September 2020: A brand new contact confirms, “Earl worked 1979 to 1981 as a shop assistant in an outdoor equipment store in Melbourne and did not hold a full-time position at Peregrine Expeditions as his CV implies”. Earl did lead one trip down the Sun Kosi in 1980 for Peregrine and was then dropped as a guide [ed. note: confirmed by Bob Ashford, the owner].

Earl did not lead any trips in 1981 or later for Peregrine and the evidence is his absence from the original Peregrine brochures that list all guides and their experience. So much for the claims that Earl ‘Designed, marketed, researched and led a series of new high-quality adventure packages’ and also ‘set new operational quality standards for industry’. Ashford also confirmed that Earl did NOT lead the first commercial trip down the Sun Kosi River, as Earl has claimed.