- [Narrator] Despite
technological advances, there are still corners of the world that we haven't explored at
all, and out in the wild, there are mysteries just
waiting to be discovered. From monsters hiding in the woods, to ancient cities lost
in the Amazon rainforest, get ready to venture into the wilderness and explore some mysterious discoveries that will blow your mind;
or keep you up at night. Angikuni Lake. Hockey, maple syrup, good manners and poutine. God I love Canada. When you're busy drooling
over fries and gravy, it's easy to forget that
much of Canada is, this: Miles and miles of
deadly frozen wilderness. And when you're alone in the tundra, it's easy to go a little crazy. And back in 1930, a man called Joe Labelle
stumbled across something that made him think he
was losing his mind. Joe was a fur trapper, hired
to explored the wilderness, gather animal pelts and
grow an impressive beard. Joe was out trapping around
Angikuni Lake in Nunavut, Canada's northernmost territory. Nunavut is Canada's largest territory, but it's also its least populated, with only 39,000 people
occupying the area's harsh and deadly climate. While out searching for pelts, Joe came across a small
Inuit camp by the water. The campfires were still smoldering and pots of stew sat on top of the flames. It was seemingly dinner-time
at the Angikuni camp, yet when Joe searched the settlement, there was nobody around. He found empty tents, half-eaten bowls of food
and an unfinished shirt, needles still poking out of the fabric. The fires and food meant the villagers had been there recently, but there were no footprints
in the snow leaving the camp. They had all vanished. As Joe continued to explore, he was left in utter
disbelief as he discovered that every grave in the
settlement had been opened and emptied, the headstones neatly
stacked beside the graves. Something very sinister
had clearly happened at Angikuni Lake. Horrified, Joe fled across the wilderness, trekking over ice and snow to reach the closest civilization. He persuaded the local police to set off in search of the villagers, but they were never found. Their fate remaining
a mystery to this day. It's possible that the
villager's left willingly, their footprints simply
covered up by snowfall, but then snowfall would've surely dampened the campfires too? And what about the graves? With so many questions unanswered, you can certainly forgive Joe Labelle for not wanting to hang around Angikuni, alone in the wilderness, for long. Mys-trees. If you ever find yourself in the middle of the
Crooked Forest in Poland, you might just find out how
the forest got its name: A grove of pine trees
with a very unnatural bend at their base. Nobody knows for sure why the
trees have grown like this, and spookily, most of the trees bend directly north, almost like they're pointing at something. Scientists have determined that the trees were planted in the 1930's, and they were 7 to 10 years old when a mysterious force
caused their trunks to curve. Some folks theorize the area has a uniquely
strong gravitational field, pulling the trunks down to the ground, but there's no scientific
evidence for this and the phenomenon hasn't
been observed anywhere else on earth. Others believe tanks in World
War 2 drove over the trees when they were saplings,
bending them out of shape, only for them to continue growing skyward. And of course, others believe the anomaly can only be the result of aliens. I'm not sure why aliens would
want to bend a bunch of trees in Poland though; Unless it's just a case
of extra-terrestrial arts and crafts. Interestingly, there are cases of humans
bending trees on purpose. Native American tribes
used to bend trail trees to mark their roads and paths, like an old version of a
sign above the highway. The trees were bent at their base, before growing straight
up towards the sun, resulting in their distinctive shape. So, some theorize that the drunken trees in Poland's crooked forest
could likewise be manmade. Curved wood used to be
an important material for building ships, and the crooked forest could've been used to give shipbuilders a
supply of curved wood without having to bend
it after harvesting. But then again, if the trees
were grown to build boats, why were they never cut down? Let me know what you think
in the comments below. Le Loyon. Bigfoot. Chupacabra.
