I was shocked and amazed this morning when I heard the news that Sir Ranulph Fiennes (pictured below with me a few stone heavier in 2010) was to lead a team on foot across Antarctica during it's winter next year. I've got a decent idea of temperatures around various places in the world at particular times of the year. I didn't realise, however, that it's going to be up to -90 degrees Celsius (and worse with the wind chill factor) during what is being dubbed as "The Coldest Journey.
What I was also pleasantly surprised with is that one of my sponsors for Australia 2013 is involved with Sir Ranulph's expedition. Chapman Ventilation together with their sister company Sirius Products "designed, developed and fabricated stainless-steel sinks, urinals and glove racks for use throughout the expedition, all of which required significant planning and research in order to develop a product able to withstand such extreme conditions.".
It's brilliant to have a company like Chapman Ventilation in my corner. I'm also very grateful to Sirius Products for a very generous raffle prize donated recently to The Children's Foundation.
I'm very much looking forward to watching Sir Ranulph's progress next year and I'm sure he'll add a tidy sum to the 15 million pounds he has already raised for charity over the years.
