03x06 - Papua New Guinea

[bunniefuu]

]] Grab my machete.

Ha!

It's early in the morning on the

world's second largest island,

and the temperature here is

already at 33 degrees celsius,

and that's 92 degrees

fahrenheit.

The humidity, as always, is

stifling and as high as it gets.

This is, after all, the wet

season in one of the most

ancient jungles on the planet.

I'm flying over a place on the

pacific ring of fire.

It's the collision point of

several tectonic plates where

volcanic eruptions and

earthquakes are frequent.

I could give you all the

impressive stats of how many

birds and plants species there

are down there.

But the fact remains no one

really knows.

This place has been too remote

for anyone to accurately study.

Where am i?

Papua, new guinea.

Deep in the heart of this

mountainous and untouched

jungle, i'm landing in what can

truly be described as a tiny

remote village.

It's not even on the map.

Wanakeepa is home to a few dozen

hewa, a group of people known

to the outside world as savages.

In fact that's what their name

means.

They still fight and k*ll each

other out here by bow and arrow,

spear, and machete.

That doesn't make them savages.

In fact, what they desire is a

peaceful existence, eking out

survival on these remote hills

by, if you can believe this,

farming.

[ speaking native language ]

papua, new guinea is in the

eastern part of the planet just

north of australia.

And with over 850 indigenous

languages, the most in the

world, it's extremely diverse.



rural or remote areas with no

modern facilities.

An anthropologist has led me

here to meet with the hewa.

And the hewa are leading me

deep into the jungle they call

home.

Borneo, the amazon, and the

congo -- all jungles with a

reputation for being deep, dark

and mysterious.

I'm in one of the last great

unexplored jungles on the

planet, papua, new guinea.

I'm with a couple members of the

hewa.

And their life expectancy is

actually 32 years.

And any one who's lived longer

than that has, at one time,

lived a stone-age existence.

The only way they can survive in

this jungle is by having tiny

jungle farms.

Here you can't survive off the

land.

I'm about to find out why by

spending the next seven days

out here without water, very

little food, no gear, and no

camera crew, alone in papua,

new guinea.

Taleano and axel, my two

hewa guides, think what i'm

doing is ridiculous.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

But they know what i need to

accomplish my mission -- i need

to be left alone in the jungle.

My two hewa guides have dropped

me off here.

[ spitting ]

flies in the mouth.

And this is where i've got to

survive.

Now, i'm gonna set some

priorities here.

I've eaten this morning, so i'm

fine for food.

There's water all around me, i

can hear it.

So, hopefully, some of it is

good enough that it's not gonna

bother my stomach too bad.

I actually should have been up

here a day or two earlier, but

i've been sick with diarrhea and

vomiting for two days.

So it's taken a lot out of me.

And that's how i'm starting off

this venture.

It rains here nearly every

single day.

Solid downpour, usually

thunderstorms.

This is a jungle.

It's a rainforest.

So shelter.

And i got some time, but i'm

going to get down to it.

When i was out here training

with the hewa guides, they

showed me how to take down a

tree out here, or at least how

they take down a tree, if you

don't have a bush knife.

Let me show you how it's done,

if i can do it.

The teeth of the hewa are

ground down to almost nothing

due to the constantly chewing of

something called betel nut.

Yet they can chew through small

trees.

When they did it they literally

got halfway through the tree and

then broke it down.

Maybe it takes years of living

in the jungle.

That's how you do it without a

bush knife.

And that's how you do it with a

bush knife.

The final look of this shelter

will be that of a lean-to.

Here in this particular

rainforest, i can utilize

easy-to-work-with small trees,

hanging vines strong enough for

tying, and big, fat, green

leaves for my roof.

With nightly rains that are

essentially a deluge that can

last for up to 12 hours without

breaking, taking time now to

make sure my shelter is strong

and, in particular, doesn't leak

is vital.

It's the middle of the day now,



And the heat just becomes quite

oppressive right about now.

So, i got to stop every so

often and just let my body

temperature cool down a bit or

i'll overheat real quickly.

You really got to monitor your

body temperature in a place like

this.

It's during shelter construction

with all the grabbing and moving

around when i can easily touch

something that can either shock,

infect, bite, poison, or sting

me, so i've got to be careful.

