Survivorman | Directors Commentary | Episode 7 - Kalahari I Les Stroud

everybody and welcome back to director's commentary so if you got a chance to see the very first one that I did on the Arctic hopefully there was some cool stories there actually after I finished filming that I started thinking of all kinds of other oh I forgot to tell this story and that story so hopefully as time goes on and I do each of these shows and hang out with you I'll remember these stories and I'll be able to tell you normally I'd say let's pour a beer pour a glass of wine what's going to get a glass of wine okay I'm drinking some very exciting agua but it's midday and I'm actually in rehearsals right now for going on tour so on my new network on SM TV network calm which you're on right now sooner or later this episode is going to be brought up but for now we could we get to do it this way this is this is by special request is the kalahari episode which I did in season 2 and was in Namibia so you know what there's no point in me continuing to talk I'm here I'm you can't see but I am joined by my cat right here there there's Callie now she'll take off and Peter the guy at Peter cleave she wrote a ton of music for Survivorman over the years was also here he's downstairs playing guitar practicing for the tour he might come up and join us halfway through now I'll start watching kalahari see what goes on here [Music] that's the beginning oh I'll start right there actually there was a um wasn't gonna say the the warnings that come in front of the shows you know those things you know how those come about an executive producer calls you because some lawyer was saying this and anything you got all this writing have to do well it gets even worse when the insurance agents get involved when the insurance agents agents get involved then they need more disclaimer and it's like after you just like really are you kidding me but it's the whole you know what it is you're watching this guy do this crazy stuff out and while he's filming survive man don't do what he does it's all of that but those things come about because of lawyers and insurance agents and you get phone calls about them and you have to type them up and have them approved and they have to be worded properly I tried to keep my I I prefer kind of like the South Park version if you know what I mean be careful because these old weaverbird nests are absolute perfect homes for the Cape Cobra ah the weaverbird nest oh yeah this was just ah I was being trained by the Kalahari Bushmen on how to go to the weaverbird nests and and capture them because you can you can even eat them but those nests they I better turn that down hey I'll turn that down those nests are favored hideaways of the cape cobra which is a really beautiful snake but also a deadly snake most the times on my understanding as a bite from the cape cobra it's just body recover your not body recovery you're not you know so stretching from south africa north through Botswana Namibia and all the way to the Congo is a part so this is season two so we still did the the map thing to show you where I was on the continent this you know older style of production at that time where it was kind of like a requirement you had to do I do seem to go on forever broken only here and there by flat sun-baked pans dare to live here existence is harsh running out of gas can be a fatal disaster in the desert I've got an old 4x4 with not much in the tank when it runs out I'll have to survive alone amongst the Cobras and the scorpions cut to stock shot of Cobra dunt dunt down that's my I mentioned this before in the Arctic director's commentary that's my dramatic opening that we would do the openings shooting those opening scenes are still they were always the most fun for me though because you know the crew was around we're still filming them I'm still eating it's just like and in this case you know sourcing out equipment like a jeep that you can break apart it's not so easy and it's very costly to cuz you can there are lots of times where someone will let you have a vehicle you know a film vehicle that you can but you're not supposed to break it you're supposed to do things to it so in my case you know I'm gonna do things to it so I have to eventually essentially what I have to do is purchase the vehicle optic so to buy it so that I know I can basically destroy it for the show but it was fun it's always fun thinking about what scenario I can create in the Kalahari Desert well running out of gas in the middle of the desert yeah I'd be nasty but they are not my greatest foe blisteringly dry not surprising for a desert and sandstorms are not only common deadly but it's the heat that's the killer two days ago here it is 42 degrees Celsius that's 107 degrees Fahrenheit and the temperature of the sand can reach an amazing 75 degrees Celsius that's a hundred and sixty-seven degrees Fahrenheit that's hot this was during a period when the legendary Kalahari lion from surviving here what we do for shooting an episode like this if we're going to fly me all the way to Africa to do an episode we're not gonna do one episode we're gonna go at least two so we did the South South African episode here oh there we go I'm running on a gas and then it was to go up to Namibia and shoot this Kalahari episode and you have to you actually have to do things like that when you're shooting and show you logistically speaking you've only got so much money to to film an episode of Survivor man and you have to make that money last you have to be able to to pay for everything that's going on you have to have enough money left over to do all the editing and the on lining and the color correction and all stuff like that very expensive proposition so if you're gonna go to Africa can you shoot two episodes maybe three that makes a big difference because then you save a lot on flights that zoom in sounds like common sense but but it's not really you have to learn this process to get it right so this is me running out of gas now and yeah I mean basically set it up so that that is exactly what would happen at the end of the diesel which yeah of course it's setup but I'm there to teach this process to show you survival in the Kalahari Desert and the only way I can do that is to set up a scenario now you know what I'm there I'm gonna be alone I'm gonna do with everything I'm gonna go through surviving in a film it but to start it off does have to come from my brain