- 3 months ago
In Ed Bares All (S1E4), Ed returns from his 60-day island experiment and reflects on the highs, lows, and survival lessons learned. He offers candid insights into mental warfare, resilience, and extreme adaptation. Viewers see behind-the-scenes accounts, emotional breakthroughs, and the personal cost of such an extreme journey.
This concluding episode ties together Ed’s survival narrative and gives you raw, unfiltered reflections from one of the toughest survival experiments ever attempted.
Ed Stafford, Ed Stafford S1E4, Ed Bares All, Survival reflections, 60 days survival, Lessons learned, Survival psychology, Ed Stafford interview, Extreme survival summary, Discovery Channel series, Marooned reflections, Island experiment, Survival insights, Mental resilience, Survival story, Ed Stafford conclusion
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Ed Stafford, Ed Stafford Marooned, Marooned with Ed Stafford, Naked and Marooned, Ed Stafford full episodes, Discovery Channel survival, Extreme survival documentary, Survival challenge, Solo survival, 10 day survival, Bushcraft, Primitive survival, Real survival show, Ed Stafford documentary, Wilderness survival, Adventure documentary, Remote wilderness, Survival skills, Solo survival challenge, Nature survival, Outdoor adventure,
Ed Stafford Stranded, Olorua Island, Island survival, No tools survival, Deserted island challenge, Pacific island survival, Survival alone, Primitive survival skills, Shelter building, Give Me Shelter, Rainy season survival, Fijian island challenge, Primitive shelter techniques, Survival rain protection, Shelter construction, Fire making survival, Bushcraft shelter,
Swimming with Sharks, Raft building, Goat hunting, Shark fishing, Primitive fishing, Island foraging, Ocean survival, Raft survival, Spearfishing, Solo island survival, Ed Bares All, 60 days survival, Survival reflections, Survival psychology, Lessons learned, Mental resilience, Survival insights, Survival experiment,
Botswana survival, Okavango Delta, Wetland survival, Flood survival, Predator threats, Crocodile danger, Hippo territory, Africa bushcraft, Botswana challenge, Survival in Africa, Ed Stafford Marooned Botswana,
Venezuela survival, Gran Sabana, Rainforest challenge, Flooded jungle, Tropical survival, Wild protein foraging, Humid environment, Jungle foraging, Jungle survival, South America survival, Rainforest food hunt, Survival humidity, Jungle bushcraft, Ed Stafford Marooned Venezuela,
Australia survival, Western Australia, Coastal survival, Heat challenge, Crocodile fishing, Tide fishing, Blistered feet, Outback survival, Desert coast survival, Primitive fishing, Ocean challenge, Extreme dehydration, Ed Stafford Marooned Australia,
Romania survival, Carpathian Mountains, Mountain wilderness, Bear threats, Cold nights, Forest foraging, Cold weather survival, European wilderness, Fire starting in cold, Mountain camping, Survival challenge Romania, Ed Stafford Marooned Romania,
This concluding episode ties together Ed’s survival narrative and gives you raw, unfiltered reflections from one of the toughest survival experiments ever attempted.
Ed Stafford, Ed Stafford S1E4, Ed Bares All, Survival reflections, 60 days survival, Lessons learned, Survival psychology, Ed Stafford interview, Extreme survival summary, Discovery Channel series, Marooned reflections, Island experiment, Survival insights, Mental resilience, Survival story, Ed Stafford conclusion
Thank you for supporting our channel
Ed Stafford, Ed Stafford Marooned, Marooned with Ed Stafford, Naked and Marooned, Ed Stafford full episodes, Discovery Channel survival, Extreme survival documentary, Survival challenge, Solo survival, 10 day survival, Bushcraft, Primitive survival, Real survival show, Ed Stafford documentary, Wilderness survival, Adventure documentary, Remote wilderness, Survival skills, Solo survival challenge, Nature survival, Outdoor adventure,
Ed Stafford Stranded, Olorua Island, Island survival, No tools survival, Deserted island challenge, Pacific island survival, Survival alone, Primitive survival skills, Shelter building, Give Me Shelter, Rainy season survival, Fijian island challenge, Primitive shelter techniques, Survival rain protection, Shelter construction, Fire making survival, Bushcraft shelter,
Swimming with Sharks, Raft building, Goat hunting, Shark fishing, Primitive fishing, Island foraging, Ocean survival, Raft survival, Spearfishing, Solo island survival, Ed Bares All, 60 days survival, Survival reflections, Survival psychology, Lessons learned, Mental resilience, Survival insights, Survival experiment,
Botswana survival, Okavango Delta, Wetland survival, Flood survival, Predator threats, Crocodile danger, Hippo territory, Africa bushcraft, Botswana challenge, Survival in Africa, Ed Stafford Marooned Botswana,
Venezuela survival, Gran Sabana, Rainforest challenge, Flooded jungle, Tropical survival, Wild protein foraging, Humid environment, Jungle foraging, Jungle survival, South America survival, Rainforest food hunt, Survival humidity, Jungle bushcraft, Ed Stafford Marooned Venezuela,
Australia survival, Western Australia, Coastal survival, Heat challenge, Crocodile fishing, Tide fishing, Blistered feet, Outback survival, Desert coast survival, Primitive fishing, Ocean challenge, Extreme dehydration, Ed Stafford Marooned Australia,
Romania survival, Carpathian Mountains, Mountain wilderness, Bear threats, Cold nights, Forest foraging, Cold weather survival, European wilderness, Fire starting in cold, Mountain camping, Survival challenge Romania, Ed Stafford Marooned Romania,
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TravelTranscript
00:00I'm Ed Stafford, and I'm back from my challenge of spending 60 days naked and marooned on a remote, uninhabited Pacific Island.
