Expedition leaders Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Anton Bowring next to the SA Agulhas in Cape Town's Table Bay, South Africa, over New Year. The ship will depart next week for Antarctica where Sir Ranulph and a small team of explorers will attempt the first-ever Winter crossing of the frozen continent.

Dubbed 'the last great Polar challenge,' their trek will take six months in almost complete darkness and in temperatures that could reach below minus 80 degrees Celsius.

'The Coldest Journey' is a Commonwealth-flagged expedition which is raising funds for the charity ’Seeing is Believing’ – a global initiative that raises money to prevent and treat avoidable blindness. It has helped bring affordable eye-care to some of the poorest communities across the world.

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