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HAZEN AUDEL: He's gone out there right now,
and he doesn't even have a bow in his hand.
I think he's out there looking for his lost arrows.
Holy cow!
They're coming right our way.
Come on, let's go.
A huge cloud of dust coming our way.
In some of the most inhospitable places on Earth,
tribal people have survived against the odds
for thousands of years.
I'm Hazen Audel, survival instructor and wilderness guide.
I want to learn from the masters,
so I'm traveling to some of the most remote corners of the globe
to take on the toughest tribal challenges.
To succeed I must survive the tribe.
These arrows have got to count.
Amazing!
Absolutely amazing.
This time, I'm going in search of the San Bushmen.
A legendary tribe of hunters who chase down game on foot
and kill with poison-tipped arrows.
They live in southern Africa, on the edge of the Kalahari Desert,
a huge, dry savannah they have roamed and hunted
for over 20,000 years.
I have traveled over 9,000 miles
to study the survival skills of the San.
Hello.
I have ten days to learn the techniques
they perfect over a lifetime
before I join an experienced team
on a tough, multi-day game hunt to bring meat to their village.
My first lesson is bush survival 101--
how to find food and water.
And hunters Joseph and Jonas are my guides.
I'm wondering how these guys can survive out here.
It just looks like sand and burnt leaves.
And it's well over 100 degrees.
The Kalahari dry season lasts for eight months a year.
Out here water is scarce, and in this heat,
my body requires at least 20 pints a day to stay healthy.
Water?
Water? I'd love some water.
I thought they were offering me water,
but instead they're challenging me to find it.
Okay, there's nothing here.
I have survival skills, but I'm no expert in this terrain.
The San clearly know something I don't.
Okay.
I can walk everywhere,
and there, obviously there's no water.
Everything is crackle dry.
The sand, it is drier than ashtray sand.
This is the driest place I've ever been,
and I'm not going to find water by myself.
If I was left out here alone, I'd die.
When it comes to survival, local knowledge is key,
and the San are experts in this bush desert.
It may look dead, but clearly there's life here--
if you know where to look.
This little plant here?
This doesn't look very promising.
And start digging?
But I'm the student here, so I'll do what I'm told.
This sand is still bone-dry.
But there is something down here.
Oh, look at that.
And it's not at all what I was expecting.
Oh, my God. Look at that.
This huge tuber to this plant. That's amazing.
This is a bi bulb,
a member of the sometimes toxic milkweed family.
Its water-storing stem helps it
through the long, harsh, dry months.
Wow, it's just spraying me in the face with moisture.
It feels good.
That is amazing.
Water is coming right out of this pulp.
This way?
That feels good.
But the water is so bitter, like soap and detergent.
This is a desert lifesaver, but not one I'd recommend.
You can't be choosy out here.
Survival knowledge like this allows the San to travel
serious distances through the arid Kalahari,
and it could save my life
if I get separated from them on the hunt.
But I'll need something else, too--and that's food.
Although they're great animal hunters,
meat is still a rarity for the San.
HAZEN: Mangetti? MAN: Yeah.
HAZEN: Oh, this is a Mangetti tree.
Almost 80% of their traditional diet is collected from the bush,
so knowledge of edible plant species
is a vital survival skill.
You walk around here for miles, all these trees look dead,
and all of a sudden you come to this tree, it looks dead,
yet underneath it they're showing me
that there's nuts all over the place.
These Mangetti nuts
are almost 60% fat,
and they're a useful energy source
on hunts when few supplies are carried.
But here's the catch.
They are really hard.
It's almost like they're, they're stones.
A sharp cut into the natural fault of the shell
is the only way in.
[crunching]
And that's pretty hard as well.
But it tastes, tastes like a very hard hazelnut.
Wow.
Mangetti nuts are an essential emergency ration
and could be a lifesaver on a multi-day hunt.
It's a lot of work.
But it's worth it.
My first lesson has delivered food and water.
With this knowledge, I'm more self-sufficient
and should be better prepared for hunting with the San.
But there are many dangers on a bush hunt.
That evening, Joseph tells me the shocking story
of a recent wildfire that killed three of his brother hunters.
They were helping a stranger
who could not outrun the fast-approaching flames.