00:10No one has ever attempted a survival experience on this scale before.
00:15I have these waves, waves of fierce, fierce panic.
00:18And in this programme, I will take you behind the scenes as I reflect on my adventure.
00:24It was extraordinarily real. Bang, for a moment, one.
00:28Remembering the highs.
00:29Yes!
00:30I am so, so happy.
00:33And the lows.
00:36And how my remarkable journey taught me what I'm capable of.
00:41I think the island was definitely an eye-opener in terms of what matters in life.
00:46Join me as I relive my extraordinary experiences.
00:50It was such a rollercoaster ride, and I really didn't know what the outcome was going to be.
00:55This is such an opportunity for me.
00:57I am out of here.
01:06I suppose, like everyone, I've grown up with the Robinson Crusoe story at the back of my mind.
01:23And I think that that was definitely one of my childhood memories of just imagining what would it be like.
01:32If I was dropped off, stark naked, on a desert island, for two months, could I survive?
01:41And the honest answer was I didn't know at all.
01:44Would I be able to survive? Would I be able to feed myself? Would I be able to evolve, actually, into something which is more than just surviving, into a comfortable lifestyle?
01:57And I think that's always stayed with me, really.
02:00I was heading to Olorua, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean.
02:06It's three kilometers in circumference, an uninhabited paradise owned by Fijians on the neighboring island of Como.
02:16Okay, walking through Como Village for the last time, going down to the boat.
02:24The morning that I was going in, I had this energy inside me, but I was struggling to contain it.
02:31It was excitement, fear, apprehension, everything all rolled in.
02:36I can feel this churning in my chest, and I'm very aware that this is no small feat, and there's nowhere to hide.
02:52There is nowhere to hide at all, but it can feel good, and I feel ready, definitely.
02:58Bye-bye. Thank you. See you in two months.
03:08Everything was alive, you know. My thoughts were alive, my senses were alive.
03:14I couldn't have been more up for it. I couldn't wait to get in.
03:20This is it. Goodbye, Como. Hello, Olorua.
03:27I just felt like I was about to go into battle, almost.
03:31I felt like I was about to be really tested.
03:33I felt like the next 60 days were gonna be extraordinary.
03:38It was a two-hour boat ride to Olorua, and the beginning of my challenge.
03:44It was the first time that I'd ever seen this island, and when I saw it, I thought,
03:49this could be a paradise if I make it one.
03:52What an island. What an amazing island.
03:59I distinctly remember feeling completely uncomfortable with the whole thing.
04:10That was just a weird moment in all. I was naked, which made me feel vulnerable and ridiculous.
04:17I can't quite believe I'm doing this.
04:19I think the adrenaline is just flooding through me so much that I can't quite work out whether I'm happy to be here or not.
04:31I couldn't even tell how I was feeling at that point. There was just too many different things going on.
04:38From now on, if I struggle, it's down to me. If I thrive, it's down to me.
04:48Ow!
04:58I thought isolation was gonna hit after two weeks when I start to get lonely,
05:02but as soon as I could hear the sound of the motor disappearing into the distance,
05:05and I was completely on my own, I felt like I was in one of those situations where,
05:10I don't know, a crisis happens, and you can't think.
05:13That's it. You've gone.
05:20That is a weird feeling.
05:23I am completely on my own now.
05:27I felt like I was in the absolute brainstorm moment where you just cannot have a logical thought,
05:34and I had to literally stand there and go, Stafford, get a grip.
