Survivorman | Season 1 | Episode 4 | Georgian Swamp | Les Stroud

you're a serious serious [Music] [Music] bordering the states of Georgia and Florida deep in the American South light of swamps the domain of alligators and poisonous snakes how could anyone last seven days here alone the plan is to have me taken deep into the swamp by a local a guy named three rivers Charley I'm blindfolded before the trip so I'll have no idea how far or in what direction we're headed see you guys what I do know is that Charlie is going to drop me deep in the alte Maha River Basin an area of endless stretches of murky waist-deep water how many Gators you figure you got negative on this section of the river I would say that we probably have at least 30 to 40 right in this general area what's the likelihood of Gators coming up into these Oh pretty fair especially at night how about snakes with for the snake sir ah part a few we have a largest population of rattlesnakes and we do any other snake out with the magic the deal this time the crew and Three Rivers Charlie take me in blindfolded drop me off and come back seven days later to pick me up so now it's just me and my video cameras well this is really one spectacular example of the deep south George and swamps as you saw when I was dropped off likely I'm just on a little spit of sand right in the middle of it all show you what I've gotten far as the equipment with me miss in terms of camera gear always got to waterproof cases here and inside basically just a usual assortment of lenses and batteries and tapes I've got my little camera this little guy right here they're getting a lot of those body mount types of shots I also have another camera set up right now actually getting some time-lapse shots but what I wanted to show to you was the fact that I have all this stuff I can't use any of this for survival a lot of gadgets in metal and tape and all sorts of things but I can't use that these are not things I'm for the for the sake of doing this Bible and the swamp that I'm allowed to use to make my time any better here so it's just camera gear and it's got a stay camera here every time I go to a new location see if I can survive I bring along a few everyday items see see what I can make up I'm in this case tin I got some rope that's pretty much useful anywhere home some bubblegum credit card a lighter but this time lighter doesn't work at least there's no fuel left in it two pieces of tissue paper they also have my Swiss Army knife let's see what I can do with them there's nothing friendly about a swamp it really conjures up a lot of images of swamp creatures and monsters in this place here is full of Gators these are the swamps of the deep south southern Georgia swamps like the Okefenokee where I am now the Altamaha River Basin they are beautiful but they are vast and they can be spooky and they're not the place you want to spend seven days alone sooner or later the only way out it's across the water walked for a ways just keeps getting dark I keep trying to find a nice little spot to set up camp and they're just there really isn't one well let me bring you up to speed this place has got a lot of alligators aggressive snapping turtles millions of mosquitoes four kinds of poisonous rattlesnakes that the ground is covered with ticks and things called jiggers like little mites that like to burrow into your skin I'm alone in the middle of the swamp my son is just about down other than doing up my collar that my shirt real tight and I've got my raincoat all my rain jacket I'll wear it the only other way to protect myself from these hordes of mosquitoes that are coming in right now like you kick yourself up with mud like this they can't bite through it swamp mud of course I really don't know how many pathogens are in this water all right now it's the mosquitoes that are getting to me and this will keep them from biting and maybe just maybe give me a nice smooth wrinkle-free complexion come and get me [Music] tonight in the swamp is not a lot of fun the mosquitoes came on pretty thick pretty strong for about two hours or so maybe three hours and I stayed curled up underneath my rain gear waiting for them to go away then finally it dropped in temperature and cooled down a bit and mosquitoes dissipated and that was great except then I started to get much cooler so I have a sweater and a undershirt with me so I had a good thing I threw them on and my rain gear and started to wait out the chills well Dennis spent the rest of the night shivering it was pretty surprising how cold it can get here at night such a low area damn those few things I can work with around here and it looks like there's a big old very old of the river dam just over here I help me get across to the other side of the swamp I was really surprised to find out that there are beaver living in the swamps here I mean being a Canadian thinking it's like the Canadian animal you know I just couldn't picture beaver living alongside of alligators and they don't really the alligators feed on them this beaver dam is very flat it's almost like a road and it cuts across to the other side basically