News from HQ

All, You may be interested in the following link which shows the current sea ice conditions around the Antarctic continent. Unfortunately there has been a recent satellite failure which is preventing us getting the normally available high resolution pictures – so this is the best at the moment. http://www.polarview.aq/images/25_SSMIS/latest/antarctic.gif For those that are interested, it’s wort…

“I can only wish you God speed and every possible good fortune in this wonderful, dotty adventure. I’m somebody who greatly admires the kind of intrepid explorer activity undertaken by Ran and others and at the same time to raise money for a remarkable and worthwhile cause of preventable blindness around the world.”…

Thank you to all the people who made yesterday possible, and to everyone who has supported us so far. It’s been a long time coming, but the SA Agulhas’s departure down the Thames yesterday afternoon marked the beginning of an epic adventure, and is the first major milestone of many more to come. Thank you also for all of the wonderful messages of support and praise which you have showered our…

Here is the first ever publicised photograph of The Coldest Journey’s Ice Team. Standing proudly in front of the eye-catching logo of our charitable initiative, Seeing is Believing, they are: (left to right) Richmond Dykes, Dr Rob Lambert, Ian Prickett, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Brian Newham and Spencer Smirl. You make us proud guys!

39 million people in the world are blind; 80% of blindness is avoidable; It costs less than £19 for cataract surgery. Change someone’s life by donating now to Seeing Is…

Dear Members of the Public, Last week we posted a blog saying that the SA Agulhas was due to leave the Thames at between 5.45pm and 6pm on Thursday, 6th December. THIS HAS NOW CHANGED TO 3.15PM. We apologise for any inconvenience this alteration makes, and would still love it if you could join us by the riverside on Thursday afternoon to wave the ship off. SA Agulhas will be carrying all of t…

Dear All Please accept our apologies for the lack of blogs over the last few days – it’s certainly not as though we have not had a lot to write about! The trouble is there is no permanent internet connection at the warehouse, where we have all been preparing the equipment for loading onto the ship. So, we’ve been having to make do with our mobiles to connect, which has had its own trials and…

Boots fitted at 7.30am at Snow and Rock in Covent Garden. The boss, Fraser Bannatyne, and Martin, the expert boot fitter, arrived very, very early just for me which was extremely kind of them. Am glad I also set out before cock’s crow, since navigation from Trafalgar Square and the ski shop proved extremely difficult as every one way street went in entirely the wrong direction (luckily there ar…

Sir Ran made his first visit to the warehouse today and then spent the next five hours in a sponsor photo shoot. Great organisation skills by Vicky Lewis and Isabel Castle ensured they guys hurtled through the hundred of so sponsors on the to-do list. In this pic we see our wonderful photographer Harriet Wooltorton snapping away at Brian Newham, Robin from Zarges, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Jo…

Through a series of four  articles, Steve Holland looks back at the Field Trials that took place up on the Arctic Circle in Sweden in February. These were used to test equipment and to run the selection process for the driver/mechanics. The team managed to catch one of the coldest spells of weather that the region had experienced in years. They show just how much you can do in ten days with t…