The Abominable Snowman. The wilderness is a hotbed for tales of cryptids and creatures. The wilderness around a small
Swiss village called Maules is no different. Having been plagued by reports
of a cryptid for years, known as Le Loyon. Eerie local reports describe
the entity as a tall, imposing, human-like figure, occasionally glimpsed
moving throughout the worlds in a boiler suit, a dark cloak,
an an old-fashioned gas mask and no real direction or purpose. There's even footage online of people claiming to capture the monster, although the fake-looking camcorder effect and shaky cinematography, makes me think it's probably
just a group of kids trying to shoot their own
low-budget horror film. Regardless, when he allegedly appears, Le Loyon always wears the same outfit, although he was once spotted clutching a bouquet of flowers. What a romantic. Mrs
Loyon is a lucky lady. Police have searched for Loyon for years, but they've never been able to find him. The monster only appearing
to unsuspecting walkers, deep in the woods. More cynical people suspect that Le Loyon is just a guy who likes dressing up and going for long walks, but as the stories of Le Loyon
turn from fact to legend, some locals believe that
underneath that boiler suit, the monster might not be human at all. What do you think? Is Le Loyon just a guy trying to get his daily 10,000 steps? Or is an alien monster
hiding behind that mask? Let me know down in the comments. Ancient Aliens? Cave paintings can give
us an amazing insight into the lives of our ancestors, usually depicting handprints, animals and people hunting, pretty
standard caveman stuff. Sometimes, however, a cave
painting will come along that's more puzzling; Pictures of strange shapes, mutant animals and humanoid figures. While perplexing works of
prehistoric art like these may be the result of ancestors with over-active imaginations, get your tinfoil hats at the ready because some equally-imaginative theorists of the modern age believe these paintings are proof of extra-terrestrials
visiting the ancient earth. One type of cave art
that's frequently cited by conspiracy theorists are depictions of the
Wandjina in Australia. The Wandjina are a sacred
part of Aboriginal culture; Cloud and rain spirits that,
in Aboriginal mythology, were instrumental in sculpting
the Australian landscape and its inhabitants. Ancient paintings of the Wandjina are found around Kimberly; A wild, isolated part of
Australia's coastline. And legends state that
these powerful spirits had the ability to lightning strike people that broke the law, as well as transform
themselves into clouds and disappear into the sky. Suggestions that the
Wandjina were advanced, space-faring aliens have been criticized for undermining the Aboriginal's
important cultural beliefs, but depictions of the Wandjina
are strikingly similar to the appearances of
aliens in modern media. Of course, ancient myths and
folklore aren't always meant to be taken literally, and the Wandjina were likely using
metaphorical interpretations of natural forces like thunderstorms, lightning strikes and floods. Still, these conspiracy theories are spurred on by other pieces of cave art found all over the world. Cave markings found in
Chhattisgarh, India, were near-identical to modern depictions of blubous-headed aliens. And in the US, the head of sinbad, is sometimes used as an
example of Native American art that depicts an alien figure. This evidence should, of course, be taken with a pinch of salt as the artworks could easily
be abstract depictions of humans. I mean, even when modern
folks, me in particular, try to draw humans, it rarely works out photo-realistically. Before you say anything; Yes, I am deeply ashamed
of my artistic skills. Impossible Colors. We've already explored some
of the terrifying things that people have found while hiking, but not all mysteries have to be scary. In 2018 a redditor went
for a walk in the woods with their girlfriend and found something that
brightened up their day; A body of water in the swamp that appeared to be filled
to the brim with rainbows. Some commenters thought
the colours might've been the result of a giant colourful bath bomb, or an oil spill. Thankfully, the explanation's
a bit more natural. As the cones on the swamp's
cypress trees fall down, their natural oils gather atop the water, refracting light, which is then reflected back to the eye by the water below, shifting the light's wavelength to the multi-coloured spectacle you see. The rainbow waters are
totally safe to swim in; I still wouldn't risk it though. Hole in the woods. Sometimes mysteries discovered in the wilderness totally
defy natural explanations. That's why users on twitter
were left scratching their heads when this image started
