Craig Swan on cold nights in Helmand

Craig Swan talks about life working in Helmand province in Afghanistan. The former BBC foreign correspondent now lives in the Spey Valley in Scotland and still hankers for the life overseas, although he admits it isn’t all rosy,

“As the producer in charge, it was my job to negotiate with the Ministry of Defence to gain permission to go and then work out where we were to broadcast from, organise all the logistics and make sure our team were properly trained and equipped to work in a war zone…
Just living in Helmand in a forward operating base is a challenge. The temperatures in the summer are extraordinary, routinely in the high 40s Celsius by day, 30s at night. The hottest we endured was 55 degrees. You need to drink six to eight litres of water a day just to function.
At night everyone slept outside under mosquito nets and, wherever possible, within sandbag cover, but the prospect of a breeze outweighed the risk of mortar attack.” link