I can't get too close to that

camera because that's a big wasp

who's decided he likes it.

I don't feel like getting stung

on the first day out here.

Aah!

All right, well, step one --

Done.

Shelter...

from any downpours that will

definitely come.

But you'll see that in a jungle

that is this fertile, it's very

difficult to survive.

This jungle is flowing with

water, but i've come in with

stomach problems already, likely

from the village water.

So i hope that out here it's

safe.

It tastes good enough, but

there's no way of knowing

whether or not it's filled with

parasites, so the reality is i'm

pretty confident that this

stream is clean and clear.

That's a surprising thing.

I think most people think that

all streams, bodies of water are

just crawling with giardia and

parasites.

They're not.

This stream's probably just

fine.

I've been drinking from streams

in the jungle so far and

there've been no problems, and

then there were times when i got

sick.

So hopefully this one won't make

me sick.

If you're wondering what that

high-pitch sound is, that's

giant, giant cicadas, doing

their call.

They're very loud --

Ear-piercing actually.

I'm gonna check out what the

hewa sent me in with.

Fire-starting kit.

Some tinder, piece of vine.

We'll see how that goes.

And they sent me in with

some food.

Sweet potatoes, what they

regularly farm here.

That's what pretty much keeps

them alive.

Kakau, the call it.

A few peanuts.

And this necklace of nuts.

Oh, and last but not least,

some jungle bananas.

So enough food to easily to keep

me going for a day, day and a

half, two days.

As for the fire starting, well,

i'll go grab some tinder and

give it a shot before it starts

raining.

Huh, "before it starts raining,"

that's just wishful thinking

in the jungle.

Okay, that's just not fair.

This is not going to be easy.

One last-ditch effort, i can try

to get a fire going, if i can't

do it the hewa way.

This time, i came prepared since

it's so wet here.

Here we go.

It's a vine.

My only piece.

It's gonna be the worst time to

try to and get a fire going.

Not so good.

All right, let's try this again.

Come on, baby.

Don't break on me this time.

Well...

[ sighs ]

that's too bad.

I did this in practice.

I was able to get it going.

But the vine they sent me out

with just keeps breaking.

Too old.

I got smoke...

and then it broke.

And that's not enough.

It's starting to pour here, and

i'm gonna have to switch to my

last-ditch method and see if i

can maybe get the fire going.

Bummer.

]] aah!

That's filled with a million

ants.

I have started fires by hitting

rock and steel together, by

spinning a piece of wood with

my hand, using a fire bow,

gasoline and a spark, batteries,

flashlight, the sun.

Even started a fire using

chocolate in a can.

And i have gotten fire using

this vine method out here.

Just not today.

All i have left to get a fire

going now is a butane lighter.

Wish me luck.

Whoa!

Wow, that was close.

Of course, getting a fire going

and keeping a fire going are two

different matters altogether.

What are my issues here?

Well, there are four different

kinds of malaria in this jungle.

One of them is quite deadly and

can k*ll you.

The other three just make you

pretty sick.

And the very deadly taipan --

Now, the taipan is about the

only snake on the planet that

really gives the black mamba a

run for its money in terms of

aggressiveness and poison.

That's the bad news.

The good news is i'm probably

too high up in elevation for the

taipan to be up here.

But that's not to say one can't

wander up from the river anyway.

And as for spiders, there are

poisonous spiders here.

And there are spiders bigger

than my hand, and they come out

at night.

Well, hopefully, they'll leave

me alone.

This is definitely going to be a

long week.

Ironically enough, as it is in

most places, it's not the big

spiders that are a problem.

They're just creepy and not

usually poisonous.

It tends to be the small

parasites in the new guinea

jungle that can cause the real

problems.

At night, there's "flying foxes"

they call them, big bats,

basically.

They hopefully should leave me

alone.

[ thunder rumbles ]

the nightly rains in the jungle.

Well, looks like a regular

banana.

Not gonna say it's delicious,

but it'll do.

Damn it.

I got a drip.

[ thunder rumbles ]

i hear you.

Thunder.

Mosquitos.

Rain.

Very little fire.

Well, the cooked banana was

good.

I don't know how it is managing

to do it, but i've still got my

fire going.

It's just smoldering underneath

all the damp wood, but it's

still going, and it's still

raining.

It's gonna rain a long time,

i think.

