India’s mighty Ganges recently created international headlines for all the wrong reasons. Millions of pilgrims entered the river for spiritual cleansing – not a good idea in the Covid-ravaged country. Some 45 years ago one of New Zealand’s favourite sons used the river for a similar kind of therapy, writes Lawrence Schäffler.

For India’s Hindus, to wash in the sacred Mother Ganges is to take another step along the path to salvation – an opportunity to cleanse the soul and start afresh. The Kumbh Mela ceremony is reputedly one of humanity’s largest pilgrimages and draws devotees to the river from across the Indian subcontinent. This year’s event, unfortunately, exacerbated the region’s Covid woes.


In 1977 Sir Edmund Hillary, too, was badly in need of mending. Two years earlier he’d lost his wife, Louise, and daughter Belinda, in a Nepal plane crash. Given his affinity with the towering Himalayas, it was perhaps inevitable that much of the healing process would be an epic, upstream voyage of the 2,500km Ganges.
Beginning at her mouth in the Bay of Bengal, Hillary was attempting to do what no one had ever done – to get as close as possible to her source, high in the Himalayas. A different kind of Everest. The three-month trip became known as the Ocean to Sky expedition.


The team comprised 16 adventurers with a broad cross-section of skills – their vessels were three 15-foot fibreglass HamiltonJet 52s designed by George Davison – the Christchurch company’s naval architect. They were selected precisely because their jet propulsion systems (rather than props) would be more suitable for negotiating the mighty river’s rocky sections and infamous rapids.
Named Kiwi, Air India and Ganga, the boats were built by Blenheim’s Marlborough Marine and powered by Holden 308 V8 engines driving three-stage Hamilton 753 jet units. The 250hp V8s were specifically fitted with low-compression pistons to run on the low-octane fuel then available in India.

Pioneers & Sons

For those who like to believe Fate engineers our lives in strange but predetermined ways, Hillary’s decision to use jet boats was a coincidence spawned among the stars – one that goes back to 1953 and Everest.

Famously, that was the year Hillary and Tenzing Norgay “knocked the bastard off” – but it was also the year Bill Hamilton invented the jet boat. That the arcs of their paths would intersect 24 years later seems improbable. Hillary was a mountaineer and a philanthropist – Hamilton invented a technology that allowed boaties, hunters and anglers to explore South Island rivers too shallow and rocky for prop-driven boats.

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Serendipity? Perhaps. But this happy alliance of pioneers was reinforced in another way: the expedition team included the sons of the two men – Peter Hillary and Jon Hamilton – as well as Hamilton’s grandson, Michael.


An equally intriguing aspect of their river pilgrimage was the blending of ‘myth and mysticism’. The Ganges fills a particularly revered space on India’s philosophical landscape. She is sacred and can heal the souls of those who’ve lost the way. Holy men pray on her banks and bathe in her waters. A 1977 Indian Government Tourist Brochure described her thus: “The Ganga starts where saints meditate, in the high Himalayas.”

For the locals in India, Hillary began the 1977 expedition already carrying a ‘demigod-like’ mantle – thanks to his extensive philanthropy in the region. That mantle took on even greater, mythical proportions because of the jet boats. They were other-worldly.


Millions lined the Ganges’ banks as the expedition progressed upriver, waiting to catch a glimpse of the miraculous boats, incredible machines able to go where no other boats could go. The rumours swirled – growing ever more fantastical as the party progressed inland – it was said the boats could ‘fly’ – allowing them to overcome outrageous obstacles presented by Mother Ganges.

And there were plenty of outrageous obstacles – all seemingly insurmountable.

Obstacles

Narrow gorges spewing tons of thundering white water, massive standing waves, churning rapids littered with massive boulders – all part of the hazards facing the crews. It’s worth noting that much of the river was uncharted. Unknown perils presented themselves around each bend.

Consider this excerpt from the diary of Graeme Dingle, one of the team members:

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“We had been told that the first big rapid was some five miles on, but within half a mile we came round a corner to see a considerable rapid with big waves, and I thought as we plunged in ‘My God! If we strike this at the beginning of the gorge, what’s the rest of the river going to be like?’


“The walls of the valley closed in and steepened. The noise of the boats reverberated back and forth between the rock walls of the gorge. But then we heard the distant roar of white water. We rounded a bend to see ahead of us the river steepening into a line of white waves, with the flick and toss of spray rising into the air. Jon went first, while we waited at the foot of the rapid: if anything happened to the lead boat he would need us to rescue the occupants as they were washed out into the tail-race.

“Jesus, what a day! Chunderous rapid followed chunderous rapid in a blur, and slowly the rapids got steeper and more bony as the river cut deep into beautiful granite hills – but there was scarcely time to notice the beauty.


“I soon had that constricting feeling in my gut, that grips and leaves one completely exhilarated and feeling brave when it’s all over. Jim was driving masterfully, hovering on the brink of stoppers and slipping with minute precision between rocks and big breakers, applying the throttle exactly when needed.”

Or this extract from Hillary’s diary: “We stared in blank disbelief. Jon’s boat, Air India, had gone down. But then through the white water appeared a red turban, still tied to its owner, closely followed by the heads of Jon and Mike Gill. They wallowed agonizingly through huge waves, with water washing over the cockpit as they rolled over each crest. It was only a matter of time before they sank. Kiwi and Ganga circled helplessly in calmer water.”


Inevitably, the Ganges had the final say. Near a place called Nandaprayag (elevation 1,358m) on the Alaknanda river (the source stream of the Ganges) the trio of boats arrived at a waterfall greater and more menacing than any before.

“We drove up to the face of the waterfall,” wrote Dingle. “The whole river poured down over some huge obstructing boulders, a 10-foot high vertical wall of water. The area below was boiling and tossing. It was an awe-inspiring position and in a way I was pleased at the absolute finality with which the river had brought us to a halt.”

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With the magical boats unable to continue, the second part of the odyssey – the ‘to-the-sky’ bit – was completed on foot. The party climbed to a Himalayan peak they called Akash Parbat (Sky Mountain) – but without Hillary, who’d succumbed to altitude sickness. He was rushed down the mountain, his life hanging in the balance – but he survived.


The rest of the party decided to push on. As team member Jim Wilson wrote: “We thought, well, what Ed would want us to do is to make sure we get back up to the sky. We climbed a lovely snow dome above the high camp, which we named Akarsh Parbat, Sky Mountain. And Ed got his wish. We did touch the sky.”

Despite the fact that it nearly cost him his life, Hillary always maintained the Ocean to Sky was his most memorable expedition and the best journey of them all. It was his last major expedition.

WATCH IT – Ocean to Sky

Hillary wrote a book about this expedition (From the Ocean to the Sky, published by Viking Press, New York, 1979).

But for a gripping, visual representation of the voyage and the river’s power, you need to watch the Ocean to Sky documentary. Produced in 1979 by Michael Dillon, the expedition’s Australian filmmaker, this remarkable, award-winning movie was digitally remastered in 2019 (with added footage) and recently screened on New Zealand TV. The revised film contains recent interviews with expedition members and provides a real insight into the difficulties they faced on the river. Extraordinary stuff.

If you missed it, you can rent/own it. Visit the Google Play Store, Academy Cinema Ondemand, and NZ Film on demand: www.flicks.co.nz/movie/hillary-ocean-to-sky.

Dillon’s many award-winning films cover some the world’s most remote but spectacular destinations – the Himalayas, Andes, Antarctica, the Arctic, the Pacific and Africa. Ocean to Sky 2019 is his seventh Hillary film.