I am Bear Grylls.
I have served with the British Special Forces.
I have climbed to the summit of Everest
and crossed the frozen waters of the Arctic.
Now, my challenge is to survive the alligator infested swamps
of the Everglades.
Every year, over 60 tourists need to be rescued
from one of the world's most hostile environments.
I am going to show you the skills needed to survive here.
I am in the Everglades, in Florida,
over 4,000 square miles of water logged grassland.
Every year, this wilderness attracts six million visitors.
Many get lost and need to be airlifted to safety.
I am going to put myself in the position of a lost tourist
and show you how to survive in a wilderness like this.
The Everglades was formed by a 50 mile wide river flowing
from mid Florida down to the Gulf of Mexico.
The swamps, forests and marshes have remained almost unchanged
for thousands of years and there is no other area like it in the U.S.
That's why millions come here.
Last year, 65 people were rescued,
many had become stranded after their boats had broken down.
I am starting in the most challenging part of the Everglades,
the swamps.
We are hovering at about a hundred foot above the ground now
and the trees are still about 40 foot beneath me.
Three, two, one, go.
All I have with me is a water bottle, a flint and my knife.
A film crew will follow my journey.
(GROANS)
(BIRD SOUNDS IN THE BACKGROUND)
I tell you, I do not like this stuff at all,
you just cannot see what is in the water.
There is water as far as the eye can see.
It is up to my thighs
and it is deep enough to hide big alligators.
There are over one million of them in the Everglades
and the first thing I want is a weapon.
I am just going to cut this pop ash down here
and use this as a stick and what you do is you just bend it over
to put it under tension.
And then it will come off like that.
It's not much of a weapon
but this stick will give me an extra four feet of reach
to ward off any alligators.
Just look at this place.
It is so disorientating
and I think out of all the wildernesses I've ever been in,
this has to be the easiest place to get lost in.
It is just more of the same in every direction
and there is a couple who got stuck out here recently
when their airboat hit a tree and broke a gas line
and even though they had a cell phone
and could call search and rescue,
they had no idea where they were.
And it actually took search and rescue two days to find them.
And you can kind of see why.
They survived by staying in their airboat
and that's the right thing to do.
I do not have that luxury.
I want to get out of this water and away from the alligators.
There is dry land here but I don't know where.
I first of all need to get my bearings.
This tree here should do.
It's high enough, it is probably about 40 foot at the top of that,
it should give me a view over the top of the rest of this swamp.
But also it is thin enough to allow me to climb up this thing
but there is no way I am going to be able to just free climb up this.
But what I can do is use something as simple as just my shoelaces
and...
All I got to do is untie each of these
and then tie them together,
so I have got one long, one long loop
and I want to do it in a bow
because I want to be able to undo these things at the end.
This is going to get really tight now.
But, once I've got this loop so my feet are joined together,
I should be able to use these to jump and then wrap around the tree.
And that will give me enough traction to go up.
And the key to doing this is to just keep calm and not rush it
and use your leg strength to lift you up
and your arms are there purely just to balance.
Okay.
So I am going to get quite high up here
and hope these laces are holding out for another couple of feet,
I'll be above it.
That's great, they worked perfectly.
I thought they were going to break about halfway.
This is as high as I'm going to be able to get up this tree,
it's getting really spindly and wobbly.
What I was hoping for is to get a glimpse of some pine trees,
just because they grow on dry ground
but instead, it's just cypress and water oak
and that means swamp and more swamp.
Without any dry land to head for, I need another plan.
One of the key parts of survival is preparation
and having an understanding of the geography that you are in.
And I know that in the Everglades, basically inland, is higher ground
and that I know is to the west.
And one way I can work this out is just by using my watch as a compass.
And if I just point the hour hand at the sun, which is over there,
halfway between that and 12 o'clock is south,
which means south is that way,
west, inland, higher ground is that way.
Grab my stick.
And I'm out of here.
Now, I have decided to go west, it's vital I stick to my bearing.
It would be so easy to go around in circles here,
the swamps are so disorientating.
But I cannot afford to waste precious energy.
This is why this swamp is so difficult, look,
there's loads of these submerged logs
and it just makes moving so difficult.
