Ranulph Fiennes is en route to Antarctica on yet another caper. This time he's to cross the continent in winter, enduring the most inhospitable conditions imaginable. Transporting the team to its start point in Queen Maud Land is Agulhas, the now-retired trusty South African ice-breaker that long served SA's southern bases on Marion Island and Sanae, the Antarctic base. In a recent BBC News Quiz one panelist meanly quipped that Fiennes has left a body part on every continent, in a lifetime of incredible expeditions. This is a tough one - around 3800km of skiing, with one day's rest of every four. Along the Solar Plateau in mid-winter the thermometer can dip to -90C, with not a hint of sunlight. One can only laud the charity they are supporting, Seeing is Believing, but I've reservations about the whole concept of powered vehicles traversing the pristine continent. Extreme World Races with their Arctic trucks and dices across the continent have pioneered Fiennes' route. His Mobile Vehicle Landtrain will consist of two Caterpillar tractors with plenty of fuel, so the team is not going to freeze to death. I know, it's progress and yes, I've got a car and ships with engines have been travelling to the Antarctic for yonks but I guess it's the same feeling I have about jetskis on lagoons or beach buggies on white sandy beaches. At least Fiennes will be able to claim a genuine first, not like the European explorers of old, like Speke and Livingstone, who competed desperately to be the first to see things which other humans had observed for hundreds of years before. Also unlike Livingstone, the Antarctic team will know exactly where it is, whereas the African explorer became hopelessly lost. The QSL is a telegram from South Africa's Sanae Base in Antarctica, using just 1 kWatt, heard in 1985 in a link-up with Derdepoort to facilitate weekly radio-telephone calls for the team at the base. It's one of a bunch of Antarctic radio QSLs collected in the 1980s.
Ranulph Fiennes is en route to Antarctica on yet another caper. This time he's to cross the continent in winter, enduring the most inhospitable conditions imaginable. Transporting the team to its start point in Queen Maud Land is Agulhas, the now-retired trusty South African ice-breaker that long served SA's southern bases on Marion Island and Sanae, the Antarctic base. In a recent BBC News Quiz one panelist meanly quipped that Fiennes has left a body part on every continent, in a lifetime of incredible expeditions. This is a tough one - around 3800km of skiing, with one day's rest of every four. Along the Solar Plateau in mid-winter the thermometer can dip to -90C, with not a hint of sunlight. One can only laud the charity they are supporting, Seeing is Believing, but I've reservations about the whole concept of powered vehicles traversing the pristine continent. Extreme World Races with their Arctic trucks and dices across the continent have pioneered Fiennes' route. His Mobile Vehicle Landtrain will consist of two Caterpillar tractors with plenty of fuel, so the team is not going to freeze to death. I know, it's progress and yes, I've got a car and ships with engines have been travelling to the Antarctic for yonks but I guess it's the same feeling I have about jetskis on lagoons or beach buggies on white sandy beaches. At least Fiennes will be able to claim a genuine first, not like the European explorers of old, like Speke and Livingstone, who competed desperately to be the first to see things which other humans had observed for hundreds of years before. Also unlike Livingstone, the Antarctic team will know exactly where it is, whereas the African explorer became hopelessly lost. The QSL is a telegram from South Africa's Sanae Base in Antarctica, using just 1 kWatt, heard in 1985 in a link-up with Derdepoort to facilitate weekly radio-telephone calls for the team at the base. It's one of a bunch of Antarctic radio QSLs collected in the 1980s.
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