So they made a, they made a circle around her
and protected her.
Rather than fleeing, they stayed and tried to protect her.
She survived. They died.
Oh!
Sounds just terrible.
I now understand my training here
is a matter of life and death.
Taking an outsider on a hunt is a massive risk for the San.
I might scare off the game,
or worse, put the hunters in serious danger.
I mustn't be a liability, for the San's sake and my own.
Next morning, and there's a commotion.
One of the dangers from the bush
has found its way into the village.
It's a snake-- and the San hate snakes.
So I've been asked to help out.
It's so well camouflaged I can't even see it.
Back home I have experience with snakes,
so I can show the village confidence
around one of the bush's biggest dangers.
At this point we don't know exactly what snake it is.
But they're saying that it's a boomslang,
which is one of the most venomous snakes in Africa.
Boomslang venom prevents the blood from clotting,
so victims can bleed to death
of internal or external hemorrhaging.
Oh, there it is. Okay, I can see it.
This thing is small,
but it could be deadly, and it's incredibly fast.
There, it's going.
[screaming]
Okay, okay, okay.
No, no. No, no.
Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
I'm finding it tough to control this snake, and this situation.
[screaming]
But finally I've got it cornered.
[cheering]
There we go.
And there's some good news.
Fortunately, this isn't a boomslang.
This is hard to identify,
but it's probably an olive grass snake
and not seriously dangerous.
But for the villagers,
that probably won't make much difference.
It's pretty obvious that they don't like snakes.
If I didn't show up
I'm sure this snake would have been bludgeoned to death,
but hopefully they'll allow me
to just let it go back into the bush.
I might just have earned some respect around here.
But I've a long way to go before I'm ready to hunt with the San,
and this is where the real training starts.
First they want to test my endurance
to make sure I'm not going to hold them up on the hunt.
Jonas and Mosey have given me a head start
and challenged me to stay ahead of them until sunset.
I'm trying to outsmart
some of the smartest guys that there are.
I'm just trying...to...
[breathing heavily]
...step on places
where I'm not walking on sand, which is hard to do.
This test is based on one of the San's most ancient practices--
the persistence hunt.
In desperate times, when all else failed,
the hunters would resort to tracking
and chasing down game on foot.
Here's some good ground.
It's more clay, it's not leaving a good footprint.
San pursuit hunts work because
they cool down on the move by sweating,
while most animals have to stop to prevent overheating.
The genius here is to use heat as a weapon.
Oh, my God.
The San aren't the fastest creatures in the bush,
but over great distances, they are relentless.
They're definitely in pursuit right now, I can just feel it.
I feel like I'm being hunted.
San persistence hunts could last for days
and cover enormous distances,
requiring extraordinary stamina
on the part of the hunters.
The goal--to run the prey to the point of exhaustion.
This was the ultimate endurance event, a death race.
Game on.
[yelling]
HAZEN: Let's go, let's go.
The San are testing my endurance,
chasing me down like a hunted animal.
They're gaining, and in this extreme heat, I'm tiring.
I'm out of gas and cornered.
They've got me.
And if they were out to get me...
for blood...
I'd be a dead man.
I am fit.
But my speed was no match for the San's stamina.
I'm built for a sprint,
but to survive here
you need to be able to run marathons in the midday sun.
Clearly I'm not up to the grade yet.
If I can't stay ahead of the San,
how am I going to keep up on the hunt?
There's more work to do.
But first, time to rest.
And I'm sleeping outside of my nice house that I built,
and I'm laying next to a fire.
I'm not sleeping in there, because I looked around,
and everybody has a little fire in front of their house,
and they're sleeping outside.
I asked them why they do that,
and they say they hardly ever sleep inside their houses,
that's just for the daytime,
so they can stay out of the sun and they can keep their stuff.
They're more kind of like storage sheds,
and their house is just basically outside.
The San have tested my physical ability,
and now they want to challenge my manual skills--
something I pride myself on back home.
I'm going to learn classic San weapon making,
under the watchful eye of Tuka,
master craftsman and the oldest man in the village.
I'm going to make a throwing spear.
You got to be really careful not to burn this wood.
You're getting it just hot enough
to do what we need to do with it.
Okay.
