Survivorman | Season 2 | Episode 1 | Kalahari

I'll be careful because these old weaverbird nests are absolute perfect homes for the Cape Cobra [Music] [Music] stretching from South Africa north through Botswana Namibia and all the way to the Congo is a parched expanse of a savanna and sand known as the Kalahari Desert the rolling red sand dunes seemed to go on forever broken only here and there by flat sun-baked pans very few people dare to live here existence is harsh [Music] running out of gas can be a fatal disaster in the desert I've got an old 4x4 with not much from the tank when it runs out I'll have to survive alone amongst the Cobras and the scorpions but they are not my greatest role blisteringly dry not surprising for a desert and sandstorms are not only common they're 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 but the heat doesn't deter the legendary Kalahari lion from surviving here this is not a place where I can let my guard down once my gas runs out the clock starts to tick on my week of survival that's it that's the end of the diesel now the safety crew heads off and leaves me alone to film the ordeal myself one week alone in the Kalahari Desert I can tell you this much this is not the time to panic broken down in the middle of a scorching hot desert this bucket of bolts here is gonna be a deadly heat trap so all I'm gonna do now is get over to some trees and wait out the heat of the day 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 [Music] as the sun's fading I'm gonna go back to the truck and sleep in it tonight there's no point in me sleeping on the ground here this place is crawling with scorpions check out all the holes big scorpion Hall scorpion scorpion hole scorpion hole scorpion hole and this one is the massive see the thing is the Scorpion is as wide as its hole that's incredible when the Sun Goes Down in the desert it's instant relief that Sun is relentless 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 [Music] it's still quite warm my challenges this week know they're pretty obvious the heat 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 and what I can make you self this is where I ended up spending the night in the cab of the truck the Sun is just about to come up and as you can hear my head's all clogged up so kind of sinus congestion so you can't pick the times that you're gonna fall into peril came out here know what I had this head cold anyway but just got to deal with it so what I'm gonna do now is check and see what came with this truck what I have that I can survive with you would think it would be a simple matter to rip apart a vehicle but in fact was only a multi-tool at my disposal it can be pretty tough most of the nuts and bolts are too big anyway or they're rusted on but as is typical with a work truck it's full of useful junk couple buckets Wow I've got groceries oh good it's a misting Coffee no coffee pot no much water sure empty can of pop another empty can of pop that'll be a tease some empty cups a sugar container from a restaurant now why would anybody have one of those I don't really know we'll see but for real jar peanut butter and a can of jam never had so much luxury [Music] there was no option I had to come out here with water otherwise if I've been here in the Kalahari Desert in the middle of summer without water I would have perished inside of two or three days guaranteed you need at least a gallon of water per person per day to survive in this kind of heat so I've got 20 liters of water here that's basically about four days supply when I survive one time in the Arctic the locals there gave me some raw seal meat to take in with me and here the locals have also given me something to bring in to eat partway through the week an ostrich egg so I'm gonna hold on to this see how much luck I have on my own first and crack this when the need arises down there that's where the illusion of a mirage happens it's just a big wide flat pan there's not an ounce of water down there but 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 [Music] it's barely 10 o'clock and it's a 35 degrees Celsius in the shade so there's a real reason why the Bushmen of the Kalahari don't move much in the middle of the day I can't get over how intensely 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 obvious huge risk of sunburn if you keep your shirt on it helps to actually keep more moisture in your body and it feels like I'm in a slow cooker oh boy on the second day of my ordeal in the Kalahari Desert 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 you dump the sand out of your shoes and never ever walk in bare feet the you'll end up with alkali burns on your feet thirst is not enough to determine whether or not you need to drink water if all you do is satisfy your thirst you can still bring yourself down to dehydration if you ration your water down to two quarts a day when you know you have more you could be inviting disaster it's almost controversial some people say don't ration your water drink it drink what you need drink the gallon or so a day other people who get out there also say they'll yeah but you know after a few days you run out of water it would be nice to at least be sipping some water then to have guzzled it all down early on I can lose up to about 15% of my body weight in water and still be alright after that it gets very dangerous but just the same after only 5% you start to get nauseous six to ten percent and you start to get dizzy and headaches and after that you get the dry mouth your body turns bluish it gets hard to speak even to walk so staying hydrated out here is critical to my survival and no small task in the middle of the Kalahari Desert in the middle of the summer and there is no substitute for water you can hear about using different liquids or alcohol