Extraordinary Lives | Survivorman Les Stroud & Sue Jamison

[Music] when we were remote and away from everybody in away from help it was very well it was scary the summer is one thing the winters another it's brutal in the winter time nor was worst night of my life and certainly the worst night of Sue's I asked him are you truly prepared for that a year in complete isolation for the first portion of my memory not till about the age of 13 I was very passionate about the bush what I wanted to do was to be in the wilderness with a camera filming lions of tigers and elephants but something changed when I was in grade seven I believe my whole hive just completely flipped from that moment on all I wanted was music less has always had a great passion for what he decides he's going to be interested in he digs in deep all the way I started working in rock videos and working for much music I spent probably a good ten years plus totally wrapped up in music that's all I did but something was changing there was something you know inside of him that was wrong there was something eating at him and dying at him and he was indicating at that time that he was looking for something else that he was very disillusioned with the music business somehow it wasn't me what I mean was pretty emotional period stressful period okay so what do I do now what do I do all I've known for 12 years and most of all my adult life has been pursuing a music career I didn't have to look far hit me hard the wilderness was all I've ever wanted that's all I ever really wanted was some involvement with wildlife in the wilderness get back to that and made the change never look back the first thing I did was go off and take a survival course just to see what I could get into and see when I met in a winter camping course well we started off with a friendship and found that we had a lot in common and loved to do a lot of the same things and it it just grew from there it was very natural sue was equally as passionate about the wilderness as I was and we just looked at each other and constantly talked about we've got to do something had to do something big the idea was to spend a year in the bush living primitively and at the same time and you can see it all coming together here at the same time I'm thinking and then I could film it trying to find out where we were going to do this was very difficult we needed to find a place that was remote enough that we would never see anybody that is was really tough to find we prepared for two years we read I don't know how many books dozens and dozens of books on the subjects and and research too studied he took the time to plan it and worked hard at it and he enlisted the help of a lot of friends we and they spent a lot of time you know preparing their food preparing their clothing making a lot of primitive instruments and so I said well Chum good luck hey and hopefully you'll survive we just wanted to get going so got in our canoe turn around say goodbye we just paddled up this little lake and we were off and running these are the first paddle strokes of a year away and it was just an incredible feeling getting to our location was a whole other experience and when we weren't expecting at all halfway through it became a tangled mess of trees and fallen over trees twelve kilometers as a straight paddle should take you about four hours it took us four full days to get up that 12 kilometer creek soo in almost delirious agony because her mouth is full of ulcers it was the hardest thing I think I've ever done physically when we got to the top end four days later then it was pure magic loons calling over on the left-hand side and a beautiful sunny day and it was just like well where do you want to live this was home they were going to be in there in the winter it that part of it was was very scary for me I was very concerned for their safety the silence that you hear in the bush there's like no other silence at all you can hear your heart beating I swear you can almost hear the world kind of turning they were isolated they were living off the land getting their food from the land getting their tools from the land it's hard to describe it's just you feel so free we dropped a weight like that built muscles like that and worked 12 hours 14 hours a day just getting our shelter built as well as collecting firewood and that took such a huge amount of time that can be a very dangerous place you have to be cautious and you have to be aware of your surroundings every minute if it's so hot muggy that the mosquitoes are ferocious you have to live through that if it's bitterly cold and -42 you have to be set up and prepared and live through that you can be in real serious trouble if you don't have a basic knowledge of the life-saving skills of what to do what to eat what not to eat we had been growing gradually weaker and weaker and we do some work and have to sit there granted it was hot but I'd never lost energy like this before we were building our log cabin and I was doubled over shaking violently throwing up being sick we did not want to believe that it could be the water because it was the water we were in trouble sure enough it turned out to be a form of Giardia which is a waterborne parasite but again because they never have any metal containers at the time it's really hard to keep your water purified by boiling we had found out when we were in getting tested for Giardia that Sue was pregnant and we came back in we were thrilled we were very determined to finish our year in the bush no matter what a great moment for us was completing the winter cabin it had a real feeling of home that night that we got into our cabin for the first time we got our first real winter snow he's got dumped on in the winter time there's no forgiveness if it's minus 30 you have to enact your survival mentality immediately or you're going to perish very quickly we woke up one morning to sue having some pretty intense pain we radioed into here on air for help it was a snowy day and the planes couldn't fly a little tiny tiny log cabin covered in snow -35 no indoor plumbing no outhouse no anything and Sue's hemorrhaging all we have is a bucket the night their miscarriage happened I don't remember a lot of it I remember the pain and I remember less moving around me she's losing blood she's shaking and and scared I'm very well trained in outdoor emergency care and that was certainly the scariest time of my life ever and then I was helicopter down to Thunder Bay the fact that we had lost our first child was very sad and disheartening of course you build up such a an excitement and to have taken away so soon really really you know it hurts we went back into the bush as soon as we could after the miscarriage to recuperate because I believed that that was the best place for me to be the time to think the time to meditate the time to be physical and active the time together as a couple and it was a magical magical winter we breathed in the fresh air deep we enjoyed feeling strong strong legs and strong backs that was our best moment was that collection of our winter exploring we achieved the year in spite of all the problems we accomplished that goal let's came back with a very accomplished solid feeling about himself his music had changed to a writing of soul writing he was writing from his heart I love performing I love it dearly I'm developing a tour right now where I'm going to be taking wilderness film images from all across Canada and a five piece band we're gonna play live to the images there's my film as my wilderness there's my music all together in one beautiful marriage the whole point of going for what you believe in and going after your dreams is so important that's a lesson that I learned and I hope it's a lesson that we pass on to our children I think most importantly for us is we want the kids to understand that the world is wide open to them so sit down and then we and the wood started helping get kindling I got to put some wood on the fire and I've been doing bringing looks a little on the fryers for daddy I have what we have planned right now is to see kayak the entire coast of Canada and we're going to paddle that as a family sue and myself and the two kids and film it there's no question that that drive that burns within me now that was never there for 30 years came certainly and directly as a result of the best year of our lives of the year that I spent in the bush with Sue [Music] [Music]

Channel: DoxNM

Views: 76,330

Keywords: survivorman, survivorman documentary, survivorman discovery channel, survivorman full episodes, survivorman new season, les stroud, les stroud survivorman, les stroud greatest moments, survivorman greatest moments, surivorman top 10, survivorman how to, how to survive in the wild, survival guide, survival documentary, canadian survival expert, outdoor life network, the science channel

Id: FLDWDWh0ZII

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 16 2018