to circulate online. Internet sleuths desperately
tried to figure out what might've caused the hole, and one twitter user ominously stated, the hole isn't scary, I'm
afraid of what created it. However, an explanation eventually came, and the hole wasn't a portal to Narnia, or the work of a monster with
a passion for pruning hedges. It was actually created by Antti Laitinen, a Swedish visual artist who
largely works with nature. It was a part of a project
called "Broken Landscape" that involved cutting
segments out of trees to create eerie, unnatural scenes. Antti doesn't just work
in the woods though. His other works include a painting made out of his own sweat, and attempting to move an entire
lake with just two buckets. Both works of art had similar results; Puddles, and not a whole lot more. Wilderness Wanderer. Police Officer Helenice
Vidigal must've seen lots of terrifying things while
patrolling round Brazil's stretch of the Amazon Rainforest, which she was assigned to in the 2010s. But the strangest thing she
ever saw wasn't a venomous snake or a jaguar, it was a skinny, bare-foot Canadian man
walking down a dirt road, headed towards the depths of the jungle. When she approached the man, she discovered he didn't have a passport and he didn't speak a word
of Portuguese or Spanish. She had no idea how he got there. Meanwhile in Toronto, Stefan Pilipa was going about his life, his days plagued by thoughts
of his brother Anton, who had gone missing 5
years before in 2012. His disappearance had left
Stefan with so many questions; Where had Anton gone? Why had he left? And was he even still alive? All those questions were answered when Stefan received a call from a certain Brazilian police officer. It turns out that Anton had
travelled over 6,000 miles and 10 different countries on
his journey to South America. Nobody knows how he crossed
borders without a passport, and he undertook much
of the journey barefoot, carrying little more than
the clothes on his back. Now, my dating profile says
I like long-romantic walks, but that's just insane. So what inspired the walk? Well, Anton wanted to visit the National Library of
Buenos Aires in Argentina, and with a history of mental illness, it seemed Anton became totally consumed by the idea of heading
there on foot, at all costs. After several years of traveling, Anton finally made it to destination, only to be turned away from the library because he didn't have an ID. So, he turned around and
began his long journey home, the journey in which
he'd eventually encounter officer Vidigal, leading him to be
reunited with his brother without having to walk
the full two continents. Hopefully, before Anton
departs on his next adventure, he'll leave a note. Mystery Line. Do you ever feel like your
eyes are playing tricks on you? Well, let me introduce you
to this spot in Tennessee, a real-life optical illusion. The woodland looks like
it's been Photoshopped, with the perfect line across
the trees reaching as far as the eye can see. Believe it or not, this
isn't edited at all; And the trees haven't been painted by our friend Antti Laitinen. Instead, this location,
known as the Sinking Pond, is a vernal pool; A body of water that
fills up with rainfall from Winter to spring, and then completely
dries during the summer. In the Sinking Pond, the trees are partially
submerged for most of the year. When the pond sinks into the
ground during dry season, the water-logged bottom-halves
of the trees are exposed, all at the exact same level. I can just imagine the confused local frog that wakes up on the dry forest floor one spring morning each
year, shouting to his wife, dammit Florence, did you pull the plug out
of the bath-tub again? Swamp Ghost. In 1972, a group of Australian
soldiers found a ghost, deep in the swamps of Papua New Guinea. This ghost wasn't a Victorian
Lady in a white dress, or a little girl climbing
out of a TV screen, it was the remains of a
World War 2 era airplane, known as the Swamp Ghost. The machine guns were still loaded, a thermos was filled with rotten coffee, and an ashtray still held the ends of half smoked cigarette butts. The plane was oddly intact, just resting on the swamp floor, but, initially, the fate of the crew was a total mystery. However, as awareness of the plane spread, the Swamp Ghost's crew were tracked down. Journalists managed to interview the plane's engineer Clarence LeMieux, now a 90-year-old veteran
living in Spokane, Washington. He revealed that before the crash, the plane ran into
three or four tornadoes, had a hole shot in its right
wing by Japanese warplanes and eventually ran out of fuel, forcing the crew to ditch the plane in the middle of the jungle. To think, I get scared over
a little bit of turbulence. Incredibly, the men all