and and my creativity on okay well what is a realistic scenario in a location like the Kalahari Desert and being a Canadian dealing with the heat that was actually something I was pretty worried about and now the safety crew heads off and leaves me alone to film the ordeal myself so you see that was always vital showing that the safety crew was finished getting the opening shots and leaving and in this case we did the opening and then I was left there so I didn't shoot the opening the day before anything like that that was this is remember this is early in the in the days there were no other survival shows on television it was just survivor man and so that was me letting you know hey just to remind you yes we were doing some fancy shots and some aerials with a helicopter while I'm driving but now I'm alone and just that one moment just a few seconds of you seeing the cameraman leaving puts it in your mind you'll remember oh yeah drop it he's alone - that was always very important one week alone in the Kalahari Desert That moment when when the crew leaves so now I'm doing a little bit teaching here that the moment when the crew leaves is always a very strange time for me because it's like if any of you died it's like you know that on the top side before you go beneath the waves you you it's very messy it's very noisy you're bumping and jostling with people you've got to put on all the dive gear when you hit those waves everything just goes it's a great experience it's like that we used to be like that what I used to get dropped off for remote canoe trips the plane would leave and you just be Survivorman was exactly the same and crews there we're filming this I'm reading my opening lines and everything eventually they all got to go and leave me alone they leave and there's always a moment you'll never see it on camera but I take a moment sometimes sometimes a good moment like a half an hour to an hour I'll just I have to let myself come down and start to get my senses about me all right I now what am I going to do you know is three hours before dark or it's cold or it's hot what am I actually gonna do so this is what my brain has to think survival over filmmaking first things first is water white what I need to do I need to do this in this and then I'll be okay for the night okay good next part now how am I gonna film that oh and then I start thinking bout how I'm gonna film it and I have to do this almost all pretty much every single Survivorman show I go through that for centuries the Bushmen of the Kalahari have survived by sitting still during the heat of the day and it isn't taking long for me to figure out why the heat is oppressive yeah the heat is oppressing there that's a good word that I like to use because I'm used to like my thick Canadian blood I'm gonna go back to great Nicole but I get beat up in the heat pretty good quite a bit it's not what I'm used to check out all the holes so these scorpion holes it's so cool because you it's basically there it's the width of their body determines how big they are and I'd never scorpion is as wide as its hole yeah I'm explaining it that incredible I'd never seen anything like that before and they were just everywhere killer which means you know that at night time instant relief that's all come out listen for me I have to think about my priorities now first priority is just to get through this night in the back of a pickup truck when I've stranded myself with a vehicle airplane in Australia the truck here quite warm and a car in Norway admittedly on one hand there's an a quick advantage I got a shelter right there ready to go it makes a big difference actually on the other hand it can be a bit of a trap that didn't make a lot of sense in the airplane in Australia for example and in Norway I was well I'll get to that when I do the not wake director's commentary so I'm not going to tell you now but here it gave me a slight advantage so that in terms of how to get up off the sand but still makes for a rough night and the thirst brought about by that heat and tomorrow morning I'll get up real early see what I've got take stock of my supplies that's the key in the desert your travels in the morning it's at night if you can travel a night it's late in the evening it's never during the heat of the day oh this is where I ended up spending the night and they care for the tech so you can hear my nose is all stuffed up spending the night there some things you got to think about what I'm gonna survive a man that's a week without brushing my teeth yeah it's a week without splashing my face it's all of those things you're gonna fall into peril came out here know what I had his head cold anyway but okay I had a head cold forgot about that I'm gonna deal with it and I rarely I don't think maybe once but maybe not have I ever stopped a survivor man because I've had a cold in the article 1 of season 1 season 1 Arctic episode I had had laryngitis what did you do was to make me sound really sexy and Rob oil matter to rip apart a vehicle but in fact with only a multi tool at my disposal it can be pretty tough right so now I'm starting to rip apart a G too big and you never rip apart a vehicle with your bare hands but as it's typical with a word right it's full of useful jumping not so easy a lot of stuff is it's very tough to do with your bare hands I use a take in hunting on so why don't you can just unlike hunted deer make a bow and arrow yeah I'm gonna catch a deer with some thread and a bobby pin yeah that's gonna happen the misting Coffee no coffee pot not much water I always enjoy doing this I always enjoyed having odds and sods and vitaly's because that cup is usually what you have you usually tend to have items that that are just like nonsensical but they can be used for something else that was a very early part of making Survivorman enjoy in fact behind the scenes we used to call it the macgyverism what's the what's the macgyverism in the show well I'm gonna take a pipe part this but I'm gonna make you know a fishing float out of bubblegum those those were those MacGyver isms as we called it totally stole that I was it was cool otherwise if I'd been here in the Kalahari Desert in the middle of summer without water how would have perished inside of two or three days guaranteed yeah you need at least a gallon of water that's a key thing when I do the hot dehydrated shows where is my water coming and if I've scouted an area and said I'm gonna go