05:39I hadn't got any water. I didn't know any food, and it was extraordinarily real.
05:51Bang from moment one.
05:55The way I got through the first day was just to say,
05:57Look, the only thing you need to do today is drink.
06:00There's coconut trees all around you. That's all you need to do.
06:03I had to literally shrink it down to such a manageable thing,
06:06because I was in such a state of panic, I have to admit, panic.
06:12The consequences of not being able to find the immediate survival priorities are dire, you know?
06:20I have these waves. Waves of fears, fears, panic. Stafford, get a grip. What is wrong with you?
06:27What is wrong with you?
06:32There's a big, big problem in any type of survival situation.
06:36As soon as you start panicking, you're going to make mistakes.
06:39If you're trying to have to remain focused to meet your basic needs,
06:41you know, to build shelter, to find food, but panic is so overwhelming,
06:45then you're really in trouble.
06:48When you're in these situations,
06:49it's like you're sitting on the edge of a knife over a chasm.
06:54If you fall off, you're done.
06:57The very enormity of the fact that I didn't know where a reliable source of water was,
07:02I can't describe the level of stress that that caused.
07:07The obvious source of water just looking around is coconuts.
07:11I need to find myself a green coconut, get into it,
07:14get the fluid out of it.
07:19It's not green green.
07:20You can see it's not long brown.
07:23Come on.
07:26Some fluid there.
07:28That's it, yes.
07:32And I can see the water.
07:34First drink on the island.
07:35It is obviously the number one survival priority.
07:44You can't do anything without water.
07:46I need to find more coconuts.
07:52The coconuts helped me in the short term,
07:54but I needed to find a better water source.
07:57And on day two, I found it.
08:03Whoa, what's this?
08:05This is exciting.
08:07There's water flowing down there.
08:10And look at the bottom.
08:11That is fresh water.
08:15Yes!
08:17It was the most miniscule flow of water when I eventually put a wick into it and got a flow of sorts.
08:23I'd get one drop every 40 seconds.
08:26I averaged about a litre of water a day from this robbed seat, which wasn't enough to keep me going.
08:33I just looked at the bottle there and I thought,
08:36it's not worked.
08:37I couldn't see a level.
08:38I couldn't see a level because it's completely full.
08:43I wouldn't have thought beforehand that water was going to affect whether I was happy or unhappy,
08:47but, yeah, it did affect my morale massively.
08:49That's a good start to the day.
08:51Yes!
08:53Just absolutely exhausted.
08:57The end of my tether.
08:59Water needs to come soon.
09:01I need water.
09:02I need water.
09:03I need water.
09:04I need water.
09:05I need water.
09:06This is stupid.
09:08The symptoms of mild dehydration are quite subtle.
09:11There's a decrease in almost every aspect of performance,
09:15from being irritable, being slightly confused, poor judgement making,
09:20to feeling slow and sluggish in the way that you move,
09:23or indeed your ability to actually go and try and perform any sort of task.
09:27I can remember, actually, the day when it chucked it down with rain really hard for the first time,
09:34and I think that was about day 13 or 14.
09:36That's a pretty special moment.
09:42Two full liters of fresh water.
09:46So that was the first time I was actually able to glug down water and rehydrate myself fully.
09:52Drinking freely.
09:54Drinking freely, Edward.
09:55And I just remember the effect that that had on me psychologically and physically.
10:01I just felt strong and alive and positive and relaxed for the first time literally in those 14 days.
10:08That feels in my mind like I'm in control of the water now.
10:12Which is good.
10:14Because the water, surprisingly, is quite stressful.
10:17Coming up, I discover the hard way the risks of eating raw food.
10:22I think I can eat these raw as well.
10:24By eating all of that raw food, I suppose I was running a risk.
10:27In my first few days on the island, I was surprised at how much being naked would affect me.
10:43The nakedness was initially to underline the fact that I had nothing.
10:48In my mind, it was a really good way of showing the audience that he hasn't actually got anything to help him survive.
10:54It makes you feel very vulnerable. You're going in there almost as if you were born.
11:03It's really cold.
11:07I'm just thinking, just put some clothes on.
11:11I haven't got any.
11:13That was the one thing I felt like would have made me in control.
11:17But there were no clothes and it sort of kept me in this state of, yeah, but I'm very uncomfortable.
11:23I feel very awkward like this.
11:26That's ridiculous, Ed.
11:28When I got the grass skirt, okay, it wasn't a survival priority, but it helped me feel that I was taking control
11:34and that I was behaving in a way that wasn't quite as animalistic as when I was naked.
