The 1983 Pet of the Year award in Great Britain went to a dog that entered the Guinness Book of World Records, whose popularity led to the commercialization of stuffed animals, posters, and toys featuring his image, and who became the subject of a story about the great adventure that earned him all those honors: being the first and only dog to set foot on both the North and South Poles, a feat he accomplished between 1979 and 1982 during the Transglobe Expedition. His name was Bothie.

Bothie was a Jack Russell terrier, a dog breed—though not recognized as such by some clubs and federations—of considerable strength and stamina despite its physical characteristics: small size—no more than thirty centimeters tall at the withers—, weighing between five and seven kilos, with droopy ears, water-resistant fur, and a color that is generally white but may have brown (like Bothie) or dark patches on various parts of the body, in addition to proving considerable strength and endurance.

These dogs are known for their agility and lively nature, demonstrating a special aptitude for hunting and tracking; in any case, they are very intelligent, active, and brave, making them unsuitable for sedentary people, inexperienced owners, or families with small children. Their name comes from the Reverend Jack Russell, a clergyman nicknamed The Sporting Parson because of his passion for hunting and dog breeding (he is also credited with the Parson Russell terrier breed, a variant of the former).

Transglobe Expedition Promotional Poster
Transglobe Expedition Promotional Poster. Credit: Transglobe Expedition

Several Jack Russell terriers have found their place in history. The most famous is Max, the protagonist of the 2016 animated film The Secret Life of Pets and its sequel, though video game fans might also recognize Totakeke, the musician dog from Animal Crossing (Nintendo). This connection with the entertainment world is not surprising, as Jack Russell terriers exhibit charisma and intelligence, which is why they are often sought after for performing; as we will see, Bothie had an owner who also had some ties to the performing arts.

In everyday life, terriers also stand out: one named Patron detected more than two hundred anti-personnel mines during the first quarter of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, earning him a decoration presented by President Zelensky himself. So, it almost seems logical that if there were any dog destined to set foot on both poles of the Earth, it would be a Jack Russell terrier. The aforementioned Transglobe Expedition provided Bothie with the chance to prove it.

It was a daring enterprise: to complete the first longitudinal circumnavigation of the globe using only surface transportation. The idea came from English adventurer Lady Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, better known as Virginia Ginny Pepper, an army diver who, in 1969, became the first to navigate the White Nile by hovercraft and was also a pioneer in crossing British Columbia exclusively by river.

Ranulph Fiennes in 2012
Ranulph Fiennes in 2012. Credit: Foreign and Commonwealth Office / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr

Ginny’s résumé also included living for two months as the third wife of an Omani sheikh to write an article and organizing four expeditions to the Arabian Peninsula in search of Iram (or Ubar), the lost city of pillars. In 1972, she began designing a plan to cross the Earth via its polar axis, which she ultimately carried out with her husband, Ranulph Fiennes, after extensive studies and a hard search for funding (the budget was seventeen and a half million dollars). They married in 1970, but had known each other since childhood when she was only nine and he was twelve.

An aristocrat and lieutenant of the Scots Greys, discharged for trying to blow up the set of the movie Dr. Doolittle —it was damaging the environment, he said—, Ranulph was no stranger to the world of cinema. In fact, as some may have guessed, he is the cousin of the father of actors Ralph and Joseph Fiennes. He even auditioned to be Sean Connery’s replacement in the role of James Bond; the big screen missed out on a questionable 007 in favor of Roger Moore, but in return, the world of adventure gained one of its finest representatives, to the point that the Guinness Book of Records declared him the “greatest living explorer”.

For the Transglobe Expedition, one hundred and twenty volunteers applied. Fiennes selected only two, though the team would eventually include many more. One was Charles R. Burton, another ex-military man who worked in private security and was hired as a mechanic, radio operator, and cook, being the only team member to complete the entire journey alongside Fiennes. The other, Oliver Shepard, who also came from the military, was responsible for maintaining the equipment and handling medical and scientific tasks.

Aerial view of the Amundsen-Scott Station. In the upper right corner, you can see the geodesic dome around which the cricket match was played
Aerial view of the Amundsen-Scott Station. In the upper right corner, you can see the geodesic dome around which the cricket match was played. Credit: Bill Henriksen / National Science Foundation / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

The last to join was Bothie. He was given to the Fiennes in 1977, after they had already spent five years organizing their expedition, and they became fond of him, not wanting to leave him behind for such a long time as they expected (more than three years). So, they took him with them when they boarded a plane in Greenwich bound for London, from where they went to France first and then Spain, before making the continental jump to the Sahara, passing through Timbuktu, Mali, and the Ivory Coast, and reaching Abidjan, in the Gulf of Guinea.

From there, they boarded the ship Benjamin Bowring, aboard which they sailed to Cape Town (South Africa), where they made the final preparations to head to Antarctica. Initially, Bothie was supposed to stay in Guinea, waiting for his owners to return, as they feared the Antarctic climate would be too much for him. However, paradoxically, the opposite happened: the dog could not handle the equatorial heat and humidity, which is why he was sent with them on a supply plane.

They had set sail for Antarctica on December 22, 1979, arriving on January 4, 1980. They set up a base camp, which they named after a nearby mountain, Ryvingen, consisting of four cardboard huts, and wintered there until August, the month in which they headed towards the South Pole on snowmobiles, while Bothie took every opportunity to play, sniff around the snow, or spend a week terrified after hearing a glacier’s echo return his barks. They reached their destination on December 15 and rested at the Amundsen-Scott Station, next to whose geodesic dome they played what would be the first cricket match at those latitudes.