do it in this valley knowing that there's water makes a huge difference and so some of these shows have been tricky that way because the reality is if I just go in and I come in and it is if I haven't set up some sort of way of knowing well I can find water there or I do have a bit of water to start off with which is what I did not much oh this is cool we get to the egg part on my own first things stop it then what ends up happening is you coming in Peter what ends up happening is the dehydration would shut me down inside a 24 to 36 hours and the show's over there's no show so the one thing and that's now I've never had to cheat this is Peter cleave by the way everybody this is a Peters one of my main writers and has been for many years on all of my shows for all of the music so a lot of that wonderful stuff you hear is composed by Peter Cleese what I was saying was about the water is that dehydration is the thing can shut me down and I am there to make a show so one way or the other I've got to be around water somehow everything else no big deal but water without it the show's over in 36 hours so my out there just to suffer and I mean or or make a show so in this case I had a bit of water to start off with but of course it's ridiculously limited so I still am in a state of dehydration the whole time so I have to learn how to deal with that and this other part is like showing this big ostrich egg that was always a cool thing was incorporating traditional food from the from the areas like whale blubber in the Arctic and some I think some see some deer or elk liver or something in Norway and here had this big ostrich egg so so yeah yeah yeah that's did you ever see that you remember that piss a lot of times what we do musically by the way is I think if I remember correctly I would send you isolated clips like 15 minutes of this and 10 minutes of that and say here's a scene or whatever we in the beginning did we not do it that way so that I mean that's traditional sort of composing is to send Peter stuff but over the years I mean you got so good at it after a while I think that our editor Barry Farrow would simply say well we need something dark we need something light we need something fast and I think I think is that kinda hell or or it's gonna be in you know Africa write something for Africa is that I would yeah yeah so let's do that and crack this when the need arises down there that's where the illusion of a mirage happens it's just a big the sand wide flat pan that's not it down there well the Sun plays tricks on your eyes and it looks like it could be a lake it should come as no surprise that exposure to the Sun is deadly and I need to find protection from it here that means nothing more than a few small shade trees each at least a half a mile apart this is something that you don't see a lot is you know I have to reposition myself quite a bit and in doing that I don't want all the junk of my camera gear in every scene it just Messi's up the scene you know so I have to move everything and sometimes you know it's just an hour just moving stuff to a spy way this case it gets different I even had to chose a yellow Pelican case on purpose why because in this kind of heat black black cases with my camera gear in it would make the camera gear too hot so this was the first time that I started experienced cameras shut down because of heat normally you figured the cold shuts them down but they get too hot as well it's barely 10 o'clock and it's a 35 degrees Celsius in the shade I think what you don't see here so there's a real reason why the Bushmen of the color and kind of showing it pretty sure I fell asleep for an hour to air can't get over how tensely hot it is all I can do is lay here and I'm feeling waves of heat sort of blow in one thing I should definitely not do is take any of my clothing off you in fact preserve more of your moisture by keeping fully clothed you don't wick away perspiration off your body as quickly that way so it might feel a little cooler to take a shirt off I mean aside from the this huge risk of sunburn if you keep your shirt on it helps to actually keep more moisture in your body that's very true in fact I've done tests even overnight almost there with pounds of liquid leaves your body overnight and so if your skin is exposed the wind wicks even more moisture away this is a desert ordeal and it's vital to stay hydrated survival comes down to hiding from the Sun and paying attention to the small details before they become big problems really important that whenever possible do you remember this music as you hear it that's you and Danny and how many how many pieces of music do you think you've written for me thousands of pieces of Mia's determine what happens is Peter being in the studio still and it's it's riff upon riff upon R if a riff is like a signature sound a little movement on the guitar or the piano and percussion people say and sometimes there's just one that the editor really likes and say okay that one but it's only 15 seconds long can you make it 20 seconds long or can make it only three seconds long play back and forth water then to have guzzled it all down early on so staying hydrated out here is critical to my survival yeah it's crazy that that's it and all that exposure one spot to hide out of the sock of the truck it's just too big for anything I might have a need for right now ah so this is yeah it's funny we can make it smaller that's the you know this was junk in the truck right so it was a big big rope in the back of the truck into three ropes and I can take it down even more look at that see that's the beauty of big thick ropes is in a survival situation in the Bible you can break it down hundreds of Rome and hundreds of strings hundreds of smaller ropes not paranoia for me to fashion together a spear to protect me from the deadly Cape Cove they can be aggressive and move fast when they want to that's what I was told it's hard to tell sometimes when you go into these places tell you something that happens is you get the the dire warnings from locals and sometimes I think they're kind of playing it up a little bit more than they need to that go we'll be really careful about this I'll get you at night and I think sometimes they're just playing the game but other times it's quite real and I do know that the Cape Cobra has certainly bitten and killed many many people and so protections always been a strange thing what's the one thing I think