Mission I
We set out to investigate some of the greatest pioneering journeys on earth. Our first mission was to follow in the footsteps of one of the world?s legendary explorers, David Livingstone. But before that, a quick rewind to the past: in 1841, during the reign of Britain?s Queen Victoria, the African interior was a mystery to the outside world. Livingstone was a 28-year-old Scot who wanted to explore it. Over the next 30 years, he trekked an astonishing 46,000 km uncovering Africa?s secrets as he went. Livingstone?s most famous discovery? A natural wonder and the largest waterfall on earth, which he later named Victoria Falls.
Cut to the present: the starting point of our epic and dangerous journey is from a village by the Samba river or
the Zambezi.
God?s highway
Matabele is one of the tribes Livingstone encountered on his expeditions. He called the Zambezi river ?God?s highway?. Though an explorer, he was a Victorian missionary and wanted the river to carry the beliefs of the British Empire into Africa?s interior. The locals think that one needs more than a good boat to traverse the treacherous river. One also needs to learn some vital survival skills. There are hippos, crocodiles and lions on the prowl. When you are unarmed and on foot, the wildlife becomes a deadly threat. At night, building a fire is critical to warding off hungry predators. Here, the one source of food can be the flying ants, a very good source of protein and also easy to catch. This helps in surviving the endless African bush.
The African bush: Staying alive
One of the basic and crucial things is the bush survival skill: to keep away from deadly predators by knowing what to do. Avoiding the Bull Buffalo, also known as black death, weighing 700 kg with a top speed of 55 kmph, is a must for survival. It is said to have killed more game hunters than any other animal in Africa.
Then one spots an elephant, the largest mammal on earth. These juggernauts of the jungle turn killers when provoked. The African elephant, standing 4 m tall and weighing 6.3 tonnes with a top speed of 40 kmph, is one such. It can crush you with the base of its trunk or even kneel to stab you to death with its tusk. One way to avoid angry elephants is to climb the nearest tree and get pretty high off the ground. Otherwise, it can just pluck its target out of a tree like a ripe fruit. An interesting thing is that elephants are practically blind. At 40 m, it can?t see you if you are not moving.
Braving the river
and the rapids
Strewn with rapids and infested with crocodiles and hippos, the mighty Zambezi river cuts through the heart of Africa. A hippopotamus weighing 3.5 tonnes?though an apology to speed at 8 kmph?could be a danger. If one gets past a hippo, there are the crocodiles lying in wait.
Surviving the night, it?s a long sail on the Zambezi river and finally we head towards Victoria Falls, locally called Mosi-Da-Tunya (meaning ?the smoke that thunders?). A full 1,708 m wide and spraying to a height of 400 m, it is one of the seven wonders of the world.
Mission II
Deep into the Amazon, you have to tackle the world?s most impenetrable jungle. We follow in the footsteps of the man dubbed the real Indiana Jones, the legendary explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett, who was on a quest to find the lost city of Zed.
But before that, a quick rewind to the past: Fawcett served as a British spy in Morocco, North Africa, in the 1900s and as an artillery officer during World War I. He became one of the greatest explorers of Amazon in the 20th century. In 1925, Fawcett was searching for a lost civilisation he codenamed Zed, but he vanished into the Amazon.
Fast forward to the present. It?s no surprise that the Amazon, with an area of 5,500,000 sq km, rainfall of 3 m per year and biomass density of 90,000 tonnes per sq km, is vast and hostile. Fawcett, in his time, set out to map the Amazon for future generations, but he became convinced that a mythical civilisation lay hidden in the jungle. His evidence: rumours, legends and an ancient manuscript known as 512 describing a great city.
Upper Xingu:
Finding civilisation
We begin with a search for the Yawalapiti tribe and their village where Fawcett was last seen 90 years ago. Most Amazon expeditions went by the river, but to fill in the gaps and find the lost city, Fawcett hacked straight into the jungle. It is one of the toughest environments one can face and to quote Fawcett, ?Nature in the Amazon is against man as it is nowhere else?.
For instance, so far away from help, a few hundred bee stings could be deadly. It?s a painful lesson in the hidden dangers of jungle life. The swamped flood plain of Xingu river is home to diseases like dengue fever, yellow fever and malaria. Even before the caimans and anacondas, it is the mosquitoes that could kill you.
One has to safely connect with the local tribes to be able to move in the Amazon forest. But those born and bred to cope with those conditions don?t give away their secrets easily. That?s why one has to prove to the local tribes that one is worthy of their support by earning their trust and respect.
Amazon: The quest
for a lost city
Interestingly, the Yawalapiti tribe remembers explorer Fawcett as Colonel Anglais.
Finding food in the Amazon demands patience, skill and luck. At least, there?s no chance of going thirsty. But one wonders whether the rain is a help or a hindrance
to hunting. The noise certainly disguises one?s progress through the jungle, but it
also makes it difficult to
spot things.
Getting across the flood-swollen Xingu river is almost like getting a second life. The river is infested with electric eels, anacondas and the most ferocious fish, the Piranha. Just 45-cm-long, the Piranha is armed with 32 razor-sharp teeth and prefers crustaceans, fish and large mammal carcasses for food. Humans could be reduced to skeletons
in minutes.
At night, the jungle seems more deadly, with the horror of the unseen. One can?t relax in that environment. Something, be it a tiny mosquito or a big wild cat, is always trying to get you. So you can?t switch off for a moment.
It?s a journey across green hell. Deep in the Amazon, the jungle is so dense that anything could be hidden here, even a lost city. After a long trudge, the forest slowly thins out, revealing more sky and a bit of smoke. It?s rumoured that Fawcett was killed by a local tribe. It?s a delicate subject, but we raise it with a relative of the last native
chief who claims to have seen Fawcett alive.
He says the tribals do not know where he died. He wasn?t killed by the Indians. And there is no lost city there. Mysterious? Yes, the green hell that the jungle is, it has been guarding its secrets pretty well.
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