Very happy holidays were spent in the lovely Cedarberg camping, walking and climbing. For the first one, although Jim was one of the party, Mother was reluctant to let me join in. Friends, however, were determined that 1 should go, so Mike Meyer (who taught P.T. at the Tech) dressed up as a very mature lady, and Lulu Norton brought her "aunt" to meet Mother, and they persuaded her that I would be well chaperoned.

So I was allowed to go, and of course thoroughly enjoyed everything - the walking, climbing and camping, washing in streams in that beautiful setting (all to be remembered in similar topography many years later when walking in the Chimanimani mountains). In the evening were the camp fires and the talking talking talking of friends.

The following year Mother insisted on my finding a girl friend to accompany me - I tried all my closest friends but none was available, and in the end I persuaded Joan Searle to come. She and I got up at four o�clock in the morning and boiled eggs for our breakfast, and were collected by Bill and Jim Cuthbert and we all rendezvoused in the dark in Adderley Street for the 200 mile drive to the base of the mountains, from where we walked. Joan was not really geared to the outdoor life, and she only just managed to keep up with our activities. Names don�t mean anything to others, but among my climbing friends were Martin Versfeld and Simon and Harry Biesheuvel.

I saw a lot of Martin as he lived in Camp Street and I often played bridge with him and his parents. He was going through an unbelieving stage, influenced by his philosophical and ethical studies, and temporarily raised doubts in my mind, but later became a Roman Catholic and Professor of Philosophy at UCT.

Harry was one of my most faithful followers,and I always had a slightly guilty feeling because I had heard that he was anti-girl, and when we first met I set myself out to break down his resistance. I achieved this rather more successfully than I had planned, but I did tell Harry for years that I would never marry him. He took no part in �social� activities such as dances but I climbed frequently with him and found his confidence in my ability very flattering. Once he persuaded me, when we were returning from a day out on the mountains, to visit his parents who had not been long out from Holland, and I felt very awkward as I reckoned I was there under false pretences. Harry was in the Engineering Faculty, and later became a Professor at Pietermaritzburg.

I was still basically very shy, but self-confident in some respects. When Joy Schermbrucker wanted someone to take her French classes at Western Province Prep for a few weeks, I happily undertook the task. When Sholto Douglas failed French I, he asked me to coach him, which I did in weekly sessions in the Aytoun drawing room, and he passed!

It was obviously difficult for Mother to realise just how her family was growing up. I was amused when I found that she had a copy of �Juan in America� by Eric Linklater tucked away in a drawer in her bedroom, presumably so that I shouldn�t see it - but I had already had it out from the University Library.