(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
BEAR GRYLLS: I'm Bear Grylls.
Whoa!
BEAR GRYLLS: I'm gonna show you what it takes to get out alive
from the most dangerous places on earth.
Whoo!
BEAR GRYLLS: I've got to make it through a week of challenges
in the sort of places you wouldn't last a day
without the right survival skills.
(GRUNTS)
Now, I'm off the rugged coast of Cape Wrath
in the far north of Scotland,
doing battle with the sea
and making use of materials wherever you can find them.
Snug fit.
A place with nerve-jangling descents,
where every step could be your last.
Rock fall! Get down, get down!
BEAR GRYLLS: This is as barren, remote and dangerous as it gets.
We need to change the plan. Come on, go, go.
Welcome to Scotland.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
This is the coast around Cape Wrath in the Scottish Highlands,
the northern tip of the British Isles.
It's the first landfall for hundreds of miles of open ocean.
These ancient rocks are continually battered
by huge North Atlantic swells and storms.
This part of the coastline is virtually uninhabited,
and it's one of the most wild and remote parts of the UK.
Special Forces come to the Highlands for their pre-Arctic training.
It's often the part of the course that the soldiers dread the most.
It's not just the terrain that's unforgiving.
It's also the seas,
and fishing out here is one of the deadliest jobs on earth.
Last year, around 100 fishermen
were injured or lost their lives
battling mountainous seas to bring in their catch.
Get separated from your ship, and you face a stark choice -
stay put and hope for rescue or try to head for land.
I'm leaving the shelter of the coast now,
heading for open ocean, to show you how to survive
if you're thrown overboard in these freezing waters,
and how to make it back to shore.
(PILOT SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)
The pilot's going to drop me somewhere around here,
and all I've got with me is a knife, a water bottle and flints,
plus this life raft,
and without this, the water's that cold,
your survival time is measured in minutes.
It really is your lifeline.
PILOT: We're coming up to the drop zone, Bear.
OK, good for me. I'm out of here.
(TENSE MUSIC)
BEAR GRYLLS: My signal sends the OK for the heli to head back to base.
PILOT: Visual OK. Let's get out of here.
But once it's gone, you haven't got long.
The chilling water will immediately start sapping your energy.
This water is cold.
The priority is to get this life raft inflated.
(TENSE MUSIC)
OK.
The minute this thing is inflated, you never let go of it.
Keep a hold of this thing, or the wind -
it's just going to skip across the surface
much faster than you're ever going to be able to swim.
One, two, three. Big, strong, go.
(EERIE MUSIC)
BEAR GRYLLS: Find yourself in a maritime emergency,
and a life raft like this will be your lifeline,
but they're not built for comfort.
If you're stuck in a life raft out in the middle of the ocean,
it's just a waiting game.
I know I'm not far from the coast of Scotland,
the wind and the tide's going to be driving me towards it.
Weird, horrible motion in here.
Problem is, there's no keel on these life rafts,
just completely at the mercy of the sea.
You know, people have been stuck in life rafts
for days and days and weeks and weeks.
Can only imagine the hell, the seasickness.
BEAR GRYLLS: The constant motion of the raft
is enough to test even the hardiest survivor.
Seasickness sets in when your senses
send conflicting messages to the brain.
Without a reference like the horizon,
it's easy to lose any sense of what way is up.
I'm not feeling at all...
Give me some space.
(RETCHES AND COUGHS)
BEAR GRYLLS: This mismatch can cause the ear to send signals
to a part of the brain known as a 'vomiting centre'.
When it does this, it induces sickness and ultimately vomiting.
Either way, it's not pleasant.
Open this thing a little bit.
Get some air in here.
Stinks.
BEAR GRYLLS: The currents are pushing me towards the coast.
Now timing is everything.
I must get out before the raft is smashed on the rocks
by the Atlantic Ocean swells.
- (WAVES CRASH) - Can actually hear the surf there.
Yeah, we're getting quite close.
BEAR GRYLLS: With no way to steer the raft,
you just have to take your chances.
Time your jump as the swell is receding
and get yourself clear before the next one comes in.
The raft's got me ashore, but I want to keep it if I can.
It would make a great shelter.
The crashing waves and sharp rocks make short work of it.
It's soon punctured and unusable,
but materials like rubber are precious resources to the survivor.
They're difficult to replicate in an environment like this,
so it's worth taking a risk to try and retrieve it.
Need to work fast here to salvage what I can from this.
Get the flare pack and an inner tube.
BEAR GRYLLS: It's not much,
but anything you can salvage could have its use.
