Maddy Turnbull
Maddy Turnbull - Base Camp of Everest
Her Adventures from India to Everest & the Arctic
It was the longest breakfast ever … The five of us sat around the table at the open-air restaurant on the clifftop in Varkala, Kerala India when a tall redhead joined us for breakfast. Tatyana introduced Maddy who was in her yoga class. The blue-sky morning was spectacular, though very hot – except under the palm frond roof where we sat. Brahminy Kites soared on the air currents just over the cliff’s edge.
We talked, and talked, and talked. Through breakfast, rounds of chai and mochas, until it was lunchtime when we ordered iced brownies. We were all buzzing with sugar and caffeine. Maddy said she was an art director for ITV and BBC productions. Since I’d worked on films, I wanted to know more but she was returning to London the next morning to start work on a big production.
Maddy’s photos on Facebook helped me keep up with her, but I didn’t know her backstory until I interviewed her earlier this year. Six years passed since we met in India, but as soon as we began our Zoom call, the two of us picked up as if the longest breakfast ever hadn’t ended.
"You went to India to study yoga?"
"No," she said. “I went to Thailand for a healing retreat.”
"And India?"
"A beautiful French woman who taught yoga talked about her travels and yoga in India – the ashrams. I was intrigued and thought, ‘What’s to stop me from going?'’'
“India changes you. There’s something mystical about it.”
Three years later, Maddy planned a trip to Bali, but something deep inside spoke to her, “I want to go to Everest.” She was working very long hours on a 52-week production. But she had to prepare for Everest in spite of her schedule and without access to a gym. She got up at ridiculous hours, practiced yoga and ran through the streets of London before starting work at 7am. She taught her tech-challenged Pops to use WhatsApp. The night before she left for Nepal, she asked her father, “Is there anything you want me to leave at Base Camp?”
One morning Maddy awoke early. She stepped outside – into silence, looked at the surrounding mountains and the spectacular full moon and took a photo she sent to her father thinking he’d be asleep; but, in response, he sent a photo of the moon from the UK. “We shared that really beautiful moon, oh man…”
When they reached Base Camp, she carefully unwrapped the olive wood rosary beads from Bethlehem. She lay her dad’s rosary beads amongst all the prayer flags. Then she took a picture and sent it to him, “Here we are dad. At Everest. At the top of the world.”
“It felt quite mystical I was guided to do that trip. Four months later, he was gone.”
