Journey to Ardmore by John Ridgway; read 4 October 2017

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 1^st 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) 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st of the competitors to set out, on 1 June 1968, but also the 1^st 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’