The first job is to straighten this brandy bush branch,
and Tuka is going to show me how.
Oh, look at that, he is taking that stick that was so hard,
and he's bending it almost like it's made out of rubber.
Wow, that really took a lot of the bend
right out of that stick.
It's my turn.
By carefully heating the branch in the hot coals,
the cellulose and other sugars in the wood soften,
allowing it to bend into shape.
[speaking San language]
Okay.
If Tuka says it's good,
then it definitely passed quality control.
I've aced the first test, but this is a multi-stage process,
involving careful knife work and precise tool handling.
So we're going to take this hot poker
and poke it right into the center of there.
Yeah?
The one part of the spear that we won't be making
is the metal head, an item of real significance for the San.
These are precious objects,
and they're passed down from person to person.
And this particular spearhead is very special,
because at one time it belonged to one of the very best hunters
in this entire community.
This man was one of the three who died in the recent wildfire,
a tragic event that shocked the village
and left it short of hunters.
To be given this spearhead by Tuka is a great honor.
But it comes with a responsibility.
I need to be ready for the hunt
so I don't put myself
or the other members of the team in danger.
He's weighing it, seeing how well it's balanced.
Tuka is a tough critic.
But he seems satisfied.
Feels like we're done.
[laughs]
On the hunt I'll need spear skills
to protect myself and possibly to kill.
But there's little time to practice.
Right now we're back into the bush for my next challenge.
The complex skill at the intelligent heart of the hunt--
animal tracking.
Joseph will teach me the basics,
and then he's going to put me to the test.
The San are considered some of the best trackers in the world.
I've been around top-class hunters before,
but this guy is an incredible detective.
And I'm watching Joseph as he's, as he's reading the ground.
It's like a map to them.
And not only are they following the footprints,
they're seeing the behavior of that animal,
they're seeing what it's eating, where it's urinated,
it seems like he's replaying a movie.
The Kalahari boasts a wide range of game,
and the hunters have symbols for all of them.
These long legs.
Wow.
Okay.
These are vital when the hunt starts
and the San go into silent mode.
He's telling me to be very, very quiet.
We're on to some very fresh tracks.
Very fresh tracks.
The animal was probably here less than an hour ago.
The wind hasn't blown off any of these tracks.
He's getting really excited, and I'm pretty excited, too.
But Joseph has done his part.
The rest is going to be down to me.
He's stopped and now he wants me to track this animal.
From the prints, I'm guessing this is some kind of antelope,
possibly a kudu.
But this is unfamiliar territory for me, and nothing is clear.
It's hard for me to distinguish between tracks,
or to know which are fresh.
I soon lose my trail and have to make use of other evidence.
Even though we've lost the track,
we can see where branches have been broken,
just from the weight of the animal.
It's a crucial clue and puts me back on track.
We found 'em, we found 'em.
San hunters are always on the lookout for signs.
Even a spider re-weaving its web
can tell them how recently an animal has passed.
What he's been telling me
is that if I do lose the track visually,
then that's when I have to start to think like the animal itself.
The San study and copy animal behavior from childhood
and believe you can get inside the creature's mind.
I'm not at this level,
but I feel we're getting closer to our prey.
This is the part where we have to be quiet
and we have to be skilful,
because if we're good enough, we may just encounter the animal.
HAZEN: We're gaining on the antelope.
This animal was probably through here less than an hour ago,
but I still don't know how far it's gone.
But there's a problem.
The wind has picked up.
Oh!
Okay, what Joseph is explaining
is that because the wind is going this way,
we're also carrying the scent of our bodies to the animal.
The antelope has smelled us, spooked, and started running.
I try to pick up the trail, but it's no use.
With the sun getting low, it's time to admit defeat.
This tracking is incredibly difficult.
I'm learning from the best,
but even Joseph loses tracks sometimes.
I'm disappointed.
But right now we've got other priorities.
Most predators here are nocturnal,
so the bush is a dangerous place after dark.
We're heading back to the village.
But even here, there's no rest.
There are lots of scorpions here,
and I'm not getting used to them yet.
Crap. Where is it?
There.
Parabuthus.
One of the most venomous scorpions in the world.
