01x04 - Georgia Swamp

[bunniefuu]

Here he is, here he is, here he is.

Bordering the states of Georgia and
Florida, deep in the American South,

lie the swamps.

The domain of alligators and poisonous
snakes.

How could anyone last seven days here
alone?

The plan is to have me taken deep into the
swamp by a local.

A guy named Three Rivers Charlie.

I'm blindfolded before
the trip, so I'll have no

idea how far or in what
direction we're headed.

See you guys.

What I do know is that Charlie is going to
draw me deep in the Altamaha River Basin,

an area of endless stretches of murky,
waist-deep water.

How many gators you figure you got living
along this section of the river?

I would say that we probably have at least


What's the likelihood of gators coming up
into these?

Oh, pretty fair.

Especially at night.

How about snakes?

What are the snakes...

Quite a few.

We have a largest
population of rival snakes

than we do any other
snake, I would imagine.

The deal this time?

The crew and Three Rivers
Charlie take me in blindfolded,

drop me off, and come back
seven days later to pick me up.

Alright, well, the
rule is, once I stop

hearing the sound, I
can take my blindfold off.

So now, it's just me and my video cameras.

Well, this is really one spectacular
example of the deep south Georgian swamps.

As you saw when I was
dropped off, likely, I'm just on

a little spit of sand right
in the middle of it all.

I'll show you what I've
got as far as equipment

with me, at least in
terms of camera gear.

I've always got two waterproof cases here.

And inside, basically, just a usual
assortment of lenses and batteries and tapes.

I've got my little camera, this little guy
right here.

We're getting a lot of those body mount
types of shots.

I also have another camera set up right
now actually getting some time lapse shots.

But what I wanted to show you was the fact
that I have all this stuff.

I can't use any of this for survival.

A lot of gadgets and metal and tape and
all sorts of things, but I can't use that.

These are not things for the sake of doing
this survival in the swamp that I'm

allowed to use to make my time any better
here.

So, it's just camera gear and it's got to
stay camera gear.

Every time I go to a new location to see
if I can survive, I bring along a few

everyday items to see what I can make of
them.

In this case, tin.

I've got some rope.

Pretty much useful anywhere.

Comb.

Some bubble gum.

Credit card.

A lighter.

But this time...

Lighter doesn't work.

At least there's no fuel left in it.

Two pieces of tissue paper.

But I also have my Swiss army knife.

Let's see what I can do with them.

There's nothing friendly about a swamp.

It really conjures up a lot of images of
swamp creatures and monsters.

This place here is full of gators.

These are the swamps of the deep south.

Southern Georgia.

Swamps like the Okefenokee.

And where I am now, the Altamaha River
Basin.

They are beautiful.

But they are vast and...

They can be spooky and they are not the
place you want to spend seven days alone.

And sooner or later...
The only way out...

Is across the water.

Walked for a ways.

It just keeps getting dark.

I keep trying to find a nice little spot
to set up camp.

And there just...
There really isn't one.

Well, let me bring you up to speed.

This place has got a lot of alligators.

Aggressive snapping turtles.

Millions of mosquitoes.

Four kinds of poisonous rattlesnakes.

The ground is covered with ticks and
things called jiggers.

They're like little mites that like to
burrow into your skin.

And I'm alone in the middle of the swamp.

The sun's just about down.

Other than doing up my collar,
with my shirt real tight...

And I've got my raincoat off.

My rain jacket.

I'll wear it.

The only other way to protect myself
from...

These hordes of mosquitoes that are coming
in.

Right now.

Is if you kick yourself up with mud like
this...

They can't bite through it.

Yuck.

Swamp mud.

Of course, I really don't know how many
pathogens are in this water.

Right now, it's the mosquitoes that are
getting to me.

And this will keep them from biting.

And maybe, just maybe, give me a nice,
smooth, wrinkle-free complexion.

There you go, mosquitoes.

Come and get me.

Night in the swamp was not a lot of fun.

The mosquitoes came on pretty thick,
pretty strong for about two hours or so.

Maybe three hours.

And I stayed curled up underneath my rain
gear, waiting for them to go away.

Then finally, it dropped in temperature
and cooled down a bit.

And the mosquitoes dissipated.

