two exciting guys to potentially have to come back in. from the test to t20 where we witnessed some brutal hitting in the australia big bash in melbourne. australian all—rounder marcus stoinis smashed 147 not out in the melbourne stars‘ win over sydney sixers — the highest individual score in the competition. he bludgeoned eight sixes and 13 fours in his 79 ball knock. his opening partnership of 207 was also a big bash record. cricket australia have announced some legendary players are coming out of retirement to play in a t20 charity match to raise money for bushfire relief. shane warne, and ricky ponting seen here with former women's captain alex blackwell, will captain the teams made up of other famous former aussie cricket stars. the game will take place on february the 8th, at a venue yet to be confirmed. that's all from sportsday. we'll have more in the next hour. now on bbc news — it's the travel show.

since hg wells wrote of the martian invasion in his 1897 novel war of the worlds, the red planet has captured our imaginations. at over 33 million miles away, it's incredible to think we could one day colonise mars. this year, virgin galactic‘s first customers hope to head into space in a 90—minute sub—orbital flight,

for a cool $250,000. but if you don't have that in the bank, but still harbour dreams of being a space explorer, there are options out there here on earth. so, for the next 2a—hours, i'll be learning how to live life like a mars colonist in spain. astroland is a project set up to see how humans would potentially cope living on mars from a psychological perspective, but to also test out potential technologies. so clearly, this is not a space shuttle but mars, for the purpose of this exercise, is going to be in a remote cave in arredondo, and i have a feeling my sci—fi fantasies are about to become unlocked. the idea is to simulate how hard it will be to survive on another planet with the barest of tools. this particular expedition is just for the night, and is geared towards scientists

who will be doing experiments as if they're on the red planet. wow. oh, my god. down we go. but, before any exploration, the team need to change. so this is the bit i've actually been waiting for, my very own spacesuit, although it's a lot thinner than i thought. i thought it was going to be this giant spacesuit that i was going to find a little bit unwieldy, but i think i can handle that. in fact, i think i've got an outfit like this at home. i look ready, ifeel ready, i'm ready. just one final touch. i'm ready for my ascent into martian land. i'm a little bit scared, too. laughs. hold this? laughs.

our aim is to get to ares, our base, where we will be spending the night. it's anticipated that the first colonists to mars will also have to live underground in caves or lava tubes, to avoid interstellar radiation. and there's no time to waste on the experiments. ok, so i'm collecting some samples of the water that's trickling from above. it's really quite cool. speaks spanish. so the guys have just made quite an interesting discovery. they've discovered a rock showing signs of photosynthesis, which is strange because there's no light down here, so this is a pretty incredible breakthrough for these guys. finally, we make it to ares, and it's a bit of a squeeze in the decompression chamber.

but the team are immediately analysing their samples. we're going to find out if the water we collected earlier has got any signs of bacteria, basically any signs of life living inside it. in a previous expedition, they actually discovered a new species of amoeba. the important thing here is you have a cave which is huge, and very special, and you have the capacity to analyse some of the things inside the cave. and what are you hoping to achieve by collecting samples from down here? new species, basically. but i think here you can learn many things about aspiration in difficult parts of the earth and other parts of the solar system, for example. ah, we have a table.

the pod is set up with everything to meet your basic needs, and after all that work, it's time for dinner. cous cous with chicken. wild berry yoghurt. they all sound the same. i'm going for one of my favourite dishes, bolognese. right, the water's in. give it a stir, leave for ten minutes. it looks a little bit like plastic. but i'm so hungry. that is actually quite nice. whilst the others finish up dinner, i sneak out to find out more about the project. also, any excuse to get suited up. ifeel like i'm in a completely different world being in here. i mean, how big is this cave? i mean, it's pretty deep. sitting here, right by the dome,

by the space station, by the ares station, we are hardly — hardly — one third of its actual size. it is so big that it actually resembles the giant lava tubes that we could find — that we are going to find on mars. human beings will inhabit mars, it's a fact. the only thing we don't know right now is when it's going to happen. it could happen in 20, 30, 40, 50 years. yeah. right now, we can resemble all the conditions that we're going to find on planet mars, and beneath planet mars, right here on planet earth. one of the goals is to extend the stays in the cave to see how people cope. very soon, we'll meet teams of scientists, and engineers, and people from all areas of knowledge and science, spending one month, several months, more than a year, in this station. more than a year?! wow.