Now you need to focus on getting the lay of the land.
Get your bearings and make a plan.
The shoreline is always a fruitful place for the scavenger,
but only take things that are light enough to carry in your pack.
Look, you see that? Just up from the rock ledge.
Yeah, it looks like the remains of a seal carcass.
BEAR GRYLLS: It's estimated 200,000 grey seals
live along the British coastline,
and during mating season it's common to see the casualties
of battles between competing males.
I've been all the way around this now,
and it's definitely an island.
That is the mainland.
(TENSE MUSIC)
BEAR GRYLLS: With little food and no fresh water here,
getting to the mainland is the best survival strategy,
but with the life raft wrecked beyond repair,
you're gonna have to swim.
In these freezing waters you'd need all the insulation you can get,
which gives me an idea for that seal carcass.
Yeah, look, you see where it's been injured, back here.
It's got bite marks as well.
Probably at mating season, had a battle, a battle that it lost.
Smell... The meat on this is gone.
But what these guys do have...
(GRUNTS WITH EXERTION)
..is an amazing ability to survive in really cold water,
and that's because of its skin
and the thick layer of blubber underneath.
Might well be able to make some sort of wetsuit out of that.
Going to help me on this swim across there.
OK, let's try.
BEAR GRYLLS: Swim without any protection in these waters,
and you'd reach exhaustion and eventually unconsciousness
in around an hour.
And, look, you see that whole thick layer
full of fat and blubber there.
That's what I'm trying to separate from the main carcass.
Just get my hand right in there.
I just need to be so careful doing this
so I don't put a nick in the actual skin itself.
OK.
Now, look, you see, you're left with that head hole,
place to put my arms.
BEAR GRYLLS: The Vikings in this area of Scotland
used seal hide to make rope, clothing,
even sleeping bags to protect against the cold winters.
It's going to be a bit of a squeeze,
but that is the ultimate sealskin wetsuit.
BEAR GRYLLS: I've done everything I can now to face a long, cold swim
in these frigid Atlantic waters.
Keep swimming hard.
BEAR GRYLLS: I'm in the north-west of Scotland
and I've got a swim on my hands, and a cold one at that.
I've skinned a dead seal to make a wetsuit
and fashioned a dry bag from the remains of my life raft.
Now for the moment of truth. See if I can get this thing on.
(SPITS)
Oh...
Whoo! Snug fit!
It actually looks like it covers all of my core body here,
and that's the bit I want to keep warm.
BEAR GRYLLS: Hypothermia sets in when your core temperature
drops below a critical level.
Muscle function becomes impaired
and, even worse, your ability to make clear decisions.
It's imperative you do everything you can
to maintain core temperature to stay warm.
Weird, because the coldest part of me is actually my arms.
My chest and tummy feels nicely insulated.
I can tell that already. Come on, swim!
(TENSE MUSIC)
See the island behind me now.
The wind's a bit stronger out here.
I think I'm hitting some slack water.
There doesn't seem to be much tide, and I'm gonna make this.
I'm gonna keep swimming hard.
When you see the cliffs where we're going,
it's only a few hundred metres out.
BEAR GRYLLS: The large swell and jagged rocks look daunting,
but use the uplift of the swell to your advantage.
Here you are. Here you are.
Good job.
OK, so make sure these clothes are dry
and then get this seal skin off me.
BEAR GRYLLS: Seal skin is tough stuff.
Getting it off needs just a little care.
Well, that did its job.
Now I'll get all these clothes out and get dry.
Wow, cold, but a lot less cold than I would have been without that
and that t-shirt's all nice and dry.
That's good.
Whoo! What do you know!
Let's go!
BEAR GRYLLS: The coast around Northern Scotland
is dominated by huge, imposing cliffs,
some as high as 900ft.
Need to find another way to get up this.
Very, very slippery, though.
(TENSE MUSIC)
Try and find a way round the edge.
BEAR GRYLLS: The constant battering of the Atlantic over millennia
has left this coast pocked with caves and inlets.
Many run hundreds of feet inland
and are worth checking out as a possible route up.
Oh!
That's where we need to get to, up onto the top of the cliffs.
Just I'm not gonna get through. Can't get up to that hole.
I'll find another way.
Keep following this light.
BEAR GRYLLS: Caves like this were used in the past by smugglers
as a way of concealing their illegal activities.
Well, this is good.
(GRUNTS) We're onto the face up here.
Just getting in that zone, that bubble all around you.
That's where you want to be focusing,
not on the drop beneath you.
BEAR GRYLLS: I've made it onto the headland,
but the true scale of this landscape is huge,
and it's easy to see why so many ships
have foundered on this coastline.
