How I Escaped Polar Bears, Crossed Antarctica & Cut Off My Fingers | Minutes With

Summary

The transcript recounts the extraordinary life and adventures of an explorer, from his challenging childhood and military service in the SAS to his record-breaking expeditions. It details his and his wife Ginny's ambitious journey around the Earth without flying, overcoming harsh Arctic conditions, and surviving encounters with polar bears. The speaker also discusses the impact of his Parkinson's diagnosis and his hope to improve through cold water swimming, reflecting on the importance of luck and genetics in his remarkable achievements.

Takeaways

• 🏔️ The speaker endured extreme conditions while towing heavy loads on expeditions, leading to physical challenges such as scabbed lips that required filing apart each morning.
• 👶 Born in Windsor during WWII, the speaker's early life was marked by his father's death and relocation to South Africa with his family.
• 🎓 Despite being unable to attend Sandhurst College, the speaker pursued a military career, joining the Special Air Service (SAS) and later the Arab Army in Yemen.
• 🔫 The speaker's actions in the UK involving explosives led to a six-month probation and his dismissal from the SAS.
• 💑 After marrying his childhood sweetheart, Ginny, the couple embarked on a journey to navigate the Nile River, which was the first of many adventures.
• 🌍 The couple achieved the first-ever journey around the Earth without flying, with Ginny playing a pivotal role in planning and securing sponsorships.
• ❄️ The Arctic proved to be more challenging than the Antarctic due to the unpredictability of moving ice floes and the difficulty of navigation.
• 🐻 The speaker recounts a close encounter with a polar bear during the expedition, highlighting the dangers faced in the field.
• 📡 Communication during the expeditions was critical, with Ginny being instrumental in keeping the team connected and informed, even under extreme conditions.
• 🤚 The speaker's experience with frostbite led to a self-amputation of his fingers using a fret saw and bull clippers, demonstrating his resilience and determination.
• 🧠 After being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, the speaker has been exploring the benefits of cold water swimming as a therapy, inspired by Michael J. Fox's experiences.

Q & A

What was the main challenge faced during the journey up the Nile River?

The main challenge was the physical toll of towing heavy weights over long distances, which caused severe chafing and scabs on the lips that would stick together, requiring the use of a file to separate them each morning.

What was the significance of the speaker's birthplace in relation to his family's military history?

The speaker was born in Windsor, outside the castle, during the Second World War, four months after his father was killed while commanding the Royal Scots Greys Cavalry Regiment.

Why did the speaker's family move to South Africa?

After the death of the speaker's father, his South African grandmother took the family, including the speaker's mother and sisters, to South Africa to live there for 10 years.

How did the speaker's educational journey lead him to the Special Air Service (SAS)?

The speaker was unable to pass the entrance exam for Sandhurst College and instead attended Mons in Aldershot, which eventually led to his service in the SAS.

What was the speaker's role in the conflict in Yemen?

The speaker fought for the Arab Omanis against the Marxists who had taken over parts of Yemen, managing to kill two main people in an ambush, which helped hold off the Soviet influence.

How did the speaker end up on probation and subsequently dismissed from the SAS?

The speaker used army explosives to blow up a civilian property in the UK, which led to a six-month police probation and his dismissal from the SAS.

What was the first major expedition the speaker and his wife Ginny embarked on after getting married?

The first major expedition was the first-ever journey up the longest river in the world, the Nile, which they accomplished without any financial support.

What was unique about the Transglobe Expedition that the speaker and Ginny undertook?

The Transglobe Expedition was unique as it was the first-ever journey around Earth without flying, circumpolar, which had never been done before or since.

How did the speaker and Ginny manage to secure sponsorship for their expeditions?

Over seven years, Ginny and the speaker secured 1,900 sponsor companies by showcasing their unique expedition ideas and hard work.

What was the most difficult part of the Arctic expedition for the speaker?

The most difficult part was dealing with the moving ice floes, which required expertise in predicting their movement and navigating safely across them.

How did the speaker and his team manage to survive an encounter with a polar bear during the Arctic expedition?

The speaker aimed his .38 Smith & Wesson pistol below the polar bear's chin during an attack, but only managed to hit its foot, causing the bear to retreat without further aggression.

