LOVE Islanders are set to roast next week when temperatures soar in South Africa.
The crop of new singletons will be sweating in sizzling sunshine come January 16th.
Currently forecasters have predicted a hike in temperatures near Cape Town reaching 31C, after weeks of drizzle.
Love Island’s winter edition was first launched in 2020 and was won by Paige Turley and Finn Tapp, who scooped the £50,000 prize.
But the show was then put on hold for two years due to Covid.
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The new winter Love Island villa is named after a Roman gladiator school - in a nod to the drama that's to come.
ITV bosses have spent £1.2million on hiring the luxury pad in South Africa which boasts rugby and football pitches as well as an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
But the singletons must be braced for combat in their quest for romance at the site, which is called Ludus Magnus after Rome’s ancient gladiator school.
The original Ludus Magnus was built between 81 and 96 AD by the Emperor Domitian to supply gladiators for the Colosseum — where slaves battled to the death to save their lives in front of baying Romans.
The eco-friendly Love Island villa has its own boreholes and streams for water and runs off the grid — being powered by 266 solar panels.
It also has its own resident springboks and four rescue donkeys.
For standard punters, one night in the mansion costs in excess of £430 a night.
But it is understood the owners are charging the show’s producers £8,000 a day to rent the whole estate.
It lies a couple of miles from Virgin billionaire Richard Branson’s hotel and vineyard, Mont Rochelle.
It has football and rugby pitches, a 400m running track, ziplines and mountain bike trails.
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Ludus also boasts river rapids and two 50metre swimming lanes in a vast lake — which are used for Olympic training.
The water also its own “love island” in the middle, with a sandy beach surrounded by trees.
The pad is sprawled over 25 acres of a wine valley in the town of Franschhoek, 46 miles from Cape Town.
It has 17 bedrooms and a treehouse, as well as a T-shaped swimming pool.
Love Island will have a new host for the winter series, with Maya Jama replacing Laura Whitmore.