Big ol' coastline, eh?
It's also, though, your best chance at finding civilisation, that way.
The only thing that way is Nova Scotia,
and the only thing to the north is the Arctic.
I'm gonna head south and stick with the coast.
OK, come on.
Head south down this coast
and eventually you will hit isolated fishing communities.
But sticking to the shore is no easy option.
Need to get across this estuary.
Sand most of the way.
Bit of water we'd need to wade.
The sand looks good and firm as well.
BEAR GRYLLS: Estuaries are formed where rivers empty into the sea.
Most were formed over the last few thousand years
as the rising sea level following the last ice age
drowned river valleys.
Attempting to walk across the sand flats,
even while the tide is out, doesn't come without dangers.
Where you need to be careful is where it's boggy sand.
So many horror stories of people getting caught out in estuaries.
But it's low tide. I reckon we can do this.
Now, you see these pockets of sand all the way across here?
We just go island to island.
OK, we need to seize the moment a bit with this and just go for it.
(TENSE MUSIC)
It's about a mile to the other side, so we can't hang around.
This is always a risky strategy.
You should never let your guard down.
Keep a constant vigil on the movement and direction of flow.
What I'm worried about is I don't know the state of the tide.
An important part of survival
is you've gotta be able to stay flexible.
Things happen in the wild that are deterrents, you gotta retreat.
But we're OK at the moment.
The danger is, a lot of these places,
there'll be such a small difference in height,
but when the tide does come in
it comes in at the speed of a galloping horse,
and that's when people get caught out,
which is what makes me a little bit uneasy here.
But it's still shallow. It's good.
BEAR GRYLLS: The tide has turned and the water level is rising.
The channels between the islands have suddenly become deeper
and I can feel the current tugging at my clothes.
I'm only halfway across the estuary.
It's time to make a critical call.
Yeah, we've still got too far to go here.
Look, I'm almost completely surrounded now.
This was sand a minute ago.
I'm attempting to cross a mile-wide estuary
on the remote coast of north-west Scotland.
I'm worried that I don't know the state of the tide.
But the tide has rushed in around me.
It's time to make a critical call.
Yeah, we've still got too far to go here.
Look, I'm almost completely surrounded now.
This was sand a minute ago.
OK, we're going back. We need a change of plan here.
Come on. Go, go, go.
(MUSIC INTENSIFIES)
All of this was sand on the way out.
You know, it's the right decision.
Sometimes you've gotta know...
You right?
Sometimes you've gotta know when to turn back.
It's like mountain climbing.
Got to know when not to go for the summit,
and that's how you live to fight another day.
Look at this.
We would be swimming there.
Tide racing in so fast.
It would be easy to get swept right away.
It's been a good call.
Let's get back to safety.
Wow, look at that.
Would not want to be in that right now.
It was an ambitious plan, and you're not gonna win them all.
We need to go around. Come on.
BEAR GRYLLS: Following the river inland
takes me into rugged high country.
Soon I can resume my southerly direction,
but these mountains run east-west.
To maintain my bearing,
there's little option but to traverse the ridges and valleys.
So we need to head for the crest up above.
BEAR GRYLLS: Getting over one ridge only confronts me
with seemingly endless ranges with deep, steep-sided valleys between.
Well, that's the Scottish Highlands for you.
Wild, remote, wind- and rain-swept mountains.
As barren as you like. But you know what? I love it.
It fires something primal inside, these mountains.
BEAR GRYLLS: The high ground is a dangerous place.
Clouds can suddenly envelope the landscape,
shrouding it in thick fog, making visibility almost zero.
Head down to lower ground as soon as you can.
Well, look, that's where we need to get to,
down into the valley down there.
You can see all these boulders are getting smaller now.
We should be able to just scree-run down this.
OK, follow me down.
(TENSE MUSIC)
BEAR GRYLLS: Keep your weight on the back of your foot into the heel
and alternate feet as if you were skiing, to slow your pace.
The smell of cordite, all the rocks smashing against each other.
OK, we're making good progress down here now.
Just have to slow right down when you hit this bigger stuff again,
otherwise you're gonna twist an ankle.
BEAR GRYLLS: The lower scree is highly unstable,
and no matter how light you step,
every foot fall sets off a chain reaction of moving rocks.
It's like walking on a mountain of ball bearings.
(LOW RUMBLING)
Rock fall! Get down, get down! Down!
(SHOUTS)
BEAR GRYLLS: I'm battling my way through the high mountains
of Northern Scotland.