I need the most protection from wild boars they're the nasties notwithstanding Africa where water buffalo of course and lion and but wild boar it certainly North America those are fantastic creatures you got for me it's not that hard to do you take your fingers I like this and you put the airplane just Lodge them in behind your fingers so if you're the airplane and I'm trying to spot you and then you simply flash in between your fingers lining it all up with the airplane those little tidbits when I can show that effectively that's not good one actually works like a charm now it's it's really wonderful to me to be able to show that on a survival episode that's why I have the instructional category on smtm you're watching right now so that I can take specific instructional moments sometimes like this they're pretty good and they're in detail other times I needed to take an hour to really teach you well that's what I'm doing on the instructional TV so I head over that channel after this and see what I'm talking about I'm gonna keep adding to that constant work really well policies that he knows where you are and you're rescued all thanks to one little mirror if I am able to get a fire going and if you look there you can see on the that little camera it's up on a little beanbag pot I discovered those who called the pods I think and I talked to the owner of the company see a death and that little pod eventually had them made with the Survivorman logo on him there it is again that pod was probably on sixty Survivorman episodes I still have it and it was although I can't find it right now but it was it's been a favorite of mine for years for the small cameras you can put it down in the mud the snow on the rocks that little pod made film making for me it just made a huge difference in the style and the way I shot Survivorman cuz I would shove that camera all over the place and it was safe on the little beanbag pot and I still don't this day don't know why other shooters don't use it because I mean it was a great way of getting in nice and tight with a second camera angle now that it's taken its toll on me for the day and it's losing some of its strength I'm gonna see if I can't get something else from this truck that I can make use of we got a piece of the fuel line with any luck they'll still be some fuel in this line because even though your engine runs out of gas there's often just a little tiny drips of residual fuel and the line is where they might settle so if I want to be able to start a fire and I need some gas this might be all I have I'm going to put it right into this guy here yep and I can do one better well yeah stealing oil from the oil filter that should keep this thing smoldering really nicely so I've got my fire bundle and it's been impregnated with gas and oil and all I have to do is get a spark into it and get it burning on the top tomorrow and with any luck I'll be able to travel with fire when I get out of here traveling with fire is actually a lifesaver in a survival situation you can't it's if you don't have a way of getting a fire going all the time you get one going and then you carry that fire so the fire carriers is a that's an example of a survival instruction that I love passing on a lot because it's very useful and if you can have you know I think that's wrapped in some vinyl or something from the car bonus you can do it with all natural materials but if you in a survival situation if you've got your own stuff handy ready to go to to to help you build something then go for it and it just it's advantageous I already know from research to be edible little as they call them whoops we call them seeds the tree is known locally as the camel thorn tree this is great news I was always one of the things I loved about doing the survivor benefits was going in ahead of time and learning the edible plants to this day it's a deadly process probably my favorite survival skill of all is some title but Wilder it shuts down I feel like I'm overheating now he might have heat exhaustion there's a moment here I got a chip tell you I'm feeling pretty nauseous and I feel like I can't cool down my body's just radiating so much heat sacrificed a bit of water to put on my bandana duh to get around my carotid arteries cuz that's what you'll want to do you want to you want to cool your blood down I'm gonna have to keep a real close watch on this if it gets worse as a real special moment coming up in this that I want to tell you about you don't have to call this off hear me say that I might have to call this off I stopped taking the temperature out there today at when it hit 60 degrees Celsius in the Sun [Music] now I'm stopping it right there that scene was a bit of a battleground with the network what did what I mean basically what went on there was I was fading from heatstroke it was very very dangerous situation one of the most dangerous situations I've ever been in I placed that as basically right along equal to the time in Norway with hypothermia those two times the most dangerous moments of Survivorman right there the network at the time let's not the network cuz it's never the network it's always one individual so there's one individual executive producer at the time couldn't handle the fact that I had not cut from that shot that the shot lasted so long my point was it's ridiculously dramatic I'm trying not to die there and you want me to do a quick fast cut at it to something else why I think it's so addicted to you know the fast cut anyway that was one where I refused said no this cut this this long stretch with no no but me not saying anything you know and just one camera angle and no cuts is important so that you guys the viewer could see just what I'm going through in a very realistic manner and without me trying to make it more exciting by doing an edit or changing the music or something like that no no way I won that battle and actually how are they win the battle and the most yes I did I won the battle on that one hours and edge of near-fatal heat exhaustion and I just it stayed in maybe I pushed it a little too hard today even though I sat in the shade for a long time I mean it was like being in a worldwide oven this is the toughest night of survival I've ever experienced it's very true I wasn't being dramatic there it was the toughest to be heat stroke acted by clouds that see one two months behind temperature would not come down it was going on even though the Sun had