The Magnificent Landscapes Of Madagascar, Australia And New Zealand | Somewhere On Earth Marathon

[Music] y [Music] [Music] today a look towards the infinite off the Beaten Track in Egypt most of this country is a desert with many different facets the people will be meeting have chosen to make their lives here in these vast [Music] spaces Mansour is a child of the Oasis at baharia this young veterinarian cares for all the animals of the small farmers he has become an important personality in the local community UIL was a civil engineer he left his job as an architect to become a monk and joined one of the monasteries in the Wadi nron Valley that for 16 centuries now have been maintaining the traditions of Christianity and desert monks fua is a navigator of the sands for more than 30 years this Frenchman has been exploring these vast spaces traveling the desert with him means setting out to discover magnificent sights I never get tired of these Landscapes it's a strange feeling like going back to the beginning of the world like you're starting over I've never met anyone who wasn't moved by the sight of these shifting [Music] Dunes Sahara in the Arabic language this word does not mean a region or a territory it simply means desert just as the word ocean doesn't designate a specific body of water from the banks of the Nile to the shores of the Atlantic this one desert under different Nam stretches over a large part of Northern Africa it covers 2/3 of Egypt up to the Libyan border here it's called the Western desert formerly the Libyan Desert and it's one of the driest deserts in the [Music] world the ancient Egyptians considered this desert an evil Kingdom yet in the middle of this mineral ocean a verdant archipelago resists the onslaught of the waves of sand the five oases of the western desert are sheltered islands where the Miracle of Life has triumphed over the Hostile [Music] climate living in an oasis means working the land here farming trade and prayer set the Rhythm of Life people leave for the fields every morning at the same time they cultivate the land the same way their ancestors did the path of life has already been traced for these men and women and they follow it not out of resignation but out of respect for [Music] tradition is she eating well yes is she eating normally yes is she pregnant yes 3 [Music] months at bti in the baharia Oasis every every one knows Dr Mansour he's from baharia himself and he's the only vet in town for the farmers raising a few animals here Mansour is a godsend everybody likes the vet here because they know I'm always ready to help them in their animals animals are their livelihood and people worry as much about the health of their livock as that of their children after I finished my studies in Cairo I tried to work there but all I got were offers in pharmaceutical companies and that didn't interest me in the Oasis everybody has livestock so there's much more work here oddly enough there are a lot more vets in the suburbs of Cairo than in Oasis but there's a real human Dimension here and it's not too crowded I'm the second vet who comes from the Oasis I'm a child of the I think that's an interesting thing this one piece will make 52 layers watch on mobile devices or the big screen all for free no subscription required wases Herodotus called them islands of the bless for more than 8,000 years these oases have been inhabited cultivated preserved long isolated the people of SEI used to live in a town constructed of mud brick nicknamed the city of mud a series of torrential rainstorms in the heart of the desert brutally transformed the past into a heap of ruins [Music] in the space of 4 years from 1926 to 1930 the city of shal was totally devastated as they had no other place to go the people of the Oasis built another city right next to it and life goes on more or less as [Music] always [Music] [Music] hello [Music] fore you need to give him a series of injections that's the best way to treat him you need to give him three doses spread out over several days I'll come back as soon as I can to examine them all like I did for Samy's camels you really have to treat your sick animals every day for a month then you won't have to worry [Music] anymore [Music] hello how are you this is sayedi he's an agronomic engineer and he's the best date palm specialist in the entire Oasis okay good luck maybe God created the desert so that man could appreciate the date trees mused the author Pao quo there are 1,500,000 date palms in baharia dates are the leading product of the Oasis here everyone believes that the date palm benefits from special divine grace and they all take very good care of this legendary tree the date palm is like a human being it's like a woman up until the age of about 45 she's fertile well it's the same with the date palm after 45 the female date palm no longer produces and even if there is fertilization the tree won't yield any fruit all the oases in the western desert are situated in low basins of Lim Stone plateaus between 100 and 130 M below sea level and in this geological configuration the groundwater just gushes up at first this hot water that comes from deep within the Earth flowed naturally and then as needs grew other methods were needed to ensure the supply of [Music] water an oasis is a natural environment structured by man with a whole system of Technical and social management of the resources in the baharia Oasis there are 86 machine duck Wells and 243 natural wells until 1976 all the Oasis had only natural Wells but constant pumping caused water levels to drop and from that time on they started using machines to drill Wells [Music] it's not your garden variety dandelion that can go out and live in the Sahara said Theodore mono a great connoisseur of the desert and yet in the Oasis the work of man has made some inroads into the desert on the other hand they've had to dig deeper and deeper to reach new water levels some investors are even trying to drill 1,200 M into the subsoil they dream of transforming these vast arid zones into fertile land dreams that often last only a few seasons the desert ground retains nothing it has no memory whereas for Millennia the land has been intensively worked in the same [Music] [Applause] [Music] way in all the North African oases the fields are divided up in the same way from small plots to fruit and palm tree plantations everything is organized around the [Music] irrigation and the organization of the water sharing remains an intangible rule of life Tafoya has to irrigate regularly twice a week in Winter and every day in the heart of Summer it's painstaking work that no machine can do and the tools they use haven't changed for centuries every plot of land is about 3x 3 m and I have quite a few plots I have about 100 to irrigate on this side and about the same number on the other side of the the road farming is a difficult job but it's our profession and it's been our family's profession for centuries we never stop working every [Music] day but every job has its drawbox I'm used to it I've always done it and when you do your job well you can hope for good results as the proverb goes every effort has its reward meanwhile Dr Mansour continues working on the farms be it for treatment or artificial insemination he is always is on call there is however one domestic animal that he treats less and less the donkey for thousands of years the Dunkey was the main means of transportation for man and goods in the Oasis but today due to globalization Chinese motorbikes have become serious [Music] competitors even in the heart of the desert life is changing in fits and starts progress is coming to the Oasis but in these islands of the Blessed there is still a pleasant [Music] Tranquility for the people of the sand working the Earth is still the basis of their lives they are strongly attached to the rhythm of work composed by the Sun to the Earth that must be watered to life that must be protected the desert surrounding us is vast and it protects us a little there have been changes but there are still a lot of people who preserve their customs and traditions one day my father left for Cairo and he couldn't stand the hustle and bustle when he came back he said something I liked a lot he told me if there is Paradise on Earth it's the Oasis I couldn't live anywhere but in the Oasis and here as the saying goes I'm like a fish in water and it's true I couldn't live anywhere [Music] [Applause] [Music] else [Music] [Applause] in the land of the muine the peel of church bells sets a different tone at 4 in the morning the monks assemble for prayers two hours of Psalms chants and L [Music] the history of Christianity is closely linked to the history of Egypt according to the Bible the Holy Family took Refuge here after the birth of Christ so the Son of God spent the first years of his life on Egyptian soil a few few centuries later the early Coptic Christians cite the holy family's flight into Egypt as proof that Christianity was born here the fine points of Doctrine aside one thing is certain over time thousands and thousands of monks have taken the vow to live here and consecrate their lives to meditation and prayer today monastic life is attracting more and more candidates and in light of their former lives these men do not make the decision to enter the monastery lightly father UIL is one of the aby's 120 monks he's been here for 13 years after leading a rather interesting secular life before I was born in Mansura I grew up there and I studied there in a school of civil engineering and after I got my engineering diploma I worked for a few years in arada and then eluana work for several different architectural firms and then I decided to become a monk because I wanted to spend the rest of my life In God's Presence I wanted to live in a place like this here I'm completely happy and I think it's the best decision I ever made in my life one doesn't go to the desert to escape even if the spirit can find Refuge here the Christians of the Orient settled here in order to pray in total peace Islam didn't exist yet and monks were already retiring from the world in search of an aesthetic life over more than 16 centuries their Roots have taken hold here in the set day desert at first they were Hermits and then they formed communities now there are still four active Coptic monasteries in the valley of Wadi natrun for these desert monks the isolation and living in caves like the early Hermits belong to the distant past now they live in communities their cells are much more comfortable but no Outsider is allowed to enter them they follow the rules of monastic life life to the letter monastic life follows three rules poverty obedience and Chastity poverty allows Detachment from everything Chastity Fosters purity of body and