It's fine if they're out there in the desert,
but I just don't want them sleeping with me, like, on me,
or stinging me-- and these are the bad kind.
These are just sort of the animals that I have to live with
while I'm here.
Not totally awesome.
It's my last day of training.
I've struggled with my endurance and tracking skills.
If I'm to prove myself good enough to hunt with the San,
I'll have to impress in my final challenge--
the art of killing.
My first task is to make a bow,
the weapon we'll use on the hunt
to deliver lethal poisoned arrows into our prey.
This is the ultimate challenge for the San craftsmen,
and once again my teacher is village elder Tuka.
These elders, they're truly the libraries of these communities.
They're the ones that hold all the experience,
they have all the knowledge that they need to pass down
for future generations.
Each time a fellow like Tuka dies,
it's like a library burning down.
In an oral culture like the San's
where nothing is written down,
this is how teaching has always been done.
He shows me and I copy.
Ahh.
Okay, Tuka is telling me that the bow string
that he's going to use
is made out of the long leg tendons of a giraffe.
Giraffes have been traditionally hunted by the San,
and no part of the animal is wasted.
I'm tying this on while the sinew is wet.
As it dries, it shrinks and it glues itself together.
San weapons are sourced from the bush and its wildlife.
No high-tech here, just ancient know-how.
Look at that.
Oh, there you have it.
Cool, a bow.
If I'm going to be useful on the hunt,
I need to master my new weapon.
Tuka has assembled the hunting team to put me through my paces,
and I want to prove myself up to the challenge.
It looks like they have a target for us right here.
I'm quietly confident.
Back home I use a modern-day bow.
Okay, let's see.
Here goes.
Ah! I hit the tree.
Not as easy as I thought.
Okay, we'll try it again.
I'm struggling with this tiny bow.
It's not easy to pull back on this.
It's so short, it's just a little snap.
Holding it like this.
Let's see.
Ah, I was closer, closer,
but still a little bit more to the right.
Let's see how the experts do it.
Here we go.
Wow! Nice!
Oh, right on the bag!
This is starting to become a bit of a competition.
Tuka is up next--a man old enough to be my grandfather.
And he, too, is *** on target.
The pressure is on now.
HAZEN: My aim needs to improve.
But finally...
Oh, I hit it!
[laughs]
I hit it. There we go, finally!
Yeah!
But that was just the first test.
Tuka is going to step things up a notch--a moving target.
Oh, this will be more like real life, a real-life moving animal.
I'm up first.
A miss.
God!
This is a lot harder than it looks.
But no harder for the real hunters.
God, all three of them, bull's-eyes!
This is getting embarrassing.
If I can't get better,
I won't deserve a place on the hunting team.
Now it's time where I need to start taking things seriously.
It's a tough test of hand-eye coordination
that doesn't come easy.
Ah!
But finally, a success.
Ah!
The guys seem genuinely pleased for me.
It's as important for them that I'm up to the grade
as it is for me.
But have I done enough?
Tomorrow the team is going hunting--
a major expedition into the lethal Kalahari
to get meat for the village.
Taking me with them is a risk,
and there have clearly been some last-minute concerns.
But finally, the news I've been waiting for.
They say I'm ready.
They're telling me that I'm not perfect,
but I can go with these guys tomorrow.
I will be here bright and early.
Promise.
This is what I've been working for.
I've gained the trust of the team.
Tomorrow I'm heading out into the bush
with the masters of the Kalahari,
some of the greatest animal trackers in the world.
I'm going hunting with the San.
As that reality sinks in, I'm hit by pre-hunt doubts.
Will I have what it takes to kill?
If there was a moment
where I would really have to throw a spear
at one of these beautiful animals...
I don't know how I can prepare myself for that.
I'm sure that they're not going to be having me around
on a valuable hunt just to have me be dead weight.
It's serious.
It's to feed their families.
[singing]
It's the morning of the hunt.
Training is over.
Now for the real thing.
But before we set out, we have to be prepared.
Everything has to be sharp and ready.
Most important are the San's trademark poison-tipped arrows,
a precious and limited resource.
This is a serious biological weapon.
That there, that's the toxin.
There's enough toxin on this arrow
to kill a 600-pound animal.
