Bear Grylls in Borneo Jungle - Man vs Wild | Discovery | Bear Grylls
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00:00I'm fighting my way through the jungles of Borneo.
00:09I've wrestled down a fallen tree and wrung myself out after torrential rain, but the
00:16jungle's not finished with me yet.
00:40After any accident, it's worth catching your breath and making sure you're fit to continue.
00:46I'm definitely hammering on that little back flop.
00:54No serious injuries, but I do have a passenger, a leech.
00:58The best thing to do is grab him by the head and then twist him off.
01:04If you give him a squeeze, all the blood has just started to latch on and got him in time.
01:13You see even that, the wound, look, and what they do is inject an anticoagulant, so they
01:19stop your blood clotting.
01:20You just bleed and bleed, and in the jungle it can bleed for at least a day.
01:24Look, all of those are just blood stains on my shirt.
01:27There's a good little plant actually if we can find one that can help the blood to clot.
01:32Let's have a look on the banks.
01:34The plant I want is a melastoma.
01:38It's got long, thin leaves, a red stalk, and flourishes on sunlit riverbanks.
01:44All you do, grab some of the top young leaves, chew them up, make into a pulp, and then take
01:56that and put it straight onto the wound.
02:00And that will help the blood coagulate and the leaf bite to heal itself.
02:06OK, let's go, guys.
02:09Following the river makes navigation easier, but that doesn't guarantee that you can move
02:14any faster.
02:16These wet rocks covered in slime mean there's a constant risk of twisted ankle or worse.
02:22The secret is to set yourself small goals, keep moving, and keep ticking them off.
02:28I know this is slow, but it is quicker than trying to hack through the actual jungle itself.
02:36I remember actually hearing of a plane that crashed in these jungles, and the government
02:41assumed that everyone had died in the crash, but actually one man survived.
02:45And he did the right thing.
02:46He found a river like this and then just stuck with it, followed it.
02:50And eventually, after five days, he was rescued.
02:53But in five days, the total distance he managed to travel, three miles.
02:59That's how hard it is to make any sort of speedy progress through jungle.
03:04OK, let's get to the next river, Ben.
03:06Come on.
03:07Here on the equator, it gets dark around 20 minutes after sunset, so it's important to
03:12leave plenty of time to think about food and shelter for the night.
03:16I spotted fish in the river, so I'm going to build a trap called a tambon.
03:22Bamboo up here.
03:28And the indigenous people of Borneo will use this fish trap I'm going to make as a quick
03:34and effective way of catching fish without needing bait.
03:38And that makes it perfect for survival.
03:40It's quick and easy, and everything you need is here.
03:47Oh, look, this is nice bamboo here.
03:48It's got water in it.
03:51Bamboo, unlike the river, is an excellent source of fresh, parasite-free water.
03:57So humid here.
03:58Whenever you get the chance to rehydrate on the move, you want to do it.
04:05A length of thin vine makes the ideal twine to hold the trap together.
04:11First job is to split one of the lengths of bamboo so I can hollow it out to make it into
04:15a pipe.
04:17And then what you're left with is that hollow drain pipe, and that's going to be what the
04:23water gets sucked down and hopefully the fish.
04:27A series of splits in the second piece turns it into a simple net.
04:32And that, straight down that, and just ties into place to stop it coming off in the water
04:41flow.
04:42All I need to do is place it and then weight that down, and all of this water is getting
04:48funneled and then creates a suction along the length of the pipe, and any fish coming
04:55downstream in this whole vicinity come down this and get caught in this funnel with nowhere
05:02to go.
05:03And when they teach survival in the military, they talk about fish first.
05:08Easiest form of food to catch, easiest form of meat.
05:11I can set this, take me 15, 20 minutes, leave it, it's going to work all night, and hopefully
05:17give me some breakfast.
05:21Next, to sort out somewhere to sleep.
05:24At night, the jungle floor is alive with animals and bugs, so a shelter off the ground is a
05:29priority.
05:32I plan to imitate Borneo's famous orangutans and build a nest up in the trees.
05:37Now this might work.
05:41See this?
05:42A couple of trees linking together.
05:44Limbs that aren't too high up the tree might be able to use this for some sort of overnight
05:48shelter and let loads of vines nearby as well.
05:52The local name for these translates as rope vine.
05:56Make a nick in this.
05:58Once you've got it, you can peel it.
06:01Stripping off lengths of bark can give you some very effective pieces of cordage.
06:06Look how strong this is.
06:08Twist that.
06:11You're never going to break it.
06:13Get lots of that and then tie it all together.
06:18Oh, slippy.
06:20My plan is to lash some of these branches together using the rope vine.
06:26Get a good height off the ground here.
06:28And look, I've got these two nice limbs.
06:32Kind of shape a bit like a big hammock.
06:34Tying these two branches together and then supporting them from a position higher up
06:38the trunk creates a simple equivalent of a climber's portaledge.
06:44More rope vine can be used to create the floor of the shelter.
06:47Just keep weaving it back, forward, across between these limbs.
06:54And then pull some of these existing branches across and use them to finish off this weave.
07:04And this is what the orangutans would do.
07:06They use the branches interweave to create a nest.
07:10With a healthy amount of greenery woven in, the result is a strong, comfy sleeping platform.
07:18Good.
07:20That works.
07:24Okay, let's find something to eat.
07:26Just before dusk is a good time to forage for food.
07:30Many of the jungle's predators are beginning to stir and they can provide you with a welcome meal.
07:36Tree racer.
07:38Just got him.
07:39Pull him back.
07:42Where's his head?
07:48Just got me then.
07:50Luckily he's non-venomous, though.
07:52You've always got to be careful.
07:54You know, they say snakes don't brush their teeth.
07:57Let you see his jaws gone round himself.
07:59That's where he had me.
08:01And this guy will normally live up in the trees, feed off squirrels, birds, eggs.
08:09But he's going to be my dinner.
08:11Got him promptly by the head now.
08:14Well, that's supper at least.
08:18Only I want to give that bite a good wash.
08:22You're not human if your hand doesn't shake a bit after getting bitten by a snake.
08:28This will do.
08:29Wild yam.
08:30See this?
08:32Break it off.
08:37Rub that sap onto a wound and that's going to act like a mild antiseptic to a snake bite.
08:44I do not want an infection in the jungle.
08:49Okay, let's get back and cook this up.
08:52Skinned and gutted, Snake is good barbecued over a simple fire.
09:03His tail's still moving.
09:05Here, don't come undone.
09:07Get out of this, clove hitch.
09:11Even though it's being decapitated, involuntary reflexes keep the snake's tail twitching until it's cooked through.
09:18That should be done now.
09:22Phew.
09:30They always say snake tastes like chicken.
09:32Tell you what, it doesn't.
09:34It's tougher and bonier.
09:39But good nourishment and in the jungle you need plenty of that.
09:45Dusk has fallen, so it's time to retreat to my orangutan nest.
09:50I quite like the fact that orangutan in Malay actually translates as man of the forest.
09:56And they've definitely been an inspiration for making this shelter up here.
10:01But the edge that I have over the orangutans is I can make fire.
10:05And I can burn some of this Ananasi bark on this little...
10:09...fire here.
10:11And that's going to burn and smell like incense and that's going to keep the mosquitoes away.
10:16And keeping the mosquitoes away in the jungle, I've learned, is everything.
10:23Okay, let's try and get some sleep.
10:26I'm going to need all the rest I can get, because there's nothing like the jungle for sapping your strength.
10:31Okay, let's try and get some sleep.
10:34I'm going to need all the rest I can get, because there's nothing like the jungle for sapping your strength.