spirit obedience has to be followed all through life you have to leave all your decisions in the hands of the Abbot obedience is without question the most difficult of the rules the daily life of the monks takes place Behind These imposing walls walls meant to help in their spiritual Quest but also to protect them from the outside world and yet their existence is not solely contemplative monasticism is based on two basic principles prayer and work life in these monasteries is organized so as to be self-sufficient [Applause] every before becoming a monk candidates have to prove themselves over several years novices wear a blue or brown robe for the first two years and then a white one for a year or two it's a very strict hierarchy and it's only after they have taken their final vows that they let their hair and beard grow there are 120 monks in the convent of St pisho but there are at least 400 lay workers there as well some of them live here all year long others for a few months at a time we give him the work because if he gets the work here he get money for his family to feed his family and uh he spend good time in desert uh in monastic life because we let them pray we let them uh uh confess uh we we let them share our life fields of cereal Olive Groves fruit trees beans the monks and their employees have managed to raise crops on the threshold of the desert self-sufficiency on a grand [Music] scale a monastery operates like a business with a variety of activities it's more than a community it's a world in itself with its own codes and organization there are no taxes but there's no individual gain either everything is for the collective good they've been in this spot for more than 16 centuries yet these monks have come a long way since the year 390 ad they're not afraid of progress and their skills acquired before they enter the monastery are put to good use on new development projects the combination of techniques and and ancestral skills has allowed them to earn a certain reputation the influence of the Christians of Egypt means an economic influence too and on this point the monks are actively involved obviously we make use of Technology cell phones and computers a lot of monks use the internet almost all the monks have had higher education today we can Master technology and not let it Master us and it's essential to understand the difference it's even if Coptic monks have not lived like Hermits for a long time now the desert still figures strongly in their religious vocation they make regular Retreats here alone for a few days or weeks to meditate and carry on this tradition [Music] in the desert the monk isolates himself and detaches himself from daily life he lives only for God our spiritual fathers taught us that contemplation in the desert frees us from all material attachment so that we can deepen our spiritual relationship with God a person who can't adapt to the desert won't be able to bear this isolation but on the whole the desert encourages personal growth here we are in peace the W natrun monks are a real success when the monastery opens its doors to the public it attracts an impressive crowd of [Music] faithful the monks are seen as the cement of this religious community their continuous presence down through the centuries and their resistance to persecution are seen as a symbol of immortality it's difficult to estimate the number of cops 7 million according to the Egyptian government but religious authorities put the figure at 12 million the figures are often a subject of controversy but Egyptian Christians are attached to their particularities and for them coming to these monasteries is like making a pilgrimage undoubtedly these Christian chants bring on a sort of Oriental Blues but the monks don't ring their hands in prayer and they seem consistently cheerful amongst life is not one of competition but of encouragement there is no competition between us there is a collective Spirit where everyone can develop his own spiritual life our community is part of this world a part protected by the Angels Angelic life has no definition it is a life where you feel at one with yourself quite simply [Music] even though it's arid and desolate the desert has many Faces Sometimes man is tolerated here on the condition that he's willing to show humility before the harsh elements an unavoidable expanse on the Caravan route this Western desert is a hostile place and yet it exerts an attraction a sort of magnetism it is a refuge for Mystics and the contemplative in search of the pure this landscape is also the ideal setting for adventurers in quest of boundless [Music] Horizons [Music] nobody knows this man's name but his nickname is well known fenua is a desert lover with a particular fondness for the Western desert for more than 30 years he has been crisscrossing the desert in a variety of ways at first he organized and ran rallies then his competitive Spirit waned but he still has a real Fascination for these landscapes for the ancient Egyptians the Great Sea of sand began immediately after the last Oasis this marked the end of the kingdom of the living and the beginning of the kingdom of the dead and between them there was a dangerous No Man's Land called chaos where you could find yourself trapped and they were right to be wary because in certain directions it was uncrossable the desert is both life and death it reminds us of the fragility and the beauty of our Humanity heading out into the desert is always an adventure you can't forget anything gas water food tools but above all you must set out in just one vehicle a breakdown in the middle of the desert can quickly turn into a serious problem this is a well-known Saharan ritual that gives the tire the same consistency as a camel's hoof we deflate the tire it gets wider and there's more surface in contact with the ground we deflate it to 800 gam of pressure the desert is a sort of solid ocean and there are many similarities between the Sea and the desert the chain of Dunes is like a series of rollers on the sea and rather than driving you feel more like you are navigating as you set a course to make your way across the sea of sand you have to consider the Dune is something fluid something that shifts that moves and that's why they give you a feeling of Eternity you see a Frozen storm here we're on G Abu muhar the father of impassible Dunes Abu means father but I prefer to say mother it's prettier it represents the Mother Maternity and mother ocean because it's vast like an ocean so I'm bending the rules but why not it stretches over 550 km so it's the longest chain of Dunes in Egypt in the Sahara and probably in the world I never get tired of it I like discovering it on foot by camel motorcycle or car different Pleasures but equally profound being in the desert means choosing your route studying the difficulties and trying to evaluate them correctly hundred hundreds of kilometers to the South a passage leads you through the waves of Dunes to an amazing site when you cross the Western desert with fenua you discover areas that are as grandiose as they are mysterious and we come upon a phenomenon that no one could have imagined finding here [Music] here we're in the only Limestone cave in the Sahara you can see enormous stalactites the corresponding stalagmites have been buried under the sand for thousands of years and this proves that the Sahara was once [Music] green this cave was a mandatory stopover for Caravans for two reasons there was water in it that was important and because it's situated 15 km from a passage where the camels can get through the [Music] dunes a German Explorer rediscovered it in 1873 but it didn't interest him he didn't know its geographical location much later in 1991 another German rediscovered the cave but now the water's gone [Music] traveling the desert means confronting the unknown looking for landmarks in the middle of emptiness and knowing that the slightest undulation in the sand could turn out to be a trap it calls for a great deal of knowledge to be able to negotiate the desert safely one miscalculation and the car stopped short in the second vehicle kahim the second driver Raji the mechanic and S the cook are bogged down three times five times a day they have to help each other out of these sand traps Kim Kim tell us when you're okay okay let's go [Music] [Music] Kim studies sand he's a great guy he's always cool okay enough compliments when you're in the sand in the dunes you need two vehicles because anyone can get into trouble you can fool around when you're done but not before you never know what might happen fenua was certainly not predestined to become a desert specialist he had a degree in philosophy and became a journalist while working on a story in Algeria he discovered the elegance and freedom of the shifting Dunes that was almost 40 years ago and from that moment on his love for the desert grew stronger and stronger here you feel like you're at the beginning of the world there's something magical about these rocks and the soft sand if there wasn't any sand we'd be driving over the Rocks but here you glide on the sand between the rocks that are getting closer and closer and forcing us a little off course but they're so beautiful you can't blame them when it hits the Rocks the wind moves the Dune in a different way it digs into it like when you're at Sea you have to be careful near the reefs because of the whir pools here too you can find Dune whir pools and sometimes you find Hollows that can be a little dangerous when I discovered this place it sounds a little pretentious to say discovered it's simply that there was no logical reason reason for the nomads to pass this way and when you see a place with no can no stone markers that means no one's come through I came this way for the fun of it and when I found this place I called it the howong Bay of the desert all these rocks change the way the wind blows on the dunes the dunes separate and keep drifting showing how sand is fluid it passes between the eyelets like currents running between the rocks in how long bay the sand continues on its course this landscape is [Music] unique as soon as night falls so does the temperature and it's brutal you have to set up camp well Before Sunset set make a fire and let say get to work with the gas burner between friends we talk about why we come here we say that we must be a little crazy in the old days someone could love the desert but it was also their livelihood I'm talking about the Caravans that crossed it but if you want to abandon civilization and comfort in search of danger and thrills as well as the love of nature there's nothing rational about it it's a passion like for the ocean in the mountains you accept the hardships because it doesn't matter how you travel sooner or later