Ffeinnes - admirable or daft?

...I always rather fancied being married to an explorer, as I like to spend a lot of time on my own, However, Benedict Allen was my explorer of choice [swoon ]....mind you, I was married to an engineer which is the next best thing [always in the garage taking things to bits and putting them back together again....]

His wife died a few years ago; not sure if he remarried. Maybe that's another reason why he is so driven?

BTW GNHQ, any chance the misspelling of his name in the title could be corrected (please!)? The typo could have been mine so not being critical, it's just a bit irritating seeing it wrong all the time.

His wife may be glad to see the back of him for a time. Intense people can be hard to live with. He does seem to like his adventures to be extreme but, as I said before, good luck to him.

Wise and Barrow I agree with you as long as his funding is not from a government as one person suggested. As long as his sponsors are private then it is their choice what they do with their money. Either just a gift or because they will get a programme or book out of it. Perhaps he is just eccentric and IMO we could do with a few more of those. Yes, he is completely batty - so?

I agree with wisewoman Most of the time on Gransnet we are encouraging each other to do things and not sit at home knitting tea cosies (but if that is your thing then thats fine!). Admittedly what he is doing is a bit more extreme that most of us would try, but although he has had some health problems he will receive a thorough check up by doctors before he leaves and has said in the past that when doctors tell him he can't do something then he will stop. He has convinced others that he can do it in order to obtain funding. OK this may turn out to be his Captain Oates moment but if it is, and I really hope it's not, then he will have gone out doing what he loves rather than sitting at home listening to his arteries hardening! My sympathies are with his long suffering wife! She must be a very special person to support him through all his adventures.

Well I am surprised at the total negativity here. He could be sitting on his backside waiting for old age and death. If he can get people to sponsor him then good for him. We need more "old age" role models. I can't imagine anything worse than all that dark and cold but he knows what he is getting into and good luck to him.

What is he going to do between now and when the Antarctic winter sets in - about next May, presumably?

I did have a sort of sneaky respect for him - until I saw all the support stuff, especially the bulldozers, going with him. Now if he and his mate were pulling everything on sledges and just taken torches. That would be the real thing!

Oh bulldozers polluting the pristine antarctic wilderness . and squandering energy. Great. Appears to be a really bad case of machismo addiction doesn't it.

Jess in answer to your question: daft.

What's the betting that the BBC or some other channel will send a camera crew to traipse across the Antarctic in the dark?

A "Show Off" are the words that come to my mind.

He's a nutter. Who funds his expeditions? Surely they could do something better with their money.

Hence my quote!

Hang on; English guy trying to get there before the Norwegians. Hmmm I think I know the ending to this. Deja vu....

I must agree with you all gransnetters, Greatnan,Bags,merlotgran etc all very valid points. But the point that I found interesting was the fact that he had got wind (no not that sort) of the Norwegians planning the same trip and he obviously wanted to be the first to do this mad mad escapade!!! Well old boys will be old boys.....and he won't be on his own, what with 2 bulldozers and 3 industrial sized sledges carrying everything except the kitchen sink behind him. He is a mad old bat, hooked on adrenelin rushes, lets hope that it keeps him going and that he will be able to afford a better wig when he gets back! And I still have to ask WHY

Slightly superficial, I know, but was he wearing a wig when he appeared on breakfast?

I haven't met one recently to ask....and the flagellants haven't been down our road for ages....

Don't some sin eaters do it for the good of mankind?

OK; he's a masochist but wants to be paid for it..bit like a sin eater or a flagellant....

But if adrenaline junkies want their adrenalin rushes funded by other people, and they usually are, they should make sure their junkets also produce something that is useful to mankind at the end of the journey

Perhaps he's an adrenalin junkie...

I find making a life out of nothing but challenging yourself to more and more journeys that challenge the limits of human endurance self-indulgent and wasteful. Yes, many young men want to challenge the elements with a Great Adventure and I can understand that, but once that is done if you are going to do these journeys that require help and sponsorship from other people and governments then there should be clear common good that comes out of them. Comparable to, say, the work of the scientists at the arctic/antartic research stations

I know he was involved with Project Raleigh but that was a relatively short period in 40 + years of challenging journeys but I am not sure what else he has done.

Agree, merlot - all I could think was 'Why?' I can think of few things more pointless than walking, mainly in the dark, at temperatures of -70 degrees. Waste of time, energy and someone's money.