Thing about trying to sleep in a

survival situation, in kind of

in a crunched-up position like

this is you don't really sleep.

The greatest danger of all

during the night is my own mind.

But years of doing this have

given me the confidence to just

close my eyes and wait for

morning light.

One of my staff members cut a

deal with me.

They said they'll throw in some

survival items in my top pouch

if i promise not to open it

before day two.

Well, it's day two.

So, let's see what i got.

Some rope.

Nice.

Oh, sweet.

Orange garbage bag.

"a can full of survival."

all right.

Ooh.

[ laughs ]

how about that?

The top just broke off.

Now imagine if i was down and

out and hurt and tried to open

that up.

Without a can opener, i would

have been in trouble.

Mini-stove holder.

I'll bet you the can will fit

right on top of this.

Candy.

I'll take one of those right

now.

That's good.

Looks like chicken and beef

bouillon and just some tin foil.

All right.

There's my survival in a can.

Let's see how it can help me

while i'm out here in the

jungle.

What's this?

"instructions on how to

survive."

excellent.

I was hoping to get a lot more,

but starting to rain again.

No way of knowing what kind of

spiders and bugs might be on

these leaves.

Every chance i get, i have to

build up my shelter.

Each day, i can make it better,

stronger.

And as a result, it'll be more

able to protect me from the

jungle elements.

Always racing the rain.

I always put an orange garbage

bag in my survival kit.

Number one, it's great for

signaling.

Rain coats, catching water, and,

in this situation, for a

waterproof roof.

Can you tell how slow i'm

moving with everything?

Foolish thing to do, actually --

To move fast when you're in a

survival situation, unless

you're trying to run away from

something.

There we go.

Amazing what you can do with a

garbage bag.

]] it's day two surviving in the

jungles of new guinea.

Looks like a good place to have

a bath.

Keeping clean in the jungle is

not an option.

It's a necessity.

Fungus can develop rapidly out

here and be all over your body.

Finally, some jungle wilds that

i can eat that are just here.

This is wild taro.

And the leaves are full of a

very fibrous silicate.

They'll have to be cooked.

It's the only way i can eat

these.

It just would hurt the mouth too

much to eat them raw.

There's not much to eat here in

the jungle that's growing wild

and natural.

But there is some.

This whole area up in here is

being turned into a tiny jungle

farm, likely by just one person,

maybe two, one machete, maybe an

axe.

And as steep as it is, that's

where they've got to eke out

their existence.

They can't just go around this

forest gathering because there's

just not much here to gather.

For the hewa, survival in the

papua, new guinea, jungle is

tough.

This jungle is unique.

It's quite probably more

primitive than most, really.

See, there's no placental

mammals here, no primates.

Seed dispersal is left to a

handful of marsupials and birds.

That's why so much of the fruit

is up 200 feet up in the air and

not accessible to a human being.

It makes survival here very

tough.

The hewa have come into this

jungle, but they've had to bring

with them the concept of

farming.

Because without it, there's just

not enough to gather here, and

there's not enough to hunt.

You're reduced to kind of

groveling, which is sort of what

i'm doing, i guess.

I'm getting light-headed.

Course that could be because i'm

taking malaria pills without any

food in my stomach.

That can't be good for me.

No energy.

I've gathered what i could from

surrounding jungle here.

And there was a good supply of

dry stuff hanging.

If you look far and wide, you

can find it even in a place that

gets six, seven hours of rain

every single day.

Make a bit of a funnel of fire

here.

But first i'll change the tape.

The duty of filming all of this

while surviving calls again.

Once i get a fire big enough

like this, i can use punky wood

and burn it, as well.

You just got to have that main

base.

Just got to be careful it

doesn't go too hot, too high

'cause i'll burn my roof.

It's ironic that i'm in

probably one of the most

primitive jungles that i've ever

been in and surviving, and yet

here i am eating roasted

peanuts, probably one of the

more bits of civilized food

while on a survival ordeal.

So, what have i got to eat here?

Some of those nuts, roasted up.

Oh, that's good.

This is that sweet potato.

Oh, very good.

Whoo, hot.

Let's see how the new shelter

and the new fire hold up.

Just cooking up this wild taro

leaf.

We've got to cook it up to break

up the silicates in the leaves

and then it's edible.