the vast desert is always going to give you problems the Western desert it's my favorite because it's the wildest it's the largest expanse of sand there are legends about it but also stories of adventurers and explorers it's also the most diverse desert that I know the landscape often changes in Egypt's Western [Music] desert [Music] sometimes the wind and the sand give birth to strangely formed NES to Dunes with perfect curves or to beds of rocks sculpted like blades you need a vast amount of knowledge of the desert a dose of recklessness and that famous Touch Of Madness to Brave such wild terrain even though there's no proper marker this is the only way through this Gully has a drop of more than 120 m [Music] [Music] Kim I think you can shift down to third gear and then to Second at the bottom here you have a typical trap when you see a dune with a very steep slope you have to watch out not to crash into the Rocks we've all made stupid mistakes in the desert I'm the first to admit it I came here without a clue I survived learning little by little but when you cross the dunes you always have to be humble you have to understand think things out evaluate [Music] burning hot when the sun is at its Zenith freezing cold in the middle of the night the desert is a land of extremes what artist could have conjured up such incredible settings where the light completely changes the perspective where pretentious little outcrops break the dune's flowing curve in the desert you're sure to find Landscapes that are impressive moving or depressing depending on the Traveler's [Music] mood a lot of beautiful things have been written about the desert because it's so inspiring but the story I like the most is byak about an old Soldier under Napoleon telling the story of his Egyption campaign to his grandchildren who keep interrupting him asking what was the desert like he looks for the right words and finally comes up with the desert is God before man and you don't have to be a believer to have a feeling for Transcendence when you see the desert you see a virgin land before man's done anything either good or [Music] bad after 5 days of pure desert this sign of Life looms up like a mirage this remote forgotten Citadel is the vestage of a time when life really existed in this place that's so lifeless today what happened why did men construct this Fortress and why here in the middle of nowhere this is the biggest Fortress built during the Roman colonist around 2,000 years ago the Romans occupied Egypt for 400 years and this Fortress was used to protect the Caravans there were major Roman garrisons here the place was called a The Well of the Scorpion it was abandoned 500 years ago because the wells dried up but then water reappeared in Cara which is now the largest oases in Egypt and this place stayed abandoned [Music] it might have been the last place where K's Army passed through I say might but scientists seem to agree the last traces of the army were found here in 525 BC cambus the powerful King of Persia after conquering most of Egypt sent his army to the Oasis of seaw to subjugate the Oracle of Amon but then a unique occurrence in history that army of 50,000 men [Music] vanished for a long time people thought it was a legend but now historians know that cis's Army was composed of 50,000 men the largest army in the world at that time Herodotus wrote that the Army was buried in a terrible sandstorm the idea is interesting for a movie it was used in the English Patient the more probable explanation is that the Army made a navigational error and got lost that they died of thirst because they never came back and they never arrived at sewa and as no trace of them was found they must be buried under one of the enormous Cathedral Dunes in the Great Sea of sand for more than a century historians have been looking for traces of that Army and in November 2009 Italian archaeologists discovered vestiges of what might be part of cisa's famous Army 2,500 years later the Enigma of that disappearance might be solved [Music] people have become interested in the desert fairly recently as long as only Caravans crossed it nobody or almost nobody ventured off the camel routes it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the first explorers began to venture in thanks to the automobile and those scientific Expeditions were hunting for the Lost Oasis called zura that paradise on Earth contained a city sheltered in the heart of steep Cliffs and the myth of the Lost Oasis still preserves all its mystery we're on one of History's first roads for cars built between 1925 and 1930 by the English and their Hindu workers because the Egyptians didn't want to go out into the desert to break rocks it was quickly abandoned because it was covered by sand with a new road circling the oases this one's been forgotten when it was reopened in 1986 no one had been on it for more than 30 years and you felt like you were traveling towards a magical land a lost Oasis where there were traces of civilization cans but no cars everything had been erased by the wind this is a beautiful Baran this Dune has three characteristics it's the fastest moving Dune in the world it has a crescent shape and it's two tips Advance on the average a Baran can move 5 to 12 met a year that's 75 m a century what's more it can give birth at the tip a little pile of sand appears that then becomes another Crescent that grows this apparently hostile land seems to breathe as if the Sahara were a place that gives life to the mineral world after days of traveling after making a big loop from east to west in a multiform desert fui finally arrives at what he considers the most beautiful sight of all the great sea of sand all of a sudden Infinity is Within Reach I never get tired of these Landscapes it's a strange feeling like going back to the beginning of the world like you're starting over I've never met any anyone who wasn't moved by the sight of these shifting Dunes everyone is free to look for what he wants in the desert I don't come looking for Solitude I'm very close to my family and friends but when I come to the desert I enjoy this total contrast when I'm in the Civilized world I get the morning and evening papers and devour all the news when I go back to the desert I do without the news for a month I come back and I ask which old fools died but I'm not being heartless it's just that I get the feeling that the world hasn't changed much there's always just as much misery just as much happiness as much Beauty and ugliness and I took advantage of the Beauty and the Peace of the desert which cleansed to my soul this man has managed to find his way in a place where in fact paths do not [Music] exist the desert makes me think of a Mystic tware song that ends with he who dies of immense love needs immense forgetfulness only passionate love or the desert could inspire a phrase like that for [Music] fr [Music] oh New Zealand this group of islands in the South Pacific is the remnant of a sunken prehistoric continent we'll be Crossing South Island it's the largest and least populated teaming with exuberant vegetation Peter Gan used to be a farmer he's traded in his tools for paintbrushes he has set up his Studio near some of the most stunning sites and travels the country to capture the light settings and Impressions Dave down spends a good deal of his time poking around the riverbeds of the hokitika region his practiced die on the lookout for jade stones this experienced Jade Hunter has a passion for these stones and Hoards them like a treasure Stewart island off the South Coast numbers 400 inhabitants fana Ahmad is one of them this young woman who talks with the birds was born in Kenya grew up in England and was an accountant before settling here in the Roaring 40s I've traveled to number of different places and lived in a number of different countries and I just think it's a a place of complete Timeless Beauty it's a place that um I'm really lucky to have [Music] found iara in Mai this means land of the long white cloud this is the name the Maes gave this unknown uninhabited land when they came here from Polynesia about 800 years [Music] ago after the early Maes it was a long time before other men reached this island far from anywhere the first Europeans the Dutch arrived here less than four centuries ago they named this country New Zealand after a maritime province of the Netherlands this island along with the Antarctic is one of the last great territories discovered by man this young land with its Short History was preserved from human activity for a long time which is why the wildlife in New Zealand is particularly Rich Lush and beautiful [Music] golden Bay this is where Abel Tasman the first European to land here dropped anchor there was also James Cook with its 15,000 km of Coast New Zealand is a land of Mariners and sailing Peter and his wife Carrie are out p lling on Golden Bay in the early light of dawn but they're not doing it just for the exercise Peter captures Sensations he seizes the different lights Reflections and all the expressions of nature that he will rework later I take all the pictures I can I just because it's a digital camera and when I get home I'll then put them onto my laptop and um start whittling them down and refining and refining and refining until I finally see a a photo that um I think could make a good painting and then um and just watch it grow the reason I like that scene um is mainly because it's it's a rock um it's Solitude it represents solitude it's solid it represents age it's you know being in all weathers and there's just something nice about it how it just sits there you know um reflecting and um yeah it's just nice and peaceful and sort of it's bit how I feel sometimes it's a fantastic place to go yes yes you can always go around there and be guaranteed a a painting from a trip around there in the quiet that's for sure I try to change the mood in the painting I think that's probably what I do from the photograph and um it's it's my interpretation of what that photograph is new zealanders are very ecology minded and Peter and Carrie are good examples their Garden is thriving the Earth is generous the climate ideal mostly probably about 90% of our food we grow ourselves hey girls it's a great healthy lifestyle it's a good way to eat to eat food that um hasn't traveled any distance um we grow it ourselves without the use of sprays so yes it's it's a good feeling to eat good clean food in an environment where we grow it ourselves and it's all under control organic yes but all the plants have to tow the line nothing out of line in this bucolic setting laid out by Peter and Carrie for a long time they themselves were producer of organic fruit and vegetables first in Australia then in New Zealand it seems they've completely