Pen Hadow will also be taking part in the adventure

A 63-year-old British businessman is to try to become the oldest man to walk unaided to the South Pole.

Simon Murray will join the veteran explorer Pen Hadow on the marathon trek next month.

The adventurers want to raise money for the Royal Geographical Society's (RGS) polar archives.

Mr Murray said the idea started at one day at breakfast, when his wife asked "why don't you walk to the South Pole?"

He said that after 37 years of marriage a question like that made him ask "what's the message?"

But an idea had begun to take shape which could soon see him take a place in the record books.

'Macho trip'

At first Mr Murray planned to walk into the pole from a distance of 50 miles, but his plans quickly changed when Mr Hadow came to stay.

"We started lunch with 50 miles and by the end of lunch we were going to go the whole shebang - 1,200km.

There are no signposts, no roads, no tracks, no nothing, and once you're there you are very much on your own and you work your way to supper Simon Murray

"And we were going to go unsupported - no drops, no dogs, no nothing, and it was going to be a macho trip all the way in."

Over the months that followed the details were carefully worked out.

Mr Murray expects the trip to be "pretty tough" - even compared to the 150 mile marathon he ran across the Moroccan desert at the age of 60.

"That is nothing compared to this - this is really serious stuff," he said.

"Antarctica is very big, it's the highest continent of the seven continents, it's the coldest - temperatures get down to minus 125 - and it's the windiest."

'No signposts'

Other tests include a 10,000 feet climb on the way to the Pole.

And with 90% of the world's ice in Antarctica, Mr Murray is well aware that the environment will be a constant threat.

He added: "There are no signposts, no roads, no tracks, no nothing and once you're there you are very much on your own and you work your way to supper."

His companion, Mr Hadow, 41, from Dartmoor, became the first person to reach the geographic North Pole unsupported from Canada in May.

He fulfilled a 15-year dream by completing the 478-mile, 64-day trek, but then had to wait eight days for the right weather so he could be airlifted out.

Celebrated figures

The aim of the RGS project is to provide full public access to its heritage collection for the first time.

The archive contains about 500,000 items its archive, including maps dating back to the 15th Century, journals, pictures, diaries, personal papers and artefacts from some of the most celebrated figures in the history of exploration and geography.

The RGS has raised �9.2m towards the projects, including a �5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.