Surviorman, Season 2, Ep 4: S. Africa

I could sit and watch it (it wasn't a bad episode), but it's the same thing he did last week (I didn't get much out of it).
 
Survivorman is a fake, Don't take anything too seriously on a tv "survival" hotel er... I mean show..
 
I personally think it was the weakest to date. It wasn't bad, but... it just didn't grab me.

The spear thing... I think he was seriously spooked by the lion pride, and he spent too much screen time fretting about it. Not sure how much of that was Les and how much of that was the editors, though. Don't blame him, they'd make nervous to, but it would be the buffalo that had me worried.

Does anyone know the filming sequence? Was this shot before or after the Amazon? I'm wondering if Les isn't a cat person. *chuckles*
 
Weakest to date, because I expected so much. All that metal on the hot air balloon / bic lighter thingie and he couldn't take the multitool to it to make a cup or bowl to boil water?

On the Hyundai (or whatever the commercial was) recap, it said Les came face to face with Rhinos and another animal maybe wilderbeast. Did anybody see that in the show or heard Les comment on it and I missed it?

I think that big knife on a stick was for Les' peace of mind. The hammock was a bit different for this show, but it seems to take Les a whole day to put it up. I know, editing. But he doesn't seem to get a lot done in 7 days.

And what does Les have against eating?
 
runningboar said:
I agree, I don't understand why these survivor guys, Les and Bear, need to travel so much. I for one would like to see a show where the host finds a good spot and hunkers down for a week hunting and foraging. The place Les was with the clear running stream seemed perfect. Chris
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That or atleast untill they find a place to hunker down. I mean, how many times am I going to be lost on an Island? That would be paradise for me, no one being bitchy at me, My own beachfront propority, Shite loads of food and enough fish to keep me going.

Seriously though, I wanna see one where they go over the things to REALLY help you out, like telling people where your going, knowing your area. How many people do you think would have been found if they just told people where they were going, for how long and stayed in one place and not ran around wasting energy?
 
All the books in the first Dies the Fire trilogy will be out in paperback as of this month (book 3 is out in PB next week). A new trilogy kicks off in October (in hardcover) with The Sunrise Lands.

I also recommend the companion trilogy that preceded Dies the Fire, which starts with Island in the Sea of Time.

From what I've read on sci-fi boards, Stirling is quite an eccentric but his writing is great. He doesn't seem to have lost his way like Orson Scott Card.
 
markhait said:
Last night was the first night I saw Survivorman. The hot air balloon with all those supplies and yet he drank un-treated water from a stream?! I mean, he had a lighter and knife and... tons of stuff. He said something like "clear water in a sandy stream" and proceeded to fill his bottle and drink from it. Man o man was that DUMB!!! This was the first time I watched Survivorman and also the last! What a stupid thing to do and even more so, what bad information he might have given someone.
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Grow a pair dorothy. You probably think man has been boiling water since the Peleolithic.

Sure there is a risk, but water polution comes from two major sources: bacterial growth and chemical run off (cities, farms, ect.)

If the water is swift moving, its probably low in bacterial count. If its miles away from any sort of city or industry (like in the middle of the African Bush) then its likely to be free from chemical contaminents.

If you come across a quick moving, crystal clear stream out in the middle of nowhere, sure there is a small risk but, its likely free from contaminents.

i look at it like this: why waste fuel, time, and energy boiling water that probably safe to drink like it is?

if all you can find is murky semi-stagnant slop then BY ALL MEANS boil it. boil it twice.
 
Interest in the show is starting to taper off for me as well. I remember thinking as I watched it that it could be so much more.:( I don't know what the heck he does with all his time, but he certainly is not setting up shelter 10-12 hours per day. Why doesn't he hunt? And who came up with the idea of him walking through lion and cape buffalo territory??? A few pro hunters with powerful rifles is dangerous enough, but Les out there all by his lonesome? And yet, IIRC, he did not run across a single mammal the entire time except for the fowl!!! Ok, the Arctic Circle maybe, but Africa???

I like the idea of him not having to travel so much. Don't they say to "stay put" if you get lost anyway?

How about these ideas for the show:

1. Tape up a hand or to simulate the loss of its use and show us how you survive that way.

2. Immobilize a leg or arm somehow, and have Les make a splint for it, and then work to survive that way.

3. Do shows that highlight techniques associated with a single survival skill. One could be for obtaining water, another for fishing, another for hunting, one for building shelter, starting fires, etc. This idea alone would probably easily carry the show for an entire season and you'd never see the same thing twice.

If done right, I think these would be far more educational AND entertaining AND still appeal to a wide audience.
 
I watched this ep a second time today and I noticed when he was waving around that Rambo knife that the sheath appeared to be made of pleather -- I'm sure I saw the characteristic "plastic fabric" on the inner surface of the sheath where the belt loop, uh, looped on itself.

So it *was* a Frost Cutlery-grade knife. :eek:
 
I saw the same thing. But, I also saw the previews of Friday's ep where he uses the 119 again in Alaska.
 
What good does it do to "SURVIVE" when you spend months, years, or even the rest of your life fighting parasites or disease you contract in the bush. All danger is not from bateria. Little demons like liver flukes live in other wise clear and swift running streams. They exist were ever there are grazing animals, snails and water.
That aside, a raging case of the creek water quick step can make even a well equipped camping trip a living hell. In a survival situation the loss of energy, salts and fluids from the screaming sh*ts can mean the difference between having the energy to make it out or not.