If I even get the slightest amount of this toxin
in my bloodstream, I'm dead.
The poison preferred by the San
comes from the larvae of a specific leaf beetle.
It inhibits the blood's ability to carry oxygen
and slowly paralyzes muscle.
Just a tiny amount of poison
will bring down even a large mammal.
There's no known antidote,
so I won't touch the arrows again
until we're close to a kill.
Preparations complete, it's time to go hunting.
San hunting expeditions can go on for days
and cover huge distances.
Depending on the time of year, wildlife can be scarce,
so hunters range deep into the mighty Kalahari
with few provisions and just spears for protection.
Out here there's little cover-- nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
Whoa, okay, look at this right here.
It's just this impression right here, those are elephant.
It's cool to see, but also it's a dangerous sight,
because we're out in the middle of nowhere,
and they are the most dangerous animal out here.
We have to be really aware of what's going on now.
The San have noticed increased elephant activity
in recent days,
and they don't like it.
Coming across one of Africa's biggest man-killers in mid-hunt
is their nightmare scenario.
So the decision has been made
to head to a distant water hole and stake it out.
Here we will have all-around visibility
and a better chance of escape if the worst happens.
And it seems like a smart choice.
There's a good breeze going right now.
The water hole's there.
All of our scent is being directed that way.
This is good.
Conditions are in our favor.
Time to settle in and watch out
for any game that approaches the water hole.
Now it's just a waiting game.
In hunting, patience is all-important.
A successful stakeout is all about long periods of downtime
and sudden moments of intense activity.
And finally, some action.
In the bush over there are three kudu,
and they're getting excited.
HAZEN: We've spotted several kudu,
one of the San's favorite game.
The animals are a long way off,
but we're going to try to stalk them.
This heat is sapping my energy, but I mustn't hold up the team.
These guys get so low,
and when you touch the sand, it's absolutely burning.
We're still too far away to get a shot at these animals.
Team leader Joseph decides to make a solo move
to see if he can get up close to the kudu
before they finish drinking.
But it's no use.
We're too late.
We might have just missed our chance.
It's getting late, and we'll soon lose the light.
But less daylight means less chance of being spotted,
so we've decided to hide closer to the water,
giving us a better chance of a shot.
We're just finding positions right now
closer to the watering hole,
a big clump of grass, maybe a small shrub.
It should be all we need.
There are very few hiding places,
so we've had to split up.
This makes us more vulnerable,
but gives us a better chance of a kill.
Whoever gets closest to an animal will take the shot.
Joseph just gave me two of his poison arrows.
This is a huge responsibility.
If I'm in the right place, and the right time,
these arrows have got to count.
The sun has set and we're struggling to see.
But the San sense something approaching.
It's a herd of wildebeest.
They're nearest to me, but just out of range.
It's my shot, but I need to be closer.
Wait, and they might leave.
Fire too soon, and they'll scare and could stampede.
I'm frozen with indecision.
And the moment's gone.
They were on to us.
You could hear 'em grunting.
They were so close,
but not within the range of these little arrows.
So frustrating.
We're going to have to come up with a better plan tomorrow.
Day two of our hunt,
and it's an early start to make a better hide.
This is home for the morning.
After yesterday's failure, the pressure's on to get a kill.
But we're now just an arrow's shot from the water hole,
well hidden and well prepared.
But then, nothing.
Not a single animal.
It's a seven-hour wait in the Kalahari heat
before we see anything.
Kudu coming in from the east right now.
This is the first bit of animal activity
that we've seen all day.
It's exactly what we've been waiting for.
This kudu is huge.
It has huge horns.
An animal this big would mean meat for the village for weeks.
You've got to sit here perfectly still and be extremely quiet.
The kudu is getting closer.
The San are ready.
It's in range.
Shots fired.
Damn, that was close.
They lobbed two arrows over there, but it didn't make a hit.
It spooked the animal.
It took off towards the bush a little bit,
but I think it's coming back.
The kudu hasn't gone far from the water hole.
It must be thirsty.
Okay, the kudu's coming back.
We've got to really play this carefully.
This could be our last chance.
It's getting late.
But right now, conditions are ideal.
The kudu is there, and the sun is over there,
and if the Kudu tries to look our way,
it's just gazing right into the sun.