These swamps are so forbidding.
Anything could be lurking under the water
and you have no idea what you're stepping on.
Hey, there are bubbles. Get out, get on that tree,
get out of the water.
Out of the water, right out, right out.
I'm in the Everglades. It's home to millions of snakes and alligators.
And danger is never far away.
Look, you see that? Look.
See the bubbles coming out of the
Now, that could either be an alligator
or just the gases coming out of the swamps.
We just stay here and just watch it for a second.
We just need to keep calm and not take the risk.
We're going to back out this way and go around.
So just quietly get back into the water and back away.
This place has really got me spooked.
There could be alligators anywhere.
The best thing you can do is to make...
Lots of noise and splash around
and let them know that you are coming.
The last thing you want to do is to surprise one,
as they are much more likely to attack
if they think they've got to defend themselves.
The trees form a thick screen.
It's almost impossible to see far ahead
and it is so hard to keep my westerly bearing.
But then, there is a clearing with some sort of deep water in my path.
Hey, look, look, alligators.
See them?
And in this sort of swamp it's just inevitable
that I would eventually come across some of these guys.
But actually this is just the sort of place they would like,
it is a clearing, which means the sunlight comes down
and you know, they are cold blooded,
they need the sun to keep them warm.
And yeah, look there are a few of them.
It is as if they are like recharging their batteries in the sun here.
But there is no way that I want to be wading across the channel.
However I have got to keep heading that way.
I need another plan for getting across.
Come on.
Here, don't get too close in.
That tree that might be ideal for crossing, crossing this channel
and you get loads of these trees falling down in hurricanes,
they've had like seven hurricanes here in the last five years.
But yeah, there are still alligators around here,
so I want to be careful.
I'm gonna go for it. Throw this across.
Okay, if you stay here.
Dead wood is often weak but this is a cypress tree.
There are no lower branches
and it has vertical grooves in the bark.
And because they live in water, the wood takes years to rot.
It should be safe.
What I'm doing is just using my thighs to grip
and then the top of my feet to push me up.
But, it's really just about trying to keep your balance on this thing
because it is getting thinner as I get higher.
(GROANS)
Two reasons why I do not want to fall off this,
one, look, it's getting, getting pretty high
but also there are the alligators there
and I do not want to end up as alligator food.
I'm just going to work out a way of getting to the main tree
and getting down there.
I am just going to have to swing over I think.
I just got to try and get my, get my leg around here.
It is late and I have to get out of the water before nightfall.
That's when the alligators become more active.
It's their main feeding time.
I need to set up camp.
I could probably use this pop Ash tree here.
It's got enough limbs off the branches
and what I can do is if I can find a few more uprights like this,
lash one like that and then another one here
and then lay some branches along it.
That will lift me up out of the water.
And the other good thing about this pop Ash,
it has got lots of vine on it
which I can use just as natural cordage to tie it with.
But make sure that the wood is thick enough to take your weight.
And what I want to do here is just do,
do like a simple overhand knot
and then tuck it in again once more on itself
and that just locks it.
This process is quick and all the raw materials are around me
and that's good news.
It's saving me time and energy.
Construct a base to sleep on.
It should be long enough to lie on full stretch and wide.
This is one bed I don't want to roll out of.
Ideally, pick straight timbers and remove the off shoots.
They will dig in and make sleeping even harder.
There you go and I just need a load of these across here
and this will make a good platform.
Right. That is almost enough for the actual platform
that I am going to lie on.
Now, to pad this bed out a bit.
Hey, look at this stuff, this is this is all Spanish moss
and even though this looks really nice and soft
and you think would make an ideal mattress,
it is actually often full of nasty little chiggers
and chiggers are these tiny little things you cannot actually see
but what happens, they bite you
and then 24 hours later you will start to scratch
and you are going to keep scratching for days.
And I have come across this before in the jungles of Belize
and trust me, it's a mistake you only make once
so I am going to need another plan for something to use as bedding.
The fronds of the cabbage palm are much better.
This palm is the state plant of Florida
and it has been used for shelter
by the local Seminole Tribe here for centuries.
Once a bed is made, fire is my next priority.
