While Martin Cooper was making the first call on a cell phone to Joel Engel in 1973, Sir Ranulph Fiennes was busy making his plans. It was only a year earlier, in 1972, when Fiennes’ wife, Ginnie, had come up with an idea. Most of the firsts had, by then, been already achieved. One of the few that were left was an expedition around the world that would take in both the geographical poles. Fiennes set his eyes on turning this idea into reality.
It took Fiennes seven years to get things in place. He not only organised the expedition but also set about securing sponsorship for the same.
Transglobe Expedition
The Transglobe Expedition set out on September 2, 1979, from Greenwich in London, and was to maintain a route that closely followed the Greenwich Meridian, the 0° line of longitude. Along with Charles Burton and Oliver Shepherd, Fiennes took to their expedition ship Benjamin Bowring, which also included a crew of volunteers.
They travelled south, through Europe and Africa, eventually making their way to Antarctica in January 1979. Five members of the party, along with Fiennes’ dog Bothie, wintered at their base camp, and undertook scientific experiments.
Fiennes, Burton and Shepherd set out on skidoos late in October, in order to cross the continent. They stopped at every change in latitude and collected ice-cores - to be taken away and analysed, thereby ascertaining average rates of snowfall. On December 15, 1980, they reached South Pole, before completing the transcontinental journey in a record 67 days — the fastest time in which the continent had been crossed till then.
Moving north
Warmer climates followed as they made their way up north through New Zealand, Australia, United States of America and Canada, before beginning the Arctic part of their expedition. Family commitments forced out Shepherd at this juncture, leaving Fiennes and Burton to carry forward from there.
They became the first team to cross the Yukon and Northwest Passage in the same season, before eventually becoming the first to reach North Pole using mechanical transport on April 11, 1982. Bothie was dropped by a plane at the North Pole, becoming the first dog to visit both poles.
The journey, however, wasn’t over. A rise in temperature meant that surface travel was no longer possible, pushing the pair to drift southward on an ice floe for 99 days. They were eventually picked up again by the Benjamin Bowring, returning to Greenwich on August 29, 1982, four days short of completing three years.
Prince Charles, patron of the expedition, accompanied the duo for the last mile of the journey, labelling the adventure “mad, but marvellous.” In case you are itching for more detail, you’ll have to read ‘To the Ends of the Earth’, which gives Fiennes’ account of the entire expedition.
