Shropshire Magazine

Neil Thomas meets a Shropshire student with a more than adventurous streak.

It was an adventure right out of the Boy’s Own annual, a hark back to the golden age of Victorian exploration.
Shropshire’s Jack Wrigley and his friend Angus Aitken crossed Mongolia, eschewing the safe tourist routes to throw in their lot with local tribesmen where English is neither spoken nor understood.

They rode wild horses bareback and were pillion passengers on motorcycles ridden furiously down rocky slopes. They scaled majestic mountain ranges up to 4,200 feet and traversed the awesome Gobi desert, braving searing heat and biting cold.

Much of their journey was on horseback, suffering falls and saddle soreness. They slept rough in nomad’s gers and ate freshly killed quarry cooked over campfires.

So why would two old Harrovians from comfortable backgrounds – Jack is the son of Patrick and Lucinda Wrigley of Delbury Hall, near Ludlow and Angus hails from London – give up their creature comforts for two months of hardship, not to say potential danger?

For the full story read this month’s Shropshire Magazine.