already said yeah I'm survived very scary this is completely I made it through the night and radically unusual I was dazed like this during the summer in the desert and you know I was ready to me to call that they call this once I can't to cast rainy spitting kind of day and that's fantastic it means that I can travel without killing myself in the heat so I'm gonna finish up and get my gear together get a few more things but here I had luck even then it's not much but it's not out there I have to try and get that fire bundle Bernie and and then I hope this holds out they could last all day it would suit me fine it's raining and it feels great I should see if I can find a way of capturing this water if it really starts to rain I was really hoping that it was gonna buck it down and I could get oodles of water but and that's all now you see why I had to buy this truck for the shoot even though I was they were gonna take it back at the end I had to basically buy the truck so I could cut it apart there we go junkie bucket on the back plea a bit of a rain catch a bit of a rain catch from the seat and if it comes down I'm in business if I can't remember if it rained or not it's going to salvage and use for survival [Music] see that's it that's all you couldn't really do when you're trying to rip apart an actual vehicle with nothing more than a multi-tool oh this was one of the coolest fire start I didn't even know if it was gonna work this was this was one of those times where I was trying to complete we need to experiment to see if it would work and that's the thing whenever a lot of sometimes these skills I know it's gonna work or I'm pretty sure this time I had no idea if that was gonna work and so I get that excited but it wasn't because it was only a few tablespoons in it and it's not the nicest thing to eat and as he leftover peanut butter it's just so cool - for me it was always a big thing for me anytime I could work on a skill that I'd never done before and do it on camera and show it the first time and it works was always a big moment for me and if it didn't work if it failed it was also a good moment because it wants something realistic and survival bonus water thank you clouds after grabbing the salvaged items from the truck that's problem leaving a series where the gear to make my way closer to the safe too much I'll need to travel a few hours across the desert avoiding the sand as much as possible will help as it's much easier to walk around the hard-packed ground by the grass but it means walking through very active Cape Cobra territory this is all of this travel many hours of walk take me very far at all lonely dune I'll set up camp as strange as it may seem I still feel the need for fire even here in the desert and the smoldering fire bundle has worked perfectly the thing about it is fire is so incredibly comforting I don't care if you're in the jungle or the desert if it's it's gonna be going like crazy it's gonna be blowing like mad so it's all calm sunshine hopefully I can't remember if the storm comes in or not anyway let's say I was talking about fire so with the fire it's just so comfortable to have a fuss makes you feel better even if you don't need it for heat people ask me a lot you know what's the most important thing you know you take with you like an item or something I always say it's a way to get a fire going you can get a fire going you can figure everything else after that that's more important to me than a knife I know tough guys are when I have my big knife give me a way to get a fire going I'll worry about a cutting implement later going all around me but not coming over top of me yeah on the way in not far from here I did see some plants that will give me water and it's a good thing because that's all there is left it's good thing that it cooled down as well be thirsty that's saving me from the drink too much water I thought it stayed like it did in those first couple of days when I was at the bigger Sand Dunes I'd be out of water a long time ago I'm not sure what would have happened so disappointing to have the storms all around and then not get a drop well it's beautiful full moon but I've got a bit of a conundrum first the wind is blowing hard from the north and I'm protected where I am a little fire then there's no wind now the wind is blowing really hard from the south so there's systems that are swirling around and of course with the blowing hard from the South I've got to watch my fire but forgotten take off on me and blow off into the grasslands last night I was almost succumbing to heat exhaustion and tonight at 27 degrees Celsius I'm I'm chilled I'm cooling cooling down so if I stay here well you know I'm underneath a big Shepherds tree not a good place to be in terms of Cape Cobras they come through these trees they like to go up into the trees they they rest up in the trees and when it's humid like this they'll be active so I think this is gonna be one of those prop up the backpack and sleep sitting up nights those tend to have survived through heat exhaustion sleep else the relief of a desert rain being chilled by last night's cooling winds and it's only been three days out of seven surviving in the Kalahari Desert I ended up spending my night I had to come over here in the middle of the night be protected from the winds so now I've just got to regroup figure out my priorities I've got to get some food so I want to get out hunting here let me show you this weaverbird nest that the cobras like to live in so it's not the safest location but it's the only shade for miles just cracking this can of jam it's day four now peanut butter is long gone and I could use some food oh wow pure sugar almost can't eat that well unfortunately that sugar is gonna make me want more water that's the downside you've got to be really careful about that when you're dealing with dehydration food will dehydrate you more and so a lot of times it's better to not eat you then eat if you have no water for digestion right and that's a tough one to deal with when you're starving I mentioned earlier that I moved during the night that happens a lot of times when I survive many episodes I will have to do something in the night and if it's a crazy situation I just don't have time to grab the camera and film it all and it's like I got to move I got to go do this thing when I was with my son Logan and we were in Ecuador we had to move at night as the flood came down unfortunately we