Not bad.

Outside of the jungle canopy, it

can be light for a long time.

But underneath it where i am,

darkness prevails.

This might be the first night

ever in a jungle without rain.

Uh-oh, maybe i spoke too soon.

It might even be a decent night.

Now i just have to see if i can

get some sleep without any big

ol' hand-size spiders crawling

on me.

In the jungle, you just have to

give in to the fact that things

will crawl on you at night.

Some of them are poisonous, and

some are not.

[ pig squealing ]

those are wild pigs.

Grab my machete.

There they are.

Walked right through my camp.

Now that would have been a meal.

I know i've seen their tracks

around here, but i figured it

was a real long shot as to

whether or not i could actually

catch one.

Now that i know that they're

here, i'll set out a trap

tomorrow.

Maybe a quick-k*ll trap.

Catching a wild pig is no easy

feat.

They're strong and aggressive

creatures.

A light snare is not going to do

the job.

I need something that's more

decisive -- a quick-k*ll,

fast-trigger spear.

Now the tricky part -- setting

this thing without stabbing

myself.

Let me show you how this thing

works.

This is the path that the pig

has been walking along, okay?

He's gonna run into that string.

When that happens, this

releases.

And this is the spot here that's

holding the spear back.

This releases, and then this

whole spear will just sh**t.

And, hopefully, if i'm lucky,

it'll stab right into the heart

of a pig, and i'll be cooking up

bacon.

]] look at this mess.

This is what i've got to walk

in.

It's just basically all pig

slop.

A bonus would be nice, big, fat,

juicy, boa constrictor.

It would be tasty.

Easy to catch.

They're not poisonous.

Full of meat.

[ sighs ]

not much of a haul for a day's

hike, but at least i found these

guys.

Now, this leaf here, i don't

actually have to cook to eat.

I can peel away the leaf part

and just eat the stem.

Well, it's not much.

It's kind of old and woody, but

it's quite literally better than

nothing.

I'm not going to stop at just

one trap.

There are rats in the jungle,

too, and they can make a good

meal.

That's step one.

Now, the big question -- do i

make it rat-sized or pig-sized?

Rat comes in here, goes for the

bait, takes that snare.

With any luck at all, he pulls

on the noose, up goes the snare,

and he's hanging there, waiting

for me to come and have

breakfast.

[ thunder rumbles ]

in the jungle, there's no

warning.

The rain is just there.

And it locks me into my little

green-leaf prison.

We've had a lot of rain, but

this is the first one with a lot

of thunder, so let's hope i

don't get too many lightning

strikes close by.

How many big trees am i near?

A few, i guess.

Well, rain or no rain, maybe i

can get some sleep.

Sleep is vital to survival.

Without it, you can get very

depressed.

But there would be no rest for

me this night.

The pathogens of the jungle have

returned to wreak havoc on my

system.

And as they say in the military,

"troops march on their

stomachs."

in fact, constant stomach upset

is how prisoners of w*r were

kept from planning escapes.

In survival, it's not the

big, scary creatures that get

you.

It's the tiny, unseen

biological world of parasites

and disease.

All right, so here's the deal --

In the middle of the night i got

hit with "big, big water," which

is the hewa language for "severe

diarrhea."

in the middle of the night last

night and again this morning,

and very weak, very shaky.

I'm gonna head downstream and

get out from under this jungle

canopy.

Diarrhea in the jungle is pretty

severe.

I thought so.

Middle of the night last night,

the pig trap went off.

I can see his tracks and

everything, but no pig.

I'll go up and check my rat

trap.

Maybe that will cure my

diarrhea, some freshly cooked

rat.

It's amazing how weak a bout of

diarrhea will make you.

You don't have much food in your

stomach to begin with, and i

just keep re-ingesting this

jungle water.

Now, the thing is, dehydration

would have k*lled me a long time

ago.

If i'd gone three days without

drinking at all, i would have

been in serious, serious trouble

from dehydration because i'm

sweating profusely all the time.

I would have gotten to that

point where i wasn't sweating at

all.

And that's a very, very

dangerous place to be.

So i've been drinking, and now

my bowels are paying for it.

Just coming up to the rat trap

here.

We got any action?

Nothing.

It's just sitting there.

Bummer.

No action on the rat trap.

