Ellie Pawlett, daughter of Kate Pawlett, director and manager of the World of James Herriot, Thirsk has recently completed a trek to Everest Base Camp with a mission to put the World of James Herriot on top of the world with a special banner entitled “World of James Herriot, High in the Himalayas”.
Ellie completed the trek with a group of friends as a personal challenge, first becoming interested in doing such a trip after enjoying walking and climbing Roseberry Topping in the North York Moors National Park in Herriot Country and Helvellyn in the Lake District National Park.
The idea of the banner came up when discussing with her Mum the news that World of James Herriot is in the top 10% of tourism attractions in the world on Tripadvisor.
“Mum and I were discussing the trip when she told me about the Tripadvisor award and I said “Why don’t I take the World of James Herriot to the top of the world?” comments Ellie 27, a nurse at Northumbria Healthcare who worked at the World of James Herriot as a teenager.
Alan Hinkes, OBE, a friend of the attraction heard about Ellie’s trek and was impressed that Ellie was making the journey which he knows only too well after becoming the first Briton to climb the world’s 8000m mountains all in the Himalaya and Karakoram ranges of Nepal, Tibet and Pakistan.
After the trek Ellie met with Alan when he congratulated Ellie on her feat. They enthusiastically exchanged their experiences and quite clearly shared a common understanding of how difficult and challenging such an adventure is to do. Alan signed his book ‘8000 Metres’ for Ellie and presented it to her at a special get-together at the World of James Herriot.
Alan said: “It’s great to meet Ellie after such an achievement and I’m really impressed with the way she prepared for it and showed such determination to manage and complete the trek to Everest Base Camp, which is a risky endeavour, very arduous, can involve days and days of trekking, acute mountain sickness, other hazards and can be potentially fatal. You have to know what you are doing.”
Ellie adds: “I’ve always enjoyed hiking, and this was the ultimate challenge for me before the next chapter in my life. Displaying the World of James Herriot banner at such an iconic location was a great thing to do for my Mum and the team at World of James Herriot”.
“Ellie has told me that she met some lovely people in Nepal which is a lovely place, nearly as nice as North Yorkshire’s Herriot Country.” quipped Alan.
