Illustrated diary of a Girton College geography field trip to Switzerland in the summer of 1973, handwritten in a hardback exercise book.
[Jean Grove, Rosemary Saunders’ Director of Studies-to-be at Girton, arranged for Rosemary to join this trip in the summer before she came up to Girton, to help 2nd and 3rd year geographers with fieldwork at Sanetsch, Switzerland, for a 3rd year student’s dissertation on Swiss glaciers; this is thought to have been a regular occurrence each year. The other participants were Barbara Neville, 3rd year geographer whose dissertation study was being supported by the others; Catriona Porter, 2nd year geographer; Caroline Bushell, 2nd year geographer; Janet Raper; and Carolyn Love.]
Specific dates are not given but there appears to be an entry for every day of the trip, which appears to have taken place over a period of three weeks and three days, including travel to and from Switzerland. Rosemary was driven across Europe and back by her older sister, June.
The diary provides detailed description of the car journey to Switzerland; the ferry crossing from Dover to Boulogne; the route; the scenery; and campsites on the way. En route to Switzerland, places visited in and / or stayed in included Reims, Malbuisson and Pontarlier, arriving in Lausanne after six days travel. They then visited Lake Geneva and Sion in the Rhone Valley before reaching Sanetsch itself. The volume includes a hand-drawn and hand-coloured physical map of Sanetsch with detailed annotation of its geographical and geological features.
The diary is liberally illustrated with postcards and tourist literature, taped into the volume, many with handwritten annotations. While in Sanetsch, there are daily descriptions of walking and climbing mountains, glaciers and limestone pavements and exploration of lakes and dams; also of various places visited in the area, including a visit to a cheesemaking dairy in Gruyères. They travelled back via Fribourg, Bern, Thun, Interlaken and the Lauterbrunnen valley, and again via Malbuisson, Pontarlier and Reims before the return ferry crossing from Calais to Dover.