over to more flood Basin any other time the year or in another time of the year maybe about two weeks before this this was under another ten feet of water I don't I think I've got like 20 25 great egrets nesting right here in this swamp now what that means is this is a perfect and prime area for alligators they love to come in and just wait at the bottom of the trees and I just hoping for a young one to fall down I've got a lot of wood to work with here shouldn't have any trouble keeping a fire going once I can get a fire going Wow I'm gonna find out what kind of edible plants are here that I could nibble on and I have a feeling that I'm gonna be able to catch a few things out of this swamp well I've decided to come up onto this flat Beaver area to make a shelter and why a shelter when it's 75 to almost 90 degrees every day because last night I caught quite a chill put a little rain into that scenario and you got the makings of a possibility of getting hypothermia so I think better to be safe and sorry I'll make a bit of a shelter not a real major one just something to keep the rain off me I think yes area work fine normally I would clear the area away in this case I'm actually gonna push all the sticks and branches up onto it basically do a controlled burn to help to clear out any ticks and chiggers and things that are on the ground here you can't see this Spanish moss not being good for fire starting it's very dry should work out just nicely that's a good tinder to me got away I can make a fire with that lighter without fluid first I'm gonna sacrifice one of these pieces of tissue what I want to do is just first just take it and roll it up a little funnel funnel like opening the next thing that I want to do is turn to my socks here and pull off a a good wad of sock lint just try to get oh I don't know maybe a dime sized amount of lint just put the fluff in this top end of the tissue paper and we have the makings of what I'm going to call prison match this is how people often get a fire going after you've just a light to cigarettes in prison when they run out of fluid since lighters at a premium there don't ask me how I know that so I'll have as a spark no flame my little prison match let's see if we can make this work ha ha ha ha ha success right off the bat the first one - nice nice nice yeah nice little trick when you run out of fluid now I can burn off some of these ticks and mites be gone you guys off you go and the moral of this story is always wear cotton socks fire makes all the difference in the world it keeps the boogeyman away that it makes cooking food if I can catch it a very real possibility there's something here you can see the fish down in there and there's the maggots crawling around them lots of them there's no way that I want to bother eating these fish because they're rotting but with this little bit of water here maybe there's a couple of other little puddles like this where there still are minnows swimming around don't want these ones though well now that I've got a fire going I'm sure I could boil water for drinking but this water I mean yeah it looks awfully gummy and who knows how many pathogens are lurking in here I can see if I can find another way of getting water there's a last thing I really want to do is drink this stuff I suppose it was absolutely life or death from dehydration I'd do it but I'm not there yet that fact there was a young boy who number of years ago in right in these areas here he was swimming in one of the sports I guess it was a more stagnant pool ended up getting an amoeba in his ear and and died within 5 days so there are dangers and parasites and problems and pathogens here with this water but this this is all wet right down here weather seems to be a bit of a break this is water vine I cut this cut this vine it may give me see it's even wet already just in the cutting of it out okay so that should hopefully start juicing and dripping out and I'm gonna use that tin can and see how much water I can catch with this it's old tree here nicknamed George F Atwood hmm who could come into great use this wood is just full of resin makes a very bright torch [Music] you know in the drier areas here just a little bit outside of the swamp fish spots this sweet gum grows and actually it's kind of a neat little plant so I'm gonna peel this bark away a good thing about it is it helps me hygiene good for cleaning teeth hmm almost a little bit of a almost a menthol kind of feeler taste to it all through the swampy area there's a lot of vines like this and of course the vines are just great for tying things up so I'm gonna be able to put this to good use [Music] the lack of food can cause indecisiveness that's when my survival instinct is a steak chicken in this case it's just get busy well this is the shelter so far I stuck a couple of forks in the ground and then tied supports across it and a couple of other sticks in the ground and then then I just I just began to lay poles on top of it and even tied the pulls off as well at the top stuck them in down at the earth at the bottom really all I all I want to do here is is for the most part is