did run the cameras for that but a lot of times there'll be a little night thing and then I all I can really do is tell you about it the next morning because it was just too crazy at the time a natural place for critters to hide in inside I'm putting the jam that I found to be so ridiculously sweet that it almost made me sick yeah it'll be better you see that you take the food source it makes me feel sick which is going to be a horrible situation I want to be retching in the desert when I'm dehydrated it's maybe I can use the food as bait to get something bigger to eat as the temperature climbs once again it's time to hide in the shade and work on my spear so many survival tools are made much easier with some knowledge of a simple knot system so the string went up like around it sting went up then I looped it back and pulled it it's just another case in point why I launched the the instructional channel is I can show it here but really I need to take a good 15 minutes to show you this knot system and then you've got it clean and clear here I've got to do this and probably what 33 seconds or something like that so this has been the only one one thing I've wanted to show more and Survivorman is skills that take longer than 60 seconds to teach I'd love to come back and give you the rundown and that's what I'm doing with the instructional Channel and that effectively locks off all of this banding here let's go hunting I think I'll have to show that one again on the instructional show there's a critter up in this nest it gives me a chance to try out my new spear I'm gonna be careful because these old weaverbird nests are absolute perfect homes for the Cape Cobra oh I was so nervous doing that big ol locust yeah well no a bird came home that was a bird that came out and then a big locust yeah it was the bird I was going after I didn't get him do you have to be worried about what bugs you eat if they're brightly colored this guy's not this picker or if they smell really bad this guy smells fine those are some things to watch out for that likely means that they're toxic this one I think is gonna be just fine yeah well I just know that you know locusts generally in Sizzlin are like I know I know ahead of time locusts are food you know so it's true and if I really am not sure I probably probably won't eat it okay you know I gotta be and I just know locust sir tasty hmm it's always surprisingly good tasting see that feels like it's gonna be gross let me get in there it's like ah that's pretty good the locust or big grasshopper whatever it is tasted great the sad part of this night is cn2 my water you cook it up you can get rid of the parasites from the locust by you pop the head and as you pop the head all of the guts come out you've got rid of that so now you've lost the guns which is where you're gonna want the parasites or anything like that are gonna be 9 then you cook it up have gone from a high of 42 cells the grasshoppers are like crickets grasshoppers you know meal bugs those things are a regular source of protein in a lot of cultures so we just don't need them but I mean if you can get you know imagine if you could get 40 of those locusts it's that big you have a meal no this morning it's just disgusting looking grain for it to get above that arising so I can warm up I've been up all night this is this is the irony of the situation of surviving in the Kalahari Desert is being ridiculously hot during the day and if there was ever a time for me to pause and then cold at night behind rate that's a big problem it's that fluctuation it can it can knock a steam right out of you the Bushmen would come and cut into these roots and take the pulp and squeeze the water into their mouths that's the thing you know Here I am showing what the Bushmen would do to get water and I said okay I introduce for me to get some water but their bodies were so accustomed and so used to the desert that they didn't they were thin and wiry they didn't need the amount of water that heavy North American like myself needs and so you know actually I'll go on a tangent here you know they're always so amazing how they can survive we're so weak you know us North Americans are so weak of survival stuff like that and look at how tough they are in the jungle there and tough in the desert sometimes I just want to say oh oh yeah oh yeah how about I bring them up to Canada northern Canada in January when it's minus 45 degrees Celsius let's see how long they last it's relative and we all become accustomed to the area that we live in ensure the Kalahari Bushmen can survive in the desert that's where they live doing these things but for me I can survive up and in the north and the cold because I know how to handle that the Inuit in the far north can watch colder than I can yeah it's all well it's far away there is a fully active nest and it presents a good opportunity for me to hunt some food the birds might be small but they nest in numbers thanks to the locust I know the spear can work this is so spooky going in and doing this at night it's another story they come look at that all this and I thought for sure I I must have got one god it could be a few dozen in there I tried catching my hands honestly I was I was a bit of a pussy doing this because I really nothing here but it's so spooky because you know there could be a cobra in there so reaching your hand up inside like yeah I don't think so well what you have is you have chambers some of the chambers have birds in them some of the chambers are like kind of dead old chambers they're not using anymore and cool and so the answer is yes okay so through the magic of filmmaking you notice that Peter has just magically disappeared we cut the camera for a second Peters gone I don't know when he's gonna do probably go practice of the guitar and in the meantime I picked myself up a glass of wine so cheers everybody and welcome once again to SMTV mmm that's some nice pandeiro pandeiro wine from my friends a sasquatch syndicate sent me a bottle of this stuff thanks Chuck all right Larkin's and if I had any water I'd be using the water in the container to boil me up something to get me warm maybe make some of that coffee no I never script this stuff the only real scripting I do is in the beginningless show and usually the end of the show over the credits she's with only a few dry beans and a locust in my stomach we should have had some of those we were birthed last night this this is you