11:40Actually, for my own sake, I actually felt a lot more comfortable.
11:44I just felt like it was just a bit more normal, really.
11:47But even more important than clothes, I needed to find food.
11:52Without it, I knew I simply wouldn't make it.
11:55I just needed to keep my calorie intake as high as possible, and I wanted to keep my protein intake as high as possible as well.
12:01There's loads of snails. I can eat those. I think I can eat these raw as well. This is a good thing.
12:09And so I just decided, look, you've got to get this intake, and I forced them down.
12:14I've since been told that snails have eaten raw. They carry a parasite that can manifest itself in the human brain,
12:23which I didn't know about at the time, but I've been thoroughly checked out since I came back.
12:27What Ed was doing in terms of his calorie restriction seems extremely severe to us, who are used to sort of the availability of food 24 hours a day.
12:37But actually, it's more akin to how our ancestors lived, where they couldn't guarantee their food supplies
12:42and may go for many days without any reliable source of food.
12:46I remember feeling I just had to eat virtually anything I could lay my hands on.
12:50Yeah, up here. You see that? There's a little gecko.
12:57It was just one of those things. He's like, okay, that's an animal. It's obviously got meat on it.
13:03It's obviously gonna have, therefore, protein. I need to put it inside me.
13:11I wasn't that squeamish about it. It did feel quite animalistic, because I wasn't...
13:17There was nothing enjoyable about eating them here. It was literally putting fuel in.
13:22That was... That was quite revolting.
13:25I also put into my mouth a stick insect.
13:28Stick insect is an animal.
13:32I can't imagine there was that many calories in the stick insect.
13:36Not a very nice-tasting animal.
13:38They're loaches.
13:40They're the things that you buy for fish tanks that clean the gravel at the bottom.
13:44They're a bit ugly.
13:47And they eat shit.
13:54I so wanted just to be able to pause everything and open the fridge and eat and eat and eat.
14:01And obviously, I wasn't able to do that.
14:05I'm back...
14:07...digging...
14:09...the root vegetables.
14:11When you don't have food and you don't have a reliable source of food, you can become quite food obsessed.
14:18And I think that, to an extent, I did on the island, and it did occupy more of my mind than I would ever expect.
14:24Semi-starvation causes a whole heap of other problems, ranging from increased irritability, depression.
14:33You can be more of a hypochondriac.
14:36Your judgment can be impaired.
14:37In desperation, I just took a bite out of this one remaining taro plant leaf, and it tasted good, so I ate the whole of the other one.
14:51And, um...
14:54...my gums are stinging, and the whole of my tongue started to...
15:00...sting.
15:02That's not edible. It's not edible.
15:04I just ate loads.
15:05I was desperately trying to put in nutrition, and I was desperately trying to keep hydrated, and yet I felt that I was vomiting more than I was, uh, defecating.
15:17Um, and, um, I found it impossible to keep stuff down.
15:23By eating all of that raw food, I suppose I was running a risk, but, um, I took the chances and luckily got through it.
15:33In my first two weeks on the island, some key survival challenges were far harder than I imagined.
15:42I knew that fire and creating fire was gonna be one of the biggest things.
15:47Um, not only would it enable me to cook my food and be able to sort of expand my diet, but it would also mean, um, I'd have warmth at night, I'd have light at night.
15:56I need to try and find a bit of wood for a bow to make a bow drill.
16:06I need a branch with a V in it that's curved.
16:09I knew how to make fire without a lighter, with two sticks, and I knew various methods of how to do it.
16:19Quite bow shaped. Enough, anyway.
16:20But what I didn't know was the woods that were on the island, so the challenge would be to adapt what I found on the island and make it work in terms of the skills that I'd already had.
16:33One bow.
16:35Okay, there's different woods and you can trial them, but in order to trial a bit of wood, you actually have to do quite a lot of preparation, and all of that took a lot of time.
16:45You know, you might spend all morning whittling this. It's the wrong wood.
16:49It's a bizarre feeling, spending so much time on something that might just not work at all.
16:58That seems to be the story of my life at the moment.
17:03Put a crack on, then.
17:06I would cut a bit of wood down, I'd have to dry it out, I'd have to split it into the right shapes, I'd have to carve the notches out, get it all set up, which could take a day, a day and a half, trial it, and it is the wrong wood.
17:18This has taken about four hours so far, just this notch. They would give anything for a Swiss Army knife.
17:33I would say that powder is too light.
17:35The wood's too soft. I don't think that's a will. I don't think we're gonna have fire tonight.