What was the significance of reaching the North Pole in the context of the speaker's expeditions?

Reaching the North Pole made the speaker and his team the first humans ever to reach both poles in the same expedition.

How did the speaker's wife Ginny contribute to the success of their expeditions?

Ginny was in charge of all planning and communications, and she joined the London Territorial Royal Signals to improve her skills in frequency prediction and antenna theory.

What was the speaker's approach to selecting team members for his expeditions?

The speaker preferred to select 'nice' people based on their character rather than their specific expertise, as he believed character was harder to change than skills.

How did the speaker deal with the frostbite he experienced on his fingers during an expedition?

The speaker used special clippers and a fret saw to amputate the frostbitten parts of his fingers at home, before the surgeon could officially do it five months later.

What impact did the speaker's Parkinson's diagnosis have on his life and outlook?

The speaker learned from Michael J. Fox about the benefits of cold water swimming for Parkinson's symptoms and hopes to improve his ability to withstand cold, despite his lifelong focus on staying warm.

What does the speaker attribute his successful expeditions to?

The speaker attributes his successes to 'lady luck' and 'DNA', suggesting a combination of fortunate circumstances and innate abilities.

Outlines

00:00

🎒 Childhood and Early Challenges

The speaker shares about their tough upbringing, being born during World War II, and their father's death. They talk about moving to South Africa with their family, facing educational challenges, and eventually joining the Special Air Service (SAS). Their time in the army includes fighting in Arabia and using explosives in the UK, leading to probation and expulsion from the SAS.

05:03

🧗‍♂️ The Transglobe Expedition

The speaker describes the arduous preparation for the Transglobe Expedition, including securing 1,900 sponsors over seven years. They discuss the logistical challenges, such as needing a specially reinforced ship and a ski plane. The speaker emphasizes the crucial role of Ginny, who managed planning and communications, and the technical difficulties faced while navigating the Arctic ice.

10:05

❄️ Arctic Struggles and Survival

The speaker details the hardships of traveling in the Arctic, including dangerous ice floes and encounters with polar bears. They recount a near-attack by a polar bear and their challenges navigating shifting ice. Despite severe conditions and physical tolls, they succeeded in reaching the North Pole, becoming the first to do so in the same expedition as the South Pole.

15:05

🥣 Extreme Conditions in Antarctica

The speaker explains the grueling conditions of their Antarctic expeditions, including scabby lips, frostbite, and hauling heavy loads. They describe the intense preparation and the necessity of carrying only essential items. The speaker shares a vivid account of using a Swiss army knife to separate frozen lips and enduring severe physical pain to achieve their goals.

20:06

🪓 Amputation and Team Dynamics

The speaker recounts the process of self-amputation after a severe frostbite and the difficulties of enduring the pain. They discuss the importance of selecting team members based on character rather than specialization, emphasizing adaptability and mutual support. The speaker highlights Ginny's contributions and recognition, illustrating the importance of women in exploration.

25:10

🏊‍♂️ Coping with Parkinson's Disease

The speaker talks about their diagnosis of Parkinson's disease and their efforts to manage it through cold-water swimming, inspired by Michael J. Fox. They reflect on their career transition from expeditions to lecturing and writing, emphasizing the need to adapt to new challenges. The speaker remains optimistic about improving their condition and continuing their pursuits.

💪 Perseverance and Success

The speaker attributes their success to a combination of luck and genetics, reflecting on the achievements made possible by their perseverance and determination. They acknowledge the role of fortuitous circumstances and inherent traits in overcoming obstacles and accomplishing seemingly impossible feats.

Keywords

💡Towing

Towing refers to the act of pulling a load behind a vehicle or, in this context, a person pulling a heavy sled. In the video, the narrator describes the immense physical challenge of towing a heavy weight across long distances, which is central to the theme of endurance and survival in extreme conditions.

💡Scabs

Scabs are crusts that form on the skin as a result of wounds or burns. The script mentions the difficulty of dealing with scabs on the lips due to the harsh environmental conditions experienced during the expeditions, highlighting the physical toll and the resilience required for such journeys.

💡Second World War

The Second World War was a global conflict that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The narrator's birth during this period and his father's involvement in the war provide historical context and personal background that influence his life choices and experiences, including his later adventures.