when you're talking about isolating people for several months or more than one year, there are so many things that come in that will be so useful for future space exploration. this experience isn't cheap. for non—scientists, it's about £5,000 for the 30—day experience, which includes preparation, training, and about three days in the cave. imean, mars. next up, cat moh is in iceland at the thingvellir national park, taking an icy dip between two tectonic plates. bubbling, spluttering and creeping. iceland is a country alive. sat on a fault line between two tectonic plates, and enduring

brutal weather conditions, it's constantly being shaped by powerful natural forces. which is why i have come to thingvellir national park, because here, back in the 18th century, earthquakes tore a rift in the valley and left behind what some say are the clearest waters in the world. so i'm joining a tour group to snorkel in what is called the silfra fissure. our group is so international, even our guide is an italian. basically, we have two reasons to be here. first of all, silfra is the only place on earth you can actually dive between two tectonic plates. as i show you guys over there, there is the edge of the american tectonic plate. five kilometres on the other side of the valley there is the beginning of the eurasian tectonic plate. the silfra fissure sits between these two plates, which move apart at 2.5 centimetres a year.

when it formed, glacial meltwater filled the gap. water that's just two degrees above freezing. it's quite difficult, walking down the stairs. i can feel the water squeezing in my suit. yeah, so just come towards me, just lean forward. and let the fins go up in the back. yes, perfect, like that. and you just fly. do you feel all right? now we can start to go, then. oh, my god. this water is cold! my face is so numb! it's only been, like, ten seconds. all right, guys. everyone, it's ok, guys. thumbs up! there we go.

amazingly, it takes up to 100 years for the water to filter from the nearby glacier and on through volcanic rock to arrive here. here, the underwater visibility can be as much as 100 metres. so far, so good. my body is completely numb to the cold water. so now all that is left to do is just enjoy the view. it's so clear down here. it's amazing. well, that's all we've got time for this week. from me and the rest

of the travel show team here in northern spain, it is goodbye. good evening. some lively weather on the cards as the second named storm of the season, storm brendan is moving on from the atlantic. a quiet end to the day on sunday, this was the picture in west sussex, taken by one of our weather watchers earlier, but in the next few days, some windy weather on the cards for much of the uk and some heavy rain as well. through this evening and tonight, we have some showers working their way eastward, across england and wales. a dryfor eastward, across england and wales. a dry for scotland and northern ireland, with clear skies, quite a cold night, temperatures near freezing across the northern half of the british isles, mostly frost free to start monday further south. monday is a quiet start, things will turn very windy through the day as storm brendan moves his way in from

the west. you can see the proximity of the isobars ahead of the cold front. not very windy first thing but gail is developing across the west, with some heavy rain working into the west. further east across the uk, dry with sunshine. wherever you are, you will notice a strengthening wind. reasonably mild with the wind coming from a southerly direction, 7—10 degrees on sunday. —— monday. but the rush hour home from school or work, heavy rain across the south—west of england, wales, 65—70 mph wind here. that will be followed by clear spells and heavy showers across northern ireland and western scotland, where wind gusts could reach up to 85 mph. snow over the high ground of scotla nd snow over the high ground of scotland as well. we will see rain at low levels down across parts of eastern england with a strong gusty wind as we head into monday evening. eventually, they wet and windy weather will clear away towards the east, so a quiet spell for a time.

but then heading into tuesday, the next area of low pressure moves up from the south. mostly dry to start tuesday, some wintry flurries across the hills of scotland. more rain and strengthening wind moves northwards across england and wales through the day, could be disrupted once again in the south. perhaps some snow on the northern edge of that. temperatures in single figures in the north, but a mild 13 or 1a degrees across the south—east of england. things quieten down later in the week, but be prepared for windy conditions and heavy rain over the next few days. goodbye for now.

this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at 7: hundreds of anti—british demonstrators protest outside the embassy in tehran. here, the government calls yesterday's detention of the ambassador a flagrant violation of international law. completely unacceptable. i think you're right. breach of certainly the vienna convention and a whole range of things. urgent talks between the queen and prince harry and meghan will be held tomorrow over the royal couple's future. 8,000 people are ordered from their homes and manila international airport puts all flights on hold after steam and ash erupt from a volcano in the philippines. in australia, the terrible toll of the bushfires