It will help keep predators away and also dry my clothes.
But to light it, I need to find some tinder and once again,
the cabbage palm is the key.
This stuff is great.
It's really, really dry and stays pretty dry even
when its been raining
and you do have to be a little bit careful reaching around
in this stuff, just because loads of nasty creepy crawlies
often live in this from ants to scorpions
and I have even got a friend
who found once a coral snake wrapped up in this sort of stuff.
So I am going to stuff this in my pocket,
it is about the only place on me that is dry.
Make a base for the fire or the embers will burn your bed.
You should let the mud dry but I do not have the time.
However, these green twigs will create a barrier between the tinder
and the wet mud.
It would be easy to think that starting a fire in such a wet
and humid environment would be impossible
but this shows how a little local knowledge
can make all the difference.
I really need to watch out for my feet.
Just in this sort of environment it is really easy to get trench foot
and you get trench foot if your,
your feet are wet you know for more than about 12 hours
and it is a mix of just being cold and moist
and what happens is eventually the skin starts to flake off
and it can then become infected.
But I really want to make sure I don't get that
because I tell you, out here, if you can't walk, you die.
By day this swamp is pretty surreal
but at night time this whole place is just spooky, spooky, spooky
and there is so much noise and things like rustling around
and then you know splashing around in the mud
and this whole place just does not sleep.
And at the moment, nor am I.
Tomorrow, I'll have to find a way out of the swamp,
but that's never easy in the Everglades.
I'm out in the middle of the Everglades.
My first night in the swamp was not a good one.
The mosquitoes last night were just ferocious
and I had my trousers off for about 10 minutes,
drying them and look, just in 10 minutes,
this, all the way down there, all the way down my leg,
same on both sides.
Before I leave, I need water,
but this swamp is full of rotting leaves,
so I've got to filter it first.
There is so much just rubbish floating around in this,
all the muck and all the dirt
and if I just...
Get it like this.
And make it into like a, a sack.
And see, this water is now coming out all nice and clear
and all the residue and the debris
from the swamp...
Should be all still trapped in here.
And just to give you an idea of how much there is,
that is what I am trying to keep out of my water bottle.
The water now looks clear
but it still contains parasites and bacteria, so always boil it.
I am going to continue west
and there is a local technique to help me find my bearings.
The secret lies in the water.
Basically, the Everglades is about a 50 mile wide river that runs
from the north to the south.
But it runs really slowly, maybe like a hundred foot a day,
so a good way of working out direction is just tie
this water bottle to the stick and while I am waiting
for the water to boil,
I can see which way this swings around
and that will give me a south direction
and therefore I can work out which way I've got to go,
which should be west.
The water flows south to the Gulf of Mexico.
After 30 minutes, its moved two feet
and that is enough to show me my way.
This water bottle has swung around
and has stayed pretty level in about this position,
which means south is that way
and the direction I want to go is west, that way.
Walking through the swamp uses up a lot of energy
and I need to eat something.
But there is little food here.
But dead wood is often home to bugs and insects
and there is plenty of that.
This should be quite a good place to try and find something
and look at that, just break that off
and instantly loads of these carpenter ants coming out
and if I grab an end of this and just tip it up,
you will see the carpenter ant larvae.
Insect grubs are four times higher in protein than beef.
They taste sour and are slightly gritty.
They take some getting used to but being easy to find,
they are a life saver.
The swamp is changing, now.
Everywhere, there are small roots sticking up out of the water.
It would be easy to trip over and spike yourself on one of these
but at least the water is gradually getting shallower.
Beyond these trees I can see some distant ones
and they look like more cypress but a little bit lower down,
it looks greener and those are probably pine trees and possibly
some oak as well.
But that is good news for me.
Those trees need dry ground to grow in,
so that's where I'm heading.
But the bad news is the tall vegetation ahead of me,
it's saw grass.
All of this saw grass around here is just razor sharp
and it's vicious stuff
but the key to getting through it is to know which way it cuts
and the secret of it is this is if you pull up it like this,
it's absolutely fine but as soon as you start doing it the other way.
Look, you will see.
Look at that, just cuts you straightaway
and that's because of the tiny little filaments
like little saw edges on the back of the grass.
