Life in the extremes isn’t for the clumsy
At the risk of over-sharing, I once found myself in -37ºC wearing nothing but a pair of wet shorts. I was in Finnish Lapland and there was a hot tub close to my cabin. Getting in was easy enough, but when I hopped out, my towel snagged on the tree it was hanging from, and I spent a frantic few seconds trying desperately to free it. The situation went very quickly from the comical to the downright scary. It’s hard to believe quite how unpleasant –37ºC is until you’ve been in it. I dashed for the warmth of the cabin, in doing so narrowly avoiding a late entry for the Darwin Award for most idiotic death of the year.
As well as providing an amusing anecdote, the experience gave me a fresh appreciation of living in the extreme cold. That animals can not just survive but thrive in such conditions is one of the many miracles of life – as the jaw-dropping Frozen Plant II reveals.
Beyond the ice
Have you been enjoying the epic survival struggles in BBC One’s Frozen Planet II? Once you’ve read our interview with executive producer Mark Brownlow, head to www.discoverwildlife.com for episode guides and fascinating facts about the animals featured in the series, from narwhals to musk oxen.
Discover everything you need to know about the stars of Frozen Planet II on our website
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