tamed a nature here when you go to the supermarket The food doesn't look like food anymore not like the food that we used to or our grandparents used to eat it's hardly recognizable as food because there are so many ingredients in the food that I can't even pronounce and it's a real Paradox that um we know more about food and nutrition than we've probably ever known in the world and yet there's more sickness there's more obesity and heart disease and cancer and um yeah we wonder if it's not been caused by what people eat that's slow food Revolution it's grow the food as well as prepare it yourself sit down and enjoy it and honor the food that you eat um we prepare it as closest possible to Mother Nature has presented it to us Peter worked the land for 25 years then he put away his Farming tools for good and took up the paintbrush he transformed his hobby into a fulltime activity Peter regularly leaves his Studio to head out on field trips two or 3 Days on the Road in search of the most beautiful spots and here he's certainly spoiled for Choice well a field trip is is basically information gathering that's a a way of getting out into the environment and then living in the environment and smelling the environment and and and what have you and absorbing the the necessary ingredients to to take back to the studio to um to work with there's still a few spots out there yet to be discovered but um there's a lot of places that we have been that's for [Music] sure [Music] two Blues out there today you've got the warm blue in the sky and the cooler blue on the in the eastery and um yeah I think uh yeah two colors of blue like that in in one image is is really a real treat and uh yeah and they got the contrast of the orange on the on the cliffs and uh yeah there's some lovely color out there today New Zealand is a vast country but you only need to go a few dozen kilometers to find yourself in a totally different landscape from the sea to the mountains the transition is quite abrupt it's very dry isn't it m and each time the surprising settings take the traveler on a Voyage Through Time it's in its raw State and it's it's very natural the landscape can tell me a lot um and I can get a lot of ideas and I could add that to other paintings that I I do it's just been left alone and it's happened over a long long period of time and uh if you leave it alone and let it go and do its own natural thing it'll look beautiful one day the entire west coast of South Island gets heavy rains between downpours the sky clears up and the sun Pours Down into these valleys of the rainforest thick with tree ferns nature offers the painter a rich pet of greens Peter's camping car serves as his second [Music] studio and Peter and Carrie have been traveling like this ever since they met the camping car even played an important role when they first met well that wasn't in New Zealand actually that was in Australia Carrie was um cycling from Tasmania up to Queensland and uh I was traveling on my own in a Volkswagen Combi and uh we met and um suddenly the the bike got sold and uh we started traveling in the comi and we've been together ever since uh we've always worked together um we've always been self-employed and uh we we're enjoying each other's companies profusely and um yeah we love each other very much of a Roos up here there yeah I think Peter needs uh a break so he can get into the environment and I like to come with him so um yeah he needs to get out and I think he sees almost every time he goes on a field trip he comes back full of inspiration he's got to get into a painting really quickly so yeah it's good for [Music] him I can't believe it you see anything no we're looking for New Zealand power or Abalone butth there doesn't seem to be much here today we may have to track down to the other end of the beach oh look car the Abalone is a strange Marine gastropod that spends its life stuck fast to the Rocks the inner side of its ear-shaped shell is covered with beautiful and valuable Peter is that long enough but here Peter is after its delicious flesh Abalone are plentiful here on the West Coast of New Zealand that should be enough turn over and check the size [Music] yeah and ped's little escapades always finish in the same way with the painter alone before his canvas working doggedly for days and days to distill the images stored in his head a photo will only capture a certain amount of information that I require and um I'll further that um and that's that's the advantage of doing a field trip so um I bring the landscape to [Music] me I enjoy being in in in the in the natural environment and I certainly have a great appreciation for it um particularly the undisturbed uh natural environment and by that I mean uh environments said haven't been modified by man you know I mean a tree like this for example's living a pretty tough life as you can see you know it's faces into the wind and it's getting a pretty hard time and then I think that's um deserving of some sort of recognition I suppose so um that's really why I paint a subject like [Music] this [Music] [Music] with Peter's high definition Landscapes it's sometimes hard to tell the difference between reality and the [Music] painting [Music] Peter has chosen to portray what is beautiful naturally beautiful and such is his love for his models that he always tends to sublimate these images of nature that he is so fond [Music] of [Music] I like to come on site and bring the painting back towards the very end of the painting process um it certainly helps put some truth and honesty into the painting um sometimes it's uh quite difficult because the paintings are big and the easels are big and I've got to Lug all my equipment to the site and if it's a long way away it's uh it's quite a mission but um sometimes final touches that you see the most so it is important Peter G is now a recognized artist in his country but this regionalist painter as he calls himself is above all happy to have fulfilled his dream to live for painting and to continue to take Delight in the impressive variety of these landscapes the west coast of South iseland faces the Tasman Sea the banks of clouds that form in the middle of the Pacific roll in from the Northwest the west coast is Virgin Territory Pioneer country 150 years ago this hostile region wild and practically uninhabited was the scene of a sudden massive influx of migrants when Prospectors discovered huge nuggets of gold here in 1860 the news spread like wildfire from one day to the next tens of thousands of people from all over the world fluck to this West Coast to try their luck towns popped up like mushrooms with their saloons hotels brothel And Trades folk that followed in the wake of the [Music] Prospectors they even quickly built the dock in hokitika for the many boats bringing in new arrivals the California Gold Rush had already petered out so New Zealand appeared as the new Far West [Music] and so many came all lured by dreams of riches in a few years the West Coast was transformed ravaged and a good number of valleys were leveled by the miners who laid waste to entire hillsides in their quest for the coveted gold [Music] and as always the fever eventually dropped almost as abruptly as it had broken out now there are still a few active minds but the Fantastic nuggets weighing several kilos are a thing of the past gold no longer fires the imagination however there are still some people who search the rivers of the hokitika region well if they don't care if to get wet it doesn't m i see them rocks are slippery aren't they you got to be really careful the water's nice and clear though grab that view Al you see how it breaks the water yeah today Dave DS has brought his grandchildren along with him this young attentive grandfather wants to share his quest with them oh looking for ponu greenstone just gets washed down on the hills and into the river when it rains and it floods it comes up real high you could see along on the banks how high it will get and it turns it over like a washing machine so you got more chance of finding the stone once it's turned over it's really good when it's on the bank it dries out and it just looks like the normal stones but when it's wet in the river it's a bit easier to find I think so no that's a big chip see that right yeah that's Ser yeah it's a tradition goes down through the generations of children if we don't teach them the outdoors they won't go the outdoors they TV you know video games the region of hokitika is the place in New Zealand to find Jade for the untrained eye these thousands of stones all look alike and the ordinary hiker could pass through here without noticing the rare Stone Dave however is always on the lookout now look at that see it have a look what do you think and Dave certainly has a sharp eye you see how it's gray white hold it do see it right oh yeah look at that see it look at that look at the Green in that we might make your mey out of that eh what do you reckon y feel how heavy that is oh hold that got it pretty heavy eh yeah feel it it's just luck a lot of Luck's involved the more time you come the more chance you got to find in the stone that's all it is luck and time Dave loves know so much he surrounded his house with him but the most surprising thing is out in his shed this is where he keeps his treasure 20 years of collecting jade stones Stones he loves so much he doesn't even cut them open to see how pure they are he lets them keep their mystery his whole fortune and history is contained in these piles of jade stones it's a passion it's a passion Browns greens the Browns are beautiful these are very very rare stones you see the brown crust and those these this is a beautiful a her chip look at the color in that it's marvelous when I first started it was be for the commercial side of it I was going to make a lot of money on it then I cut a few I've still got them I haven't got the money for them someone grabbs you and draws you into the St it's not just a it's not just a Mary thing it's not just a moldy thing it's just the stone of course it's a treasure isn't it you've been on the river looking for Treasures yeah there's another one so once you cut it you just turn it into a rock it's not Pono it hasn't got the character you have to go out you have to get in the environment and feel the Tonga I think the M call [Music] it Jade has been present in this region since the dawn of time as a result of geological Transformations Jade deposits formed deep within the [Music] Earth when the Southern Alps were formed by up thrust just Inland of the West Coast the deposits of Jade were lifted to the Earth's surface much later the glaciers carried the stones towards the valleys and towards the sea and when the glaciers began to melt they they deposited these stones in