Sweet Surrender Read Free Page B

excitement. French champagne was opened and we were introduced to half a dozen top-level executives who would be involved on the periphery of the production. I can’t remember the menu, butI do recall that almost all of us – Indira being the definite exception – drank far too much wine, and were very loud and totally over the top. The heady combination of the situation we found ourselves in and our underlying nervous energy put us in a skittish mood. I wondered, with hindsight, if our behaviour at this lunch had any bearing on what ultimately happened. I do recall that when dessert was offered I feigned horror and asked the waiter if there was to be a cheese course. The nerve of me, flaunting my French influences. He scurried back to the kitchen and produced a platter of cheeses for us to share – everyone seemed to think it was hilarious, but of course it was very bad manners. I cringe when I think of it now.
    No contracts arrived. Week after week there were emails of apology and explanation and the starting date for pre-production was moved further back. First to March, then April and then May. It was a nightmare for all of us because our careers and lives were ‘on hold’ during the drawn-out process. Channel 9 had ‘leaked’ a press release giving details about the program and the names of the four panel members; this was picked up at the ABC, and Shelley Horton was given her marching orders. Cleo and Indira had both knocked back other job offers, while I had cancelled various walking tours that I had planned to lead that year. When the network moved the launch date back to May I asked if it would be OK if I went ahead with a trek to Nepal that had been planned for more than a year. Management readily agreed, as long as I was back in Sydney by early May. It meant changing the dates of the tour, and we lost half our starters. I was cranky but resigned to the fact that I had to fit in with Channel 9’s demands if I wanted to retain my position on the show.
    The day before I flew out there was yet another apologetic email with grave assurances that there would be a contract waiting for me to sign when I returned in two weeks. I was confident it would be all right in the end, and pleased to have a distraction in the meantime. I thought the trip would energise me and put me in great mental and physicalshape for the daunting task ahead. I dreamed the show would be a runaway success, and fantasised in a bemused way about becoming a daytime TV star. Australia’s answer to Oprah or Barbara Walters. Fame and fortune were just around the corner.

3
    The treks I lead in the Himalayas are botanical in focus, bringing Australians to regions where the flora is quite extraordinary. These mountains contain the greatest diversity of plants in the world. I have taken groups to lush valleys in northern India and also into Nepal to see wild musk roses, alpine meadows of primula and ranunculus, and forests of rhododendrons laden with great clusters of bloom. We walk through villages as we climb for sometimes seven or eight hours a day, to remote campsites where we enjoy the snow-covered peaks and the rushing rivers which punctuate the landscape. Trekking lifts me out of my comfort zone and challenges me, both mentally and physically. At times the climbing at altitude can be quite tough, and as a group we bond because we support each other in the struggle to reach camp every evening.
    The political situation in Nepal had been very unsettled for several months before we arrived, and Maoist guerrillas were reportedly all through the areas where we would be walking. Even in the capital there was a lot of unrest, with two small bombs going off in the shopping area several hundred metres from our hotel. As a result of the last-minute cancellations, it was a small group of six that headed out fromKathmandu towards the Annapurna mountains. We set off in glorious sunshine, tramping along goat tracks and