Prepare to be gripped by excitement as two of the world’s greatest adventurers tell tales of lives less ordinary, writes Susan Welsh
It’s not every day you open an e-mail and find yourself faced with a rather shocking photograph of severely frostbitten hands, but that’s the sort of mail you can expect when speaking to Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Anton Bowring, as these chaps don’t lead everyday lives.
Regarded as the world’s greatest living explorer, Sir Ran, as he’s known, is swapping frozen tundras and parched deserts for stages in Aberdeen and Inverness as he presents a new theatre show, A Life at the Limits. He’ll be joined on stage by Anton, known affectionately as “Also Ran”, who will lead Sir Ran on a personal journey through his life, from his ancestral heritage to the present day.
From lighthearted to strikingly poignant, this new show tells the story of Sir Ranulph’s life of conquering several of the most challenging, record-breaking expeditions and adventures on Planet Earth. A man who perfectly fits the tag living legend, Sir Ranulph’s exploits, escapades and expeditions have taken him in almost every direction around the globe, including the 52,000-mile odyssey through both poles in the first circumpolar navigation of the Earth (1979-82), the first unsupported crossing of Antarctica (1993) and the first crossing of the Antarctic Continent by foot.
He has led more than 30 expeditions, climbed to the highest peak on the planet to become the oldest Briton to do so, discovered the lost Arabian city of Ubar, climbed one of the world’s toughest ascents (the dreaded north face of the Eiger) and conquered the first 7x7x7 Challenge – seven marathons on seven continents in seven consecutive days – just three months after a massive heart attack, a three-day coma and a double bypass operation, and has raised many millions of pounds for charities in the process.
And more often than not, it’s Anton who has been at his side.
“I first met Ran in 1977, when I applied to join the Transglobe Expedition. He had a plan to circumnavigate the world across the north and south poles via longitudinal surface navigation, which if he was to succeed would be the first time it had been done. We succeeded and it has never been repeated.
“I’d been working on ships, mainly in the oceanographic world, off the west coast of Greenland, so had developed quite a taste for the polar regions. I applied to join the expedition and, not knowing much about Ran, wrote to him asking if I could work as a deckhand, but addressed my letter to Ron Fiennes by mistake.
“I got a reply, quite promptly, in which he said at that stage he didn’t have a ship, crew members, equipment or anything, but if I was prepared to have a go at finding a suitable ship, crew and equipment and everything else, then he didn’t see why I shouldn’t join him as a deckhand.”
They’ve been best friends ever since.
Anton joined the expedition as marine co-ordinator and located and negotiated the sponsorship of the ice-strengthened ship Benjamin Bowring. He recruited the 16 crew members and sailed aboard the ship for three years, covering over 100,000 miles at sea.
“It was a wonderful experience and was a big part of my life,” said Anton.
During the expedition, Anton married the ship’s cook, Jill McNicol, in Sydney, Australia. In 1983, he took over responsibility for the ship Sir Walter Raleigh, operated by the youth project Operation Raleigh.
As well as running his own company, he has worked with Sir Ran on a number of projects over the years.
“We do a lot of things together, but I like to think that he’s the one that has to do the nasty bits. I like to think I’m the intelligent one, as I do all organising and logistics while he’s the one struggling in the cold. I joke that we have two O levels between us – and they’re both his. We are very good friends and have a good working relationship,” said Anton, who says he took early retirement from working in the city at the age of 20 because he disliked it so much.
“I ended up delivering yachts and boats to different parts of the world and then got a job measuring and monitoring icebergs for oil companies to ensure they didn’t hit the rigs. It was funny as, before I took the job on, I’d never seen an iceberg.”
During the show, Anton will chat to Sir Ranulph about his early life and some of the crazy things he did as a youngster, through to his various expeditions, exploits, misdemeanours and record-breaking experiences he’s had, while throwing in plenty of anecdotes about their shared experiences, such as the time Anton suffered sever frostbite on his hands – Sir Ran famously chopped off bits of two of his fingers because of frostbite.
“Luckily, my fingers are intact, but I did get the most dreadful frostbite. It’s a nasty thing to happen and comes up on you quickly. It took months for my hands to recover;– all the skin and nails come off and you’re left with dreadful claws. Top tip: if you’re going out in extreme cold, wear mittens rather than finger gloves as the fingers keep each other warm,” said Anton.
“Ran is a fascinating guy and, between us, there’s a lot of stories to tell in a fairly short time, so it’s a pretty action-packed show, which I’m sure people will enjoy.”
A Life at the Limits, featuring Sir Ranulph Fiennes and “Also Ran”, aka Anton Bowring, visits the Music Hall, Aberdeen, on Monday, July 6, and Eden Court, Inverness, on Tuesday, July 7. For Aberdeen contact 01224 641162 or visit www.aberdeenperformingarts.com and for Inverness contact Eden Court Theatre on 01463 234234 or www.eden-court.co.uk