17:40I think with anything that's experimental like this, you're always gonna have to acknowledge that there's gonna be a lot of things that don't go right before something comes out.
17:48And it goes right.
17:53Yeah, fire will mean so much to me.
17:56I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it.
18:01That's good. Loads of smoke coming off it.
18:02The morning that I got it, I didn't even have to dry hard and got the ember just like that.
18:11We've got fire.
18:13Just an amazing feeling to suddenly get half cracked it. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I've cracked it.
18:19Yes!
18:24Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
18:28I am so, so happy.
18:34We've got fire. We've got fire, we've got warmth at night.
18:38We've got cooked food.
18:39It was one of the best days of my life.
18:42Yes!
18:44Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
18:48I don't think I can underestimate how much morale that I actually gained from lighting that.
18:53I put so much pressure on myself to get there.
18:57And it was as much release as it was of the frustrations of not being able to create it
19:04as it was just the pure elation of knowing that just life can move forward now.
19:12When it comes to food, my world was just opened up completely.
19:17Look at that crab.
19:18So it's slightly sticky.
19:23And that is breakfast.
19:29I was able to harvest crabs and mussels and everything that I had been seeing on a daily basis
19:37and just chuck them all in the pot and boil it all up.
19:40And I'd got this wonderful broth just drinking that you could just feel all the nutrients going into your body
19:45and just coming alive again.
19:48Snails and two crabs and a couple of sprats boiling a rusty tin can on a fire.
19:55And I am salivating over the juices.
19:58Whether the food would be delicious if I ate it today, I've got no idea.
20:02At the time, it seemed absolutely delicious.
20:04I think I'm going to appreciate fine things, good food, everything for the rest of my life so much more.
20:13It does make you realize that we live in a world where things are so easy and you invariably take it for granted.
20:20Why wouldn't you take it for granted? Because food is readily available.
20:24But I don't anymore and I do end up really valuing it.
20:30Coming up, I'm determined to build a shelter.
20:34But with no tools to help me, it tests my resolve.
20:37Crikey, it's taking a long time.
20:38It was just hammered home that if you don't have anything, if you don't have all these tools, things just take an incredible amount of time.
20:53Before I arrived on the island, I really thought it would become a paradise.
20:58But I quickly learned that being on my own was tough.
21:01I could see how people who have been isolated on desert islands have gone properly mad in the past.
21:16And I didn't think it would even touch the sides in 60 days.
21:20But it started from day one.
21:22It was amazing that the impact that isolation had started from the very first moment I got on the island.
21:26I was walking down the beach on my own, I was just thinking,
21:31this is paradise, this is where I would love to be.
21:36Except I'm really lonely.
21:40Really, really lonely.
21:46I miss home.
21:48I miss home a lot.
21:50A lot of people would go, actually, I'd love that time on my own.
21:52I'd just sit on the beach and I'd thrive and I'd do this, and that's exactly what I thought as well.
21:57But once you've gone through that, and then you go, right, I've had my fill, I want to come home now.
22:03But you can't for another 56 days, whatever it is.
22:06And then it's not quite as idyllic as you thought it would be.
22:09Sun starts coming over the trees of the island.
22:13And hitting the water and turning it a beautiful, beautiful emerald green, cyan blue.
22:22Just beautiful. Different shades.
22:25If you were the only person in the world, what would be the point in painting a painting,
22:29because there would be no one to see it.
22:30Or what would be the point in writing a book, because there would be no one to read it.
22:32The most beautiful things might occur in front of you.
22:36You might see an amazing sunset, and I sit there on my own and think, so what?
22:41I can't enjoy this as much because I'm not sharing it with the people that I love.
22:46If you didn't miss home, then there'd be something missing, wouldn't there?
22:49The biggest problems, the biggest stumbling blocks are going to have to do with loneliness,
22:57not having any human contact, and not having enough stimulation for the brain.
23:02People can start to hallucinate, they can start to have extreme anxiety, sleeping problems.
23:08We've been bred as social creatures, so it's normal to want to be around others.
23:12You can go from elation to the most deep depression you can ever imagine.
23:19And you're constantly battling that depression and just trying to get through it.
23:26You've got absolutely nobody to turn to but yourself.
23:30Every thought is internalized.
23:32There's no one to reassure you, there's no one to laugh with you,
23:36there's no one to, you know, pat you on the back and say it's all going to be okay.
23:39Suddenly you're having to do everything like that yourself
23:41and take complete responsibility for yourself for the first time.
23:44That was a real eye-opener.
23:45Every bit of me wants company.
23:52Every bit of me wants to have a chat with somebody.
23:58One person doing this with nothing is extraordinarily hard.