keep the rain off of me I guess keeping some warmth in would be good too because it is getting pretty cool at night but it's not too bad I suppose mind you the chills are not so nice but with the fire now it's a lot a lot better I can keep that fire going stay warm stay warm with it I'm getting right out energy now I mean the water from the water vine is good but I've got no food and I'm starting to feel that already after one day it's very strange really hot during the day but it's cooling down quite at night so it kind of takes a lot out of you pan I don't think I'm gonna do too much more I don't think I have the energy to keep doing too much tomorrow put more roof on later [Music] ready for a war against the bugs just enough energy to keep myself occupied here sceetos will be coming in very very soon meantime I see if I can get me some food [Music] it's actually a cooler night tonight feels like the mosquitoes aren't as bad as they were last night it's good fire might help me get through the night that's for sure this is a fish beer I'm making I've got the prawns really shaved smooth enough so that it looks cool but because it increases the efficiency can slide into the fish much easier and whereas the bark is more like almost like a sand paper it can grab the fishing and not be able to slide through it as well so try some fishing soon they told me there's nearly 100 pound catfish in this swamp we're gonna find out I took gonna sprinkle some of those little rotting minnows around here in the hopes that it might bring in some catfish The Hunger is driving me to try fishing in the middle of the night for catfish if you think it's easy to stand at the edge of an alligator swamp and the black of a southern Georgia night and not to think about them try it I say something moving around down there even if it's a crayfish that'd be good here he has serious serious well so much for that maybe I'll better organize myself for tomorrow night try again spooky here sleeping only 3 feet from the water's edge I dream of alligators if I can sleep at all the water vine has started to slow down and strip a bit but just the same even over night I managed to collect a whole bunch of water this is an absolute lifesaver there's ants in there that's okay that's just more protein oh good lord that helps that helps a lot now finally I might just have myself an edible plant these little Center new shoots and maybe pull them out whoa like that that's pretty cool and these guys throw the bottom bit I don't know how old this one is but we'll find that little woody but tasty there's lots of these around I'll try to see if I can get some more give me something to chew on good a bit of starches into my system I started weaving them in from the bottom just down the bottom line the line line all the way up to the top to try and create a nice little kind of shingled roof effect here it should work well I don't to be caught off guard like I was last night when it started to spit on me and I was running around trying to cover my camera gear tonight I want to make sure that I'm dry if rain does come in so far I've been lucky as far as the weather is concerned looks like I got me dinner alright well this represents my first real meal in a couple of days nice big set of frogs with frog legs so what I'll do is uh I already got it um and I'll I'll use the guts and I'll use the the head in that for hopefully baiting in some big catfish I have to build something or try spearing them but find some way if I can bring in a big fish or keep looking for turtles - I see Turtles out there it's just a matter of my Viking that if I can find one well that's good a little bit of meat into my system bring back some well-needed energy I think cuz I'm really starting to wear out it's only been a couple of days but all this work burns all your calories [Music] Rane might not necessarily come from only that side so I better get a little bit more protection here man I'm getting tired what I decided to do is make a trap see if I can catch me some catfish yuck or some turtles basically I've got to make kind of like a a weir of some sort along with the weird a funnel trap so I'll make this tight Weir and then and then a funnel with a little opening like a Big M and then I'll have all the bait up in there this is not only a a survival method was used for many years by natives as well I'll do is put a few more sticks kind of poking inward like that which helps to kind of dissuade him from coming back out I'm just gonna dig this out a little a little bit it's a passageway hopefully to come in but not to go out all right I'll see how that works I'd never had frogs legs before and this is the one meat they say really does taste just like chicken oh man just peels out just like fish me mmm man that is good and the first real food to pass my lips in a while just like chicken meat mmm what could catch me a few more of those that'd be all right house lot some around here I'll take the head and the bones and all that and put them in for some catfish bait see if I can get an even bigger meal while I'm out here this is a real prime survival food