And that was great, except then it started
to get much cooler.

So, I have a sweater and an undershirt
with me.

So, good thing.

I threw them on, and my rain gear,
and started to wait out the chills.

Well, then I spent the rest of the night
shivering.

It was pretty surprising how cold it can
get here at night.

Such a low area and damp.

There's a few things I can work with
around here.

And it looks like there's a big,
old, very old river dam.

Just over here.

Might help me get across to the other side
of the swamp.

I was really surprised to find out that
there are beaver living in the swamps here.

I mean, being a Canadian, thinking it's
like a Canadian animal, you know.

I just couldn't picture beaver living
alongside of alligators.

And they don't really, the alligators feed
on them.

This beaver dam is very flat.

It's almost like a road.

And it cuts across to the other side,
basically over to more flood basin.

Any other time of the year, or in another
time of the year, maybe about two weeks

before this, this was under another ten
feet of water.

I think I've got like 20, 25 great egrets
nesting right here in this swamp.

And what that means is this is a perfect
and prime area for alligators.

They love to come in and just wait at the
bottom of the trees.

And I guess hoping for a young one to fall
down.

Well, I've got a lot of wood to work with
here.

Shouldn't have any trouble keeping a fire
going once I can get a fire going.

Wow.

I'm going to find out what kind of edible
plants are here that I could nibble on.

And I have a feeling that I may be able to
catch a few things out of this swamp.

Well, I've decided to come up onto this
flat beaver area to make shelter.

And why a shelter when it's 75 to almost


Because last night I got quite a chill.

Put a little rain into that
scenario and you got

the makings of a possibility
of getting hypothermia.

So I think better to be safe than sorry
I'll make a bit of shelter.

Not a real major one, just something to
keep the rain off me, I think.

Yeah, this area will work fine.

Normally I would clear the area away.

In this case I'm actually going to push
all the sticks and branches up onto it.

But basically do a controlled
burn to help it clear out any

ticks and jiggers and things
that are on the ground here.

You can't see this Spanish moss not being
good for fire starting.

It's very dry.

Should work out just nicely.

Looks like good tinder to me.

Got a way I can make a fire with that
lighter without fluid.

First I'm going to sacrifice one of these
pieces of tissue.

And what I want to do is just first just
take it and roll it up.

Give a little bit of a sort of funnel,
funnel like opening.

The next thing that I
want to do is turn to my

socks here and pull off
a good wad of sock lint.

Just try to get, oh, I don't know,
maybe a dime-sized amount of lint.

Just put the fluff in this top end of the
tissue paper.

And we have the makings of what I'm going
to call prison match.

This is how people often get a fire going,
even just to light their cigarettes in

prison when they run out of fluid since
lighters are at a premium there.

Don't ask me how I know that.

So all I have is the spark, no flame,
and my little prison match.

Let's see if we can make this work.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, success!

Right off the bat, the first one too.

Nice, nice, nice.

Yeah.

Nice little trick when you run out of
fluid.

Now I can burn off some of these ticks and
mites.

Be gone, you guys.

Off you go.

And the moral of this story is,
always wear cotton socks.

Fire makes all the difference in the
world.

It keeps the boogeyman away.

And it makes cooking food, if I can catch
it, a very real possibility.

Hmm.

I hear something here.

You can see the fish down in there.

And there's, uh, and the maggots crawling
around them.

Lots of them.

There's no way that I want to bother
eating these fish because they're rotting.

But, uh, with this little bit of water
here, maybe there's a couple of other

little puddles like this where there still
are minnows swimming around.

Don't want these ones, though.

Mmm.

Well, now that I've got a fire going,
I'm sure I could boil water for drinking.

But this water, I mean, it looks awfully
scummy.

And who knows how many pathogens are
lurking in here.

I'm gonna see if I can find another way of
getting water.

Because the last thing I really want to do
is drink this stuff.

I suppose if it was absolutely life or
death from dehydration, I'd do it.

But I'm not there yet.

In fact, there was a young boy who,
a number of years ago, right in these

areas here, he was swimming in one of the
more...

I guess it was a more stagnant pool.

Ended up getting an amoeba in his ear and
died within five days.

So, uh, there are
dangers and parasites and

problems and pathogens
here with this water.

