30 JANUARY 1971, Page 8

THE SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK

While admiring the courage and resourceful- ness of a man like Commander Shepherd, who takes off for a walk around the moon this Saturday at the ripe old astronautical age of forty-seven, I cannot help thinking that it is an extraordinary decision on the part of his superiors to allow a fellow who bas not taken a space trip for ten years and who since has had trouble with his glands and with his ears, and who cannot be said to need either the fame or the money, to embark on such a voyage.

But having thought this, I am reminded of Sir Francis Chichester, who is a lot older, and who set sail on an equally daunting, and equally pointless, equally frivolous, equally entertaining voyage. I don't really believe all that stuff about climbing Everest because it's there. I think people just like taking trips, going off on jaunts, having adventures.