The Cloud Maker
Patrick Woodhead
Random House Struik
GIVEN Patrick Woodhead’s penchant for conquering untamed mountains in Kyrgyzstan and Tibet, kayaking through unchartered tributaries in the Amazon, and generally hanging out in places cold enough to give a brass monkey something to think about, chances are the professional explorer would barely break a sweat at the thought of having to write a book.
But, says Woodhead, bringing The Cloud Maker to life was another sort of challenge altogether.
“Writing is one of those things you have to approach as a complete job, there’s no mercy, so you can’t be whimsical and write when you feel like writing. Even if your eyes feel like they’re bleeding and you’re just staring at the computer screen, and after 10 hours you come up with two paragraphs, it’s one of those disciplines where you just have to knuckle down and do it.
“It can be tough when it’s not going well, because it just feels relentless.”
It’s small wonder that the British adventurer had any time at all to put pen to paper, as he runs an adventure expedition company called White Desert, which offers bespoke trips to the Antarctic.
Clients have included everyone from Ultimate Survivor hero Bear Grylls to an 11-year-old Saudi princess who had never seen snow before.
White Desert prides itself on being a carbon neutral business, and as such works on a zero impact policy on the environment.
“Tourism is a good thing,” says Woodhead, “in the same way large parts of Africa have been turned around and saved. Introducing small numbers of tourists to Antarctica in an environmentally friendly way is the manner in which to get it managed properly.” When he’s not exploring polar pleasures, he divides his time between his homes in Constantia, Cape Town, and Notting Hill in London.
The South African connection is thanks to his wife Robyn, whom he met while taking a break while working for Save the Rhino in Namibia. “I came to Cape Town for a bit of a holiday and bumped into Robyn. I was trying to keep fit because I was going to run the New York Marathon in a stupid rhino suit and Robyn led me astray, drinking in bars and things, so it made the marathon much tougher!”
Two other people who have a tough time of it are Luca Matthews and Bill Taylor, the protagonists of Woodhead’s adventure thriller, The Cloud Maker.
In the furthest reaches of the Himalayas lies a treasure so rich that for decades men have laid down their lives trying to protect it from the outside world — and most especially from the Chinese secret police.
And there it might have stayed, hidden forever, but for two ambitious young climbers — one of them so remorselessly driven that he would leave a friend to die on the mountain rather than abandon his goal.
Luca is charismatic, attractive and a first-class mountaineer, but his implacable ambition is a fatal flaw. Bill, his companion of many climbing expeditions, is starting to lose his taste for conquering high peaks.
Luca persuades Bill to join him on a trip into a highly restricted area of Tibet, but a terrifying accident forces them to find shelter. They soon realise that they have stumbled into a secret world much older and more dangerous than they could have ever expected.
As the Chinese secret police get wind of the expedition and pursue Bill and Luca deeper into the Himalayas, they become embroiled in an extraordinary struggle between the lost world of the Tibetan monasteries and the brutal, realpolitik of China, played out against the backdrop of the world’s most unforgiving mountains.
What makes the book so gripping is that it is based on Woodhead’s own experiences of Tibet and the mountains within it.
“My imagination is just not that good, so by having loads of these real experiences, by being in Tibet and seeing all sorts of different stuff, it makes a huge difference,” he says. “I’ve been in many blizzards before, and I hope that when Luca and Bill are caught in a blizzard, the feelings and emotions and the realities of what happens come across.”
And he says the monastery was also a really exciting place to write about.
“I enjoyed the machinations and how westerners get it wrong so many times — they constantly misinterpret what is essentially a very old and sophisticated culture.”
All the characters, says Woodhead, are fusions of different traits of himself as well as other people he has met. “What’s interesting is when they start doing things you don’t quite expect.”
But the same can be said of Woodhead, whose insatiable desire to seek out the “last unexplored places in the world” has seen him brave the elements a number of times.
In 2002 he was part of the youngest and fastest team to have reached the South Pole, having skied there in 46 days. After that, he organised a traverse of Antarctica, which only 10 people have ever done before — more people have stood on the moon — and the team completed 2000km, traversing Antarctica east to west.
“We kited — kite-surfing on ski s — nearly 1200km,” says Woodhead. “We followed Roald Amundsen’s route, which no one had done since, using his original maps.”
Preparation included dragging minibus tyres through sand traps to get used to the feeling of pulling a 100kg sled. “It’s all about long-term endurance and a war of attrition against the elements.”
But the hardship is definitely worth it in the end. “Where we go you get to see the most phenomenal beauty and these scenes give you an awesome perspective on life.”
Writing also gives Woodhead the freedom of a portable profession. “Writing a book is hard work, but the flipside is that I was sitting on the banks of Lake Malawi writing The Cloud Maker — and I was still at my office. You can do it absolutely anywhere. It draws on all sorts of experiences and makes you go back into yourself and think about things that have happened to you. It’s introspective in a positive way.”
Not surprisingly, the author says travel books and real-life stories are top of his list of books to read.
Again, that reading time must be slotted in around his job and pastimes, which at the moment include getting a pilot’s licence. “I’m into learning new things. I’m 15 hours into learning how to fly Cessnas. A new skill is a very attractive thing for me.”
The Cloud Maker is the first instalment in a three-book deal, and has already been translated into 10 languages. In preparation for the second offering, Woodhead will be travelling to the Congo in March.
“Luca is going to be out in the Congo in the next book, so I’m heading out there soon,” says Woodhead. “It’s a place I’ve always wanted to see. It scares the bejesus out of me, which is a great setting for a thriller.”
But wife Robyn is keeping his adventures in check, so he can also spend time with his eight-month-old daughter Electra, so named because “when Robyn was six months pregnant she got a huge electric shock and had to go to hospital. The name just stuck.”
Clearly there’s no such thing as just another ordinary day in the life of the Woodhead family.