24:08The camera was a companion and it did become quite a comfort.
24:13I started trying to convey my worries and as soon as I started talking I realized that I'm okay again because I'm having a little chat.
24:21But I'm not going to give up.
24:24And I'm not going to go mad.
24:26It's just tough.
24:27I did feel on that knife edge of am I going to go nutty bonkers or not.
24:43But I felt that although I found it a struggle that I managed to stay on the right side of sanity.
24:53Initially, when I arrived on Olurua, I lived in a cave.
24:57But to evolve, I felt I needed to move on.
25:00I decided that one of the things that I really wanted to do in order to sort of put my mark on the island was to build a house.
25:09Today I'm going to start construction of a house tucked into the woods on this side of the island so it's protected from the wind.
25:19I just decided that if you're committing to this, you're really committing to this and that your shelter, no matter how long it takes, is going to be bomb proof and a proper evolution.
25:32I worked as hard as I could on it and I worked as fast as I could on it.
25:36And I tried to manage the frustrations of how long it was taking but it was just hammered home that if you don't have anything, if you don't have all these tools, things just take an incredible amount of time.
25:46There's only one lean-to shelter, which with a machete and different palm leaves, you could build in a couple of hours.
25:55It's going to take ten days with vines and no cutting tools. Ten days. Wow.
26:06Everything involved in building the shelter was monotonous. Everything was a task that I did over and over and over again all day long.
26:17Crikey, it's taking a long time.
26:20And therefore it was a challenge to just keep going and stay positive and stay motivated.
26:25It's so long it takes. I'm not dilly-dallying, I promise.
26:29So I had to talk myself calm a number of times over that.
26:36Just need to keep sticking up that shelter until it's done, don't I?
26:41Just keep plugging away. Plugging away at the shelter. As soon as the shelter's done, it's party time.
26:46Just plug away at it and finish the shelter.
26:48When you sit back and think about it, it is super hard what he's doing. Really, really hard.
26:56And he's got a big fight on his hand, you know, just to survive. Not to be comfortable, just to survive.
27:01It's complete.
27:14That is one monster touch.
27:17When Ed moved from his cage to the shelter he'd made himself, you can see that there's a clear boost to his morale.
27:25Because I think he's achieved something himself that's worked and he's gaining the benefit from that.
27:30I'm gonna sleep like a baby tonight.
27:34I love the fact that when I wake up in the morning, I just literally open my eyes and I'm in the forest.
27:39So it ended up being a lovely place to sleep.
27:44And it seemed like an eternity, the 11 days it took me to build and thatch that construction.
27:51But in the grand scheme of 60 days, actually, one-sixth of it on a shelter isn't that much.
27:56And it gave me a house that I suspect is still standing today.
28:04Eddie in his shelter.
28:09Yes!
28:14Despite Oliver River being a paradise, one of the things that surprised me was the amount of rubbish washed up on the beach.
28:22I found all sorts of man-made things on the island.
28:25Heads up spoon.
28:27Hairstyling gel. Very good for eating with.
28:30There was a green t-shirt that was half-buried in the ground, but it was paper-thin, so every time I put it on,
28:36I had to really be careful not to split it, but it managed to last...
28:40I've still got it, actually. It managed to last 60 days.
28:42That's amazing.
28:44I found a toothbrush.
28:46Look what I've just found on the beach.
28:49I can clean my teeth with charcoal.
28:51I found a number of broken flip-flops, but essentially two pairs that were functional, two different left foots and two different right feet.
29:00I found a big soya bean can that I then cut in half.
29:05And if I get a good bit of big fish or a bit of goat, I've got a good-sized cooking pot.
29:12I found a rugby ball.
29:14Okay, well, it's leather. I've got no idea what I could use it for, but I'm gonna take it.
29:18I hadn't seen Castaway before I went and did it deliberately, because I didn't want to copy any scenes, but I knew about Tom Hanks and his Wilson ball.
29:26I have my own Wilson.
29:28It was just the most bizarre thing to find, is a rugby ball.
29:33There was a number of metal items that I imagined were part of an old outboard engine.
29:38Initially, I didn't know that I was gonna have any use for it, but I decided to take it with me.
29:42And then, obviously, once it's sharpened that, I thought, well, I could put a handle on this and make it into a knife.
29:51I think that definitely is what sets humans aside from animals, is that ability to pick stuff up and use it as a tool in order to further your own abilities and make yourself more able, really.
30:03On reflection, I do wonder whether I would have made it if it hadn't been full of the man-made things that were washed up on the island.