But this...

This is all wet.

Right down here where there seems to be a
bit of a break.

This is water vine.

If I cut this... cut this vine...

It may give me...

See, it's even wet already just in the
cutting of it.

Ow!

Okay, so that should hopefully start
juicing and dripping out.

And I'm gonna use that tin can and see how
much water I can catch with this.

This old tree here, nicknamed Georgia
Fatwood, hmm, whoo, could come into great use.

This wood is just full of resin.

It makes a very bright torch.

You know, in the drier
areas here, just a little bit

outside of the swampish
spots, this, uh, sweet gum grows.

And, uh, actually it's kind of a neat
little plant.

So I'm gonna peel this bark away.

The good thing about it...

Is... Is... Helps
with my hygiene.

Good for cleaning the teeth.

Hmm.

Almost a little bit of a... Almost a
menthol kind of feel or taste to it.

All through the swampy area, there's a lot
of vines like this.

And, of course, the vines are just great
for tying things up.

So, I think I'm gonna be able to put this
to good use.

A.

lack of food can cause indecisiveness.

And that's when my survival instinct has
to kick in.

In this case, it's just get busy.

Well...

This is the shelter so far.

I, uh, stuck a couple of forks in the
ground and then, uh, tied supports...

Across it and, uh, a couple of other
sticks in the ground.

And then, um, then I just, I just began to
lay Poles on top of it.

And, uh, even tied the Poles off as well
at the top.

Stuck them in down at the earth at the
bottom.

Really, all I, all I
wanna do here is, is,

for the most part, is
keep the rain off of me.

I guess keeping some warmth in would be
good too.

Cause it is getting pretty cool at night.

But it's not too bad, I suppose.

Mind you, the chills are not so nice.

But with the fire now, it's a lot,
uh, a lot better.

I can keep that fire going, stay warm.

Stay warm with it.

I'm getting right out of energy now.

I mean, the water from the water vine is
good.

Uh, but I've got no food and, uh, I'm
starting to feel that already after one day.

It's very strange.

It's really hot during the day,
but it's cooling down quite at night.

So it kind of takes a lot out of you.

Man, I don't think I'm gonna do too much
more.

I don't think I have the energy to keep
doing too much more.

I'll put more roof on later.

Ready for a w*r against the bugs.

Just enough energy to keep myself occupied
here.

Mosquitoes will be coming in very,
very soon.

In the meantime...

Let's see if I can get me some food.

It's actually a cooler night tonight.

Feels like the mosquitoes aren't as bad as
they were last night.

That's good.

This fire might help me get through the
night, that's for sure.

This, uh, fish spear I'm making...

I've got the prongs really shaved smooth.

Not so that it looks cool,
but because it increases

the efficiency, it can slide
into the fish much easier.

And, uh, whereas the bark is more like,
almost like a sandpaper.

It can grab the fish and, uh, not be able
to slide through it as well.

So, try some fishing soon.

They tell me there's nearly 100 pound
catfish in this swamp.

We're gonna find out.

I took and, uh, sprinkled some
of those little rotting minnows

around here in hopes that it
might bring in some catfish.

The hunger is driving me to try fishing in
the middle of the night for catfish.

If you think it's easy to stand at the
edge of an alligator swamp in the black of

a southern Georgian night, and not to
think about them, try it.

I see something moving around down there.

Even if it's a crayfish, that'd be good.

Here he is, here he is, here he is.

Ah, crap.

Well...

So much for that, maybe I'll better
organize myself for tomorrow night.

Try again.

That's spooky here.

Sleeping only three feet
from the water's edge,

I dream of alligators,
if I can sleep at all.

The, uh, water vine has started to slow
down its drip a bit, but just the same,

even overnight, I managed to collect a
whole bunch of water.

This is an absolute lifesaver.

There's ants in there.

That's okay, that's just more protein.

Mmm.

Oh.

Good lord, that helps.

That helps a lot.

Now, finally, I might just have myself an
edible plant.

These, uh, little center new shoots.

And maybe pull them out.

Ah!

Whoa!

Look at that.

That's pretty cool.

And these guys, show the bottom bit.

I don't know how old this one is,
but we'll find that.

A little Woody, but tasty.

There's lots of these around.