Despite what I have said about Les in the past I find his fondness for creek and mud puddle water distirbing to say the least.

I have come to the conclusion over the years that the three main aspects of kit are a reliable way to make fire, a stout, well handled blade, and a billy pot or container to boil water.

The rest is just comfort.
 
I just saw the episode and agree that it wasn't very good. Going without food for a week would suck and I wouldn't want to do it, but it is not really a life-threatening situation unless you had extenuating circumstances such as being a diabetic.

Each episode this season has basically been exactly the same. Watch Les sit around for seven days and not eat. Then watch him loudly stumble around and do something he calls hunting (I call it scaring off all game in a ten mile area) or fishing and apparently never come across any animals other than bugs, even though he spent time in game rich South Africa and the Amazon jungle. There are also way too many Blair Witch Project moments where he is scared out of his mind on the night vision camera.

He also seems to be taking very stupid risks, which are probably ratings driven. He never did this in the past seasons. I have no problem with someone noodling for catfish in Texas or Oklahoma where there is little risk and medical attention is nearby if something goes wrong, but I wouldn't want to do it in the Amazon River. I also don't mind rattlesnakes (never seen a black mamba in Texas), but I am not going to throw rocks at their burrows and poke around in them. I don't fear them, but I am not going to provoke them and piss them off either. That is not being brave, that is being stupid and ignorant. If a mamba wanted to strike at him, it would have been out of its hole and latched onto his leg before he even realized it was there. Thirty minutes later the series Survivorman would have been over.

I have seen each episode in both seasons and to the best of my recollection he has killed two mammals, a rabbit and a ground squirrel, one turtle, one rattlesnake and one frog (he ate really well in the Georgia Swamp episode). Other than those animals, it has been strictly invertebrates for Les. He doesn't have to eat because he knows he will be rescued in seven days. The show is still better than most of the crap on television, but I can't see it being renewed after this season unless major changes (and I doubt they would be good changes) are made. I also liked the show when it was in locations I had been to or at least been to a similar location. I have been to the Sonora Desert and been in the woods during the middle of winter. I doubt I will ever go to Africa or the Amazon. All that being said, I went to Alaska earlier this summer so I will be tuning in this Friday, just as I have the last four weeks. I won't stop watching the show, but I am certainly not looking forward to episode 2.5 as much as I was 2.1.
 
Having been to South Africa, I am certain he was on a game preserve and that the lions, if any were in the area, were well fed and not a real threat to him. Cape Buffalo are not agressive unless protecting young, provoked or wounded. Had he been in Kruger he would have had to carry a rifle due to the real danger of lions.
 
In this episode, he shows how useful a "patrol map" can be while in a survival situation. Basically, he makes camp and then goes out and finds some water. It looks like the water souce is quite a ways from camp. Apparently the patrol map will be useful in future trips to the water source. Why would he not pack up camp and move it to the water source, instead of waling back and forth to it? Seems like a waste of energy to me.
 
I didn't have a problem with this Episode. I think that Les tries to add something to each show that he may not necessarily do, but perhaps others have requested. I also like the fact that he does make mistakes, and he shows them to us. Very few people walk into the woods, or wherever, and do everything right. Experienced hikers and climbers get killed all the time, because they made mistakes. Les is about as real as it gets on tv, and he seems to occasionally add something in that he himself might not ordinarily do. The knife bit on this one seemed contrived, but probably because he very rarely takes a "belt" knife with him. The Buck 119 in the last show was the first time I remember seeing a fixed blade. I also figure he might have bought that knife in country on a whim to add a bit to the show, and he put it on the spear because otherwise he didn't need it. I figure most folks would do fine with the Machete and the multi-tool. Too many self proclaimed experts out there, who claim to never make mistakes, and as a result have a cavalier attitude about survival and their equipment. Equipment does not make the expert, knowledge does. Les makes mistakes, which makes him human, and it humanizes the experience of survival. I am sure there are few people who would do WELL surviving for 7 days. Very few people would expect to not be rescued within a day or two. We're not going to get something out of every show, because the basics are the same. Every once in a while he adds something to make it interesting. All in all I like the show, I get the impression he knows what he is doing, and I get the impression he is human, and shows us the human fallibility in nature.
 
JLB-MT said:
Having been to South Africa, I am certain he was on a game preserve and that the lions, if any were in the area, were well fed and not a real threat to him. Cape Buffalo are not agressive unless protecting young, provoked or wounded. Had he been in Kruger he would have had to carry a rifle due to the real danger of lions.
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I missed the episode and I'll try to catch the rerun. You're right about Kruger; step off the tar road and out of the lodge and its about as wild as you can get.
Its big (>7,000 sq. miles) and everything bites.

Aside from waterborne bacteria, bilharzia is always a concern at the lower elevations. Not typically fatal, but very debilitating.

GB
 
Les REALLY hate snakes. I mean the guy obsesses about them in almost every show (that's not in frozen Canada).

The Black Mamba
The Caped Cobra
Snake in that hole or this one.....

I like Les, and yea I would have put that knife on a stick to poke into an attacking lion from 4 feet away as opposed to on top of me. Have not caught this weeks yet so.....
 
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