the riverbeds of the West Coast the first Maui to land on this island named it teai pamu which means Waters of greenstone or land of Jade this green stone played an essential role in their life they used it to make jewelry and weapons and they considered this Stone as a link with their ANC an cestors it had not only material value but also great spiritual [Music] value since the arrival of the Maui a great quantity of Jade has been gathered from the rivers and along the beaches now no one knows exactly how much is still left in the river the deposits have been scattered to many different spots but even today the Maui have managed to preserve the traditional methods the Jade must always be collected by hand Dave works in a Dairy to feed his family milk is New Zealand's white gold Jade cting is not his profession just a side job and when Dave Cuts Jade he works with stones that he buys from other collectors just so he never has to touch his personal collection and yet here Dave is cutting the stone he has just found in the river he has a good reason for making this exception today this is a gift for my grandson it's a m that the Mar's used to use for self-defense when they were first out here because the stone is so hard you can get a fine shape to it and becomes a good sharp weapon this will be just for show Dave who has Irish Roots has been a New Zealander for two generations he's interested in the history of this Jade that's so important for the Maui go L when he's not searching the riverbeds Dave Spends His free time with the kiwis one of hoki tika's two Rugby teams rugby is a veritable social and cultural phenomen on here and again we find the mark of the mai culture in the Haka the impressive warm-up routine made famous by the All [Music] Blacks for Dave rugby is like his Stones a fervent [Music] passion he used to play himself now he's a trainer slash physical therapist and all round loudmouth for the kiwis Jersey you play for your Club your jersey let you put it all on the line all these boys work all week out on the Rugby field that's their time out by themselves that's the man stuff from when they [Music] little [Applause] [Music] ah yeah we won 3628 we should have got 50 we still got a bit of work to do but this is the Derby this is the main game of this round so far they're the top team we just took them out Dave is a perfect example of what they call here the West Coast Spirit a tough Spirit sometimes a bit rough around the edges but as genuine as the region itself Dave has his own secret hunting grounds and he sometimes has to hike for hours to reach them this quest for Jade is not as obsessive as the Gold Fever that Afflicted thousand thousands of adventurers 150 years ago but Dave does always feel the irresistible urge to follow the river all the way up to its source in search of that special rare Stone there's a piece of rubbish no color in it but it's a bit of St his passion for these Stones seems boundless and no better rocks no matter how large can dampen his enthusiasm this is the Kaka but the waters runs under the loose rocks and as you get up around the corner up there the water's in there and it must go under the ground and then down and out into the arur river when it's in flood it's way up on the banks I found rocks down here big brown ones 20 lb but that's after the flood we might be a couple days late but you don't know doesn't matter does it ponam is a bonus you know don't get me wrong it's good to find the ponu that's but you know look at it it's a lovely day what else will we be doing got to get away from work yeah it's lovely [Music] [Applause] peaceful just getting to Stewart island is already an adventure whether it's by boat or in the small airplane that makes the connection The Crossing to this region off the coast of South Island is a real Expedition the currents are strong and the ocean is rarely calm and the winds are as free as the air Stuart Island is so wild that the first ones to greet the visitor are the albatross do they come out of boredom idle curiosity or to see if there's some kind of snack for them a bit of all three [Music] probably at 47° South Stewart island is right in the heart of the Roaring 40s nobody spends too much time here even the clouds seem to be in a hurry fana Ahmad came to live in this wild Paradise 14 years ago she knows a good deal about the wildlife of Stewart Island she knows the stories that come along with each different plant and tree hey Vine here is called Supple Jack and um you can see the top it looks like asparagus like a head of asparagus and Mari used to eat it they used to break it and eat it and it tastes like a green bean and uh when they couldn't find running water they used to cut stems of this break it and drink the sap and as the vines became older um like this Mari used to weave them and make fishing baskets out of them fana is 47 and has had a rather interesting life she was born in Kenya her father was from India and her mother from the sels she studied business and geography in England and worked for about 10 years as an accountant in London then one day she turned her back on all that and decided to travel I came to New Zealand 16 and a half years ago and I did a lot of hiking from the north iseland south iseland and in Stewart Island and I spent quite a number of years walking by myself in the forest and just watching and listening living in New Zealand um gives you the encouragement to learn and find out more so I did a lot of my own research after several years of backpacking foran decided to settle on Stewart Island in fact she couldn't go any further continuing Southward the next stop would have been the Antarctic this is what Stuart Island roughly looks like it's our third largest island this is the west coast and the southern side and then the neck Peninsula Patterson Inlet 93% of this island is conservation land it's in Wilderness it's uninhabited 5% of Stuart Island around here is Mari land and Mai arrived in Stuart island in the 13th century but they haven't lived here all the time 2% of Stewart Island mainly through here is land available for private ownership and there's only 28 kilm of Road there's 750 kilm of fabulous Coastline it's an amazing [Music] place [Music] Stewart island is about 65 km by 40 with only 400 [Music] inhabitants and it's not an easy Island to get to [Music] know from the air it's possible to get a view if you can Dodge the downpours and gusts of [Music] wind coming in from the sea you're often faced with a rather uninviting [Music] Coastline the only way to penetrate this territory is to hike for days and days being careful not to stray from the paths for the forest is impenetrable here the vegetation definitely has the upper hand this vegetation even seems to be gaining ground waves of branches and Roots encroaching on the sea and not the contrary this primeval Forest is a thick tangle where everything that wants to grow finds a way to thrive by Dent of reading and accumulating knowledge foran has managed to become an expert on her adopted land she has even made it her job and works as a guide for people who want to discover the region this is a beautiful example of a lyan and and a lyen is a plant that's made up of a fungus and an algae and um the fungus makes the structure and the algae helps to make the food so they grow very very slowly you can find this Lykan throughout New Zealand um it's very common and we call it um a sample of a folio leafy lyan yeah it's hard not to get lost in this Maze of vegetation beaches and paths for Han knows this island like the back of her hand yet she feels as if she's learning something new every day this plant is called the mutton bird scrub and it's very soft underneath it's almost like leather and the visitors used to write on the back of these leaves they put a stamp addressed them and wrote a note and the local postmaster would get these leaves and he used to send them on the softness of these leaves were favored by both the Mari and the Europeans when they went into the forest they used this as toilet paper and it worked very well [Music] that's a Tui and the two is a native New Zealand bird it's got a beautiful range of songs it's got two vocal cords and once again the Roaring 40s are playing their favorite Symphony for wind instruments and percussion for winds blowing in gusts for winds whistling in the branches for the squalls that whip up the sea as if urging the waves to play even louder Stewart island is an open air theater where the elements are forever performing the same show and they hardly ever take a day off quite a bizarre spot to live all year round in summer there are visitors that come to admire the natural beauty of the island but in winter it's another tune after you've lived in the big cities of Europe the one and only Village of Stewart Island seems like a magical spot at first then you have to be able to make a life for yourself there it seems that wasn't much of a problem for this former Londoner for Hannah's house is so small we can't even visit it except from the outside this is my Wilderness chatau it's very enjoyable being inside whether it's a 10 bedroom Shadow or a one-bedroom chadow like mine when the wind is outside and the rain is Outside Inside It's Your Castle and it's really nice and warm it's just in here yeah Comfort is in the mind uh I've got everything I need um for the moment um I can read books I can visit friends and I can enjoy the birds in my garden and the plants in my garden and I have the best duvet that you can buy on the market so um y I'm warm I'm happy and I've got this wonderful Forest around me and I'm being kind to the [Music] environment fana has turned her back on what she calls the concrete jungle and the rat race quoting the titles of two Bob Marley songs here the jungle is vegetation and the only racing we witness is that of the sun and the clouds in the sky there's some kiwi Footprints here on the beach and the kiwis will feed near the beach or in the forest and this kiwi has been out early this morning so we'll try and see if we can find one AK kiwi is a flightless bird it's one of New Zealand's most ancient birds and our national icon for Han can take us to places where nobody else goes but even so there are no guarantees of spotting every single animal and this time we didn't manage to see any kiwis this wingless bird is is mainly active at night and is very shy but there's always some curiosity to catch one's interest you'd imagine them more in Africa Central America or in the Amazon but there are indeed parrots living in these lands far down in the southern hemisphere it's one of three big parrots in New Zealand all of these parrots are unique to New Zealand and the Kaka is the forest parrot this parrot is feeding on the nut from this native