Sir Ranulph Fiennes is being fêted on the 50th anniversary of his legendary African expedition—when he journeyed down the White Nile by hovercraft—with a three-part National Geographic documentary.
Fiennes has been exploring the globe since the 1960s and has been dubbed the “world’s greatest living explorer”—for good reason. He was the first person to complete the Transglobe Expedition, using only surface transportation to make the trek from pole to pole.
GQ recently chatted with the legendary explorer about everything from cheating death to eating human flesh.
“Right now, no I would not [eat human flesh]. But under extreme circumstances, providing the person in question wasn’t killed in order to be eaten—providing he had died and had said beforehand, ‘When and if I die, you can certainly eat me to save your own death’—then I would consider it.”
Such an extreme measure might save his life during one of his epic adventures—like when Fiennes climbed Mount Everest in 2009, at the sprightly age of 65.
Once his adventuring days come to an end, the world’s greatest explorer hopes to be remembered for not only his amazing record-breaking feats, but also for the millions of dollars he’s raised for charity as well as the work he’s enabled scientists to do when they tag along on his epic journeys.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.