Letter from the Siliguri to Darjeeling railway with photograph

22nd March 1924

Sandy Irvine's Diary

The highlight of the journey for Sandy was the ride from Siliguri to  Darjeeling where the railway leaves the plains of India behind and rises into the mountains, entering into an entirely different world. The last bit of train journey 6 a.m. — 11.30 a.m. climbing 7000 ft up to Darjeeling in a motor rail coach on a2 ft gauge railway doing most terrifying curves & traverses of cliffs & swaying about the whole time was most delightful.

This date marks the start of Andrew Irvine's Everest diary. In his first entry, he writes:

'We arrived at Darjeeling 11:30 on the Rail Motor Coach after spending a very interesting 5 hours climbing from tropical jungle so thick that it would almost be impossible to break a way through. As we steadily ascended on the narrow gauge railway round most tortuous curves & across very precipitous slopes the thick undergrowth and ropes of creepers hanging from the trees grow less until at about 5000ft great expances (sic) of hillside were quite clear of trees & cut in small terraces, cultivated by natives living in numerous villages of rush huts.

Having had all our personal baggage brought to the Mt Everest Hotel, I spent the afternoon unpacking & attempting to repack. After dinner I went round with three others to see Lady Litton, wife of the Gov. of Bengall (sic), and Tony Knebworth’s mother.' Tony was a contemporary of Sandy at Oxford, but, in a letter to Lillian, Sandy tells us that he avoided the topic: 'tactfully kept off the subject of Oxford as I believe he has just been sent down from Magdalen for playing roulette!'

The first entry in the diary.