Everything looks good.
It's our best opportunity yet.
The kudu is almost in range.
We're ready to fire.
But something scared the kudu.
We waited so long for that animal.
That was the perfect setup.
What went wrong?
The San seem confused.
Jonas has left the hide.
And he doesn't even have a bow in his hand.
I think he's out there looking for his lost arrows.
But Jonas has seen something, and is running back.
Big herd.
Elephants.
The kudu must have sensed them,
and they're heading straight for us.
Panic now, and I'll put us all in danger.
HAZEN: There's elephants coming right now,
and we've got to go, they're coming right our way.
Big herd.
It's the nightmare we feared.
30 elephants are heading for the water hole,
and we're in the way.
They're getting faster.
Might just see a huge cloud of dust coming our way.
Nothing is going to get between
these elephants and that water.
There are big bulls, there are mama elephants,
and there's calves.
And it looks like they are not prepared
to be sharing the water hole with us.
But we're safe, and better off out of there.
That was our hide, right there, they're surrounding it.
A close call.
The elephants have brought our stakeout to an end,
and we haven't got a kill.
But I played my part.
I didn't lose my cool and endanger the team,
so we're all still alive.
Look at that.
Danger and beauty all at the same time.
It's the end of the day, but not the hunt.
The village still needs meat,
and we're determined not to return empty-handed.
With the water hole out of bounds,
we move back towards the village and have a stroke of luck.
We've found a large burrow,
and Joseph is going down to investigate.
As he's digging deeper,
the sand, it smells like a latrine in there.
It's like dried urine.
We've got to be getting close to the animal,
whatever's down there.
But I'm getting concerned for Joseph's safety.
What if this whole thing collapses?
There's no way we'd get him out in time.
Joseph has completely disappeared
into the deep burrow.
Oh, I can't stand it.
You can't even see his feet in there.
There could be deadly snakes down there,
and we're a long way from help.
[coughing]
Holy cow.
Somehow he's turned around inside that hole,
and he's coming out headfirst.
How in the hell did he do that?
You're a wild man, Joseph!
Joseph has found a porcupine deep underground.
A plan is hatched to get it out.
We will dig a second hole straight down, into its den...
Want me to dig?
...and attempt to scare it out into the open.
Time to get to work.
Got to pull my weight around here.
[grunts]
It's hours of exhausting digging,
and a tense wait for the porcupine to come out.
It's trapped. It's got nowhere to run.
This is its only escape route.
We're getting close, and I'm standing guard with Tuka.
As soon as they break through the ceiling of that hole,
we just have to be ready.
And then it comes to the point
where I might have to kill an animal.
No time for second thoughts.
They're breaking through.
The daylight will spook the porcupine,
and it might come out fighting.
The animal could come through
any second now.
We can't afford to miss.
Not this time.
Disaster! We missed him.
I can't let him get away.
I've got nothing on my feet,
but I've got to chase him down through the vicious thorn scrub.
And I've got him!
So I just kept running and running,
until finally I was able to...
[breathing heavily]
...have a spear through it,
and I had to lock it into the ground, because it kept running.
And then I just staked it to the ground,
and then...
Jonas finally made the killing blow.
This was instinct--
a hunter's reflex for the good of the tribe.
And I've paid a price.
This landscape is brutal.
Everything is covered with spines.
But this was worth the blood and pain.
For these guys,
they've worked really hard for this food, really hard.
We're going to bring this to the village.
These guys haven't had meat in over a month.
I now understand the importance meat has for these people,
and what it takes to get it.
But our reception still takes me by surprise.
They're excited.
Look at 'em.
[cheering]
Wow. I would have never expected this.
It makes it all worthwhile.
The whole village has turned out to welcome us back.
They are all really excited.
They have fresh meat tonight.
In San culture, a boy becomes a man
when he brings home his first kill.
It's his initiation into the tribe.
Makes me feel so good.
I'm glad I can give something to these people.
They've been giving me so much.
Surviving with the San is survival at its toughest,
its purest, and most exhilarating.
I've trained with some of the best trackers and hunters
in the business, and been put to the test.
I've joined them in the bush and experienced hunting heartache,
and finally success.
I've survived the tribe.