Expedition africa

Skunk Ape

Skunk Ape

Joined
Jun 26, 2007
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335
What knives are they using on Expedition Africa other than Benedict's khukri and the panga?
 
I haven't been able to focus on them because everyone on that (other than the Massai) show pisses me off.
 
That show focuses too much on the conflicts between the members. Beautiful landscape, though. I have not seen any significant knife use, but I have only watched for a few minutes per viewing.
 
The Massi just look at these guys like they are idiots. They have no concept of working together. The Massai know how to work as a group way better than these guys. I kind of get upset with how the navigator and the writer act sometimes. I saw the kukri last knight.
 
Billbo66 said:
That show focuses too much on the conflicts between the members. Beautiful landscape, though. I have not seen any significant knife use, but I have only watched for a few minutes per viewing.
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I thought the same thing, I wonder is Kevin has any insight about the parts that were edited out? Did they really act like this the whole time or are the editors focusing on the conflicts at this point? It seems ( from what I've seen of the show) that the editors are going to focus on how these folks come together to eventually get the job done.

This show does prove one point that I have been trying to get across to the people I work with on group projects for our classes. You must get the logistics right to begin with, every group needs a leader first thing. Then that leader needs to be the final voice in decisions.

David
 
I think the lady is toting a Kabar, with sheath kit.

Off topic: I was however amused by Benedict's sorely lacking fire building skills. You cover miles of turf in a day, and fail to gather ANY decent tinder along the way. Yes, the weather was damp, but the area wasn't waterlogged. He even fell back to the tampon, and I may have missed the result, but think that even failed? Correct me if that is wrong.

BKRHD
 
He was able to fire up the tampon at first, but the next stop he could'nt
 
The woman Mireya is cute and has a nice body. other than that I think the editors and perhaps the writers missed the boat on this one although being a Mark Burnett project I'm not too surprised. I bet they have some terrific footage on the cutting room floor
 
There's a lot of added drama. It's no different from any reality show. IMO, they're making it seem harder than it really is just to add drama.
 
beckerhead said:
Off topic: I was however amused by Benedict's sorely lacking fire building skills. You cover miles of turf in a day, and fail to gather ANY decent tinder along the way. Yes, the weather was damp, but the area wasn't waterlogged. He even fell back to the tampon, and I may have missed the result, but think that even failed? Correct me if that is wrong.

BKRHD
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I was shaking my head through this as well. And you would think that if the 1st time you had difficulties, you might not want to use all of your super-secret-weapon at once. And you mean to tell me, that the fire-provisions for the expedition were one guy and his firesteel :confused: Im sure one of the camera crew had a zippo on him.. let's be real.

As for the in-fighting - I suppose it is bound to happen when you throw people together into this kind of situation who have never worked together. I shy away from going on any 'real' hikes (let alone "expeditions") with strangers. What pissed me off was that essentially they were doing a mildly strenuous hike up a mountain, while the porters were carrying all the real weight - and were bitching about it. My motto is: Suck it up, especially if you are on T.V.
 
I'm enjoying the show, but Mark Burnett loves to create drama. If this was a PBS documentary, the four explorers would be very professional with one another and the show would have a whole different feel.

I also think this expedition would be the perfect job for a Fallkniven A1. :D

a1web.jpg
 
I have watched the first two shows and have been disappointed. Too much interpersonal stuff like Survivor Fiji type shows. Pretty stupid with the red robed warriors and porters. I guess we like Survivorman and they are targeting a different audience.

I wonder why the men all have long sleeve shirts and the woman seems to always have on sleeveless tees? (Rhetorical Question, I'm not that old).
 
I think that the show is geared toward the general dumbdown masses. You really don't want to educate people about basic survival skills, self reliance, independence. You have to focus on the bitchfests and interpersonal relationships to get people to watch. They want to see a fight, choose sides, discuss conflict. Just look at the popularity of soap operas. We take a different view. What is he wearing, which hat, which knife,compass,shoes. We take in much more that the average person. Same thing with a walk in the woods. We observe vegetation, scat, terrain, habitat. I will continue to watch. If anything, it will provide bad examples not to follow.
 
HornyToad said:
Too much interpersonal stuff like Survivor Fiji type shows.
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Good observation and no accident since it is the same producer, Mark Burnett. He's sure to be going for a much broader audience than the Survivorman crowd.
 
To clarify, I did the promos for the show after all the actual expedition footage was filmed. I only wish I could have been on the trip to advise but unfortunately, I wasn't. The show is still entertaining to me and I'll continue to watch. Keep in mind, the show needs ratings and like a car accident, drama is hard to avoid slowing down for.

On a side note and not to hijack this thread, what other expeditions would you like to see in the future? How about Sir Shackleton's expeditions to Antarctica. No low cut girly tops on that one unfortunately.
 
k_estela said:
To clarify, I did the promos for the show after all the actual expedition footage was filmed. I only wish I could have been on the trip to advise but unfortunately, I wasn't. The show is still entertaining to me and I'll continue to watch. Keep in mind, the show needs ratings and like a car accident, drama is hard to avoid slowing down for.

On a side note and not to hijack this thread, what other expeditions would you like to see in the future? How about Sir Shackleton's expeditions to Antarctica. No low cut girly tops on that one unfortunately.
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In a different thread, you said "I did not go to Africa but I did provide the technical advising to the show. I built propper shelters, fires, traps and the like and I can say the show is very accurate with little if any Hollywood distortion". I'm lost. Did you do advising for the show, or did you film after the show was already wrapped up?
 
Technical advising for the promo, not the actual series. Hope this clears it up.
 
I'm not much into the drama...but that is reality. I've done and observed so many small unit reaction drills where a small group must accomplish some task or puzzle (some pretty cool events here at Fort Hood). Because of the rank and sometimes strong A-type personalities, we always rotate and designate a leader for each event and they must direct all the required tasks to the other members...a team building exercise and requires creative thinking, getting feedback for your "subordinates" and decision making (of course all under a time limit). I dislike the Survivor series, but reality rears it's ugly head every time we have exercises or events like these on the Leader Reaction Courses.

If you can overlook the drama and wanker-measuring:eek:, it's a neat show that I'd like to see more of...following old expeditions; it gives you some insight to how difficult it was along with some of the major challenges they must have faced. I’ll bet Livingston had drama on his expedition as well…unfortunately, people haven’t changed over the years and drama is like shit to flies for most humans…I just ignore it and look for the few gold nuggets; not too mention, the filming is pretty decent.

Just think how much more difficult it would have been without the modern gear?

ROCK6
 
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