 Ranulph Fiennes, Charles Burton, and Oliver Shepard left London on 2 September 1979, beginning with a relatively simple overland trip through France and Spain, then across West Africa through the Sahara.They boarded the ship the "Benjamin Bowring" in the Gulf of Guinea and travelled by sea to South Africa.After preparations in South Africa, they sailed for Antarctica on 22 December 1979, and arrived on 4 January 1980.