tree which is called Meo new New Zealand's human history is rather brief and that's surely why Natural History is so important to new zealanders they have no castles or Cathedrals to preserve but they do have this Rich nature to safeguard and to which they link their history this is a a remu a very young remu they take about 5 to 600 years to fully grow and when Captain Cook and his men men sailed around New Zealand's coasts they used to take the young branches of remu they boiled it added molasses and yeast and made a beer to stop scurvy but I don't think it worked on Stuart Island even the birds have their papers every year there are major banding operations organized for certain species and birds that aren't endemic are not welcome where are you we are [Laughter] waiting ah Robin Robin for Hanna is a walking Encyclopedia of Stewart Island's wildlife and she has another particularity she talks to the birds up here just there like they showed you at the Academy come on Robin the robin likes us because we disturb the ground when we walk so insects can easily be found so we call them opportunistic feeders and the Robin is not related to the European Robin but it behaves in a similar way and its song is very similar when modern land mammals evolved in the world they didn't evolve in New Zealand 35 million years ago and it was only when the Polynesians started to come to New Zealand about a thousand years ago and later the Europeans over 200 years ago that they brought Predators for our wildlife life but for millions of years this country remained without Predators so most of our birds are very [Music] friendly [Music] the privilege of living on Stewart Island also means accepting the drawbacks a rather restricted social life and rather harsh climatic conditions foran's Choice was obvious I think the country that you belong to isn't necessarily the country that you were born in or the country country uh that you were brought up in it's a country that you choose for um the things that you value in life um I love the outdoors I love the natural environment and for me this means New Zealand is the right country for me sh [Music] [Music] s [Music] [Music] [Music] oh Australia a vast country with only 23 million inhabitants Richard is going to be our guide as we visit the buccaneer Islands a region that is as inaccessible as it is hostile in this harsh environment there are men at Work Gathering Pearl [Music] oysters in the very heart of Australia Dave and his family live on the edge of the Simpson desert living conditions may be hard but Dave has given his children the biggest sandbox in the [Music] world further north in arnam land on the land of their ancestors Simon Russell and Otto live their lives according to the Aboriginal Traditions a life with no constraints except those imposed by Nature respect the land you you'll survive you'll come back safety the buccaneer archipelago is made up of countless islands and isets stretched out over 1,000 kilm they are practically uninhabited there are the rare Navigators that pass through but apart from them the only other people that Venture into this liquid Labyrinth are the Pearl [Music] farmers this this is the grumm Mard these are our transport vehicles for around this Wilderness Area we're in a place where there is no access we are 3 and 1/2 hours from Darwin by malard or 2 and 1/2 Days by sea from Darwin so without these Transporters we can't achieve our wonderful productivity it's essential for us this is where we met Richard McLean he came to Western Australia a good 20 years ago he started out as a diver on a pearling lugger a physically demanding job that he did for more than 10 years it's beautiful and it's kind of peaceful at the same time too if you take the take the time to stop and relax and listen to it every time you come here in different light or different weather or different time of year there's always something different something different that catches You Catches your eye catches your imagination find it very inspiring probably not many other places in the world are so uninhabited and untouched we're very lucky we'll make it back for breakfast Richard could never bring himself to leave this region now he manages all the Pearl farms for paspali one of the world's leading Pearl companies the story of these Pearl oysters begins off the coast 300 km south of the buccaneer Islands the divers first have to gather the wild oysters that will allow them to cultivate pearls Tony cook is getting ready for another dive 20 m down the water is 19° C the visibility is mediocre but no matter Tony has to dive our fishing season starts around April and runs for anywhere up to 2 and a half to 3 months uh we take a team of divers up to 48 PP will take down the coast on up to half a dozen different mother ships uh we to the divers we call them drift divers drift diving we to them along the bottom where their sole purpose of being down there is picking up the Shelf wild shell and during the day the divers will spend up to 8 hours a day underwater using our devis tables to ensure that we have no uh decompression illness not only do the divers have to find the oysters but they also have to keep a sharp eye out for the many dangers sharks and deadly jellyfish for example Tony earns a good living with this work but it's quite risky a few years ago while he was working for another company Tony witnessed a tragic event that deeply affected him there is some big big fish out here um we have had attacks in the past uh probably as I remember in my time he probably had about half a dozen attacks and a fatality in ' 93 which was a m of mine who got taken the water was dirty po his uh about less a meter and his uh do buddy came up complaining of No Air got the surface and the hose had been uh bit in half so he pulled the hose in with nothing on the end uh about a week later we found his body in a shark that we caught but uh yeah was pretty tragic for the whole whole industry and everyone involved it's always in the back of your head uh especially in dirty water when you're working Z visibility I think has like any much been doing for so long just take Tak his part of his job once the wild oysters have been gathered they're brought on board the impressive boat lab equipped with a sort of operating room about 50 people live and work on board 25 of them highly trained surgical technicians this is a gold lipped pinata Maxima more commonly known known as the south sea Pearl Oyster as oysters go it's huge and produces a brilliant with a satin Sheen you K them to produce pearls they first have to gather wild oysters then seed them in a top secret operation that takes place behind this partition each oyster has to be delicately pried open in order to implant a nucleus a small pellet of special Limestone the foreign body will remain inside for 2 years while the oyster coats it with once the seeding is done the whole crew is mobilized to put the oysters back into their natural habitat only now they're held in baskets so they don't drift off the current for the first few months after the operation the oysters are closely monitored every day Tony and the other divers have to keep a watchful eye on their precious oysters way sced as being an underwater laborer the the work itself is strenuous um it's like pushing a wheelbarrow underwat you imagine that we're in um 20 M of water most of the time which is three atmospheres of pressure so you got those uh extra pressures on your body while you're working lifting and carrying things our natural ways yeah you do get worn out quite quick like a nurse at a patient's bedside Tony has to make sure that the gold lipped pintada Maxima are recovering from their [Music] operation [Music] it's tedious work alone at the bottom of the sea and one has to be in excellent physical shape to be able to operate in such conditions for Tony the love of Adventure and the rush of adrenaline are his life's [Music] blood no you're not seeing things Tony is really toying with a sea snake but he has to be careful for one bite from this snake could be deadly luckily Tony's wet suit is thick enough to protect protect him from the lethal fangs it's just a passion for diving and being on the ocean um yeah came up this way surfing and and fishing and uh end up uh jumping on one of the Pearl boats to start with when I was a young fellow and just pursued it been with it for nearly 20 years so um yeah I've never had a bad day we're about to leave the operations grounds that we're at at Sandy Point and then um head up up into the buccaneer archipelago into Talbert Bay it's going to be about a 16 hour run for us we should be there probably tomorrow afternoon to get to talbet Bay our boat has to go north 300 km then round Cape LC where it Ventures into the Labyrinth of the bucker Islands this thousands of islands inlets channels great Tides it's uninhabited and it's just a fantastic area the early morning light and the late afternoon light is when you see it at its best it can look very harsh in the midday Sun cuz it is it's a harsh environment there's a lot of local knowledge required not to safely navigate through these areas cuz they're poorly charted but um it's a beautiful area it's it's Beauty and its ruggedness I think [Music] in this Maze of land and sea we see a few scattered installations these are the Pearl oyster beds after recovering from their operation the oysters spend close to 2 years here it's a breathtaking spot and so isolated and remote that there's no pollution perfect for the oysters we're at tal Bay in the centeral the heartland of the archipelago now this is our talber Bay pill Farm it's a floating pill Farm 13 people live here and look what what's in here have a look at this it's just an aquarium it's [Music] [Music] fantastic of fishing to top the day off let's see how lucky we can be today a lot of people this is the reason they come to work here so they can fish it's more than a sport it's a way of life for a lot of people fishing oh yeah oh yeah there's a fish hey and there's another one look there's a Croc coming in look at him very unusual for a Croc to come in this close you can jump clean into the boat without batting an eyelid if you've ever gone on a jumping Croc Cruise like out of Darwin it gives you one thing you realize how high and how fast these Crocs can jump and you know that's what everyone gets a bit sucked in about crocodiles cuz they see them looking doile like that one is just floating on the top of the water but when he goes can see how fast he just comes in from out of nowhere from their normal him come in a bit oh it's a c he's got the biggest one of the day it oh it's a Cod it's a good Cod too he's quite a big Croc 3 m or so so get off there get off the edge of the he'll Chomp [Music] you there's a