I've descended fast down a steep scree run,
but the lower slopes are a nightmare of loose boulders.
Just have to slow right down when you hit this bigger stuff again.
(LOW RUMBLING)
Rock fall! Get down, get down! Down!
(YELLS INDISTINCTLY)
----!
Ooh! You alright?
That was crazy close.
You get hit by one of those, just that big,
it's going kill you, let alone that size.
And that's why I really...
Golden rule of a rock fall - got to have eyes on it.
You want to see what's coming your way
so you can get out of the way.
Too close.
OK, let's get off this boulder field,
get down to the bottom of the valley here.
BEAR GRYLLS: Moving through mountainous terrain
takes its toll on your energy levels,
and it has to be replaced.
Now you must start the search for food.
Here's a small lake,
and that's really a chance to find some food.
Come on, let's go down to this.
This whole landscape is just so windswept, you know.
There's very little sustainable food here.
When you find a lake like this, you've got to use it.
It's gotta have fish in here.
It's just trying to work out a way of getting them.
Let's keep moving around.
You can see, there's a natural choke point between these two lakes.
Can create a funnel between them that the fish will use.
BEAR GRYLLS: Using natural formations in the landscape
saves energy and time.
Positioning these boulders across the choke point
will force the fish through a narrow entrance.
All I have to do then is place a net I found on the shore across the gap.
I want to keep this really simple.
Fold this back on itself, you effectively make like a bag.
Nice big opening here so the fish can swim in.
Just need to tie the sides together.
BEAR GRYLLS: The scraps of cordage I scavenged from the beach
will do the job nicely.
OK, that's the sides sewn up together.
And then a stone at the front like that.
Just use some of this heather just to hold the bag open.
BEAR GRYLLS: The net's in place.
Now to drive the fish towards it.
All I'm doing is to try and create loads of mayhem and splash
so the fish don't enjoy it and want to get away from it
and swim that way towards the trap.
Really, this is just a great simple old poaching technique
for catching fish efficiently.
'Fish efficiently'. No pun intended.
Oh, there's one.
Let's keep him moving.
No.
The reality of fishing without a rod and line
is you've got to improvise and you've got to be persistent.
I always liked the story of the great Scottish warrior Robert Bruce,
and after he was beaten by the English he sat in his cave,
and the story goes, he watched a spider
climbing up and down the spider web
endlessly falling but getting back up,
and really, that's the heart of survival.
You've just got to keep trying and trying again until you succeed.
Come on, then, fish!
Look, there's one in here.
Let's just get this bag up.
You see that? There's another one at the back as well.
Let's get this bag onto shore.
One. Oop... That's a result, two fish.
And really, if you're hungry,
a little trout like that is fine to eat raw, you know?
All freshwater fish are edible,
and when you're in an environment as pristine as up here,
you're fine, really.
Want to take the head off...
..and then take the guts out...
..and then you can just munch into that.
And that's as fresh as you're ever gonna get.
Good energy.
Oh, man, that's good.
That was worth doing, eh?
Ha. Worked well.
OK.
BEAR GRYLLS: Moving through this sort of terrain at night
carries a high risk of injury.
Lost and alone, even a sprained ankle out here could spell disaster.
It's time to make camp.
BEAR GRYLLS: I'm in the Highlands of Northern Scotland.
I've managed to trap a couple of trout for food...
That's as fresh as you're ever going to get.
BEAR GRYLLS: ..but as night approaches
you need to divert your focus onto making camp...
..and there's one plant that grows in abundance here
which guarantees a more comfortable night.
Good old Scottish thistle.
You know, you use all the fluff inside this.
It's good tinder for a fire.
BEAR GRYLLS: People have tried to eke out a living here for centuries.
Many have failed,
but traces of their lives are still scattered over the landscape.
Here, look. Check this out!
Some wood from something man-made.
It's going to make good firewood, anyway.
Hang on. Look, it's from that.
See that poking out?
Looks like an upturned boat.
Well, I'm not gonna be going anywhere in a hurry.
This old boat looks completely trashed,
but it might make a good shelter for the night.
Yeah, it's got a good windbreak here.
Maybe brace this up a bit
and sleep underneath that.
And then whatever I don't use, I'll just have as firewood.
The thing is, this landscape, you know, is so barren.
It just gives you nothing, you know?
I've hardly seen any trees at all.
If you find this sort of thing, you want to use it.
OK. Try and get some peat.
BEAR GRYLLS: The boat is too far gone
to offer me any protection from the rain,
but there's one natural resource that is common
all over boggy areas like this that'll help to keep me dry - peat.
I should just be able to peel this stuff back.
