Ranulph Fiennes to miss daughter’s birthday on Antarctic expedition

VETERAN explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes set off on a gruelling Antarctic challenge yesterday but was more worried about missing his daughter’s birthday.

He and his five-man team hope to be first to cross the continent during the polar winter, in temperatures as low as minus 90C. But Fiennes will miss the April birthday of his only child, Elizabeth, now six, during the six month expedition.

Fiennes was childless until he met his second wife, Louise. He said: “My late wife was usually the radio operator on my previous expeditions. I remarried after she died seven years ago. Louise and I had a daughter so this will be the first expedition where I’m away from a child and my 18-year-old stepson.”

He does not know if he will be able to contact his family and said he had left presents for Elizabeth’s birthday.

He flew out yesterday to join the SA Agulhas, the team’s ship, in Cape Town, South 
Africa.

The journey across the Antarctic has never before been attempted during the polar winter but a Norwegian exploring team recently crossed the Arctic during the summer months.

At 68, Sir Ranulph is the oldest explorer to attempt the crossing and has been des-cribed by The Guinness Book of Records as “the world’s greatest living explorer”. He was the first person to visit both North and South poles by surface means and the first to completely cross Antarctica on foot.

The expedition aims to raise $10 million (£6.17 million) for Seeing is Believing, a charitable initiative tackling preventable blindness across the globe.