But how you want to walk through this,
is just to really protect your face, keep you arms up like this
and roll your sleeves down.
And if you've got a stick, use it like this, in front of you.
And as you walk, it will lay the saw grass flat in front of you.
See you guys.
Saw grass holds in the humidity,
so it can feel 20 degrees hotter than it actually is.
And with temperatures reaching 90 degrees in the Everglades,
getting lost in this grass can be fatal.
There was a guy just a few months ago
who was out in his airboat when it ran aground
and he went off looking for help through all of this saw grass
but he got lost, got heat stroke, disorientated,
and within 24 hours, he was dead.
And when they found his body,
he was just a quarter of a mile from a road.
And that's how easy it is to get lost here.
Maintaining my direction in this grass is so hard
and that's why it's dangerous.
(GROANS)
Well, here is a river and normally for me that would be good news,
you know, I would follow it downstream to civilisation
but in this case I want to stick to my plan of heading west
and to dry ground and towards those trees.
The problem is this river is deep
and it's going to have alligators in it.
Until now, I've kept the alligators at a safe distance
but that's all about to change
You do not wanna be any closer than this, they are so territorial?
I'm heading west in the Everglades swamps.
And dry ground is finally ahead.
But there's a problem, a big river blocks my path.
And that means alligators.
Back up, back up. See it through the grass,
look, look, look.
You see that?
And this is as close as you want to get to one of these guys.
They are so territorial.
No closer really than 15 foot.
In fact we are probably, we are probably too close here,
so just back up, slowly.
Okay, we need to come around.
Alligators can run at 30 miles an hour over a short distance.
That is faster than me.
If it hisses, move back even further,
it can mean it is about to attack.
But where you find one alligator, there will often be others.
Hey, come look at this.
Look, it is an old alligator's nest and yeah, you see the slide.
This is where, this is where the mother would come in
and...
And this is what they do, they build up this sort of mound
for all of the eggs that she would lay.
And she will typically lay about...
Probably about 30 or 40 of these eggs
but only about half of that will actually hatch.
If this was a fresh nest,
there's no way I would be able to get this close.
And then, I spot something.
Look at this.
And this guy is probably, probably a couple of years old
but this isn't a bad sign for me.
Often if there are a lot of big male alligators around,
they will eat these little guys,
so the fact that he is around probably means
there's no big ones nearby.
And they will only stay with their mother until they are
about a year old.
But wow, that is just pure muscle, I can just feel the power,
even just holding it like this, and just imagine how strong
it would be if was like, you know, a big one would be like
a hundred times this size.
Amazing to see and those teeth, they are just like razor sharp.
Okay, I am going to let him go now and move on.
Okay, stand back, watch out.
This little fellow is protected,
shame, because he would be tasty.
To keep going west,
I have to find the safest place to swim this river.
This is going to be a pretty good place to try and cross.
It's about as narrow as this river is going to get
but also I've got good visibility all the way around.
But I am just going to stay and watch for a while.
Alligators can stay underwater, the big boy, for up to 45 minutes,
so I'm just looking out for any ripples
or when the eyes and the head surface.
When it gets hot, alligators use deeper water to cool down.
They lie motionless on the river bed and wait.
Crossing rivers where there are alligators is dangerous
and must only be a last resort.
And never do it during the mating season,
when the males are much more aggressive.
In 2006, three women were killed in one week.
One was swimming,
the other two were dragged in from the water's edge.
I've done everything I can to minimise the risk here.
You know, it's midday, which means they are not feeding,
it is the narrowest bit of river I could find
and also I have been keeping a really good eye out
for any signs of movement.
I have waited for over an hour, and I am pretty sure it is safe.
But alligators are inquisitive and are attracted to activity,
so I need to be in and out of that water as quickly as possible.
Often alligator attacks are mistaken identities.
In other words, you know, they think you are something else
and the danger of swimming on the surface
with your head bobbing around is they can often think you are like a,
a bird or a turtle.
So what I am going to do is go under the water,
swim as fast and as smoothly as I can.
But whatever they say,
I am still going to swim with this knife in my hand.
It's almost zero visibility down here
and it is disorientating.