Yeah. This is what crofters,
the Scottish people who have lived off the land for centuries,
it's what they would use for fuel and for shelter.
Just take big chunks of it, like this,
back for my roofing.
BEAR GRYLLS: The peat's not waterproof.
In fact, it soaks up water like a sponge,
but it takes so long for the rain to work its way through
that it makes an ideal roof for a temporary shelter.
That's really going to keep it dry and warm under there.
Just have a feeling, looking at that sky,
that I'm going to be pretty grateful
for this insulation and this waterproofing.
That, to me, looks like a storm coming.
Already feel the rain.
OK.
A bit more heather, add to my bedding,
and also just some stones to put this fire on,
with all this ground so damp.
And use all this thistle that I collected as tinder.
Want to get this lit before it starts raining too hard.
There it goes. Straight up.
One of the few good things about this bog
is all of this sphagnum moss that you get
is going to be perfect just to cook this little trout.
If I do that, just wrap it in this stuff,
when it cooks, it's gonna keep all of the good fats and the moisture
in the fish and not burn it off.
Effectively, I'm steaming it.
BEAR GRYLLS: Sphagnum, or peat moss,
is one of the most absorbent materials in the natural world.
It can hold about 20 times its own weight in water.
Not any rules on how long you steam a fish in sphagnum moss.
It's been steaming for a while.
Yeah, wow, that's hot.
OK, let's try and get him out.
Wow, look at that white meat.
Much better cooked than raw, as well.
Oh, man, that feels good.
Warming...
..nutritious...
..and tasty...
..but...not a big meal.
I could do with seconds and thirds of that.
OK, stoke up this fire a bit.
Try and get some rest.
BEAR GRYLLS: I'm in the rugged wilderness of Northern Scotland.
Keeping your morale high is crucial to survival.
It's vital to keep on top of personal hygiene
and maintain your routine before heading on your way.
Up here, maintaining a southerly bearing
is your best hope of finding habitation and rescue...
..but now I'm confronted with another weapon
in this country's arsenal.
Need to be a bit nimble-footed across all this stuff.
Nice.
BEAR GRYLLS: Peat bogs occur when the combination
of heavy rainfall, cool conditions and poor underground drainage
ensure the ground stays saturated.
Under these conditions, layers of peat build up over time,
sometimes getting to depths of several yards.
- (SPLASH!) - Oh!
You OK? I didn't see... Didn't see that one coming.
(GRUNTS WITH EXERTION)
Here you go.
It's a bit better here.
That's the thing about this terrain. It's deceptively hard.
(SPLUTTERS)
See something like this
and you think it's solid ground again, but it's not.
OK, come on.
(SPLASHING)
This is priceless.
We don't often get you properly stuck as well.
Come on.
You know what we can do?
Try and use some of the heather that's all around here.
Use that to make some, like, bog shoes.
You know, tie a big bunch of heather to our feet.
It'll give us some buoyancy.
Create a surface area like snow shoes. Now, let's do this.
Come on.
Non-technical but functional is gonna be the order of the day.
All I need to do is grab a couple bits of heather,
opposite end, opposite end, put them like that.
Tie that together.
OK. Let's put this one on.
And just like a snowshoe binding,
tie it round the toe...
..around the back of the heel...
..and then you can just tie it easily in a bow at the front...
..and all it's doing is increasing your surface area
when you stand in the bog.
Hopefully enough to keep me up and out of it.
OK.
It's going to spread my weight.
Feel a bit like I'm at a gardening competition,
but let's see if this works.
BEAR GRYLLS: I weigh 170lb,
and the surface area of my boots is around 20 square inches.
Nice!
BEAR GRYLLS: That exerts a pressure of around 8.5lb per square inch.
I would have gone straight into that before.
BEAR GRYLLS: But my bog shoes change that weight distribution,
and effectively I'm now five times lighter.
It wouldn't win any prizes for style,
but you can't argue with the math.
(FAINT RUMBLING)
The sound of a jet engine disturbs the tranquillity.
There's a fighter jet!
There he is, coming straight for us!
OK, I need to get a flare up.
(JET ENGINES SCREAM LOUDLY)
Just a crazy sound!
So low!
He's banking and turning!
OK... (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY) Sighting confirmed.
(TRIUMPHANT MUSIC)
(MAN SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY ON TWO-WAY RADIO)
Whoo!
He gave the wing a tip as he went past.
Means he's seen me.
Scotland has been undeniably hard,
but savagely beautiful.
I'm just happy that my adventure is over
and glad that the British Air Force
are on my side.
To share my favourite moments from the show,