Checking in... Ranulph Fiennes

Hard-core explorer

EARLIEST HOLIDAY MEMORY?

I was brought up in south africa and remember my three elder sisters being taken by my mum to Kruger National Park. But I was too young and got parked with an aunt on a chicken farm.

SO YOU GOT THE FUZZY END OF THE LOLLIPOP?

My whole childhood was a holiday. For a couple of years we lived by the beach, and later at the foot of Table Mountain.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU TOOK A HOLIDAY?

IN 2005, I paddled 100 miles up the Zambezi to the Victoria Falls for the 150th anniversary of David livingstone’s arrival there. There’s a beautiful pool on the lip of the falls where I swam with my wife. Probably the best natural infinity pool in the world.

A BEACH ISN’T YOUR THING?

I JUST don’t have the time. and a lot of the reasons people go on holiday — to see amazing scenery and wonderful wildlife — are well covered on my expeditions.

WHERE ARE YOU HEADING NEXT?

I’M WALKING five miles on the sea bed from Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, to Cape Town, weighed down in scuba kit, through shark-infested waters.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?

I’M HOPING to raise £2 million for the Nelson Mandela Children’s hospital in johannesburg.

Ranulph Fiennes’s autobiography is available in a revised and expanded hardback from hodder & stoughton.