In Extreme Survival, Ray Mears finds out what happens when humans find themselves without 20th century backup. Ray says: “Despite our sophisticated lifestyles, humans are out of place in most parts of the world and unable to survive for long without proper clothing, food and water. As well as talking to scientists and medical experts and using my own survival expertise, I’ll be recreating some remarkable survival stories where people have survived against the odds in the most inhospitable places around the world.”
Mears meets the first US pilot shot down in the Vietnam War.
In the ancient forests of Belarus the intrepid explorer tracks wolves and a herd of native bison.
Mears looks for the black rhino.
Mears relates two incredible tales of survival from frozen Alaska.
Retracing the footsteps of Mears's childhood hero, 18th-century American frontiersman Robert Rogers.
Extreme changes in weather face Mears as he meets a deer culler and spends time with Maori communities.
Mears travels to Baffin Island and the wastes of Siberia.
An Austrian couple suffered greatly when trying to walk 40 miles in the Outback, with heat so fierce it melted their shoes, while in Arizona Mears admires the masters of the desert environment, the Apache.
Mears makes himself at home on one of the tiny islands that make up the Philippines before heading deep into the jungle to tell the story of a Japanese PoW.
Mears experiences the wilds of Canada, and follows the RAF's survival training course.
The tale of a shipwreck survivor who lived on a fish's eyeballs for 76 days.
From the frozen far north of Sweden in midwinter to 5,000 miles south in the Sahara, lessons on how to survive in some of Earth's most inhospitable places.
In the jungles of
south west Costa Rica, Ray discovers a “green hell.” Heat exhaustion,
dehydration, snakes and mosquitoes come high on the list of perils – and it’s
easy to get lost. Everything looks the same - just green foliage for miles and
miles. Ray explains how to avoid disorientation, good places to find liquid and
the equipment essential for a trouble-free time.
Dr John Walden, a leading expert in tropical medicine, tells Ray about some of
the medical risks of being in the jungle, including the candiru (a stick-like
member of the Catfish family that swims up the urethra of unsuspecting bathers
and lodges itself in the bladder), mosquitoes (which cause over 4 million deaths
each year from malaria) and deadly spiders. He explains that simple precautions
like “shaking out your boots” can pay dividends.
In the frozen forests
of Northern Sweden, 150km inside the Arctic Circle, one small mistake such as
losing a glove can cost someone their fingers through frostbite - or even their
life. At -30ºC it is considerably warmer in a freezer and only someone with the
expertise of Ray Mears could actually survive for any length of time in such an
extreme environment.
The survival priority in the Arctic is shelter and Ray quickly makes himself
comfortable under the snow-laden branches of a tree, making a bed from tree
trunks with pine branches for a mattress, and brewing up a hot cup of pine
needle tea. Ray meets Lars Falt, in charge of survival training for the Swedish
military, who takes Ray through a course for soldiers hoping to become survival
instructors. It’s very tough - they spend five days out in the open with no
supplies, with night-time temperatures as low as -50ºC.
The most critical
factor when someone finds themselves in a hostile environment - and the
difference between life and death - is a positive state of mind. “Survival is
psychology,” says Lt Col Dr Bruce Jesson, a psychologist with the US Department
of Defence. “Your head makes the decisions about how you perceive the threat
you’re faced with - whether you’re going to approach it with realistic optimism
or whether you feel overwhelmed and perish.”
“Everyone is a potential victim, not everyone is a potential survivor,” says Dr
John Leach, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Lancaster.
“What we’re trying to do is to find out why some people died when they didn’t
need to.”
The sea is the
world’s largest wilderness and every bit as deadly as the most extreme
environment on land. “You can have the heat of the tropics, the lack of water of
the desert and the freezing cold of the arctic,” says Ray Mears.
US Marine Zachary Mayo managed to stay afloat for 36 hours after falling from an
aircraft carrier steaming through the Indian Ocean. “When you see a ship pulling
away from you, it’s like you are helpless. It’s really lonesome and scary,” he
says. Zachary wasn’t wearing a lifejacket but tied knots in the end of his
trousers and filled them with air to act as a float. He was lucky that the water
was warm but even luckier that a Pakistani fishing boat spotted him in the
vastness of the ocean.
Ray Mears tests his
own courage as he takes part in the RAF’s three-week survival course in
Cornwall. He joins a team of 20 jet pilots, navigators and helicopter crew as
they learn to survive at sea and on land.
RAF aircrew can find themselves in action almost anywhere in the world, flying
over desert, sea, jungle, woodland or the Arctic. If they are shot down behind
enemy lines, they have to be able to survive in every environment. “In a few
seconds, a fighter pilot can be catapulted from their jet worth millions of
pounds into a Stone Age situation where they’re surviving hand to mouth,” says
Ray.
From learning to survive on water, the course moves to Dartmoor where Ray spends
a week living rough in shelters, learning how to trap squirrels and birds, light
fires and cook what he catches. It’s wet and cold. When they go on the run for
three days and nights, a hunter force is let loose to capture them.
Mountains are
treacherous places, where the weather can turn in an instant. Ray Mears goes
into the Alps to demonstrate an array of mountain skills, including how to use
what’s all around – snow – to most advantage.
Most people underestimate the dangers that exist in mountainous areas and
avalanches are one of the biggest threats. Ray shows what sort of slope is
likely to avalanche, what to do if caught in the middle of one, and how new
technology is improving the chances of survival.
And then there’s frostbite. Dr Charles Clarke, medical officer for the British
Mountaineering Council, says: “When fingertips are blackened, the immediate
reaction of the surgeon is: have them off, clean it up, and make it look nice.
The only good news about frostbite is that it’s often a lot better than you
think it’s going to be.”
Ray Mears ends the
series in classic Robinson Crusoe territory - a desert island in the Pacific.
“Everyone knows the story,” says Ray, “but not many people know that he was
based on a Scotsman called Alexander Selkirk, who marooned himself after a row
with the captain of his ship.”
Ray tells the story of Bill Coffeen, an American airman who lived for a month
almost entirely on coconuts after ditching his plane during the Second World
War, and of Hiroo Oonda, a Japanese soldier who went into hiding on a Pacific
island for 30 years at the end of the War.
Locals call coconuts “the tree of life”. Ray explains how to get the most from
this valuable resource, along with what other edible plants to look for, how to
steam reef fish on hot rocks buried in sand and how to build a bamboo trap to
monitor lizards.
In 1998, two
Australian tourists set off for the journey of a lifetime into the Australian
outback – but only one of them returned alive. Ray Mears follows in the
footsteps of Karl Goetshke and Caroline Grossmueller to show what lessons can be
learnt from their tragic story.
The couple were travelling in South Australia when their four-wheel-drive car
became stuck in the sand. They had neither the knowledge nor equipment to free
it and, due to a misunderstanding, no-one knew they were there. And when they
left their vehicle and tried to walk for help in temperatures of more then 100
degrees, the chances of their survival were dramatically cut.
Ray offers some advice from his checklist for safer travel in the desert: travel
in pairs, always carry plenty of water and spare fuel, take along a handled
shovel to dig a route out of sand or mud and, in the event of a breakdown, never
leave the vehicle. Caroline’s death made the authorities realise they must do
something to make visitors better prepared for the outback. But Ray’s conclusion
is simple – travellers must be responsible for their own safety if they are to
avoid making the same mistakes as Karl and Caroline.