I'll try to see if I can get some more.

Give me something to chew on.

Put a bit of starches into my system.

I started, uh, weaving them in from the
bottom.

Just down the bottom line, line,
line, all the way up to the top.

To try and create a nice little,
kind of, shingled roof effect here.

It should work well.

I don't want to be caught off guard like I
was last night...

...when it started to spit on me and I was
running around...

...trying to cover my camera gear.

Tonight, I want to make sure that I'm dry
if rain does come in.

So far, I've been lucky, as far as the
weather is concerned.

Shh.

Looks like I got me dinner.

All right, well, this represents my first
real meal in a couple of days.

A nice, uh, big set of frog legs.

So, uh, what I'll do is, uh, I already
gutted them.

And, uh, I'll, uh, I'll use the guts and
I'll use the, um, the head and that...

...for, hopefully, baiting in some big
catfish.

I don't have to build something or try
spearing them, but find some way...

...if I can bring in a big fish or keep
looking for turtles, too.

I see turtles out there and it's just a
matter of if I can, uh, if I can find one.

Well, that's good.

A little bit of meat into my system.

Bring back some well-needed energy, I think,
because I'm really starting to wear out.

It's only been a couple of days,
but all this work burns all your calories.

Rain might not necessarily come from only
that size, so...

...I better get a little bit more
protection here.

Oh, man.

I'm getting tired.

What I decided to do...
...is, uh, make a trap.

See if I can catch me some catfish.

Yuck.

Or some turtles.

Basically, I've got to make kind of like
a...

...a Weir of some sort.

Along with the Weir, a funnel trap.

So, I'll make this tight Weir and then,
uh...

...and then a funnel.

With a little opening.

Like a big M.

And then I'll have all the bait up in
there.

This is not only a...
...a survival method.

It was used for many
years... ...by natives as well.

What I'll do is put a few
more sticks... ...kind of...

...poking... ...inward.

Like that.

Which helps to kind of... ...dissuade
him from... ...coming back out.

I'm just gonna dig this
out a little... ...little bit.

There's this passageway.

Hopefully to come in.

But not to go out.

Alright.

I'll see how that works.

I've never had frog's legs before.

And... ...this is the one meat... ...they
say really does taste just like chicken.

Oh man.

Just peels out...
...just like... ...fish meat.

Mmm.

Man.

That is good.

And the first real food to pass my lips in
a while.

Just like chicken meat.

Mmm.

I could catch me a few more of those.

That'd be alright.

There's lots of them around here.

I'll take the head...

...and the bones and all that... ...and
put them in... ...for some catfish bait.

See if I can get an even bigger
meal... ...while I'm out here.

This is a real... ...prime...

...survival food.

Mmm.

Wow.

I'm hungry.

The guts from the frog.

And last but not least...

...my leftovers from dinner.

There.

Now I would think that's rather
appetizing, wouldn't you?

Let's hope the turtles or the catfish feel
that way.

Oh,

well, that was quite the day.

Fairly productive, I guess, in terms of
survival.

But, uh... I could use
some more energy.

I'm sleeping in the middle of the day.

I'm not able to sleep too much at night.

If I have to, I'll just keep going after
frogs.

But, one way or the other, I gotta get
some food into me.

You know, as I sit here in the middle of
the deep southern swamp, it's the scary

stories that is the most bizarre aspect of
down here.

I mean, if you think
about it, even the jungle

doesn't hold as many scary
images as the swamp does.

I'm so scared.

The legend of Bogey Creek.

A swamp creature.

Blair Witch Project.

Spooky out here.

This is, by far, the longest night I've
had in a long time.

It turned cold.

Very cold.

I don't know what the temperature is.

But, there's that chill running through
me.

I can't get warm.

This is completely the wrong kind of
shelter for cold weather.

I wasn't expecting this in the swamp.

I thought it would be fairly warm.

I mean, the first couple of nights it was
warm.

That's why it was buggy, too.

I just figured it'd just stay like that.

Now I've been freezing all night long,
having to keep a bigger fire going.

I keep looking up and hoping to see daylight,
and it just keeps being pitch black.

Well, that was a horrible night.

Very, very cold.

Fortunately, I do have a sweater and toque
with me, and that helped.