And the big trap was busted up.

To be honest, i'm getting

claustrophobic.

There's little food here, and

i'm constantly in a state of

being soaking wet in the mud 24

hours a day.

My feet are already developing a

fungus that can become quite

painful.

My mind is aching for some open

air and a vista.

Along with bouts of diarrhea,

i'm vomiting, as well.

Existence in the jungle is a

dark, closed-in experience that

can play on the psyche in

horrible ways.

Nightmares are dogging me

constantly in here.

Often i dream of being somewhere

else, someplace pleasant.

And when i wake up, my heart

drops and i realize i'm still in

the jungle, sleeping in the mud.

Finally.

All right.

A big river and an opening.

Oh, yeah.

Now that is nice.

Look at that opening.

This looks like home to me.

But as soon as i hit that

sunshine, though, the sweat just

starts pouring.

There's a good, fresh stream

coming out just up there, so i

can avoid drinking the water

from this river.

Everything that's bad flows into

the river, so the cleaner water

is the smaller streams,

actually.

I got to cool down.

Now, maybe tomorrow i can make

my way across this river if

there's a shallow spot

somewhere.

Wouldn't trust going across here

right now.

You can see over here there's a

farm over there.

It's an active farm, too, so

there might be vegetables there

that i can, well, steal.

The only problem with taking

vegetables here -- if you have

permission, well, that's one

thing.

If you don't have permission,

you can find yourself

decapitated.

That's not a good thing.

It's not that the hewa will

just attack you outright.

But if you steal, you're taking

away their very survival.

No doubt the river will flood

from time to time.

So i can see it by all the

washout where i am right now.

I'm gonna go up in here.

There's a flat space.

I can tuck in here and just make

myself a little quickie shelter

to help me get through the

night.

This is not gonna be anything

fancy, just something quick to

keep me out of the rain.

Now, the beauty of what i'm

doing here is this greenery that

i'm working with is really easy

to work with.

And i've got probably a

rain-tight shelter here.

It's amazing what you can do

with a bit of nylon rope and a

machete.

]] it's time finally to put that

little survival stove to the

test.

The first thing i'll try is this

little pack of survival beef

bouillon.

This little survival stove is

great in a pinch.

The small, white chemical

tablets are fuel, just enough

to boil water and get me

something hot to drink.

Two things sorely missed in a

survival situation -- something

nice and cold, and something

nice and hot.

And when you're forced to live

in a state that seems less than

human, anything that makes you

feel more human is a bonus and

can lift your spirits high.

There we go.

Definitely enough to probably

k*ll most if not all parasites

that are in it.

Let's see what some of this

survival beef bouillon is like.

Though it's best to boil water

for ten minutes, a lot of

experts agree that even just

bringing it to the point of

boiling can be enough to k*ll

any pathogens.

Oh, wow.

That's a lot of flavor.

Oh, man, that's good.

Still got another treat left to

enjoy today that the hewa sent

me in with called "betel nut."

it's a bit of a process.

Let me show you how it works.

There's the betel nut.

Now, i'm not sure how to

describe what it does.

It takes away your appetite, so

it suppresses your appetite.

All of the hewa chew it

incessantly.

It's kind of like chewing

tobacco for them, i think.

It makes your face go numb.

There's one.

Ohh!

Oh, how do they do that?

That's bitter!

Ohh!

Two.

Then they take a baggie of lye.

Then they take a leaf...

oh, my god.

Ohh.

And you're chewing all of this,

if you can not throw up in the

process.

Hang on.

Ohh.

That's gross.

Hmm.

It's like an ammonia feeling.

Sort of...

ohh.

Hmm.

It's not as powerful as a

cocaine or an opium, but i'll

tell you how i feel in an hour.

Maybe it'll help me get through

the night.

Oh, that's brutal.

Huh.

This is why -- hold on.

Ohh.

This is why i don't chew tobacco

either.

Hmm.

Whew!

Yep.

My face feels numb.

Okay, then.

The effects of the betel nut are

more than i'm expecting, and

they go a little beyond just a

numb face.

Oh, boy.

For the hewa, chewing on betel

nut all day long is an

addiction.

It numbs their faces, ruins

their teeth, suppresses their

appetite, but as well, it gets

them high.