My heart's just thumping.
I tell you, I am so pleased that is over.
For some reason I just had a really bad feeling about that.
There are over 4,000 square miles of swamp and marsh
in the Everglades.
And being wet for this long saps not only your energy,
it can really get you down.
I've had it with water now
and I just pray there is dry ground ahead in those trees.
Well...
This is about the first time on this journey
that I can actually see my feet again
and it's just such a relief now to be on dry ground.
Here, look at this.
I don't know how far I still have got to go on this journey
but it kind of feels like I have done the first major hurdle.
And do you know what?
I am just going to sit on this for five minutes
and enjoy being able to sit down without getting a wet butt.
I want to savour this moment.
It won't be this easy, for long.
After two days, I'm on dry land.
Here. There are new hazards, like snakes and black bears.
But finding food is my next priority.
Look at this.
Little tree frog and just going around in the grass there
and you can actually eat these any of these frogs
in the Everglades are fine to eat
there no poisonous ones, you get poisonous toads
but they are much bigger and rougher.
And as I say any frog in the Everglades,
is a good frog.
It's too small to cook. And the first bite must kill it.
Otherwise it will wriggle all the way down.
Bit more calories at least.
Okay, let's keep going.
The key to survival. Is eating food whenever you can.
Little and often.
There's a pretty clear game trail here and you can see where,
where the grass ends it is back to bare soil running off
into the grass.
But where there are animal tracks, it will often lead to food.
So I am just going to follow this for a little bit
and see where it goes.
Animal tracks are always worth following for a little while,
as they can often lead you to water and to food.
But do not follow them for too long,
as they can also lead you off course.
Wow, grapefruits.
Yeah, look, you see up there?
I tell you, finding these out here is really, really unusual.
These are not native to the region
and coming across citrus fruit in the Everglades only means one thing,
that this area here was probably used as an old Seminole camp.
The Seminole Tribe moved here during the Florida Wars in 1817.
The swamp was a refuge against the U.S. Army.
This seems like the perfect place for me to set up camp.
And this branch here can make a pretty nice like top beam
and then all I need is a couple of bits like this on either side
and it will make a nice little A-frame shelter.
Lash two supports together at the mouth of the shelter.
And once again, the cabbage palm makes excellent cordage.
But it has other uses too.
What I am using is just the stalks of the frond to make the frame here.
Once the uprights are in place,
make and tie cross bracings to complete the structure.
Then layer the fan shaped palms over the top
and that will keep the rain water off.
Making fire is always important.
It keeps predators away and also lifts morale.
What I've made here is a four pointed fire
and you can see these four logs coming out.
And this is a very efficient fire, it's slow burning
but also it's a very traditional fire of the Seminole Tribe
and they would use this a lot
when they were being hunted and tracked by the U.S. Army.
And if they ever heard danger coming,
they could pull these apart
and the fire would die down pretty quickly
and once the danger is past they could put it back together again
and build the fire up very quickly.
Now, I can finish the shelter by firelight.
That will do.
It's comforting to know that people once lived here,
the Seminoles hunted for food.
And tomorrow, I'll have to do the same.
This morning I am going to hunt for some frogs or small fish.
There are no poisonous frogs in the Everglades
so they are all safe to eat.
Look at this.
It is a turtle and this is actually a Cooter, look,
you can tell that from the spots on the side of the shell here.
And these are a really good source of meat
but also vitamins, minerals
and salts that are in the actual blood.
And I really need some of these salts just in this humidity.
I can eat this turtle because it's not protected
but you must be sure you kill it quickly and effectively.
And that is it, dead, that is his arteries cut.
I never enjoy this but stuck out here,
you can't afford to be squeamish.
This has been a real result for me to get this
and whenever I've eaten turtles
before I've always cracked the belly, gutted it
and then scraped all the meat out and cooked it like that.
But in the Everglades,
what the Seminoles used to do is literally just cook it straight
in its shell, sort of like a pressure cooker.
And if I just put it on there and leave that for like an hour,
that will cook and then give me a really good dinner.
Cooking time will depend on the size of the turtle.
But one good way to tell when it's ready.