or whatever no substitute it's water that you need in this heat I move slowly while I work on some of the supplies I pulled from the truck the rope that was on the back of the truck it's just too big for anything I might have a need for right now I'll see if I can make it smaller so now that I've got this separated into three ropes I can take it down even more into smaller rope and then down even into strength protection in a survival situation is vital from the elements and from dangerous critters it's not paranoia for me to fashion together a spear to protect me from the deadly cape cobra they can be aggressive and move fast when they want to so hopefully this will work if I need it to this thing comes along like this and I've got this on the end of a pole I can trap it hold the head down becomes a bit of a protection device it's also going to be used for hunting even in one of the hottest places on the planet fire is still important for my survival if I'm able to get a fire going I'm going to need to be able to travel with it I'm just working on a fire bundle going through this little quickly dry grass to get the dead stuff leave the green stuff behind I grabbed some vinyl from the truck you used to wrap around it and there's some dung around I don't know what kind of dung it is but it's an ungulate so it's a grass eater and it'll probably work pretty well it'll hold it in there tight and you do want it to be very tight because you don't want it to burn you just want it to smolder for as long as you have to travel well in the fading sunlight 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 you so we've 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 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 enough 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 and when I get out of here [Music] I can see by looking in the viewfinder of the camera my face is getting awfully red I'm gonna be a piece of toast by the end of this week this is a major score these beams I already know from research to be edible little as they call them oops we call them seeds the tree is known locally as the camel thorn tree this is great news heatstroke and heat exhaustion can kill you it's not just a matter of overheating it's a deadly process of your body not being able to cope and eventually or sometimes in short order it shuts down I feel like I'm overheating like I might have heat exhaustion oh yeah I'm feeling pretty nauseous and I feel like I can't cool down my body is just radiating so much heat sacrificed a bit of water to put on my bandana duh to get around my carotid arteries because that's what you want to do you want to you want to cool your blood down I don't have to keep a real close watch on this if it gets worse I'm gonna have to call this off I stopped taking the temperature out there today at when it hit 60 degrees Celsius in the Sun you it's the second night in the Kalahari Desert and the most dangerous night I have ever faced for hours I have flirted on the edge of near-fatal heat exhaustion obviously 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 world-wide of it this is the toughest night of survival I've ever experienced but I'm rewarded by awakening to a desert protected by clouds that seemed to promise rain and I can feel energy return to me as I prepare for my third day I'm surviving this is completely and radically unusual I don't get days like this during the summer in the desert and yet I've got what to me looks like a generally overcast 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 from the truck and I have to try and get that fire bundle burning 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 [Music] [Music] [Music] there long as the wind doesn't come up I've got myself hopefully a bit of a rain catch it's back to the truck to see what else I can salvage and use for survival I can use these on my next trick okay yeah oh yeah look at that look at that look at that look at that oh yeah alright just get that fire bundle going and it's starting to rain l at the same time woohoo almost set the truck on fire mind you the jar of peanut butter wasn't actually full there was only a few tablespoons in it and it's not the nicest thing to eat in this heat I'm sad to say that I don't think there's gonna be any more rain coming in and I've got to get going so however a small of an amount it might be still better than nothing mmm bonus water thank you clouds after grabbing the salvaged items from the truck I'm leaving this area to make my way closer to the safety camp 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 grasp but it means walking through very active Cape Cobra territory after many hours of walking I need to stop I've only spotted a few shade trees here and there so on this 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 [Music] you know what I guarantee when this storm comes in over top of me it's gonna be going like crazy it's gonna be blowing like mad so it's all calm sun shining over here it's black there I better go batten down the hatches or I'm gonna regret it yeah this is pretty much my bedroll just keep it hidden away to see what happens with this storm unfortunately it doesn't look like my storms gonna come in I was hoping for some relief by getting rained on but it's going all around me but not coming over top of me [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] 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 from 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 it doesn't take off on me and blow off into the grasslands last night I was almost coming to heat exhaustion and tonight at 27 degrees Celsius I'm I'm chill I'm cooling cooling down so if I stay here well you know I'm underneath the 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 