Quest for Adventure
It’s a book by Chris Bonnington that my old man had. I remember going to listen to a talk by Chris Bonnington with dad – it might have been the occasion he bought the book but I cant be sure. Anyway I inherited this book before dad passed – in other words I half-inched based on the presumption that he hadn’t read it for a while so he mustn’t want it.
As a kid I wanted it and I wanted what was in it! However being reasonably normal I had to settle for a few minor adventures and then middle aged spread. The upside is I have the book-on-the-shelf and the recall that in the other room there is some mind blowing extreme tests of human and mental strength, endurance, physical fitness and just the damn ability to surive in the most inhospitable and lonely conditions this planet can throw at you. It’s a fascinating read.
Quest for Adventure concludes with an account of the cave diving epic or horror of the Dead Man’s Handshake, it left me with a chill in my spine and a vivid memory long enough to last to my late forties that there is no way, no way would I go cave diving!
I will never forget what I read.
Of course I nicked this and created a Dead Mans Gulch in Wolverhampton – it not nearly as perilous – but just ask my kids and their cousins about it without noticing the wild look in their eyes.
I wonder about it, thats all, but recent events of the rescue of 12 young boys and their coach just leave me with an amazing sense of bewilderment about the sort of people cave divers are especially the group experienced experts who were hurriedly put together to thankfully complete this rescue mission. The mind goggles, sorry boggles.
Anyway enough from an experienced coach potato like myself I’m thinking December 2018, SPORTS PERSONALITY OFF THE YEAR (SPOTY): The dive team that saved those lives should get the award for best Team or International Team 2018
You can also scare yourself shitless here and here!
Leaving you with a quote by Ernest Runaway | July 2018 from this site created by two Royal Marine commandos and lifelong mountaineers, climbers and skiers: blog post called television dinner.
“We are left with an insular, scared youth. Who see the outdoors as an off-limits danger zone where only those with a hyperbolic voiceover may venture.”