Map of Antarctica. At the South Pole is the Amundsen-Scott Station. Below is the Ross Ice Shelf, with the Scott and McMurdo bases, as well as Mount Erebus
Map of Antarctica. At the South Pole is the Amundsen-Scott Station. Below is the Ross Ice Shelf, with the Scott and McMurdo bases, as well as Mount Erebus. Credit: Ian Macky / PAT Atlas / Public domain / Wikimedia Commons

Bothie, who was with them, took part in the match. On this trip, he was properly protected from the cold with a custom-made red coat, a special balaclava, and a kind of leggings, although he often went without those clothes when the weather wasn’t too harsh. A week later, they headed toward the Ross Ice Shelf, crossing the one hundred and ninety kilometers of the Scott Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains, and on January 11, 1981, they arrived at the New Zealand Scott Base (next to the U.S. McMurdo Station, at the foot of Mount Erebus, the southernmost active volcano on Earth), thus completing the crossing of Antarctica.

The dog’s presence had proven positive, as he was a friend and a distraction for everyone. That’s why he stayed with the team when they boarded the Benjamin Bowring again to sail across the Pacific Ocean heading north. They made stops in Auckland (New Zealand), Sydney (Australia), Los Angeles (USA), and Vancouver (Canada) before entering the mouth of the Yukon River, which they ascended by boat, then descended the Mackenzie River to the Beaufort Sea. The idea was to navigate the Northwest Passage, that elusive sea route whose location had obsessed navigators until Robert McClure managed to traverse it between 1850 and 1854.

Fiennes and Burton set out from the Inuvialuit village of Tuktoyaktuk on July 26, 1981, aboard a Boston Whaler (named after one of their two thousand sponsors, Morgan Stanley), measuring just five and a half meters in length. While Bothie made friends with moose and Arctic wolves, they left behind the Dolphin and Union Strait, Victoria and King William Islands, the Franklin Strait and Peel Sound, Resolute Bay (at the southern tip of Cornwallis Island), Devon Island, Norwegian Bay, Eureka Base, and Greely Bay, reaching Tanquary Fiord on the western part of Canada’s Ellesmere Island thirty-six days later.

Map of the Arctic including the location of the North Pole and Ellesmere Island with the city of Alert
Map of the Arctic including the location of the North Pole and Ellesmere Island with the city of Alert. Credit: CIA World Factbook / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

It was the first west-to-east boat crossing of the Northwest Passage, covering a total of 4,800 kilometers, averaging 130 per day. From Tanquary, they still had to walk another 240 kilometers, crossing the frozen Hazen Lake on foot to reach Alert, the world’s northernmost permanent settlement, where they set up their base camp to spend the winter. They also reached the North Pole on foot, except for an initial stretch with snowmobiles.

They completed the mission on April 10, 1982, and immediately radioed their success to the base camp, which sent them supplies via a small De Havilland Canada DH3 Twin Otter plane. Among the items they received was a bottle of champagne to celebrate, but they also had a very special passenger: Bothie, who became the first and only dog to have set foot on both poles when he stepped off the plane onto the frozen Arctic ground. Their return to England was via the Svalbard Archipelago, arriving in Greenwich on August 29, 1982.

The dog had to undergo a six-month quarantine to prevent rabies, but afterward, he became a media sensation; so much so that the Fiennes even wrote a book about his adventures, which sold well, Bothie, the Polar Dog, which joined another successful book they published about their odyssey: To the Ends of the Earth: The Transglobe Expedition, The First Pole-to-Pole Circumnavigation of the Globe.

Cover of an edition of Bothie, the Polar Dog
Cover of an edition of Bothie, the Polar Dog. Credit: Internet Archive

Bothie was seven years old and therefore halfway through his adventurous life, as the average life expectancy for Jack Russell terriers is just under thirteen and a half years. What happened to him afterward is unknown, though he likely didn’t accompany his owners on any more journeys. They outlived him into the next century. Ginny, who became more sedentary, running a sheep farm, died of stomach cancer in 2004, two years after Charles R. Burton passed away from a heart attack.

Ranulph, who remarried, continued traveling, writing books, and giving lectures. In 1992, he resumed the search for Iram; in 1993, he crossed Antarctica unsupported with a companion; in 1994, he attempted to repeat the feat solo but failed after suffering a kidney stone; in 2000, he underwent several amputations due to frostbite after trying to reach the North Pole solo; in 2003, he ran seven marathons in seven days; in 2008, he failed in his attempt to be the oldest Briton to summit Everest (he succeeded the following year); in 2012, he had to be evacuated from Antarctica while trying to cross it in the middle of winter… He is still alive and often participates in charitable fundraising.

As for Bothie’s record of being the first dog to set foot on both poles, in 1994, it became not just the first but also the only and final, impossible to replicate. That year, the countries that signed the Antarctic Treaty agreed on a new environmental protocol that banned the last remaining exception for the presence of non-native species at the South Pole: husky dogs, which until then had been essential for transporting scientists and equipment. The reason? They are no longer as necessary, and banning them prevents the risk of disease transmission to seals.

This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on September 23, 2024: Bothie, el único y último perro que ha pisado los dos Polos de la Tierra

SOURCES

Ranulph & Virginia Fiennes, Bothie, the Polar Dog. The dog who went to both Poles with the Transglobe Expedition

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, To the ends of the Earth. The Transglobe Expedition, the first Pole-to Pole circumnavigation of the globe

Debbie Macklin, Redundant huskies sent packing from Antarctica

Alex Preston, Pole to Pole: the story behind Sir Ranulph Fiennes’ pioneering circumpolar expedition – told 40 years on

Transglobe Expedition

Wikipedia, Bothie (dog)

  • Share on:

Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Follow LBV Magazine on Google News