I managed to get four episodes on tape and watched them yesterday (Sunday). A well made series with high production values.
I visited the Travel Channel website at
http://travel.discovery.com/ and after some looking found the series was not listed under "The Ultimate Survival Guide" but instead under "Best of 'On the Map.'" Not very user-friendly. Anyway, I checked their calendar for the next two weeks and the episodes were not listed, but perhaps they will show them again some time.
I did find out that the presenter was Ray (or Raymond) Mears. I have his book, "The Outdoor Survival Handbook" (1991, paperback). IMO it's a better than average, basic survival book. It's printed on inexpensive paper and would probably fall apart if it got wet, so it's not a book to pack along. Also the drawings are too big- why do they do that, other than to "pad" the thickness of the book? I suspect that publishers are responsible for the oversized graphics in survival books and not the authors. Inside the cover is the statement that the book was originally published in Great Britain under the title, "The Complete Outdoor Handbook."
I did a search on both Ray and Raymond Mears and found that he has a website: fttp://www.raymears.com/
I found out that he has made 3 or 4 tv series for the BBC on outdoor survival. Maybe those will be on American TV some day. Let's hope so.
The survival stories, both the successes (they lived) and the failures (they died), were very interesting.
The Craighead brothers, Frank and John, were shown. I have two copies (3d ed. and 4th ed.) of their book, "How to Survive on Land and Sea" which is published by the US Naval Institute. It was originally a World War Two survival manual and was first published in 1943. Very good book, but expensive- paid 35.00 USD for the 4th edition, I think. Much more info than that found in the FM 21-76. By the way, I would love to get the first edition (not necessarily the first printing) for my collection, if anyone has an extra copy
One man who was on the show, Steve Callahan, was adrift in the Pacific for 75 days and survived. I did a search and discovered he has written a book entitled "Adrift." I plan to get a copy.
The episodes showed at least two cases where travellers got their vehicles stuck. They attempted to get them free but then gave up trying. One man was in the Australian outback and had his wife and kids with him, and still gave up trying to free the vehicle. Why do people give up and just sit down and wait for someone to come looking for them? Says something about the mindset of some people. Fortunately they had plenty of food and water. A plane was sent to look for them and they were rescued after about 5 days.
In the other situation a German or Austrian tourist got stuck in soft sand in the Australian desert. He let air out of the tires, but not enough to get traction, and they didn't have a shovel with which to dig out. His woman companion tried to walk 60 kilometers to help. She got halfway and died. Other tourists found her body on the road a few days later. The police found the man, who was still alive because he had returned to the vehicle which contained many gallons of drinking water. The police officer let some more air out of the tires, and had the vehicle free in ten minutes. A real tragedy, and so needless.
Maurice, you asked about the bamboo fire saw. I've seen this before, but never tried it. I did a search on "fire saw" with
www.google.com and found info on the technique.
In summary, I thought the advice given was sound, and basic enough to be useful to the general public, ie, those people whose concept of survival is to dial 9-1-1 and then sit down and wait. I agree with others posting here- I would have liked more detail and info on gear, but it was a good step in the right direction.
Bill
