If you’re anything like us, you were absolutely hooked on SAS Australia last season, and you’re dying to know when the show will return to our screens. Unfortunately, channel 7 still hasn’t announced the premiere date for season two, but we do have a whole pile of juicy facts about the series.
You know when you watch a reality show and you’re like, “okay, that looks rough, but is it really that bad, or are they just making it look harder than it really is for the cameras?” Well, from the sounds of things, these recruits are well and truly going through it.
Firstly, they enter the course with nothing. Like, no personal items, only-the-clothes-on-your-back nothing.
From there, they get given “everything they need”, but to be honest, let’s define “need”, because we need to scroll through approximately 97 TikToks before falling asleep in our warm beds, but something tells me the recruits are missing out on both comfort and content.
For our recruits, “need” means they’re given clothing, footwear, and a full Bergen backpack.
According to 7News, “The Bergen contains every item recruits need to navigate and survive in the outdoors including helmet, chest harness, sleeping mat, tarp, towel, water bottle, knife, mess kit, mug, toilet roll, sanitising wipes, sunglasses, head torch, notebook, pencil, toothpaste, toothbrush, belt, armband, whistle, watch, sleeping bag, compass and two sets of kit (clothing).”
As soon as they enter the base, our celebs are no longer household names, in fact, they’re not even referred to by their name. Rather, they get referred to by the number on their armband.
The living conditions are stripped down to the bare bone essentials. They have simple camp cots, a sleeping bag, and an army blanket; surely not enough for a comfortable night’s sleep, especially during cold winters nights. As for showers, there’s no comfort or warmth to be found there, either. The recruits have no access to hot water and are forced to wash themselves in a sink.
There are two sinks at the base camp; one for washing themselves and one for dishwashing, but neither have running water. Instead, recruits are to carry buckets of cold water over to the appropriate sink.
In fact, one of the only sources of heat the recruits are blessed with comes from the two potbelly stoves in the Recruit Dorm. Obviously, the contestants have to chop their own wood to get it going, because of course they do.
The recruits need to be able to get a fire going, too, because that’s the only way they’ll be able to dry their limited clothes at the end of a long day of challenges that often involve water, mud, sleet or snow.
Every day, contestants get served three very basic meals, with just enough calories to get through the gruelling endurance challenges. Through training, recruits often eat upwards of 4,000 calories to build strength and endurance, but once they become recruits, their caloric intake is reduced to as little as 1,400.
And finally, what’s the deal with the toilets? Well, it’s a short-drop situation. A drum with some sawdust in it, which has to (yuck) be cleaned out by the recruits themselves.
Basically? Everything you see on the show is real, and it’s exactly as hard — if not harder — than it looks!
SAS Australia returns to channel 7 and 7Mate later this year.