[ harmonica playing ]

the high the hewa people get

from chewing betel nut lasts for

them up to an hour and a half.

Definitely more closed in that i

would like it to be, but if it

does rain, i'll be fine.

Well, it's not raining yet.

With any luck at all, it won't

rain through the whole night at

all.

The only problem i have with

this shelter now is it's

crawling with ants.

And they may be small, but they

do bite.

Sometimes ants are nocturnal,

sometimes they're during the

day.

Hopefully these will mellow out

now that it's getting good and

dark.

Tonight it's not the ants that i

have to worry about.

The river's just raging right

now.

It's up about 2, 3 feet, and i'm

only another 2, 3 feet higher.

In fact, i was gonna make a camp

right down here.

Hopefully, it won't come up any

more.

Man, it's moving.

]] only once before in the

rivers of the amazon did i

underestimate how fast a river

can rise.

This time, the river may be

wide, but the amount of water

pushing through the valley is

unbelievable and actually

predictable on a nightly basis.

I'm just not familiar enough

with this area.

Water rose up to here.

Last night, another 2 or 3 feet

and it would have been right up

at my shelter.

It's still pretty high this

morning, so there's not much

point in me in trying to attempt

to cross now.

I'll have to wait till it

recedes a bit more.

The hewa can cross this water

in bare feet with babies on

their backs, quite a big

difference between a life lived

in the jungle and being a

visitor like myself.

Just what i was afraid of.

Feet have been locked up inside

of wet, muddy boots all week and

i've developed a rash and fungus

on both of them.

That's not good news.

And on top of that, diarrhea

returned last night.

So, it's really beating me up

out here.

But now that i'm not using the

orange tarp for my shelter, i

can continue to catch rain,

start to flush through some

fresh rain water.

And, hopefully, that will clean

me up.

Although that won't k*ll any

parasites that might be in my

stomach already.

Just as i was considering how i

would cross the river to steal

some food from the jungle

garden, two hewa men approached

from a distance.

They had machetes in their

hands, and they seemed to have

an agenda.

Hello!

Okay, how are you?

]] how are you?

]] good, good.

]] [ speaking indistinctly ]

]] yeah.

]] do you want to stay here or

come to sing sing?

]] a big sing sing tonight?

Okay.

]] he tell us to go and ask you.

]] yep.

Yeah, thank you.

]] we ask you, do you want to

stay or do you want to come?

We come ask you.

]] yeah.

Well, there you have it.

I'm talking to camera.

My choice was to stay, keep

suffering from diarrhea in the

middle of the jungle with hardly

any food to speak of.

But what's happened here is the

villagers have come back, and

they've come out here to see me

to tell me that there's a sing

sing tonight in my honor, a

celebration of me being here.

So my choice was to stay in the

jungle and suffer or come out to

the sing sing.

Hmm.

A very difficult decision to

make.

Very difficult.



jungles and deserts and the

ocean and the forest and the

cold and the heat and survived

alone without food, water, gear,

camera crew, often with no

backup support.

And now i go on to a village in

the remote jungles of papua,

new guinea where they will

celebrate my final ever

"Survivorman."

it's fitting it's here because

papua, new guinea, is a very

primeval forest where survival

is extremely difficult.

But survival, it's just the

beginning.

What comes next is a step

beyond.

[ singing in native language ]

this "sing sing," as they call

it, is a celebration for

returning from a k*ll, a human

k*ll, the k*lling of either

someone they suspected of being

a witch, a lone thief, or maybe

even an entire village.

It was done in my honor for

surviving in the jungle, but

they take it seriously.

Today marks the first time in

history that this village has

ever been filmed, that these

hewa have ever been filmed

performing a sing sing, and it's

definitely the first time in

history that a white man will be

welcomed to join in.

[ chanting in native language ]

in the adventure known as life,

there are those who live it

vicariously and enjoy the ride

from the safety of an armchair,

and that's good.

There are those who have a

few chances to realize

incredible and life-changing

experiences.

And though they don't repeat

them, they carry with them a

growth and personal philosophy

for the rest of their lives.

And there are those for whom a

taste is never enough, for whom

the lust of adventure is nearly

insatiable.

And if you add to that the

overwhelming desire to create

and to share, then you get where

i reside.

For the end of one adventure

only signifies the beginning of

another.

[ chanting continues ]