For
someone who, by his own admission, struggled to get O levels, Ridgway is a superb
writer – even as early as 1971 when he wrote ‘Journey to Ardmore’. In some ways,
this is a book from a different age. A
time when a rugby centre was called a centre three quarter and a time when 2 ex
paratroopers could set up and run an adventure school without formal
qualifications or background checks. All
they needed was some cash to get going,
hard work and actual experience in the tasks rather than tick box
“competences”. It was also a time that
Ridgway could not feel comfortable in saying that he was adopted, a fact later
to be acknowledged in “Floodtide” (itself still my favourite book although
“Journey to Ardmore” is not a bad second).
The
origin of this book lies in Ridgway’s failed attempt in the 1968 race to become
the first man to sail alone non-stop round the world (see “The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst” ). With a publisher having commissioned
a book about this attempt (no doubt based upon his and Chay Blyth’s successful
rowing of the Atlantic in
1966) but now without a story of the voyage to
tell he decided to
write this excellent autobiography telling of his early life, the
finding of a croft at Ardmore in the far North West of Scotland, and the dream
to settle there.
After
opening with the finding of an empty croft in Ardmore and his 1st
attempt to find a way
of living there. Newly married,
having resigned his commission and taking a job in Kinlochbervie’s
small fishing industry he found that his plans to live in the highlands were
not sufficient to make ends meet. By
1964 he was doing traffic surveys in London to avoid the dole. Yet just a couple of years later he would be
famous without being, by his own admission, a changed person.
After this opening Ridgway goes
back in time to cover his childhood, without mentioning that he was adopted –
as I say above, 1971 was a different world to a modern reader. At Nautical
College in Pangbourne Ridgway managed only 1 O level (History) 1st
time around he would go onto get more but was clearly more interested in
physical than cerebral activities - though the quality of his writing in this book
certainly belies this. From Pangbourne a
short stint in the Merchant Navy (1 trip to Capetown was enough to make him
realise this was not the career for him) before joining the army as a soldier where
he would apply for and gain a Regular Commission (considered easier to get than
a National Service one) he would be the 1st officer to go directly
to 3 Bttn the Parachute Regiment directly from Sandhurst. His tenacity and ‘best loser’ label having
been recognised whilst he was captain of boxing at RMA. Always physical and adventurous, Ridgway led
teams in the annual Devizes to Westminster canoe races (won, incidentally in
1962 by Paddy Ashdown) and tells of exciting and sometimes fraught training and
racing in 2 man Kayaks. When the
regiment was slated for duty in Cyprus he and 4 others bought a yacht (English
Rose 2) to sail there rather than go by RAF transport. The journey ended in Cherbourg, scuppered not
by a lack of sailing ability but by a crisis in the Middle East changing the
deployment plans and by the boat turning out to be less seaworthy than
expected. It was whilst flying in an RAF Transport that Ridgway fell for the Highlands
and on discovering Ardmore he would
resign his commission to live permanently in the highlands.
Ridgway re-joined the Parachute
Regiment in 1964 and, reunited with the Blyth who was one of the youngest Sgts
in the regiment (who as a Lance Cpl Ridgway had tried to remove from the
Battalion – not a great advert it turned out for Ridgway’s judgement of people). Reading of Johnson and Hoare’s plans to row
the Atlantic, the 2 set out to do the same thereby turning it into a race. The rest is history and Sadly Johnson and
Hoare died in their attempt whereas Ridgway and Blyth succeeded. The whole story of that row is told in ‘A
Fighting Chance’ but is précised very well here. Here is told the aftermath of lecturing, on
behalf of the army and the social whirl that fame brought, along with enough
extra cash to fund the next adventure (and as it turned out just enough left
over to make plans for the setting up of the John Ridgway adventure school at
Ardmore).
In 1967 Ridgway passed selection
for the SAS before I suspect trying the patience of his superiors in entering
the 1968 round the world race. Buying and
fitting out English Rose IV , Ridgeway was the 1st of the
competitors to set out, on 1 June 1968, but also the 1st to retire
with the boat having been damaged in a collision with a Press boat at the start
and with increasing loneliness and unease about is abilities to survive the
Southern Ocean he would retire to Recife in Brazil. It was at this point that he and his friend,
and fellow SAS Officer Rod Liddon would workover the winter of 1968/9 to build
the Adventure School, opening it in the summer of 1970 to youngsters and later
to his Businessmen’s courses.
As with ‘Floodtide’ I thoroughly enjoyed
this book. Ridgway is obviously a self-reliant
sort though he receives huge support from his Wife Marie Christine (a woman to whom cooking fish pie for 50 on a
single stove seems to be a normal thing to do) who is willing to follow and
join in with her obsessive husband’s plans.
Chay Blyth and Rod Liddon also get due credit in this book as Ridgway
acknowledges the need for teamwork in success but for me there are 2 big
takeaways. Firstly that persistence is
as important as talent in achieving one’s goals. Secondly to quote Ridgway directly ‘living
means NOW not tomorrow or yesterday’