But, my goodness, I didn't
realize it was going to be

getting down to probably 40
degrees Fahrenheit, I would say.

Very cold.

And the shelter that I built is just a
simple summer shelter.

So, I'm going to have
to add to it, and try and

help keep myself from
getting so cold tonight.

Sometimes you've got to tackle your
problems head on.

In this case, it means rebuilding the
entire shelter.

Spanish moss is everywhere in the swamps.

It defines the look of the deep south.

It was used for centuries as bedding.

I'll use it as insulation from the cold
ground.

You know, when I first arrived here in
Georgia, it was hot and muggy.

And that's why I only built a little wimpy
lean-to, and I laid flat on the ground.

But last night's drop in temperature sure
taught me a lesson once again.

Never lay flat on the ground.

Put down some sort of insulation, and
lean-tos are useless as a survival shelter.

This should be a little better.

So maybe now I can go
and try to catch some more

frogs, or check and see
how my catfish trap is doing.

You won't believe what I caught in the
trap.

All the meat in there.

Got myself a good full meal.

Big old turtle.

This is going to fill me up.

Get some renewed energy, I hope.

Here's one turtle egg, ready for roasting.

I didn't bother bringing you in on the
cleaning part of the turtle.

It's a bit of a messy operation.

You know, I don't
recommend doing this for

anything other than
absolute survival necessity.

But in that case, turtle is a very readily
available food source in swamps like these.

Okay, there we have it.

Four turtle eggs.

Good bit of protein for me.

Well, let's try some of this turtle meat.

See how it is.

Not bad.

Kind of fishy, but not bad.

Still a little rare.

I'll cook it some more.

Well, that's a lot of good protein.

Make me feel that much stronger,
that much better.

You know how I end up feeling out here?

In the middle of nowhere?

Lonely.

Lonely for my family.

I can really play hard on your... your
heart and mind.

You start missing them intensely.

With a fire in front and a shelter behind
me, I'm feeling protected.

The exception of the
fact that I'm three feet

from the water where
ten-foot alligators patrol.

I never thought it'd be cold
enough that I'd have to be warming

up my batteries beside the
fire so I could keep filming.

Frost this morning.

Anyway, this shelter helped a lot.

Made a big difference now that it's
rebuilt.

But I was still quite cold all night long.

And always close to shivering,
you know?

Well...

I gotta see if I can find some
other ways to catch food and

even start thinking about how I
could make my way out of here.

Without swimming, that is.

Let's see what I can do with some of the...
The pack contents I brought in with me.

I've, uh... Been taking, uh...

That piece of credit card and I've just
been cutting it.

Into a spoon shape.

Send it over a bit.

Gives me that kind of, uh...

Shape to it.

Next thing I've got...

The bubble gum.

Let's get chewing it.

Mmm.

Mmm-mmm.

Wow.

What a boost of flavor from the gum and
sugar.

Oh man, that's good.

So what I want to do is...

Poke...

Holes into this...
Little spoon here.

Go through it with the awl.

Now... Piece of credit card.

Two holes in it.

Put the rope through the spoon.

The most remote places you go.

It really doesn't matter.

There's always...

Human garbage... Around.

It's very sad.

It's a real shame.

Sure enough here... I found
a... Some sort of little old spring.

Now it could come in handy.

Take my spring...

And just...

Tie that off.

Like that.

Now comes the bubble gum.

I went and grabbed the dead leech that was
in the catfish Weir.

So what I want to do here...
Is just... Take this hook.

Put the leech on.

Like this.

And that end happening.

So I've got...

The hooks with the leech bait on there.

The spoon.

Which really I would use if I
was more... You know... Jigging.

For fish.

But this will still help to attract them I
hope.

Hmm.

And lastly...

There we go.

Gonna wrap that around the line.

I think so.

And I've got... A fish float.

Let's see what we can do here now.

I know I've seen catfish here,
so...

Let's try it.

All right.

It's hard to see under
the... Scummy surface.

But the bubble gum
bubble is just... Just floating.

Just beneath the surface there.

I'll leave that
and... Who knows?

I could get lucky.

Catch me some dinner.

The only way out of a swamp is through the
water.

And I'm not about to swim out.

Which means I need to make a raft.