💡Winchester College

Winchester College is a prestigious British independent school. The script mentions it as a place that offered free education to individuals with the family name Fiennes, which is relevant to the narrator's educational background and his eventual path in life.

💡Special Air Service (SAS)

The Special Air Service is a special forces unit of the British Army. The narrator's service in the SAS is a key part of his military career, shaping his skills and experiences, which later play a role in his survival and success in extreme expeditions.

💡Transglobe Expedition

The Transglobe Expedition was a record-breaking journey around the Earth via the polar regions without flying. The script describes the preparation and execution of this expedition, which is a central theme of the video and a testament to the narrator's determination and leadership.

💡Arctic

The Arctic refers to the region around the Earth's North Pole. The script details the challenges faced in the Arctic, such as navigating moving ice floes, which is a significant aspect of the expedition and a symbol of the extreme conditions encountered.

💡Polar Bears

Polar bears are the world's largest land carnivores and a symbol of the Arctic. The encounter with a polar bear in the script illustrates the dangers and unpredictability of the natural world, adding to the narrative of survival and adventure.

💡Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson's Disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement and motor skills. The narrator's diagnosis with Parkinson's is a personal challenge that adds depth to the story, showing his ongoing struggle and adaptability even after his adventurous career.

💡Stress Nutrition

Stress nutrition, as mentioned in the script, refers to the study of how to provide adequate nutrition for individuals under extreme physical stress, such as during long expeditions. This concept is crucial to the success of the narrator's expeditions, emphasizing the importance of scientific preparation.

💡DNA

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the molecule that carries genetic information in living organisms. The narrator attributes some of his success to his DNA, suggesting that innate qualities and genetic predispositions play a role in his ability to undertake and complete extreme expeditions.

Highlights

The speaker describes the extreme difficulty of a 2,500-mile expedition, including the physical challenge of separating scabbed lips each morning.

Born in Windsor during WWII, the speaker's early life was marked by war and loss, with his father killed while commanding the Royal Scots Greys Cavalry Regiment.

A move to South Africa at the age of one with his family, where he attended four different schools, before returning to the UK for education.

The unique admission policy of Winchester College for those with the family name Fiennes, which the speaker failed to meet due to not passing the entrance exam.

The speaker's military career, including his time in the Special Air Service (SAS) and fighting in Yemen against Marxist forces.

An incident involving the use of army explosives in the UK, leading to a six-month probation and dismissal from the SAS.

Post-army life and marriage to Ginny, with whom the speaker embarked on an ambitious journey up the Nile River, marking the beginning of their adventures.

The couple's strategy for survival without money, which involved securing sponsorships and undertaking daring expeditions.

The Transglobe Expedition, a first-ever circumpolar journey around Earth without flying, which took seven years to prepare and three years to complete.

The challenges faced during the Arctic part of the expedition, including navigating moving ice floes and the unpredictability of the environment.

A dramatic encounter with a polar bear during the expedition, where the speaker had to shoot it in self-defense.

The successful completion of the North Pole leg of the journey, marking a historic achievement as the first humans to reach both poles in the same expedition.

The reliance on Morse code for communication during the Arctic expedition, due to the unreliability of other methods in the region.

The decision to continue the expedition against advice from London, demonstrating resilience and determination.

The moment of sighting the ship's mast after a grueling journey, symbolizing the culmination of years of hard work and achievement.

The importance of food and nutrition in sustaining long-duration expeditions, with the speaker discussing the strategy of carrying only essential items.

The impact of the Antarctic ozone hole on the health of the expedition team, leading to the necessity of covering all skin, except the lips, due to breathing difficulties.

The speaker's experience with frostbite and the self-amputation of his fingers using a fret saw and bull hoof clippers.

The evolution of team relationships during expeditions, with the speaker emphasizing the importance of character over specialized skills.

Recognition of Ginny's contributions to exploration, with a mountain in Antarctica named in her honor.

The speaker's current focus on managing Parkinson's disease through cold water swimming, inspired by actor Michael J. Fox.

Reflections on the speaker's successes, attributing them to a combination of luck and genetic predisposition.

Transcripts

We found that because you're towing that weight

for two and a half thousand miles,

it's just impossible to cover your mouth.

