happening in your area.

I'm listening to Mozart now, and getting ready to lead a book discussion of "To Kill a Mockingbird" at a bookstore near here.

Be well.