Louise Minchin: The Heat is On challenge was tougher than expected

Louise Minchin didn’t realise how tough the ‘Sport Relief: The Heat is On’ challenge would be.
The ‘BBC Breakfast’ presenter trekked across the Namib desert in Namibia last week – along with Nick Grimshaw, Frankie Bridge, Rob Rinder, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Samantha Womack, Karim Zeroual and Dr Zoe Williams – to raise money for Sports Relief.
Over four days, the eight celebrities hiked, skied and cycled through risky terrain in searing heat to reach a shipwreck on the notoriously dangerous Skeleton Coast.
While Louise, 51, knew the challenge would be "difficult", it was much tougher than she thought.
On her return to the BBC morning show on Monday (02.03.20), she explained: "I knew it was going to be tough but it was out there!
"But also, utterly brilliant and you know me, I enjoy really difficult things but it was really far past difficult."
The stars all made it across the finish line on Friday (28.02.20) after walking for more than eight hours a day, whilst battling excruciating temperatures that left Louise with sores across her body.
When asked about the red patches on her skin, she clarified: "It’s not sunburn … it was 43 degrees in the shade, we were expecting it to be 35, so I don’t even know how much it was out of the shade.
"All I can tell you was it was like being in a furnace and then you got the hairdryer treatment because you think the breeze would be cold but it was hotter.
"It was quite intimidating really because you’d breathe in and not really feel that the air was doing any good. But this is a heat rash that I got all the way over my legs."
Last week, Nick was left "really upset" when he had to pull out of the second day of the ‘Sport Relief’ challenge after being struck down with "bad heat exhaustion".
And days earlier, he said he had been left "proper exhausted" when the desert crossing was hit by a rainstorm.
He said: "I didn’t bring a waterproof, as when would it ever rain in the desert?
"I’m proper exhausted. This is the worst I’ve ever felt. It is so much harder than anything I have experienced.
"I’m falling off my bike constantly but have to keep going. I’m keeping pace with Louise, my bike buddy. But Rob is so fast. He’s probably at Heathrow already."