30:16I could have survived in an animalistic sense, but certainly those things changed my experience and allowed me to evolve more than I would have done otherwise.
30:25Despite the success, I still had to evolve a method of hunting goats on the island, and they seemed to be taunting me.
30:34I've just walked back, and you can see my camp, and you can see the two goats in my camp, actually under my shoulder.
30:49Why haven't I got a means of killing these goats yet?
30:52It's just madness. I've gotta get some tools to kill goats.
30:57I would have thought that a goat, because it sounds quite a domestic thing, and you hear, obviously, goat milk, and you think of goat's cheese,
31:05and you think, oh, just catch one, and I'll harness it and make a little corral, and I'll milk it, and I'll have goat's cheese salads with banana leaves or something.
31:15But it just didn't work like that.
31:17I went through the rigmarole of making a bow and arrow.
31:20Hopefully, with enough power behind it, that will pierce an answer, a goat.
31:41He's carved up the hill, and yet I just couldn't catch one, and it became this little mental battle.
31:48And just when I'd given up on the goats, something quite extraordinary happened.
31:55At first, I thought my mom was playing tricks on me, because I thought there was a bit of driftwood caught up in the bottom of this tree that looked like a goat.
32:03And so I sort of dismissed it and went, that's really annoying, because that looks like a goat.
32:07And looked away, actually, and carried on walking down the beach, and then heard this really quite distressed bleating.
32:12OK.
32:16There's a goat here, and it's got his head tangled in the, um...
32:21It's got his head tangled in the brambles.
32:26Brambles.
32:31Oh, my God.
32:34This is such an opportunity for me.
32:37But I need to kill this goat.
32:41I have to say, I didn't think twice about it. I really didn't.
32:44It was one of those, it was one of those animalistic instincts.
32:47This is food, and I'm gonna eat it.
33:00In terms of our evolutionary history, it's not so long ago that we were out there killing animals like this.
33:05And it's in our blood.
33:07It's a true example of survival of the fittest.
33:10As brutal as it was, I think most people in that circumstance would do the same thing if it became a question of life or death.
33:17This is food.
33:19This is food.
33:22Potentially till the end of the project.
33:24If I cure it well, it's hide so I can have a covering at night.
33:32It's potentially sinew and bone that I can make into fishing cord and fishing hooks.
33:40I've got a goat, and it isn't a small one.
33:42As soon as the goat was dead, I then obviously realized, right, you've got a lot of work on.
33:49When I got it back to the camp, obviously I've got to skin it.
33:52I'd never skinned anything bigger than the rabbit before, so with a really crude blunt knife made out of a bit of an outboard motor, I then had to skin my first ever goat.
34:01I knew that the rest of the meat would go to waste incredibly quickly if I wasn't really, really on top of processing it and managing, well, attempting to cure it.
34:13I've got to chop up about 40 kilograms of meat.
34:22The pressure I'm feeling at the moment is just to make sure that I use all of it as possible.
34:27I mean, I don't like killing for the sake of it.
34:31I'm a meat eater, and I firmly believe that if you eat meat, you should be able to kill the animal.
34:39It's a prime fillet steak.
34:42Prime fillet goat steak.
34:44It's amazing, isn't it? What matters in life? The simple things. Food.
34:57I ate virtually nothing but goat meat for eight days.
35:00I got much, much stronger during those eight days, which then lasted to the end of the project, but also mentally.
35:07Just to be able to turn around and have a snack whenever I wanted, it was just an absolute luxury.
35:11So catching the goat was probably the second biggest highlight alongside lighting the fire, but it was a massive game-changer, really.
35:20That is extraordinarily good.
35:26I have to say that is better than oven-roasted. Oven-roasted anything.
35:33I never thought I'd be eating this well on the island.
35:38Coming up, a fishing expedition was a learning experience I would never forget.
35:45The dust isn't working.
35:48The strength of the currents moving around the island was extraordinarily strong.
35:51My goodness, it is not maneuverable.
35:55By the last couple of weeks of my time on the island, I felt like I'd conquered the island.
36:11The guttering's working. I don't have to go out into the rain and suck rainwater out of clamshells through straws.
36:21The ease and the simplicity of just being almost to have running water just meant it made me feel like I was becoming more civilized.
36:30That's it. Bed in place. Job done.
36:38Oh, I'm off the floor.
36:41I'm off the floor.
36:43To do everything from scratch, to not have a single tool, to not have any food, to completely live off the land, to completely make use of all your resources, is extraordinarily hard.
36:56I'm going to take out the one that's only got three leaves, and I'm going to leave my magnificent, and you can still maintain in this vegetable garden.