know all of the stuff in between the opening and the ending is simply knee telling you what's going on telling you the story I don't sit down and try to script out something of the way I'm going to say it or just try to be right off-the-cuff all the time okay hey baby this is I got one let me show you now if you remember from season one the first time that I caught a scorpion an ADA I was out in the Arizona desert and I was taught by a great teacher named David Holladay he was also consultant on the movie castaway and my understanding some British fake TV survival hosts used him some time later and actually taught that hosts his very first fire bow well on set anyway so my friend David Holladay phenomenal outdoor instructor we used to be with baths just be with the school of survival in Boulder and but this method hangers which is where all of this was really cool they mentioned about you know they come out the holes at night and I if I remember correctly the idea of digging below the holes and putting a cup of having a ball in was my idea and it and look how well it worked oh just a sting from one of those guys would have been nasty this one's lively when you hold them down I had no idea how fast a scorpion moves its tail it's not like Oh sting sting it's not like that it's like like they have a rapid-fire way of moving their tails to sting you so I've never been stung by one and I wasn't about to you know allow them to do it for television like a few guys are doing I can only imagine what it must feel like when they've got you and their standard sting in the way oh my cat went outside the door maybe ten of these scorpions probably might be very close to the same amount of nutrition is one of those tiny little birds anyway Wow my beers not even greater so there you go piece of steel from the from the Jeep breakfast making a shish kebab have a scorpions now I know that looks really disgusting you'd be surprised how good they taste [Music] a little gritty you have to kind of do this quick and not think about it that's very true anytime there's a growth you think about it the more you want the more you more you think about the more you want eat it whenever you've got something you've got to get down you just can't think about it you got to do it I need a glass of life I'm gonna cook it up alright hold in the top of the egg now the reason why I took so long to eat the egg for one thing I was living off the fat reserves from before I started this well now I'm halfway through and I could use some nutrition because I know I'm lagging behind this method of cooking the egg like this was very very traditional and but I'd never done it before so I wanted to see what it was like I'll tell you a little inside story I actually took one home with me to Canada what you're not supposed to do and I cooked it up on the stove I fed eight people with one egg that looked like one massive egg it's so cool so you know she tastes this was a big moment for me oh my gosh wow that now I had to say oh my gosh cuz if I said oh my god they wouldn't put it on the TV network like I said no one can do that just Sam this kind of rich food on a stomach with no liquid in it it's dangerous it is true that's a problem so now I'm really hungry very little water if any to drop on here now after eating a big bag only the ostrich egg and having very little liquid drilling into my body so I'm grabbing some of the charcoal from the fire to eat it counteracts the acid and will calm my stomach it's very - that's very very true oh yeah I forgot I got sick here see so often in fact probably a number of gems I think it happened in Mexico as well I'm quite certain of it where I get stomach sick and I'm not really filming that for you what happens off-camera but I can lose two three hours half a day just lying down just just dealing with with my stomach with the wax that's in the chocolate okay so this the the chocolate fire method the idea is the concave nature the bottom of the cans should focus a beam of sunlight into the tinder and start it up just like you would use a magnifying glass this is one of those times where I said okay what else can I do and I started looking around online and I'm pretty sure I just found it on one of those crazy sites online and I thought why not let's try it and let's try maybe you could stuck with a can and some chocolate so that's you know I had that okay I'm gonna do this here this is what it what more could I find a more perfect place to do it in the heat of the Kalahari Sun it should work if it's gonna work anywhere it should work here I've tried methods like this and other places that did not work by trapping leaves in one of the plastic bags from the truck and I'm not gonna stop there because I also know a safe way to utilize my own ah yes the famous drinking of your own urine question MAME famous by shoulder chose to emulate shall we say 92 Survivorman shows the rest is harmful to do you drink your own pee no don't it's kind of controversial I'm sure if you want to do it for some her to be sensationalistic for your TV show now whatever that's no I was here - I was here to teach the reality of true survival and what you can actually do this is what you do this is a urine still to collect the pure water out of your urine yes I know Aron Ralston did it and I know people have in the past but the problem is when you ingest your own urine you're taking in a ton of you taking in all the toxins your body's trying to get rid of you keep doing aspects and I'm gonna toxify yourself really bad there might be something psychological to doing it but doing it to rehydrate yourself know most survival instructors 98% of us will say don't do it amazing absolutely amazing yeah I really didn't think I had a hope in anywhere I'm getting a fire going with a piece of deceiving right there the networks wouldn't allow me to say something like I wouldn't they got how to hope in hell I would have said that but you're not allowed to say that on the TV networks so and it worked you know there's a try oh yeah in the show and aa and Granada on the jungle was another online survival thing that I wanted to try out the thing is it's so easy to show those little skills when you're at home and you're in your work shot oh look how you can do this but try it when you're out in the bush and you're tired you're cold you're wetting you're hungry it changes everything to do with survival cues when you're actually out there and you