And in the tent every night when you go to sleep,

all the scabs stick together very hard.

And when you wake up in the morning

and you want porridge out of your bowl, first of all,

you've got to open your lips, okay?

And you can't pull them apart.

They're really entwined.

So you use a Swiss army knife,

not the knife, but the file.

So you slowly file your lips apart, lots of blood,

I was born in Windsor, outside the castle, obviously

at a time when it was being bombed

during the Second World War.

I was born four months

after my dad was killed.

He was commanding the Royal Scots Greys Cavalry Regiment,

60-ton tanks.

His mum, my granny

was South African from Cape Town.

And being bossy,

she took me, age one and my big sisters,

three of them and my mum out to South Africa with her.

And for 10 years we lived out there.

I went to four schools in South Africa

and then she died

and mum wanted to come back to the UK with her children.

She was looking for somewhere to educate us

and was very happy

when she found a place called Winchester College,

which took anybody totally free of charge,

providing your family name was Fiennes.

You could only get in free

if you not only got name of Fiennes,

but also you passed an entrance exam.

And that was too much for me and I couldn't pass it.

So I couldn't get to be colonel,

which is what I wanted, like my dad

because I couldn't get to Sandhurst College.

There was a secondary alternative in Aldershot called Mons,

so I went for that and I did manage just to pass that one.

And I eventually ended up in a thing

called the Special Air Service, SAS.

Nobody in those days had ever heard of the SAS.

And I applied to join the Arab Army in Arabia

fighting the Marxists

who had taken over parts of the Islamic heritage

of the Yemen.

And so I spent two years,

my last two in the army,

fighting for the Arab Omanis

to try and stop the Soviet taking over.

Basically I managed to kill the two main people on an ambush

and that just held it long enough for the Sultan of Oman

to get rid of the remaining Marxists.

So that was at least something that came out of my army

even if I didn't get to be like dad.

I won't go into details, but I used army explosives

to blow up a civilian property in the UK

and I ended up in six-month police probation.

I was thrown out of the Special Air Service.

When I was thrown out of the army

and I got married to my sort of childhood sweetheart, Ginny,

she's now, you know, my late wife of 36 years.

I didn't marry her till she was 21 and I was 24.

And at that particular time, neither of us had any money.

So we sat down and we worked out a way of surviving,

which depended on getting whatever you want

that you can't afford

'cause you don't have the money in other ways.

And she decided what we would do

was to do the first ever journey

up the longest river in the world, the Nile.

And that one succeeded,

did the first one then in British Columbia in Canada,

did in Rapids and so on.

And so we made a name for ourselves without money.

And we got, in seven years of hard work,

Ginny and I got 1,900 sponsor companies.

So everything we needed

to do the first ever journey around Earth, planet Earth,

without flying one metre of the entire journey

and going circumpolar, okay? Not horizontally around.

Never been done before,

never been done since.

Captain Scott in Antarctica

had got to do his attempt to cross Antarctica.

He had support from the Royal Navy.

Ginny and I didn't have support

from any sort of governmental background.

And the only thing

was that I had been in the Special Air Service.

So I went to the headquarters of the SAS

and told them Ginny's idea of this incredible expedition

to do the first journey around Earth.

And they said, "We, the SAS like your idea,

but we don't like you."

They were remembering I've been sacked and all that.

So what they decided

was that they were put in charge of this amazing journey.

They were put... The officer

who had six years earlier thrown me out of the SAS

in nominal charge of the expedition,

which was typical SAS sort of thought.

[Erin, Producer] How long did the

Transglobe Expedition take?

It took us, unbelievably, seven years

to get those 1,900 sponsors in place,

including a 1.8 million ice-strengthened ship.

That was sponsored

by an insurance company in London, Bowring,

including a ski plane.

We would never fly,

but we needed a plane that could land on ice

because if, as was likely, we came to grief

at some point in Antarctica or the Arctic,

in every field, Ginny became key to it.

She was in charge of all the planning

and the communications

for which during those seven years of preparation,

she joined the London Territorial Royal Signals.

At the end of the five years,

she was better at frequency prediction,

which is vital, than Marconi,

better than the British Antarctic survey, antenna theory.

