"For more than five years I had dreamed of a new adventure," writes Sir Edmund Hillary, "to travel with a
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English Pages [320] Year 1979
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Edmund Hillary "For more than of a
new
five years I
had dreamed
adventure," writes Sir
Edmund
Hillary, "to travel with a
group of friends from the mouth of the Ganges River upstream against the current as far as we could
go ... up into the mountains where the river had its beginnings." In 1977 the "Ocean to Sky" expedition turned that dream into reality; this is Hillary's
own dramatic
record of
that journey.
The 1500-mile-long trek provided as many challenges as the conqueror of Everest
and
his
crew had imagined, from powerup treacherous rapids to the
ing jet boats
ultimate
test
of climbing
Akash Parbat,
above which, according to Hindu
tradition,
the lord Shiva received the celestial stream of Ganga into the matted locks of his hair. Hillary's narrative,
cerpts
from
supplemented with exand many
his crew's journals
photographs, captures the excitement and
danger of the expedition. But From the Ocean to the Sky is far more than a simple adventure story. It is a rich and intimate encounter with the tigers of the Sunderbans, with Hindu holy
men and
pilgrims, with rural Bengali villagers
Sikh
and
(Continued on back flap)
Jacket design by Blanche
Noonoo
Photograph on front of jacket by Graeme Dingle Photograph on back of jacket by Jim Wilson
0479
Chun*
Mirzapur
INDIA
BET -..A
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