Mr C - you didn't have to live with Jim and Rose like we did whilst on a six week caving trip (organised by my second ex husband and myself) in a l.w.b. diesel Safari Land Rover overland to Teheran way back in the summer of 1971! Actually Jim and me were both strong characters who agreed to disagree most of the time, but Jim was a hard character - being an ex sailor - and definately someone to have alongside in a tight situation, of which there were quite a few encountered on this expedition. There were seven adults and our two young sons of 3 and 4 cramped into the Land Rover which also towed a small trailer containing the gear that couldn't be carried on the roof rack of the Land Rover. We had problems with the gear box (it was a brand new Land Rover) which packed in just south west of Teheran, we limped into Teheran on a wing and a prayer (a bit like the bomber pilots returning home from bombing raids over Germany during WW2) and we were stranded in Teheran for five days at a camp site near the airport, after having taken the gear box out of the L/Rover and getting it repaired at the Land Rover factory in Teheran. It cost us £40 for the repairs (a lot of money in those days) and we had a heck of a job recuperating our money on our return home from Rover at Solihull - went in person in the finish and refused to leave until we got paid being as it was under warrenty. The most memorable memories of that trip was when having crossed the Turkey/Iran border near Tabriz (we were in bandit country) and were told that for safety we had to stay at a police station (gerdarmerie) every night in a compound, but the first night we couldn't find one. We camped on the edge of a village and men with rifles came out and fussed around us, Jim and the other cavers went into the village for a celebration, but Reg, Rose (Jim's first wife) the kids and myself set up camp, put the kids to bed in the L/Rover and Reg and me slept under the stars, suddenly we were woken by a very, very frightened Rose apparently Jim hadn't returned and she was in hysterics, with no more ado she leaped into our double sleeping bag in the middle between Reg and me, and thats where she stayed for the rest of the night, I was glad to see dawn break that morning. Up in the Elzburg mountains, north of Teheran (where tigers still roamed) we set up camp and Jim, Reg and the others plus 2 Iranian friends went caving. On exiting the cave Jim and another caver (Eric) were thirsty and badly dehydrated (I have a picture of Jim in a collapsed state of exhaustion outside the cave) and stupidly not having taken any water with them, they both drank out of the local river, fatal, the pair of them went down with diarrhaoe. Fortunately we carried a large first aid kit and I had packed several bottles of Dr. Collis Browne's Cholodene (as used by the British Army in the Kyber Pass, Afganistan and India in the 1860's - it's only recently looking it up on the internet I found that the two main ingredients were opium and cannabis! Shortly after our return from Iran the ingredients were changed) and I dosed them both with that, it worked fine. As we were leaving the camp site in the mountains we were visited by the Iranian secret police and our two Iranian friends (one a high ranking Army Officer and the other an Iranian oil company geologist) were arrested and taken to a police station on the edge of the Caspian sea, with no hesitation Jim, Reg and the rest of the fellows followed them to the police station and stayed there, refusing to leave until our friends were able to leave with them, that was quite a frightening situation. Planning an expedition in those days was like being on a boat, one had to be self sufficient and rely on no outside help. L/Rover half shafts on the Series 2 L/Rovers were very prone to breaking, so we always carried a few spares of them along with all other kinds of spares. On another trip to Turkey, returning home at the Bulgarian/Yugoslavia (as it then was) border, a fan blade broke and damaged the radiator (we had two L/Rovers on that trip), as luck would have it there was a scaffolding bar by the roadside, so we placed spare half shafts along the scaffolding bar, roped it all together and towed the broken L/Rover the whole length of Yugoslavia and into Austria where we were able to get it repaired.
Sorry to have gone off topic (once again), but mentioning Jim brought back a flood of memories as we all went on about four major expeditions together, both with Rose and Audrey, also spent many weekends with them up near Bull Pot Farm, me minding the kids whilst Jim and Reg went down Lancaster Hole and many other caving systems in that area. I suppose I should have written a book myself but never had time rearing a family and running various businesses throughout my life - at present my time is taken up researching my family tree - I begin to fear that I have a Cornish ancestor, I always thought that I was pure Derbyshire!
p.s. Caving and mining apart one of my favourite books is "Children of the New Forest" by Captain Marriot, it is beautifully written English prose.