survived the crash-landing, trekked through the jungle
for days in search of help. The men came close to death,
and during their journey, two of them started hallucinating, exclaiming they could
see an American mess hall through the trees. Luckily, the men were eventually
rescued by a local tribe, and escaped the jungle on canoes, but the shell of the
swamp-ghost was left behind; Waiting to be found almost 30 years later. Frozen In Ice. Antarctica is a barren
wasteland of ice and snow. It's the fifth largest
continent in the world, but in the winter months,
only 1,000 people live there, for one main reason; It's just so cold. With temperatures as low
as -126 degrees Fahrenheit, and wind speeds up to 199 miles per hour, the people who do live on Antarctica are there for scientific research, travelling across the continent
to make new discoveries, and meet some baby penguins. With how desolate it seems, imagine the surprise when
a group of researchers on Cape Evans came across a
box full of 22 undeveloped, film photographs, buried
in a solid block of ice. The researchers quickly
cleaned and developed the photographs, and what
they found was amazing. It wasn't a polar bear taking a selfie; It was a set of perfectly preserved images from an Antarctic expedition
over 100 years ago. Initially, they didn't know
who left the photos or why, but it's now believed the
photos are of the Aurora, a ship that explored the
arctic between 1914 and 1917. During their travels, the
explorers' main ships sunk, leaving them stranded on
the ice during a blizzard. These adventurers were then
forced to paddle in lifeboats for 720 miles over a stormy ocean to reach the safety of the
nearest island in South Georgia. Miraculously, their
endeavor was a success, but their holiday photos
were lost until 2013. Yeah, I don't know about you, but I think I'll pass on an
Antarctic vacation this year. Blue Woods. When you picture tree trunks, you probably imagine something
brown, or possibly white. Bright blue trees, meanwhile,
might sound like something from an alien planet, but
people have been discovering these unnatural looking
plants in the wilderness all over the world and
sharing them online. Shared examples have included trees with blue-dashed trunks and sticks that are filled
with the blue stuff. This curious coloration left
people scratching their heads, but the mystery was solved when mycologists came to the rescue. Mycology is the study of
fungi, and it turns out the blue branches are the result of a fungus
called Terana Caerulea, also known as the cobalt
crust or velvet blue spread; Sounds delicious. Although the branches
might look like candy, they aren't blue raspberry flavored, though the fungi aren't
particularly harmful to the trees either. With over 100 species
capable of making woods a little bit blue, me and Terana Caerulea
have something in common. I can't turn a tree blue,
but I too am a fun-guy; Sorry. People of the Forest. To those of you that
didn't turn the video off after that last pun, when going for a hike on your own, there's nothing worse than realizing that you aren't alone anymore. A shadow in the distance, a figure watching you through the trees, it's all shudder-worthy. But, in a surprising number of cases, those humanoid silhouettes
on your periphery may turn out to be, of
all things, statues; As countless posts online have proven. One redditor, for example, found this strange box in the woods, assuming that the object had
crash landed from outer-space; Though the door on the side
implies a more terrestrial, albeit intricately constructed, secret-forest-hideout purpose. Another web user discovered
this beautiful wooden archway, likely constructed by intricately
bending and restricting the trees' growth. And they rightfully joked
that it looked like a portal to another dimension. Sometimes, it's hard to
tell whether forest finds are manmade or not. One redditor's heart
sunk when they discovered this monster in the woods during a hike. People online were left
scratching their heads, trying to figure out whether
it was a natural tree, a piece of artwork, or
an actual woodland demon. One of the scariest woodland instillations are Rob Mulholland's mirror sculptures, placed all over the Scottish wilderness. The statues reflect the woods around them, completely camouflaged until
you get up close; Terrifying. The ghostly figures are intended to explore humanity's
relationship with nature but if I stumbled across one, I'd probably just explore
how quickly I could run away. But I'd rather have the
mirror people over for dinner than get lost in this trail in Atlanta, where people have found
eerie hybrids of dolls and technology. So that's what Sid from Toy