mmm Wow I'm hungry the guts from the Frog and last but not least my leftovers from dinner there now I would think that's rather appetizing when you let's hope the turtles or the catfish feel that way [Music] oh well that was quite the day fairly productive I guess in terms of survival oh but I could use some more energy I'm sleeping in the middle of the day not able to sleep too much at night if I have to I just keep going after frogs but one way or the other I gotta get some some food into me you know as I sit here in the middle of the deep southern swamp it's it's the scary stories that is the most bizarre aspect of down here I mean if you think about it even the the jungle doesn't hold as many scary images as the swamp does so a Legend of Boggy Creek a swamp creature and Blair Witch Project spooky out here [Music] this is by far the longest night I've had in a long time it turned cold very cold I don't know what the temperature is but there's a chill running through me I can't get warm this is completely the wrong kind of shelter for cold weather I wasn't expecting this in the swamp I thought it would be fairly warm I mean the first couple of nights it was warm that's why it was buggy - I just figured you'd just stay like that now I've been freezing all night long having to keep a bigger fire going keep looking up and hoping to see daylight and it just keeps being pitch black well that was a horrible night very very cold fortunately I do have a sweater and toque with me and that that helped but my goodness I didn't realize it was gonna be getting down to probably 40 degrees Fahrenheit I would say very cold and the shelter that I built is just a simple summer shelter so I'm gonna have to add to it and try and help keep it keep myself from getting so cold tonight sometimes you've got to tackle your problems head-on in this case it means rebuilding the entire shelter Spanish moss is everywhere in the swamps it defines the look of the deep south it was used for centuries as bedding values at his insulation from the cold ground you know when I first arrived here in Georgia it was hot and muggy and that's why I only built a little wimpy lean-to and I laid flat on the ground but last night's drop in temperature sure taught me a lesson once again never lay flat on the ground put down some sort of insulation and lean-to SR useless as a survival shelter this should be a little better so maybe now I can go and try to catch some more frogs or you can check and see how my catfish trap is doing you won't believe what I caught in the trap all the meat in there got myself a good full meal big old turtle this is gonna fill me up get some renewed energy out here's one turtle egg ready for roasting I didn't bother bringing you in on the cleaning part of the turtle it's a bit of a messy operation you know I don't recommend doing this for anything other than absolute survival necessity in that case turtle is a very readily available food source in swamps like these okay here we have it for turtle eggs good bit of protein for me well let's try some of this turtle meat see how it is a bad kind of fishy but but not bad still a little rare look it some more well that's a lot of good protein make me feel that much stronger that much better no I end up feeling out here no no we're lonely lonely for my family I can really play hard on your your heart and mind you start missing them intensely with a fire in front and a shelter behind me I'm feeling protected the exception of the fact that I'm three feet from the water we're 10-foot alligators patrol I never thought it'd be cold enough that I'd have to be warming up my batteries beside the fire so I keep filming frost this morning anyway this shelter helped a lot made a big difference now that it's rebuilt but I was still quite cold all night long no he's close to shivering you know Wow I can see if I can find some other ways to catch food and even start thinking about how I could make my way out of here like that swimming that is let's see what I can do with some of the pack contents I brought in with me I've been taking a that piece of credit card and I've just been cutting it into a spoon shape send it over a bit it gives me that kind of a shape to it next thing I've got the bubble gum let's get chewing it mm-hmm wow what a boost of flavor from the gum and sugar oh man that's good so what I want to do is poke holes into this little spoon here go through it with the awl now piece of credit card two holes in it put the Rope through the spoon the most remote places you go it really doesn't matter there's always human garbage around it so very sad it's a real shame sure enough here I found some sort of a little old spring now I could come in handy take my spring just tie that off like that now comes the bubblegum that went and grabbed the deadly that was in the catfish we're so I want to do here it's just take this hook bleach on this and that ain't happening so I've got the hooks with the leech bait on there the spoon which really I would use if I was more you know jigging for fish but this will still help to attract them I hope hmm lastly wrap that