Is that the shell is brittle and cracks?
And all I need to do now is get it off it.
And then you see, just really brittle.
I'm gonna try this.
And this is one of those times, you can say,
it really does taste quite like chicken.
See all of that.
Good fleshy meet here.
And that's really good meat.
The turtle has given me vital energy.
And is also giving me a psychological boost
and so much of survival is about keeping your morale up.
Recharged. I am going to continue heading west.
Time to check my bearings and make up some ground.
This place is so deceptive.
It feels safer than the swamps.
But complacency out here is dangerous.
Stop. That's a rattlesnake. Just wait there, wait.
I'm in the Everglades. I've avoided the alligators,
but now I stumble across a loud rattlesnake.
Look. You see that?
That's a... That is an eastern diamond back rattlesnake
and these are actually the biggest,
most venomous snakes in all of North America.
And I do not want to get any closer really than this.
They can strike up to half their body length.
And if you do come across one of these,
you have just got to back away really nice and slowly,
always keep your eye on it, don't turn your back on it
and give it a really wide berth.
I tell you, that is why you have got to be so careful walking around
in this thigh deep grass here.
Wow, you can really hear her?
Come on then.
That snake had a loud rattle and gave plenty of warning
but beware many are quieter or make no rattle at all
and they can strike without warning.
Snakes are not the only problem,
there are other much larger predators here.
When people think of the Everglades, they think of alligators and snakes
but what they often forget is actually there are an awful lot
of black bears here and look you can see,
just on this tree how where a black bear has come along and just wham,
claws straight in. See these?
And for me, that is just one more thing to worry about.
Hey, just wait there.
There is a little flash of colour that is a snake under here.
Look at this, look, look, here you go.
And this is, this is either a coral snake
or it is a scarlet king.
The coral snake is highly venomous.
You want to be pretty comfortable about what it is,
but no, this is definitely, definitely a scarlet king.
And, yeah, I can tell that from the markings, the colour.
Where you see the, the red here,
it has got the black stripes next to it
and that means it is a scarlet king and there is an expression,
an old saying in the Everglades, that says "Red on yellow,
kill a fellow, red on black, friend of Jack."
And this has got the red next to the black,
so he is a friend of Jack and he is a friend of mine
but this is a little constrictor.
He will probably live off little lizards, little bugs.
But he was quite happy under there so we are going to let him go.
The Everglades are unique.
They are a mosaic of different terrains all mixed together,
each holding its own set of dangers.
Ahead of me now is muddy bog.
It is a place where the Earth will literally suck you in.
All of this around here is what is called swamp mud
and in the middle of it here is what is known as a sink hole
and these things form
when the water running underground erodes the limestone
and then it creates like a pocket that fills with mud and with water.
And these holes have been known literally
to swallow entire small off-road vehicles.
But the reason they are so dangerous is if you go into them,
the more you struggle, the more it sucks you into it and really,
if you came across this,
you have got to retrace your steps and back out.
But what I am going to do is jump in and show you how to get out of it.
And, if I just try and struggle a bit,
you will see how it begins to bring me down into it
and this is why these things can be so hard to get out of.
And each muscle
I pull creates suction that pulls me down deeper.
And the technique for getting out of this though,
if you have got a stick,
is to use that to create more surface area to be able to put
your weight on and try and wriggle...
Your chest onto it.
Recently, a guy was out jogging in the Everglades
and he ran into one of these sink holes.
He went right up to his chest.
He was stuck solid and for three days he tried to get out
but he didn't know how.
He avoided dehydration by drinking
the murky swamp water on the surface.
And on the fourth day he was found alive,
completely delirious and covered in bug bites.
And then once you are on the surface,
just monkey crawl until you hit solid ground.
And then it is quite easy like this.
That would be a really nasty thing to be stuck in for four days.
I am just caked in this stuff now, head to toe
and it's making walking hard work.
I also got sand in my trousers, which is not ideal.
There is a fence ahead of me
and beyond it a drainage canal and a road.
And that for me means one thing, civilisation and my way home.
In the Everglades, salvation can lie just around the next tree
and it goes to show, if you are lost,
never give up hope.
Subtitle Caption by ZestCorp