So having her making sure

that the travel team, me and two others,

Charlie Burton was one of them,

the two of us managed to do the first journey around Earth

as a result of 10 years hard work.

The hardest point I think was the Arctic.

We had assumed the Antarctic with its crevasses would be,

but it wasn't, it was the Arctic

because, of course, up there it's moving.

You are crossing the sea with ice.

And in those days, only six weeks a year

with that breakup in the midsummer

and then the ice floes were moving about.

You could travel then 'cause of the heat

going from minus 60 to only about minus 10.

So that was possible.

But there were other obstacles

in getting from one ice floe to another.

If you're going like that to the North Pole.

Yeah, and over the top, back down the other side,

if you're going over on this

and you're wanting the ice floes which are travelling

and you're travelling on the ice floes to go north

'cause that's where you want,

but the ice floes are disobedient, they go where they want.

And a multi-year ice floe of eight-foot ice

will move at a different...

maybe go west one day.

Whereas the next door one, which is only a two-year flow,

not so deep, will go in a different direction.

And we didn't realise this until we did it.

And at any one moment, when you think you're safe,

it can go off in one direction and remove,

and you then get nylas, which is highly dangerous black ice.

You've got to keep going.

So you become an expert

at knowing whether it might keep your weight or not

and whether or not at that moment to waste time

tying a rope between the two of you.

So it becomes an expertise.

And I would say that Mike Stroud, Charlie Burton and me

became the world's experts at travelling over moving ice.

Doesn't really help get a job in the UK

but, there you go.

No A-levels.

We were on a route

which Canadian polar bears frequented.

And four years earlier in the preparation stage,

we'd got onto the Canadian government

and they said, it was very nice of them,

that if you're going on the route

that we said we were to the pole,

that would be the Canadian polar bears.

And only 10% of Canadian polar bears eat humans.

Only one was definitely going to attack us.

And I knew that what you do is you,

which we certainly didn't want to do, is to shoot it.

And it went, it was going round our tent like that.

We were about 20 yards outside the tent

and each time it went round, it got nearer to us.

So I said to Charlie, "If it comes around the next time,

if it gets past that lump of ice, we'll have to shoot it."

I had a .38 Smith & Wesson pistol.

He had a .303 rifle

and when it came past, it definitely was going to attack.

When a polar bear is attacking you,

always aim below its chin here.

And I did that.

And in the army I was a very good shot,

but I think I might've been nervous

'cause aiming there,

I hit it in the foot and it sort of stopped

and thought something had happened to it.

And then it sort of turned around and started loping away.

So we didn't shoot it

and it just swam from our ice float or another one.

And it had a leak,

a slight blood from the foot.

So forever after I was taunted by the SAS people,

couldn't even kill a polar bear.

When we reached the North Pole,

we had become the first humans ever

to reach both poles in the same expedition.

[Erin] And you were always prepared to die?

No, I was prepared not to die, not prepared to die,

but prepared to not get stupid thoughts

about don't do it because of this, that and the other.

You've got a wimpish weak voice will come into your head

as you're moving and you've got crotch rot,

you've got amputation dangers

and into your head comes this weak uninvited voice saying,

"I've got to stop, I've got to stop."

And you are thinking to yourself, "Well yeah,

let's hope that someone else on the team has to stop

and it won't be you at fault."

[Erin] How are you communicating

with the ship and with Ginny?

Up there, Morse code only.

In Antarctica, basically you use a theodolite

when you can and that will give you direction.

But that's because you're travelling over a solid thing.

Antarctica is 10,000-foot of mountain

and a thousand foot of icing cake on top,

which is moving off.

But in the Arctic it's very, very much difficult.

The magnetic stuff just doesn't work up there at all.

And for a whole month up there,

Ginny was trying to get

where were Charlie and I moving over the ice floes

that I told you about earlier.

And I was the navigator,

but I was unable to stay where we were.

And the committee in London,

Prince Charles as a patron and so on,

they then, from London, sent a message to Ginny

that she must get the ski plane

to collect Charlie Burton and me, the travel group

as soon as possible,

otherwise we'd be dead.

So she sent a message, she got a message from London,

commanding base, remove them, abort the expedition.