particular curiosity in this m of channels that Richard wants to show us the Australians call this phenomenon horizontal [Music] waterfalls here's a lot of uh there's a lot of water trying to get in or out of these gaps so causes these Eddies whp pools some pretty uh we're very lucky at the moment cuz it's almost slack water but still there's this much turbulence so you can imagine what it's like flood tide it's extremely dangerous we wouldn't be coming through here in a flood tide 24 26 ft is the difference between high and low tide and that mount of water coming through these tiny crevices and rock gorges and that tremendous amount of energy huge amount of water being moved all that turbulence in water exchange also increases the amount of oxygen in the water for food life for our Pearl shell and for all other fish [Music] species in vanart Bay a little further north the Pearl Harvest has just gotten under way for Richard and all his co-workers this is a period of feverish activity and now we'll finally get to see the fruit of all this effort and they say it's never the same thing twice this shell now is probably 7 years old it was 3 to 5 when it was fished on the Ile beach has another 2 years growout and it's been cleaned more than 50 times in that 2-year period carefully by our Farm Workers and it was delivered to the ship last night opened this morning and there we have beautiful pearl let's go upstairs and see what uh what's come out of the Harvest today to produce these little shimmering pearls a whole battery of techniques and Equipment has been mobilized but without the natural Nursery of the buccaneer Islands would these Little Gems attain this superb quality that's a beautiful pearl you can hardly see the shoulders of this pill you look through them we're very very pleased this is going to be a good harvest to see such promise such nice color nice clean pearls nice shapes this is [Music] exciting Richard has to take his Precious Cargo to Darwin we'll take advantage of the sea plane to leave this magical spot but Richard will soon be back here in this territory so removed from [Music] civilization could be easy to get away could be easy to for [Music] you and there on channel yeah yeah I've just picked up those boys we're on our way back from be prob that about 20 and we'll just on their way back to mount a which is at the top end of South Australia we really are in the center of Australia and on the western edge of the Simpson desert this is just a sample of the great roads that we have here we're very isolated 500k from Ellis Springs 3 1,300 Kil from adade and um yeah yeah rock is a day drive away so we're sort of a long way from everywhere we just get used to used to hundreds of kilometers when you drive Mount D station an unlikely settlement plopped down right on the edge of the Simpson desert it's one of those places where life makes a dogged stand all around for 500 km in any direction there's nothing but sand and rocks it looks like a scene out of Mad Max but a lot less violent and a lot more [Music] laidback here in the middle of nowhere but in the dead center of Australia is where Dave has chosen to make his home along with his wife and children he came here seven years ago and took over a half abandoned service station Mount D station is the only post for for the brave souls venturing into the vast uninhabited and uninhabitable desert where the temperature often gets up to 50° C you're talking about people never stay here long they're just passing through cooking breakfast one minute and then you out fixing cars the next just then getting ready with the post and some days some days can be flat out in [Music] here Dave is the only person you can count on if you get lost in this hostile environment this spot does have the one natural resource that made it possible for Dave to settle here a source of water everything else has to be brought in from the outside and that means far away this is all the supplies we need to look after all the tourists that come through and at this time of year is very busy so as you can see we're quite a load on at the moment takes us about 7 hours in the truck it's usually two nights in town and um yeah then we get back here unload it rush off and go and do another job you do have to plan well ahead and if you forget something well it's weeks before you get it and um our vegetable supplier forgot our um lettuces they lettuces that's it [Music] a round trip to the nearest store is a 1,000 km Expedition half of it on God awful tracks we don't really have a local trade um there are some cattle properties not too far away from here but they're um 70 km nonetheless that's over an hour's drive so we don't often see the neighbors and it's sometimes a special occasion when you do see them as for social life aside from the passing Travelers in The Hired Hand Dave his wife and children have only each other to talk to and the kids can hardly invite friends over for their birthday parties but the family has found a way of life that suits them just fine here we got my wife Melissa and my two little angels we've got the eldest one Charlotte and the little girl crystalline they love it we've just come back from Alis Springs where we've been to the Alis Springs show so we got the bubble machine and show bags and all sorts of stuff piggy just enrolled Charlotte she's three and a half for next year uh she does uh kindergarten it'll be uh correspondence through Alis Springs and um the year after that then it will be over the Internet School of the year they can uh see their teacher through um by the camera on the internet and uh they can do music uh they can do dancing painting anything they can learn is on the internet and they've got a 99.9% uh attendance rate so and it's yeah the biggest classroom in Australia just closing your eyes it is uh throughout out back Queensland Northern Territory South Australia Western Australia so it is just huge Charlotte's class which has about 50 pupils is the biggest in the world it extends over a territory almost the size of a [Music] continent we're going out to the Airfield to go and meet the plane the planee brings the mail in every Wednesday and they take one of these while they outgoing mail and we collect their incoming mail [Music] my name is Ridge and I I fly the mail plane for a chart here based out of Al [Music] [Applause] Springs involves delivering mail to remote homesteads communities around the um the center of Australia this company has the has the longest mail run in the world uh there are mail runs that uh uh 3 hours flying in a straight line to get to the first [Music] stop morning good and I've been preoccupied and forgot to bring you a drink out but you're quite welcome to come over to the pub and grab one if you want one just the one yeah just the one probably two kilos everyone looks forward to mail day and um we'll sit around the table and divy out all of the mail and work out who's who's been order ing the most things uh we have probably nine mail runs uh on our books that go as far as West Australia South Australia and into into Northern Queensland um and it can take you all day a good 8 and 1 half 9 hours of flying to complete a mail run and that's a pretty big [Music] day these postmen of the desert are the spiritual Heirs of the early pioneering Pilots in spite of the long hours the Solitude and the difficult conditions they still nourish the dreams of many an Australian [Music] youth it's remote area flying you're constantly over featuress terrain it's pretty hard navigating out here we rely on a GPS unit to get us from point A to point B in the event that you do have uh an engine problem uh we generally just pick a good place to put it down and we've got supplies on board uh to last us at least 3 or 4 days uh water and food and we've got radios on board to attract uh the rescue crew if we need to quite fond of the uh the Red Dirt the Simpson desert the tanami desert um it's it's quite uh it's it's comforting it's it's very [Music] interesting oh we're going to put the big wheels on M we got to go in the desert it for a couple of days so going to slot slot these on this car's purpose is primarily to be a recovery vehicle it goes out to um do um toes pull people out of bogs um repairs anything that needs doing around here and um going to take me little girl away with me this one yeah you going to stay in the swag yes see you see you in a few days [Music] bye M I'll get it in a minute ready for [Music] piig the kids really enjoy growing up out here I I just think it's a great environment for them Charlotte really loves it she loves camping um really really loves Camping sleeping in the swag and stuff looking at at the stars through the open swag loves [Music] it 4 hours on the road and the landscape is still the same Dave doesn't get tired of it he chose to live here in the company of these huge sand dunes just just being able to to live and work in country like this is just special and you don't want to be battling your white traffic I'd rather battle me white Sans you know yeah we're going to Camp just here Charlotte this be a good place for the camping y you get there you go get the camping stuff out now yeah yeah we're at perne bore which is 65 km to the east of delazy Springs and as the name depicts pery boar it it is a man-made um B that has been turned into a wetland they were looking for oil and um yeah all that came out of the ground was near boiling water so they said don't need this and off they went Le leaving it flowing it you know so many thousands of liters a second you it was just amazing the water that was coming out it would have filled these swales here before it was capped and restricted in its flow to to just keep it to a moderate flow to maintain the wildlife that had become dependent on [Music] it [Laughter] [Music] in to raise kids out here has been a great privilege just this morning Charlotte gets out of bed and says come on dad let's go and find some camels you know how many other kids are going to get out of bed and say that in the morning this is Australia's largest sand pit she she plays out here you know like any other kid plays in their backyard but I just think the scenery around here is just a little bit more special than the average backyard dad kiss oh know sand pit yeah it's big sand pit isn't it can you see how they happen all these little waves yeah right they're pretty aren't they that's the wind that makes those and the wind makes one little wave like this all right and then eventually this little wave will be as big as the sand in cuz all of these little all these big sandin start off his little [Music] waves Stars gone oh where are the stars gone died in the sky oh okay where's the moon the Moon's still up there is it what's that oh righty inside