Ah, crap.

That's not good.

It felt to me that we headed upstream when
they brought me in blindfolded.

So the way out?

Downstream.

I've never actually built a raft before.

Without an axe, breaking logs this size
could be tough.

My only way is to burn them to size.

Seems to me that if I put
at least three logs together

that look like they'll hold
me, I've got a good chance.

Tomorrow we launch.

You know, even these little dainty
flowers, these little violets,

can also be eaten as a small source of
nutrition.

And they're quite tasty, actually.

You just eat the flower tops.

Actually, most of the plant's not bad.

Throw it right in this island.

Holy.

It's a rattlesnake.

You know what this means?

Dinner.

Eastern diamondback rattlesnake.

Look at that guy.

And a big one, too.

This area is full of... It's got six
different types of venomous snakes here.

Four of them are rattlesnakes.

And this area is full of them.

Those guys, if I just
slip and that sticks

into my finger, I'm on
my way to the hospital.

I hate the thought of k*lling anything.

It's the last thing I would advise.

But as a matter of survival, all creatures
are fair game.

Like the turtle, I spared you the vision
of cleaning and gutting this rattlesnake.

Eastern diamondback rattlesnake.

And this is just two-thirds of it.

There's still another third over there.

So this I will probably cook fairly
slowly, almost like smoking it.

And as you can see, a lot of meat, which
is going to give me some renewed energy.

So snakes are quite an excellent survival
food when necessary.

Well, you know, when you haven't eaten for
a number of days, or you've only eaten

little bits here and
there, to eat something

as substantial as a
rattlesnake like this here.

Really, you really start to feel the
energy flow back into your body.

My only fear now is just how cold it's
going to get tonight.

Another night of 15 minutes of sleep,
wake up, stoke the fire.


fire.

And repeat.

Hmm.

This snake is... It's delicious.

Well, morning of day six.

It, uh... It was really
strange last night.

After I ate all that rattlesnake,
I had such a rush of energy.

I felt dizzy and lightheaded.

It was kind of spooky, actually, to
feel that way and be all alone out here.

I couldn't sleep at all for the first
while.

I was just sort of buzzing, you know?

I guess from the new food energy.

Anyway, I finally did get some sleep.

And it wasn't so cold of a night,
actually.

It was... It didn't
frost, anyway.

It was cold, but it didn't get down to
frosting.

So that was good.

Um... So...

Now, I'm gonna keep my
eyes open for more frogs and

turtles and turn over a
few more logs for crayfish.

And other than that, uh... I'm
gonna get working on my raft.

Well, actually, I kinda finished it,
so I'm gonna try it out.

See how it works.

It's day six, and time to put this raft to
the test.

But it floats, that's a good sign.

I'm way better in a canoe, you know.

Oh, crap.

Nice.

Oh.

Back to the drawing board, I guess.

I'm way too antsy to wait for Charlie to
find me.

Maybe I can try navigating through these
swamps on my own.

I'm surprised at how much wood it's gonna
take to keep me afloat.

By far, the best thing about building a
raft is the hope that it gives me.

I'm working on something that might take
me out of here.

And that's uplifting.

Well, it's the last night.

And I'll try the new raft out tomorrow
morning.

See if I can make my way out to Three
Rivers Charlie and meet up with him.

Get to a warm bed and some good food.

Unless the swamp creature gets me tonight.

Seven days of survival in the southern
Georgian swamps.

A rich and beautiful place.

But I can't wait to get out and get
cleaned up.

So I hope that second raft works.

And I can make my own way out of here.

Once it's in my head to get out on my own
efforts, nothing will stop me.

As I lower the raft into
the water, I'm thinking,

alligators have k*lled 11
people in the last 20 years.

I'm also thinking about the abundance of
poisonous snakes in this area.

Something in between my legs.

It wasn't there before.

And.

in spite of the maze of channels, I made
it to the river where Charlie spotted me.

Hey, Charlie.

Hey.

How was the way?

It was something else.

But take me home.

Many people fear the swamps.

Yet they are places of such great beauty
and such rich diversity.

The spookiness is an unwarranted
attribute.

They'll always be the classic domain of
alligators and snakes.

A tough place to survive, maybe.

But an awesome place to experience.