In the footsteps of James

Some of you will know my fascination with my great grandfather, the Hon James Campbell MLA. At the time of his death in 1893 at age just 48 he was the Minister of Public Instruction (what we would today call the Minister for Education) in the Paterson government in colonial Victoria. I write a little about James here. He was a far-sighted man, and I wonder, had he not been struck down by cancer at such an early age whether he would have progressed to be part of the first Australian Parliament, and perhaps even a minister in the Barton government. Idle speculation on my part of course.

What interests me most is that James was a traveller of renown. He left Australia for at least three significant overseas trips that I am aware of. One of his most amazing exploits was his last - a journey in 1886 through India, China, Japan, Russia, Europe and London. It is the very early part of that journey which has long sparked my own imagination, triggered, in part, by several artifacts which James brought back with him, and which are still in my possession. The key one is a permit to travel issued to him on the 29th October 1886 by a representative of the Rajah of Sikkim, and it blows me away that this almost 140 year old relic has survived the ravages of time and sits safely in my office in Yallingup.

The translation of the permit supposedly reads:

“Mr James Campbell expressed his wish to the Deputy Commissioner of Darjeeling to visit Pemionchi and Jongri .  At the request of the Deputy Commissioner I have the honour to address you, the Pemionchi Lamas, that you will be kind enough to have all the bridges put in order throughout the road, and supply him in his camps with fowls, eggs, milk and rice to any quantity that may be required by him.   This letter is written by Laso Kanji, representative of the Sikkim Court on the 4th of the 9th Bartea under orders of the Deputy Commissioner.”

I had long hankered to replicate at least part of James' exploits in Sikkim, and over recent years had made a couple of specific enquiries about travel to and in that region, but nothing ever quite materialised. Nearly all my trips to the Himalaya have been opportunist - my first in 2010 was definitely the case, as was my most recent in May 2023. Past readers of this blog will (hopefully) recall my series of posts of that last trip under the "In the footsteps of Hillary" label.

Every one of my six trips to the Himalaya over the last 15 years has been incredibly different and simply amazing, but my last one was extra special for all the reasons I wrote about at the time. Was it the "best"? How can I tell? A bit like descriptors on the good/bad and always/never continuums, best/worst is misleading at best (sorry about that) and then quickly descends into the inaccurate. But it sure was something truly unforgettable. And whilst I don't recall saying so at the time, I was pretty sure that it would be my last trip to the mountains.

But then fate intervened and presented me with another opportunity, too good to miss ...

In late November last year an opportunity completely unexpectedly arose to join a trek in Sikkim. In truth I think it took me about 5 minutes and a chat with Janet (another 2 minutes) to decide to go. My email records show that the initial advice that this trip was one arrived at 2:22pm on Monday 25th November, and by 9:08 this next morning not only had I booked but had had confirmation of my acceptance on the trek. So in just over 75 days from now I board a plane to Delhi, and then cross India to Darjeeling, to follow in the Footsteps of James. That's my name of course - officially it's the Sikkim Rhododendron Trek with Garry Weare. I have to admit I'm not really going because of the rhododendrons (as pretty as they are), but for the total experience. I've not met Garry Weare, but I do know of him. Not only is he Lonely Planet's expert on trekking in the Indian Himalayas, but he's also a founding director and Chair of the Australian Himalayan Foundation, one of the two main charities I support. (And in another intervention by fate I been lucky enough to travel with two other founding directors of the AHF - there is obviously some connection somewhere.)

Following are a couple of maps to put the trip into perspective. The first shows the bulk of India, with the trek area marked with some blue and red tear-drop markers in the top right corner. This map shows the trek area in relation to the very neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bhutan. Right down the bottom of this map is the city of Bengaluru (previously know as Bangalore), in and around which Janet and I will spend 10 days or so at the end of the trek.

This next map shows the trek area in greater detail. The colour codes have specific meaning: the black markers show, as best as I can recreate it, James' first trek in the area, in Western Sikkim/Eastern Nepal, in October 1886; the lighter blue markers are his trek in November 1886 wherein he attempted to reach what I believe was probably Goecha La (4940 MASL) to see Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world; and the red markers are approximately the path that we will follow in April (with the dark blue markers being our effective start and end points).

James didn't make it to Goecha La - he describes the appalling weather in one of his letters back home and how he was forced to turn back. We won't attempt to go quite as far as Goecha La, but at the high point of our trek will be Dzongri La at around 4400 MASL. Let's hope that I have better fortune than James did (I suspect that he was a tad unlucky, as November is one of the drier (but colder) months; its November historical weather averages aren't all that different to those of April.

James wrote home about his travels, and thanks to Trove (the public website of the Australian National Archives) I've been able to trace quite some detail of his travels. I replicate detail from some of his letters below, with a gentle warning that some of his language is from a different era, and not words we would use today.

James Campbell letters 1886.pdf

Download PDF • 435KB

I'm told that there'll be a full complement of 15 people on my forthcoming trek; 13 "normal" trekkers plus Garry Weare and his wife Margie Thomas. I'm also told that she normally does Upper Mustang treks, which reminds me of my trek to the Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang in 2016. My travel companion (and room mate) from May 2023, Trevor Harrison, will also be coming along, and we will again be sharing a room (but not a tent!!). So to close, for a bit of fun, here's a photo of Trevor and me in Phortse, Nepal on 1st June 2023,on a rather auspicious day ...

Next post will probably be from either Delhi or Darjeeling. Until then ...