Transglobe leader vows 'not to stray’

Press, 21 April 1982, Page 12

Transglobe leader vows 'not to stray’

NZPA London Sir Ranulph Fiennes, leader of the • British round-the-world Transglobe expedition, says he will never again venture into the Arctic and is looking forward to coming home. “I have had more than enough. For years I yearned to travel to remote, hostile places. This three-year ‘Odyssey’ has exorcised my wanderlust with a vengeance,” he told the “Observer” newspaper.. Earlier this month Sir Ranulph and Mr Charles Burton reached the North Pole to become the first men to cross both Poles in a single voyage and are now on the last leg of their marathon circumnavigation of the globe. In a dispatch written 800 km into the Arctic and sent to the “Observer” by radio, Sir Ranulph said that after a series of mishaps on the way to the North Pole, “it was hard to believe we had got as far.” “A successful conclusion to our three-year attempt at a circumpolar journey is now possible. Two or three weeks ago it seemed remote,” he wrote.

He found the Arctic more frightening than any other part of the land, sea and ice journey, which has included the Antarctic and every continent except South America. When he reached the North Pole, the feeling was not one of euphoria but “insecurity and apprehension which has not diminished and will, I fear, stay with me until we finally escape from this god-forsaken place." Sir Ranulph said he was looking forward to “setting foot on the firm wooden deck of the Benjamin Bowring. ’ the support ship which will set sail from Southampton next month to link up with the explorers in August at Spitzbergen on the edge of the Arctic icepack. “Then I shall heave a long sign of relief and vow never again to be stupid enough to stray beyond the (Scottish) Hebrides except by jumbo jet,” wrote Sir Ranulph. The Transglobe expedition set out from Greenwich on. the River Thames, outside London, in September, 1979." in what was described as the world’s “last great voyage.” Sir Ranulph said he undertook the historic venture "for England and to show that adventure is not dead.”