the circle a fire it's really hot hey look a spider he's looking for his mom he can't find [Music] anywhere I L touch him he might hurt SP this cake going to you [Music] Mom hey when you're out in the Simpson desert you've got 300 km of sand unes no habitation for 500 km between Mount there and birdsville and um you it's the vastness that is out here it's just undescribable it's really something that you have to see to to um feel I think it's God's own country you know it's the colors around here the beautiful Rich Reds are just fabulous I love it 6 and 1/2 years I wouldn't be here if I didn't like it it's hard work no doubt but yeah it's a it's a great environment it's it's peaceful I just think it's [Music] [Applause] great arnam land is in the north of Australia this vast preserved territory is a world of its own like a state within a state the entire territory belongs to the Aboriginal Australians and any Australians who are not Aborigines have to get a permit to travel in this special land in this breathtaking landscape Humanity's oldest civilization lives in harmony with the environment for more than 40,000 years the same people have been living on the same land here at present there are no more than 15,000 Aborigines living on a territory of close to 100,000 square [Music] km my old people ancestors walk this country from thousands of years and they left the old track here this is tough country you have to have lot of knowledge to survive on this country my father taught me how to live on country and he learned from my grandfather the knowledge has been passed on with this country in the heart of this peaceful landscape we meet Oto bulmania he's a clan Chief according to tradition each Clan lives on its own territory and moves around according to the seasons before when 's father or grandfather would roam with the family they could easily cover more than 400 km on foot on their Clan's territory and I'm the traditional land on of this country here as you can see um uh yeah this is all my country but you know my great grandfather and my father used to live on this country and do you know hunting and Gathering uh around this area here and now my father and grandfather gone I am the traditional owner I have to teach my kids to look after this country we have like plenty you know B bongs River we go and you know Catch Fish Feeding our family sometime we go up on the scotman here and do like kangar fire drive and we you know catch kangaroo and or sometime we go ahead and um do shopping in town you know like basic food that we get them flour tea sugar and we come come back and stay in the bush Otto spends a lot of time roaming out in the bush hunting or passing the traditional lore on to the younger members of his family here he's out with Russell one of his nephews in the 1920s white Farmers introduced water buffalo to Northern Australia and they have adapted very well too well in fact they've thrived so well that they've become quite harmful to the environment their hooves do a lot of damage to this fragile land so their population has to be strictly limited [Music] why this bull is really injured and it's really dangerous it's on a scrub here somewhere but you have to be [Music] careful there's no hunting season for the Aborigines they hunt to live all year round according to their [Music] needs weat a lot of bush meat that's how we grow up here and that's how we get like buffalo meat and Kangaroo and Bush turkey and all that and there's a buffalo here so I got them already I think I might have a look what sort of meat I need and I'll get it it out soon as I get it out and I think that's our Bush food sometime we go out to the bong we had lot of lies in the bang but now it's all gone from the pig and buffalo so we had to get rid of them all the time sometime keep the number down and keep them out from the uh the the good place living off the land also means protecting and taking care of it it's a family affair and each member has to do their part Russell and his little brother Simon have gone out into the bush they've been camping here for 5 days now they call this a walkabout a period of roaming without any specific destination Take My Breath Away always um when I'm out in Bush it's really strong culture and the way we sit around the campfire lot and yeah I like it how here and it's really beautiful and the way you can hear the water and it's really really quiet nice and quiet and from where I'm sitting down here I'll go to bed and then and if I'm looking at the sky I can see all them Stars million stars all over it's beautiful a walkabout can last a few days or a few weeks it depends on how the spirit moves them they take their time to Camp hunt and simply enjoy the Landscapes this is the normal life of the Aborigines you know watch out for crocodiles in this water for Shar some fish y fing and lots of sh in this water this is my mother country you know I used to live here with my grandfather but he passed away long time ago maybe when back or something he I used to S him spe a kangaroo on his country uh he used to speak W with little wab he used to bring back that little wab to me and I grow him up oh lots of people don't like that they don't have the land just good life for us in this place we like this place bush fires raging out of control can be devastating for these parched lands for ages the ancestors of Russell andto have been using fire to fight fire to avoid the extreme ravages it can cause it's um Fire season and we're going to burn the whole Aram land so everyone's lighting fire now in every stations and people live in hunting areas they all burn all that stuff so it's Fire season some area we live for long 2 three years fuel out we get big problem like big fire and you can see a big black scor mark right on the top and for this sort of fire it's a cool fire and when we burn like this few days time all the reu grass will come back and then WABE will come back big buffalo will come back wild cattle and we can you know spot them in a good place it's very old system like it's been from the very beginning since our ancestors time they've been you know putting the fire so that our ancestors warming them themselves and and feeding from fire so it's really important like fire giv give us everything Russell's family appears out of the smoke no GPS no Compass the Aborigines can drive for hours way out in the bush and find exactly what they're looking for they've dropped in to spend the evening with Russell which means getting dinner for 10 extra people but that doesn't seem to worry Russell while Russell goes off Hunting Otto makes ready for the evening's festivities this is um woolly B and I can listen that is bit bit Hollow here so there must be um good dig this one the digy do is the musical instrument of arnam land everyone knows how to play it around here this instrument plays a vital role in the Aboriginal culture they use it for their ceremonies as well as for an evening of just singing around the campfire to make a good digy Doo the recipe is quite simple you just have to carefully select a tree trunk that's been perfectly hollowed out by [Music] termites and I got a lot of family just came up for visit so I think I need to get a lot of meat a little bit and take it back and we'll cook them around and I think we'll sit around the campfire Saturday night out it's a family family night to enjoy eating and have fun and talking each other and I think going to have a big big feet and wash our hand and I think go to bed hunting and Gathering are two cornerstones of the Aboriginal culture a way to stay in touch with the land our land it's really like um it's all about culture too and like ceremony and stuff and we don't want to damage any any any of our land cuz we like living like this and we like collecting all the bush food and you can feel the U the uh everything that's got in the [Music] Earth [Music] fore [Music] for in the aborigin tradition these are called song lines Lanes chanted in a language no one can understand but they are essential the Aborigines say that it's the language of animals one song line will describe the course of a river and all the wildlife that lives there another will retrace the limits of a specific territory and the animals that inhabit it each one of these songs is an element of the Aborigines history and describes a piece of territory the song lines are in fact the proof of ownership of a family Clan something like an official land deed and the totality of these song lines form a sort of land registry [Music] plan this is like my um grandfa um W is in camping area they drink flood water there the to come and us to come and Camp here for black woo for hunting kangaroo there's no any car track pretty rough country it's a mle the nowhere and you can find in this sort of painting around this everywhere all these oral and pictorial Traditions go back to the dawn of time they're a way of transmitting information and even though they're not written they're just as precise for and all the Aboriginal Australians the history of their people is made up of a succession of personal anecdotes if I'm walking on other man country I don't tell the story because I don't speak the language new people always sit quiet when it's entering other men property and always sit quiet because you don't know what's the story behind you but if you living on your country you can tell them big mob story you know you can tell them about oh let's go and hunting there or let's let's have ceremony up here you know and all the family like country Mak us talk and it's it's there alive it's watching us if we make one mistake we get sick because old people Spirit are watching us and they if we we can't do proper way by respecting the land we get sick you know fall from rock or or big Ironwood tree you know goes through our feet and there's a lot of dangerous part so respect the land you'll survive it'll come back [Music] safety the Aboriginal people of Australia have managed to survive much longer than any other civilization on earth and the key to such longevity surely lies in the great respect that they show towards their land and the creatures that live [Music] there

Channel: TRACKS - Travel Documentaries

Views: 164,172

Keywords: Breathtaking Vistas, Discover Earth's Beauty, Humanity Connection, Indigenous Cultures, Madagascar Beauty, Nature Preservations, Off-The-Beaten-Path, Overseas Travels, South Island Marvels, Sustainable Tourism, TRACKS - Travel Documentaries, Travel Saga, Tribal Communities, Visual Delights, Worldly Wonders, breathtaking wildernesses, fascinating places, geographic diversity, stunning landscapes, travel escapades, travel tales revelations

Id: Rzmj9iILP3k

Length: 155min 14sec (9314 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 13 2024