It is, in the words of David Attenborough, “the most hostile of the Earth’s frozen lands, where temperatures can fall to below minus 80 degrees Celsius and winds blow up to 200 miles an hour”. He is, of course, talking about Antarctica, the White Continent. It is a place so remote and unforgiving that the population consists almost exclusively of a couple of thousand scientists from 29 or so nations who hunker down at their bases during the summer months (between October and March) and who leave behind only a smattering of colleagues to brave the harsh winters.
But summer, in Antarctica, is a relative term, as my wife and