37:07It's funny how a plant can end up meaning so much. It's funny how food can end up meaning so much.
37:13A big secret to survival is having purpose, discovering purpose of survival itself.
37:20It's one big one.
37:21You have to try as hard as you possibly can for every minute until this ordeal is over, or you're probably going to die.
37:32Just to maintain a status quo, just to get yourself through the day, to put enough calories and fluids in you and be comfortable, let alone evolving,
37:40takes a huge amount of effort and work.
37:46And to be properly sustainable here, I knew I had to look beyond the land and learn to live off the ocean.
37:54I think fishing was definitely the way to go if you're talking about a sustainable existence on the island.
38:00As absolutely minging as it is, the head with the maggots in it might actually prove to be quite useful to me now.
38:07I couldn't go down the conventional method of actually getting an individual fish, but obviously trapping fish in an enclosed area is just a different way of going about it.
38:20I'm really, really hoping that by building a wall at that end, let's see if we can trap some bigger fish.
38:26Suddenly, when a fish is caught in a restricted area, then you have got a greater ability to kill it.
38:32I've moved that big well that it was hiding behind.
38:35Come on, how do I say?
38:37That's good. That end is fine by me.
38:42That end!
38:44I ate a fish!
38:46Fish for lunch!
38:49That just proves that these methods do work if you persevere.
38:52I've got a method of fishing that works, which means that life on the island most definitely becomes more sustainable.
39:03I wanted to expand my knowledge, and I didn't know much about the reef. I hadn't really ventured out into the reef.
39:08I think this is where I'm going to build the raft. I'll stick with a conventional raft sign.
39:17Maybe I'll be able to pick up a lobster. Maybe I'll be able to find an octopus. Who knows?
39:22I'm not a good swimmer at all. I mean, I'm a terrible swimmer, and so pushing out into the ocean was always going to be outside of my comfort zone.
39:34And it was something that I was very uncomfortable doing, actually.
39:38I'm doing a wide sweeping stroke just trying to turn around and reverse stroke on this side, and it just isn't working.
39:53As soon as I went off the shore in the raft, I realized that the strength of the currents moving around the island was extraordinarily strong.
40:02I'm going to have to get off again.
40:03I was getting swept and getting pulled further out and out, and I could hardly hold the boat in. That was hard.
40:20It's buoyant, it's stable, but my goodness, it is not maneuverable.
40:27It was a good process to go through, I suppose, but it didn't actually produce much extra food.
40:34Well, it didn't produce any extra food at all.
40:38My time spent on Olorua was the longest 60 days of my life.
40:42And as my adventure came to an end, I had mixed emotions.
40:47It's day 60.
40:51It's day 60.
40:52It's day 60.
40:55We're going home.
40:59We're going home.
41:01I think leaving the island was tinged with sadness.
41:06Yes, I was really happy that I'd completed the project.
41:09I was so happy that I'd survived the 60 days and so happy that I got to the end.
41:12But I just wanted to get home, really, and I was a little bit sad that I wasn't sad at leaving the island.
41:22Farewell to Olorua.
41:24I feel like I'm just going to explode in excitement.
41:34So excited about seeing people again.
41:38Having a conversation.
41:41Eating food, let's not feast around the bush.
41:44I'm out of here. I am out of here.
41:55Initially, when the helicopter came in and I had the ability to talk to people, I just couldn't stop talking.
42:05It was just so nice to be able to express my opinions, to be able to listen to people.
42:12Goodbye, Olorua.
42:1760 days done.
42:19It was just that ability to interact and be part of the world again, really, and I just couldn't get enough of it.
42:25Look at that.
42:27That is quite amazing.
42:28That's quite a weird feeling.
42:34To be flying over Olorua after being there for 60 days.
42:39I didn't want to go to sleep that night.
42:41I just wanted to talk about nonsense.
42:44Didn't matter what we were talking about. Just that ability to interact.
42:52The reaction from the Fijians when the helicopter landed on Koma was just extraordinary.
42:56Because they genuinely understood the difficulties of being able to cope without anything on that island.
43:04They were just so happy that I'd managed to do this and come back and I was in one piece.
43:10I'm quite overwhelmed by the whole thing.
43:12It was such a rollercoaster ride.
43:13I don't think anyone could properly understand what it's like to be isolated alone online unless you do it yourself.
43:26Looking back on it, I'm really glad that I did the project.
43:33I think there are so many places out there still left to explore.
43:39There are so many challenges still left there.
43:41There are so many places that I personally haven't seen that the door is wide open and I can't wait.
43:46I can't wait.
43:48Yes!
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