Abort the expedition

after 10 years, seven years preparation,

three years actually doing it.

10 years of our lives,

both of us and all the people who joined us unpaid.

Okay?

It was very, very difficult to accept.

And what Ginny said on the radio,

when Anton Bowring of the ship's crew heard her say it,

"We couldn't quite get your message, London,

but we think you said carry on,"

they'd actually said abort.

And so we did carry on

and eventually, very cleverly, Anton,

the guy I told you about, Bowring, in charge of the ship,

and Ginny, very cleverly reckoned

that if we were going the way they thought

it would take us out at a certain point by Greenland.

And suddenly after reaching the North Pole, okay,

we only had the last bit to do, which was difficult.

And in that bit it looked as though we were going to die

because everything was going wrong in the ice.

And so they got to within 22 miles

from where they said we were.

And at that point they said again, Morse code to Ginny,

"What you must do is to go here

and we think they'll come out."

Got the message.

And Charlie and I headed for where they said,

and Charlie and I had been out up there

looking at nothing but ice and water for eight months,

temperatures down minus 60 at one point.

And one day in a very knackered state,

which had a bad effect on our abilities,

we saw something that wasn't white after eight months

and it turned out to be in the far distance.

You just see these two little black things on the horizon.

And Charlie said, "Look, it's the mast of the ship."

And we climbed a 40-foot bit of ice

'cause when ice collides, it sends up so you can get a view.

And those two little black things

were just the top of the masts.

That moment, that was out of 10 years work of our lives,

that was the most wonderful moment.

And by sheer, I don't like saying good luck, it sounds bad,

doesn't mean we've done it,

it's luck, lady luck.

Anyway, whatever it was, we succeeded.

We did the first ever journey around the whole Earth.

Captain Scott did to the pole, the other pole,

never been done again

by human beings on their own planet.

[Erin] What were you eating on these expeditions?

That is why these records had not been broken

even by the Norwegians, our main rivals historically,

because you've got to take enough food.

And on our most difficult journey of all,

which was in, I think, 1993, was to beat the Norwegians

by doing the last great polar expedition

to cross the whole of Antarctica

with no aid or support of any type.

And that means that on day one

you are hauling 485lb load.

190lb was the weight a horse might carry.

190, I'm talking about 485 pounds.

Ginny recruited in '93,

Britain's director of the British Army,

he was director of APRE,

Army Personnel Research Establishment.

And his job was to get soldiers to go further.

And to do that, you've got to have food for longer

and it weighs more.

So the key, and he is an expert at it,

it's called stress nutrition.

Actually it's study of starvation

but the army called it a polite term.

And his name was Professor Stroud

and he was the expert and Ginny recruited him.

So that expedition,

he and I did the first ever unsupported crossing

of the entire continent, far bigger than America,

with only what we carried to begin with.

The Guinness Book of Records

now has us as having done

the longest unsupported polar journey in history.

And I remember that with great pain,

body pain.

It hadn't done us any good.

You can ruin yourself for later life

by getting done

when you're really feeling possible you can.

When we did that first Antarctica thing,

we were carrying that weight,

but not one item was unnecessary.

So we knew it would take about three months

to do the crossing,

but we wouldn't take a toothbrush for three months.

Why clean your teeth?

It's not vital to your survival.

If you want a porridge bowl to have your breakfast,

the two of you don't take two bowls, take one big bowl.

As you know, the ozone hole causes skin cancer.

And in Antarctica that's particularly bad.

And we knew that.

So what would be happening

would be that we would cover our skin.

We found that because you're towing that weight

for two and a half thousand miles,

it's just impossible to cover your mouth.

You can't breathe in like that.

So you can't cover your lips.

So they get very scabby

and in the tent every night when you go to sleep,

all the scabs stick together very hard.

And when you wake up in the morning

and you want porridge out of your bowl, first of all,

you've got to open your lips, okay?

And you can't pull them apart.

They're really entwined.

So you use a Swiss army knife,

not the knife, but the file.

And you slowly file your lips apart, lots of blood,

and then you want your breakfast.

So when you're eating breakfast out of one bowl,

all your blood goes into his porridge.

And this causes bad relations.

[Erin] And the frostbite on your hand-

When I got back from that particular expedition,

all those bits were frozen.