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 I've survived through heat exhaustion felt 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 so this is where 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 a 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 weaver bird 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 okay all of this junk here i scrounged from the truck when I can use this stuff to make some traps with these little containers to use I have in mind one particular type of a prey see it's really a simple matter of just creating a big hole for the Scorpion to drop down into you want it to be straight down as possible I think time to put this peanut butter jar to use just sort of make it so that when he comes out the hole he just drops right into the jar 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 that's saving me from having to drink too much water if it had stayed like it did in those first couple of days and 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 I'm gonna look for those water plants and a few other things that's the end of that the hoses from the truck will work as excellent traps 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 it'll be better utilized as bait setting traps or snares has nothing to do with guaranteeing me food but it keeps my mind occupied keeps my frustrations at bay and gives me hope for a better situation it's all about bettering the odds 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 sting went up then I looped it back and pulled it then I went around and some more doo-doo-doo-doo-doo and here's the end put the end through the loop okay okay so that's just loose through the loop but the end of the loop comes out here so this you see it'll pull and it will tighten that and pull it down through that effectively locks off all of this banding here let's go hunting [Music] 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 big ol locust oh he's a big one dinner do you have to be worried about what bugs you eat if they're brightly colored this guy's not 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 I hear them sizzling kind of popping like popcorn there we go no it was the edible part mmm bottoms up eh hmm it's always surprisingly good tasting 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 sad part of this night is CNE my water finishing my water changes everything there is no greater struggle than staying hydrated in a survival situation in one of the hottest places in the world every desert is a place of wild temperature swings and here is no exception it has hit 65 degrees Celsius 149 Fahrenheit on the surface of the sand the temperatures in a few days have gone from a high of 42 Celsius 107 Fahrenheit in the shade to 7 degrees Celsius 44 degrees fahrenheit in the middle of the night you know I spent the beginning of this week absolutely dreading the rising of the Sun trying to get as much done as I could before it came above the horizon and now this morning I find myself just praying for it to get above that horizon so I can warm up I've been up all night just trying to stay warm by the fire well there was a very serious reason why I took this mirror from the truck if I find myself down and out maybe bitten by a snake or stung by a scorpion maybe I can't get to my two-way radio backup system or maybe it's not working I could maybe flash somebody with this mirror now if I wanted to get the attention of an airplane that might be looking for me it's not that hard to do you take your fingers 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 it works like a charm now airplanes up in the sky line it up with the airplane and flash away pointing at the airplane in between your two spread fingers with the light it can work really well policies that he knows where you are and you're rescued all thanks to one little mirror there are a few ways to find or even make water in the desert and if there was ever a time for me to pull out all the stops and rehydrate now Bushmen would come and cut into these roots and take the pulp and squeeze the water into their mouths it feels juicy feels wet oh yeah look you see the moisture mmm oh yeah lots of juice like I just got a mouthful of juice from that little bit cover you over now I'm just gonna keep coming back to this and taking chunks and sucking on the juice as much as possible [Music] it's a pretty powerful full moon and I'm gonna use it the weaverbird nest by my shade tree has dried up and dead but not 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 whether or not I can use it effectively is another story [Applause] well they're here I just blew up all right this is nuts I didn't sign on for this I'm up because I'm freezing it's the middle of the night and it's quite cold if I wasn't using all the containers I have to try and catch scorpions 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 this wasn't what I was expecting it's been more than 12 hours without water and five days with only a few dry beans and a locust in my stomach I should have had some of those weaverbird last night they're faster fast and small Sun feels good this morning take some chill out of my bones probably won't say that in about three hours okay hey baby this is I got one let me show you got a second one yeah and a third one so that's three scorpions out of four traps very cool one two three and they've been there all night they're not going anywhere let me the trap just down here I'm gonna check it I got another scorpion all right now it comes the job of getting the scorpions out of these cups I've got to cut off the stingers which is where all of the poison is held humans can ingest poison from snakes and scorpions because it's simply a protein but not if you have an ulcer or a stomach injury for me just the thought of the stinger