An Everest honeymoon ... not my best ever idea
CONTINUING our series featuring the holiday memories of famous people, this week explorer SIR RANULPH FIENNES, 74, recalls his lifetime of adventures… First holiday I can remember:
Going to a beach near Cape Point aged six when we lived in Cape Town. I’ll never forget the snakes, crabs and scorpions running across the sand. I actually got bitten by a spider, which gave me arachnophobia, and I’ve had a fear of spiders ever since. Apart from that, it was wonderful.
My first trip abroad:
I moved back to England aged 12 after my South African granny died. I was born in England but I spent the bulk of my childhood in South Africa. My siblings and I all had strong South African accents and I remember my mother telling us: ‘You lot need to learn to speak properly!’
First school trip:
When I was about 16 and in the cadet force at Eton we went to an army base in Norway. My house captain, a keen army bloke, was in charge of ‘the enemy’ in the mountains during a summer exercise. A few years later I bumped into him and he said: ‘I heard you were in the SAS, and I’d like to do that.’ The next thing I knew he was commanding officer of the Special Forces unit!
My honeymoon:
I married my second wife Louise in May 2005. We spent our honeymoon at the Mount Everest base camp in Tibet, because May is the only time of the year you can climb the mountain and I was preparing for an attempt on the summit. It was an extremely bad idea as the camp was infested with rats and cockroaches and there was no privacy at all, day or night.
My best break:
Voyaging down the Zambezi in a dugout canoe and retracing explorer David Livingstone’s epic journey to the Victoria Falls 150 years or so earlier. When we got to the waterfall we erected a bronze memorial to the great man.
My worst holiday:
The monthlong honeymoon around Eastern Europe I took with my late first wife Ginny in 1970. The exhaust pipe fell off the open-top MGB we were driving. I also invited my best friend, a man, along, too. I soon discovered you weren’t meant to do that.
My essential holiday item:
A tube of Anthisan cream which relieves the itching if I’m bitten.
Dream destination:
The Gobi Desert in Mongolia if my wife and children accompanied me. I’ve never been there and I’d like to see the endangered Gobi camels.
For information on Sir Ranulph Fiennes’s UK tour, Living Dangerously, throughout July, visit faneproductions.com/ ranulphfiennes.