SIR Ranulph Fiennes returns home from his current expedition to recount his latest adventures at the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show 2018.
Sir Ranulph is pursuing the Global Reach Challenge, which would make him the first man to cross both polar icecaps and climb the highest mountain peaks on each of the eight continents.
He has already reached both North and South poles and climbed three of the mountains: if he conquers the remaining five summits Sir Ranulph claims a world record as the first explorer to do so.
In January 2017 he was a short distance away from the summit of Mount Aconcagua in South America when ill health forced him to abandon the ascent.
“We had planned our next expedition for February 2019 but we have had to bring that forward a year in light of a rival trying to gain the world record before us,” said Sir Ranulph before leaving the UK.
“We are trying to break the world’s geographical and physical records, which require significant planning as well as non-stop travel. We look to see why other expeditions have failed: 40% of my own team’s attempts have. It took me three attempts to conquer Mount Everest.”
Sir Ranulph Fiennes was the first man to have reached both poles, with Charles Burton, and is the only man alive to have circumnavigated the globe via the polar axis in 1979 to 1982.
He climbed Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro in 2004, Mount Everest in Asia in 2009, and Australasia’s Mount Kosciuszko in 2015. Since then he has successfully scaled Mount Elbrus in Europe and Mount Vinson in Antarctica, with Mounts Carstensz in Indonesia, Denali in North America and Aconcagua in South America still to conquer.
He famously sawed off his own fingers when affected by frostbite, and at the age of 73, which he says is ‘extremely annoying’, he’s survived two heart attacks, a double heart bypass, a cancer operation and diabetes. He even managed to complete seven marathons in seven days on seven continents in 2003, just three months after suffering a coma-inducing heart attack.
His Global Reach Challenge quest for the world record is in support of Marie Curie, for which he has raised £9 million to date, with expeditions funded via sponsors and benefactors and Prince Charles as a long term patron.
Upon his arrival back to the UK, Sir Ranulph Fiennes heads directly to the Caravan, Camping and Motorhome Show 2018, where he is due on the Discovery Theatre stage on February 23.
The UK’s largest leisure vehicle and camping show runs at Birmingham’s NEC from February 20-25 with other celebrity guests including wildlife photographer and presenter Gordon Buchanan who officially opens the show on 20 February, as well as explorer Anna McNuff, adventurer Andy Torbet and a line-up of celebrity chefs, all celebrating leisure vehicle holidays, camping and the great outdoors.
Tickets are on sale now from www.ccmshow.co.uk or by phone on 0844 873 7333. Prices start from just £7.
