Environment Forum
Global environmental challenges
Antarctica and the Princess and the Pea
Even the fussy Princess in the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale might slumber peacefully in an Antarctic tent.
She turned up at a castle unannounced in a storm and married the prince after proving she was royal by complaining of a sleepless night because of a lump in the bed — a single pea the Queen placed as an identity test beneath the 20 mattresses and 20 feather beds.
Above is Daniel Fitzgerald, a field assistant at the British Rothera research station, carrying a bag that contains a foam mat, sheepskin rug, sleeping bag and other layers used to spend a night out in bone-chilling temperatures – in total there are 10 layers separating you from the ice and snow.
Reuters TV reporter Stuart McDill and I spent a night on Reptile Ridge on the Antarctic Peninsula — for a story, click here. (We slept in the middle two-person tent in the picture below.)