And so you can imagine a mummified pink

or purple dead finger end.

Well, if you touch the dead stuff against something,

it is really agonising.

So when we got back to the UK with the fingers like that,

I said I wanted to have them cut off, immediately amputated.

And they said, no, they will not amputate

until five months after the trauma.

Because in between the dead bit

and the live bit,

there was a semi-traumatised bit.

And that can, if you wait five months,

that can be a bit longer.

Well, after two months of going around

touching things with like that

and at night when you're sharing the pillow,

you turn over and that, you know,

I was getting really, she was right, impatient.

So I thought, we can cut them off.

And Ginny said yes.

By then, she was actually not doing the communications.

She had a farm of Aberdeen Angus cattle on Exmoor,

and when the bull's hooves got too big, she had clippers

and she'd clip the end of the bull's thing.

And if she got too close to the still live hoof,

the bull would misbehave and kick and so on.

So she would move the clippers into the dead bit more.

So I got these special clippers,

I got a Black+Decker work bench

and I could put the finger that way up,

tighten it up like that so it couldn't move.

And then with a special fret saw,

I would cut that way, turn it around, cut there,

turn it around, and great.

The thumb took two days

because of the bone in the middle being difficult.

But the physical lady, physicists or whatever you call them

up in Bristol,

she said I'd done a good job.

But when the surgeon, after five months,

saw that I had done this,

he was not very happy.

Yeah, I thought he was going to stop me

doing any more polar expeditions, having the finger.

But actually in the long run, they were alright.

[Erin] The relationships

and team that you had around you,

how did those relationships evolve?

Well, you you might say, if you're married,

you'd know the answer

because it's like a marriage sort of thing.

And you normally,

you will have got rid of quite a few people

who were thinking of staying with your group.

So the ones you end up with sort of thing,

you know their pros and cons, pluses and minuses.

And I have to say

that to try and get specialists,

like a specialist navigator

or particular form of scientific knowledge,

rather than going by their character.

So you're going for specialists

or people whose character is easy and nice and so on.

We've always found

that you can change

what they actually do.

You can sort of change it as you go along.

And therefore looking for that dreadful word - nice,

looking for nice people is better

than looking for a particular type of specialist.

And you teach that nice person

the scientific bits and pieces that you need to know.

Whereas the other way around,

you can't change character.

You can teach people.

The Foreign Office polar desk

have awarded a huge new mountain in Antarctica

in Ginny's name,

just because of one of the most difficult expeditions

they'd known about.

And she really did live up to that

and prove to the world

that women are just as important in our field of exploration

and breaking records as men.

[Erin] Is there anything

that you still hope to achieve?

There's various sort of things.

When I got Parkinson's diagnosed about seven years ago,

I read the very interesting books

of an American actor called Michael J. Fox.

And he had found

that swimming in cold water

for quite a reasonable bit of time

had these amazing effects.

And he would then, after having done a successful swim,

he would then be able to feel much, much better,

not so much shaking and so on.

And yeah, so he is successful.

So I've intended to do that,

but I found that

because I'd spent my life trying to keep warm,

to try and get cold didn't make the sense at all.

And I so far only managed, I hate saying this,

but I've only managed four and a half minutes.

But basically to answer your question,

I'm hoping to get better at it.

And next time I'll go for 10 minutes

and hopefully still be able to stay out there.

Yeah.

[Erin] How are you now?

How am I now?

The Parkinson's thing is definitely

not too bad with me.

Touch wood.

Outside of the expeditions

life looked like being very difficult to make a living.

When you get to a certain age

where you can't tow 485lb anymore, nevermind 200.

And so to move it into something useful,

I started to lecture and to write books.

And that just about covered the fact

that doing the expedition, nobody paid you.

But this swimming thing, I've got to get on top of it.

It's odd that someone who's spent his life

being most important is to keep warm.

Now the most important thing

is to be able to survive being cold for longer times.

But otherwise, Parky's doesn't seem to have,

you know, like many things, you can have it badly

or even have it not too badly.

[Erin] And what do you think about yourself

has allowed you to have such amazing successes?

I think that the fact

that we've had one or two impossible looking successes,

there's two words for it.

One is lady luck and the other is DNA.