Carry On Up the Amazon ; Mix 350 Cantankerous Pensioners On a Tropical Cruise Ship with Suffocating Humidity, a Randy Bulgarian Maitre d' and a Group of Erudite Merrymakers, and You've Got a Cocktail for Disaster. Or, As It Turned Out, a Classic British Farce...

Summary

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I hate travelling. I never leave the house. I am a recluse. So what was I doing in a torrid zone aboard the 9,570-ton Spirit of Adventure, along with 350 passengers and my chums Craig Brown, Mavis Nicholson, Rosie Boycott and the much-loved Maureen Lipman? Officially, I was standing in at short notice for an indisposed Miles Kington, and representing The Oldie Magazine, of which my cousin Jeremy Lewis is the deputy editor. But I felt as if I was co- starring in Carry On Up The Amazon.

The 'Amazon Adventure' is a 15-night cruise organised by the Saga Group.

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Carry On Up the Amazon ; Mix 350 Cantankerous Pensioners On a Tropical Cruise Ship with Suffocating Humidity, a Randy Bulgarian Maitre d' and a Group of Erudite Merrymakers, and You've Got a Cocktail for Disaster. Or, As It Turned Out, a Classic British Farce...

Passengers are flown to Barbados, given a whistle-stop tour of some of the islands and then whisked down the eastern coast of South America, via Devil's Island, and up the great river itself.

My friends and I were part of 'the entertainment' provided for passengers. (Craig was Beryl Bainbridge's stunt double - she backed out because she thought Brazil was near Dieppe and that we'd go by car ferry.) Our fellow travellers were a distinguished crowd. Lots of former ambassadors, governor-generals, consultant surgeons and lord lieutenants. One lady had helped invent the transistor radio. On...

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