around the line I think so and I've got fish float see what we can do here now I know I've seen catfish here so let's try it all right it's hard to see under the scummy surface but the bubblegum bubble is just just floating just beneath the surface there I'll leave that and who knows I could get lucky catch me some dinner the only way out of a swamp is through the water and I'm not about to swim out which means I need to make a raft crap it felt to me that we headed upstream when they brought me in blindfolded so the way out downstream I've never actually built a raft before without an axe breaking logs this size to be tough my only way is to burn them to size it seems to me that if I put at least three logs together to look like they'll hold me I've got a good chance tomorrow we launch now even these little dainty flowers these little violets can also be eaten as a small source of nutrition and they're quite tasty actually and just eat the flower tops mm-hmm actually most of the plants now bad right in a salad holy Sh it's a rattlesnake you know what this means dinner Eastern diamondback rattlesnake yeah that guy a big one too this area is full of it's got six different types of venomous snakes here four of them are rattlesnakes and this area is full of them those guys if I just slip and that sticks into my finger I'm on my way to the hospital I hate the thought of killing anything it's the last thing I would advise but as a matter of survival all creatures are fair game like the turtle I spared you the vision of cleaning and gutting this this rattlesnake Eastern diamondback rattlesnake and this is this is just two-thirds of it there's still another third over there so this I will probably cook fairly slowly almost like smoking it and as you can see a lot of meat which is gonna give me some renewed energy so snakes quite an excellent survival food when necessary well you know when you haven't eaten for a number of days or you've only eaten little bits here and there to eat something as substantial as a as a rat rattlesnake here really you really start to feel the energy flow back into your body I only fear now is just how cold it's gonna get tonight another night of 15 minutes of sleep wake up stoke the fire 15 minutes of sleep wake up stoke the fire and repeat mmm mr. Nagus it's delicious [Music] [Music] morning of day six it's really strange last night after I ate all that rattlesnake I had such a rush of energy I felt dizzy and lightheaded it's kind of spooky actually to feel that way and be all alone out here I couldn't sleep at all for the first while I was just sort of buzzing you know I guess from the new food energy anyway I finally did get some sleep and it wasn't so cold of a night actually it was it didn't Frost anyway it was cold but we didn't get down to frosty that was good so now I'm gonna keep my eyes open for more frogs and turtles and turn over a few more logs for crayfish and other than that I'm gonna get working on my raft well actually I kind of finished it so I'm gonna try it out see how it works it's day six and time to put this raft to the test flows that's a good time I'm Way better in a canoe you know nice Oh back to the drawing board and guess [Music] [Music] I'm Way too antsy to wait for Charlie to find me maybe I can try navigating through these swamps on my own I'm surprised at how much wood it's gonna take to keep me afloat by far the best thing about building a raft is the hope that it gives me I'm working on something that might take me out of here that's I'm lifting Wow so last night and I'll try the new raft at tomorrow morning see if I can make my way out to Three Rivers charlie and meet up with him get to a warm bed and some good food unless the swamp creature gets me tonight seven days of survival in the southern Georgian swamps a rich and beautiful place and I can't wait to get out and get cleaned up so I hope that second draft works and I can make my own way out once it's in my head to get out on my own efforts nothing will stop me as I lower the raft into the water I'm thinking alligators have killed 11 people in the last 20 years I'm also thinking about the abundance of poisonous snakes in this area [Music] in between my legs it wasn't there before [Music] it took me all day and in spite of the maze of channels I made it to the river where Charlie spotted me and what something else but take me home many people fear the swamps if they are places of such great beauty on such rich diversity the spookiness is an unwarranted attribute they'll always be the classic domain of alligators and snakes a tough place to survive maybe but an awesome place to experience [Music] [Music]

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 433,540

Rating: 4.864655 out of 5

Keywords: Survivorman Les Stroud, Les Stroud, Survivorman TV Show, Stroud', 'Les, Survivorman TV Series, Outdoor Survival, Survivorman, Survivorman TV, Survivorman - Season 1 - Episode 4 - Georgian Swamp, Todd Standing, Logan Stroud, Sam Omik, Uzimann, Joseph McConnell, Bob Wilson

Id: 7y8J-qBTiPA

Length: 44min 28sec (2668 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020