In February 1972, his wife Ginnie first suggested a surface round-the-world expedition following the Greenwich meridian (and the International Date Line) around the globe. Planning and training for this venture began in February 1975; over the next several years there would be equipment testing, personnel selection, and additional training on the Greenland icecap, as well as a 960-mile journey from northern Ellesmere Island toward the North Pole. The original expedition team consisted of Ran, Charles (Charlie) Burton, and Oliver (Ollie) Shepard, and other significant participants included Virginia (Ginnie) Fiennes (Ran's wife), and pilot Giles Kershaw.

The Transglobe Expedition was the first of many unusual ventures planned (and usually completed successfully) by British adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Ran, who was born in 1944, got started with extreme and unusual exploits during his eight years as a British Army officer, which included time with the SAS during which time he specialized in demolitions. His SAS career ended when he was cashiered for a scheme to blow up a dam (which had been built for the filming of Doctor Doolittle ). Eventually he left the Army and turned to adventurous exploits.

The ship left on 17 January; meanwhile construction continued at the winter base site, which had been named Ryvingen for the peak just to the east. The base was at 72º55'S-3º29'W, about 180 miles inland from the then-new Sanae III, at an altitude of 5,600 feet. The ice party left Sanae on 25 January for Borga on their snowmobiles as construction of the insulated cardboard huts continued, as did the cargo flights. After some difficulty with crevasses, they reached the hut site several days later. The 78 cargo ferrying flights were completed on 10 February, and Giles and Gerry left the ice party shortly afterward, retracing their flight path to Canada and leaving the ice party alone for the winter. They had four huts--a main living hut 36 feet long, a generator hut 80 feet away, a radio hut 160 feet further away, and a VLF hut 1/2 mile away from the main camp site. The huts were prefabricated from insulated Triwall cardboard, bolted to light floor boards...they quickly became buried, and tunnels were dug for storage and access. Charlie Burton (cook, electrician, mechanic, and radio operator) and Oliver Shepard (mechanic, medic, met, and radio operator for the Antarctic crossing) shared one room in the main hut, Ran (the leader) and Ginnie (comms and VLF program) shared the other berthing room, and Bothy, a long-haired Jack Russell terrier, lived wherever. Two other members of the expedition support team, Simon Grimes and Anthony (Anto) Birbeck, wintered at a separate camp (Fimbulisen, named for the Fimbul Ice Shelf on which it rested) a few miles from Sanae. They visited the South African base about once a month.

Meanwhile, Giles Kershaw, with engineer Gerrard (Gerry) Nicholson, were making their way in the Twin Otter. From the UK they flew first to Toronto, and then south from Toronto through South America to the Falklands. From there they headed to Faraday where they airdropped mail before proceeding to Rothera, Halley, and Sanae. The Benjamin Bowring , which by now had received the nickname Benji Bee , reached the Antarctic coast near Sanae III (70º18'S-2º22'W) on 4 January 1980 (left) (SPRI). Despite the small size of the crossing party, they required 200 tons of supplies, most of which would be flown to their winter base site. As the unloading was being completed, Giles arrived on 10 January. He flew Ran and Ginnie up to the proposed hut site on the Borga Massif...Ginnie would select the exact spot so that the radio antennas would be properly placed to contact London, Sanae, the aircraft, and the ice party as it later headed to Pole.

The venture left London on 2 September 1979. The first part of the trip was simple enough--a drive through France and Spain, followed by a trip south through western Africa, which was much more peaceful in those days. They then rejoined the ship and voyaged to South Africa...leaving for the ice on 22 December.

As is obvious from the above maps, much of the trip was ocean travel, and for this they used the Benjamin Bowring , a 213-foot vessel with a displacement of 1,250 deadweight tons and a draft of 19'-9" when fully loaded. This ship had originally been commissioned as the Kista Dan in 1952, and its first Antarctic mission had been to support the filming of Hell Below Zero, a 1954 film based on Hammond Innes' novel The White South . Later it was chartered to support ANARE as well as BAS. For the expedition, the ship was renamed to honor the founder of its sponsor, the C. T. Bowring insurance brokers.

Above is the originally planned expedition map and schedule, from the official Transglobe expedition booklet. The actual dates and routes were slightly different, particularly at the end, when an early breakup prevented their travel to Spitsbergen and they ended up riding an ice floe south.

Simon Grimes continues with hut assembly--This looks like the generator hut...the expedition relied on a 10 kva diesel generator (seen here) to power the 1 kw radio. There were also two 1.5 KVA Allam generators for everyday use (SPRI).