actually have to sleep that night Oh changes how you do these funky little tricks but the work Darren's didn't think I could make the long long walk to weather weaverbird nest is you know it's not so much the heat its convection the wind just blows almost constantly and it's always just sucking the moisture it just sucks it right out of your body and that's a good one remember it was still hot today got to the high 30s Celsius societies the action of conventions now convection can suck the moisture out of your body it's been to be very drastically tomorrow and it's going to get cold again tonight I can feel it but it's not as windy so now's when your body needs to toughen up you're taking the cold of the night the heat of the day convection the wind it's just a constant on Solange and that scorpions are attracted to fire they come in for the warmth hey think about stuff like that when I'm trying to sleep [Music] I've been surviving under this old weaverbird nest for too long with the thought of a cobra hanging above my head I figure I'll break it down you watch that let's cat in guess it's safe to say there was no Cobras in that now okay Peter let the cat in since I've been sleeping under it for a bunch of nights that's reassuring just gonna go and check the traps close to see even a shot like this you watch the way I'm walking you see the Sun in the background you know the way I compose my shots when I'm doing the selfie stick and let's face it I was doing a selfie stick back in 1999 I wished I'd patented it I still compose the shot that is going on in holding the camera like that but you guys are doing your shooting yourself you still have to it's not just your face you have to think about what's behind where your cropping yourself and all of that when I would always and they are so slow and seem worryfree of attack is that for most protect great care and how I can post even will amount to sign the shot that I'm taking poisonous by holding the camera myself yeah too bad those big centipedes worked weren't our millipedes weren't edible time now did you have too much cyanide that's actually cyanide no this is the proper way that you get water from your urine you create a still you distill out the urine and now it's left with is pure water but you see what I've got there as I tried to wade down so the water would drip on the bottom but hit here and drop into the cup little sandy but pure water there is just a tiny bit of water that collected using this the point of skills like these are you do them every day all day all the time but you can't do if you're moving around unfortunately but if you're staying put you can start to set up traps you can set up water skills by the constant just keep them going and that is the collective of survival in one spot that will help to keep you alive oh just that tablespoon of water and an ant or two and just to feel the moisture in my mouth on my lips a little bit that helps dehydrated I am suffering from migraines and debilitating headaches I can't continue that's very true and that's been my issue throughout too many many years to Survivorman and as I get dehydrated oh yeah so I'd gone two days here without water that's that's shutting me down easy the migraines kick in all that happens to you but for me a lack of food maybe a migraine or a headache the first day and then it's kind of evens out but you know water hit hard so I was just mentioning about leaving the cameras for the safety couldn't come back and pick up so the point being that I'm not going to ask this couple times you clean up your messes and notwithstanding the show in Utah we'll get to that when I show this showing Utah my crew they're one of their jobs is to come back in and if there's anything I left behind camera gear maybe batteries I'm there to clean it all up and I mean I'm just heading out there you go guys that's the kalahari show I'm really enjoying these directors commentaries in many ways I wish you could be asking me questions just as we're sitting and it's why I had Peter come and sit in case he had any questions but he was way too quiet and let me turn that down so I'm hoping you're it that you're really enjoying these I'm seeing by the comments that you are you know what you can do is maybe put some questions up on the comment on the comments that you leave I'll read those questions and then the next commentary that I do I'll answer those questions I'm having a lot of fun doing these and it's reminding me it's actually I haven't watched these shows in years years I'd be a that's why I'm saying I can't remember what happens here so it's a nice walk down memory lane for me and I get to share some of the behind the scenes stories with you for example during that Kalahari episode one thing you guys wouldn't have known is that my family was with me in Africa for that shoot they weren't there they stayed in South Africa and they were touring around and going to the beach and hanging out there while I went up to maybe to shoot my show so I was getting lonely and missing them when I walk out of this episode here I went back down to South Africa South Africa and met up with my my kids and and we we had our little vacation there's a lot of stuff that goes on and I as I said I'm really enjoying these directors commentaries so I hope you are my promise is to do a new one every single month and with close to or more than 70 episodes to choose from we're gonna keep this going so tell me which ones you want to see I'll do that tell me what questions you have I'll answer that and otherwise sit back and as I said get yourself a beer coffee cup of tea glass of water glass of wine shot of scotch whatever you like whatever your pleasure is and and enjoy and we'll we'll keep watching these together thanks for hanging out with me we'll see you in the next one

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 147,500

Rating: 4.9492292 out of 5

Keywords: Les Stroud, Survivorman, Survivorman TV Show, Survivorman TV Series, Survival TV, Beyond Survivorman, Les Stroud Survivorman, Survivorman Les Stroud, Surviorman: Directors Commentary! Kalahari - Pandemic Distraction... I Les Stroud, Pandemic Distraction... I Les Stroud, Pandemic Distraction..., nature, adventure, film making, documentaries, survivaltv, pandemic, survival

Id: pF2cJ47EedM

Length: 59min 1sec (3541 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Tdmort]

on tour?

[u/Kanobe24]

Is this from his subscription service?