getting stuck in my throat is enough Wow it pinches hard [Music] this one's lively there we go my scorpion kebab Suns getting hot today it's coming over top but I'll be shaded here in just a moment so let's put these guys on the grill shall we there we go in spite of my frustration with not catching a weaverbird last night half a dozen or maybe 10 of these scorpions probably might be very close to the same amount of nutrition is one of those tiny little birds anyway yeah breakfast time to munch on some scorpions [Music] a little gritty you have to kind of do this quick and not think about it the more you think about it the more you won't do it so the ostrich egg finally day five I'm gonna cook it up all right holding the top of the egg and take stick break the membrane and I'm just gonna mush it up a bit inside oh whoa that look like one massive egg that is so cool see how she tastes oh my gosh Wow that is amazing oh my gosh hmm this kind of rich food on a stomach with no liquid in it it's dangerous as of today this is by far the best egg I've ever eaten not long after eating the egg I'm feeling painful stomach acid from eating only the ostrich egg and having very little liquid going 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 while I was resting in the shade and eating the ostrich egg my fire died on me I found a tiny piece of chocolate in a wrapper in one of my pockets okay and I can put it to good use here it is just a little bit of chocolate apparently I can take the chocolate polish up with the wax that's in the chocolate polish up the bottom of this can the idea is the concave nature the bottom of the can should focus a beam of sunlight into the tinder and start it up just like you would use a magnifying glass all right to do there's light there and it's just coming back on to the grass right there I'll leave the can and the tinder bundle in the Sun to hopefully do its thing while I wait I'll see if I can make water 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 urine to make water time to do the deed last bit of pee I can muster up urine is approximately 92% water but the rest is harmful toxins that if ingested would over toxify my blood and kill me so if I could distill some pure water out of my urine I might just get a small drink all right this is a urine still basically all I did was create a depression to put the cup and then I peed around that depression then I put the cup in cover over with this plastic and as the urine evaporates the distilled water will collect on the top of the plastic and drip down into the cup at least that's the hope it's day six and I've built two stills to hopefully collect water and with my fire out my only chance to get it back rests with a pop can the intense Sun at some tinder it's working it's working it's working it's working amazing absolutely amazing I really didn't think I had a hope in anywhere of getting a fire going with a piece of chocolate some sand and the bottom of a pop can I'm not gonna freeze tonight well I sorry I was really hoping hoping to take you to the weaverbird nest tonight and give it another shot at catching some weaverbirds but after only 24 hours without water in this dry dry heat just sucking on the juice of the root of a plant from moisture I'm I'm already light-headed and dizzy I just didn't think I could make the long long walk to where the weaver bird 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 just sucks it right out of your body and I mean it was still hot today got to the high 30 Celsius it's a high 90s Fahrenheit and it did its number but it's been 24 hours I'll just have to see how I do tomorrow and it's gonna get cold again tonight I can feel it but it's not as windy so little saving grace did I mention that scorpions are attracted to fire I 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 now just for some reassurance that's it safe to say there was no Cobras in that now since I've been sleeping under it for a bunch of nights that's reassuring just gonna go and check the traps close to where I'm camped out here [Applause] what the heck well what do you know that God's up look at the size of that guy he's covered in jam and Sam this may look like a tasty meal to a starving person but unfortunately the reason they are so slow and seem worryfree of attack is that for most predators they are toxic a small amount of cyanide makes them mildly poisonous it's time now to check on my water collectors first the year rent still just trying to get the condensation to finish dripping you know down the plastic let the bubbles water collect the drops of water collect and drip into the cup a little tiny bit of sand in there but there's like fresh clean water to me there is just a tiny bit of water they've collected using this tree solar still well for me right now it's definitely better than nothing hmmm oh just that tablespoon of water and an ant or two and uh just to feel the moisture in my mouth on my lips that little bit that helps dehydrated I am suffering from migraines and debilitating headaches I can't continue truth is I do need water really badly it's almost been 48 hours without water and with very little water and my head is dizzy and I'm a little disoriented and my legs are wobbly the safety crew camp is a few hours walk from here so I'm going home [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Survivorman - Les Stroud

Views: 445,725

Rating: 4.8652163 out of 5

Keywords: Les Stroud, Survivorman TV Show, Outdoor Survival, Survivorman TV, Survivorman, Survivorman Les Stroud, 'Les, Survivorman TV Series, Stroud', Survivorman - Season 2 - Episode 1 - Kalahari, Todd Standing, Logan Stroud, Sam Omik, Uzimann, Joseph McConnell, Bob Wilson

Id: Noe5Qs2D5tM

Length: 46min 22sec (2782 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 05 2020