As no doubt you may well know the whole of the weekend Sat 15 & Sun 16th Aug 2020 is cancelled. That's a pity as son Tim has an Entry through St. Raphael's and was going to take my place, With my current fitness doubt that I would make it for my 7th ride.
Please excuse me having a go at the Brasher family & Dave Bedford but they have said that the event will probably not run in future years! Personally I do not think that they should wield such a sword!
When I was 15 and about to leave school I was lucky enough to be selected as one of the first schoolboy admissions to the Outward Bound Sea School in Aberdovey mid Wales. It was one month of hard character & team building. The Outward Bound Trust had a mountaineering school in the Lake District & the sea school in Wales. The trust was mainly funded by industry to promote and identify future leaders and captains. As a school boy we were not allowed to get a Gold award even though I achieved that status in terms of my leadership, athletic prowess!
Chris Brasher had his names in Gold Leaf letters on the honours board, he had been at Aberdovey in a previous year. One of the tasks was an overnight ascent of mount Caderidris which entailed taking the train to Kings YHA and then ascending the mountain to the top where we were met by an officer to check us through. The weather was atrocious with gales and blinding horizontal snow and ice which ripped through my jeans and shredded my yellow plastic bicycle cape. In those days Gore-text did not exist. It was February 1957 and Everest had not been climbed! From the top we descended to a target Barn half way down being careful not to venture too far to the right where there was a shear precipice & a drop to certain death! The plan was to follow a series of cairns for the route down but we had to wait for the mist to clear to keep line of site of them. Before making it to the barn where we could eat our food & by the way we all had a rucksack each loaded with 30kg commando style, to make the achievement more remarkable. We had a schoolboy called John from Derby with us and unfortunately he fell into a bog and panic! He would not stop struggling & I had to shock him into staying still while I lay on my stomach on solid ground and grabbed his hand while others grabbed my legs and we gradually puled him out, he had sunk to his neck and was so lucky to escape with his life!
We got to the barn eat our food and finally marched back to Aberdovey arriving around 9pm some 24 hours after our start with no sleep, total distance around 35 mountainous miles!
The second part of my adventure was to show Chris Brasher how it should be done! I lead a team of boys on a 3 day adventure into the mountains to a place called Corey if I remember it was a long hike and in the summer time would involve camping but in February we were allowed to shelter at night in a disused farm with basic bunk beds and kitchen. The plan was to return on the 3rd day and be picked up by bus half way back. Morley decided that's for wimps and pushed on almost back to the school before the bus approached. The instructors were so impressed as that had never been achieved before not even by Chris Brasher. OK I know that he was very instrumental as a pace maker in Roger Bannister breaking the 4min Mile barrier and all due credit to him!
I was awarded a certificate of outstanding achievement but alas no gold leaf on the honours board.
Although it was a sea school they had a converted fishing boat where you went to sea for 3 days to learn navigation but the vessel was being refurbished. It was however made ready for the last week and we went to sea for one day. The mornings were always rousing with wake up at 6am then rush down to the River Dovey and dive into the freezing water. This could only be done at Ebe tide as at full tide the water was fast flowing and you would be swept away!
I also volunteered to join the mountain rescue group and trained on Bird Rock, learning to abseil and rescue an injured climber half way down, strap him to a stretcher and haul him back up. It was back breaking but very exiting and rewarding to achieve so much! I am truly great-full for the opportunity afforded to me by the Outward Bound Trust!
Turning to the Birthday Rides are these still taking place at Morton le Marsh Fire College?
Finally should Mark G read this I was very impressed with your Shoreham ride and your impressive steed. I wonder if I could have a ride on it with you some time to try it out? I can ride to your place and we could go to Oaks Park!
Best regards to all, stay safe and isolated!
3 comments:
Sheer pedantry
1) Everest was first climber in May 1953
2) Chris Brasher was born in 1928 so would(?) have been on the course in the early to mid 40s. In 1956 he became reigning Olympic Steeplechase champion. I "met" him a couple of times and Irene remember him and John Disley as organisers of the (1st) London Marathon.
3) I'm not an authority of the 1000+ YHA hostels that ever existed but I'm guessing your 2nd hostel was Corris, about 10 miles from Kings, 15 miles from Aberdovey (if one's a crow). It's still a hostel but not a YHA hostel.
Raasay, you are not being pedantic but correct in stating the facts. Of course Everest had been climbed by a New Zealander with Sherpa Tensing the year Queen Liz 11 came to the throne! Yes I seem to recall now that Corris was the Hostel. As to when Chris Brasher was at Aberdovey I am not sure but may spend time researching. Never the less the principle of his family dictate over running the Pru 100 in my opinion is wrong but then who else would run it you can say? Well charities who rely on it can get together and share the organising load.
Why like you Graham am I so pedantic! To be precise C.B. was at Aberdovey in 1946 11 years before me and would have been 18 years old, some 3 years older than my time there. To me that proves my point! Good to see you are blogging!
Post a Comment