Story's up to these days. But there are yet more forest humanoids to be found around the world. These haunting wood
sculptures by Nagato Iwasaki are placed in woods all over Japan, and if you travel to De
Schorre Park forest in Belgium, you'll find yourself
transported to a fairy tale, suddenly surrounded by wooden sculptures of trolls and giants. It turns out that these mysterious statues are the work of Thomas Dambo, an artist who creates
art out of recycled wood and other discarded materials. Dambo created the sculptures
to encourage people to explore nature, and he's now one of the most
prominent recycling artists in the world. Getting commissions to
build more wooden trolls all over the globe, truly proving that one man's trash is another man's treasure, Lost City of the Monkey God. From Machu Picchu to
Teotihuacan in Mexico, the discovery of ancient
cities can teach us a lot about the civilizations
that came before us. They're home to fascinating legends, abandoned temples, and
beautiful artifacts, like this mask, found intricately carved out
of the mineral serpentine inside Teotihuacan's pyramid, for use in mysterious
rituals, long-forgotten. Deep in the Honduran Jungle though, there's a legend of a lost city so wealthy that the inhabitants
used to eat their food off of plates of gold. This civilization is known by two names: La Ciudad Blanca, The White City or The City of the Monkey God. Stories of the city have
circulated since the 1500s, and several explorers have set
out in search of the ruins. Some came back with bags full of treasure, while others never returned at all. In 2015, a group of adventurers
set off into the rainforest, battling through a region
known for its deadly snakes, jaguars and violent drug cartels. Against all odds, these adventurers discovered
a city in the jungle, the ancient ruins of which had
been overrun by vegetation. They found pyramids,
temples and sculptures. The art depicted jaguars,
ancient villagers and as per the city's name, monkeys. Nobody knows why the city was abandoned, but a local legend says
that the villagers fled after being cursed by a disease brought on by the Monkey God. This was thought to be a myth, but the explorers soon
started to feel unwell during their expedition. They discovered they had contracted a flesh-eating parasite
called Leishmaniasis, and were forced to flee the ancient city to get medical attention. The explorers have since
stated their desire to return to the city and
uncover its mysteries, but they're yet to return. However, the disease they contracted could give a scientific explanation for the abandonment of the city. If the parasites, carried
in certain species of fly, were present back when the city fell. For now, though, the jungle
city remains cloaked in mystery. Isle Of Horrors. Up next, we have one of the
strangest true-crime stories of all time. A mystery featuring an isolated
island, a violent criminal and a small colony of wallabies. The setting? Loch Lomond, Scotland. I told you it was strange. Back in the 1940's, all 86 acres of the isolated
Inchconnachan Island in Loch Lomond were owned
by the Countess of Arran, an eccentric who was once known as the fastest granny on water due to her love of speedy motorboats. This quirky countess had a
love for exotic animals too, populating Inchconnachan with Wallabies after World War Two. Today, there are around 60
wallabies living on the Island, and explorers flock to its shores to snap photos of the
out-of-place Australian wildlife. But not all of these visitors
have good intentions. This became apparent in
2017, when a truly bizarre and slightly disturbing
mystery cast a dark shadow upon the island. Visitors arrived on Inchconnachan's shores to discover that a large
number of the wallabies had been killed, their bodies
left all over the island. The killer must've come in the night, committed the crime and vanished, their identity remaining a mystery. While the criminal mastermind is unknown, there is a clear motive for the crime. The wallabies are technically
an invasive species. Their arrival altering the ecosystem and taking food away from the
native Capercaillie birds, driving their numbers
down to dangerous levels. This angers some locals, and there have been demands that the government cull the wallabies to protect the island's ecosystem. But with no significant
action taken to date, it seems some wallaby-hating
vigilante took justice into their own hands. But mysterious culprit
aside, invasive or not, who'd want to cull that little face? Do these mysterious discoveries
make you want to go out on a wilderness adventure of your own? Or are you happy to stay well away from the dangers lurking in the wild? Let me know down in the comments below and thanks for watching.
(upbeat music continues)
