Drakensberg mountains, July 1962 |
 Six members of our eight-strong climbing party are in this photograph that was taken near the Royal Natal National Park hotel before we started heading up towards the escarpment. From left to right are Bill Moir, John Cooper, Pip Cooper, Hugh Laburn, Gordon Martin, and Dave Dodds. Bill, John, Pip, Hugh, and Gordon were all students at St Stithians College, the Methodist boys’ boarding school from which I’d matriculated the previous year, and Dave Dodds was a Johannesburg dentist who introduced me to climbing. Missing from the photograph are André le Roux (a friend and climbing partner of Dave Dodds) and me (an 18-year-old about to leave South Africa to go to the United States on an AFS scholarship). |