Survivorman's Secrets of Survival s01e03 Episode Script
Water
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Water For survival, there are few things as vital as water.
This water's not gonna do me any good at all, not if I actually want to drink it and live.
ONE MAN ALONE NO FOOD NO T.
V.
CREW Survivorman Secrets of Survival: Water people worry to the point of panic when it comes to being without food in a survival situation.
The real concern is water.
You can go a long time without food.
Three days without water, and you're flirting with death.
I've had to pick locations to survive in all around the world and in every type of terrain.
And what are the questions I ask first? Is there a good survival challenge I can take on? What kind of shelters would I make? What kind of food would I find or catch? What are the temperatures and what's the weather like? But before all of that, I'll stop myself from getting further into it and ask myself the most vital question What about water? Without water, survival is just not possible.
There is nothing like hot water.
Without water, nothing moves, nothing grows, nothing survives.
For the next hour, I'll give you my top-five ways of dealing with the problem that is water.
But first, let's take a look at some of my secrets of survival when it comes to the one element without which no one would survive past a week -- water.
It's impossible to tell if water is safe to drink just by looking at it, so you're left with one simple, yet very complicated decision -- do you drink the water, knowing you might make yourself horribly sick, or do you not drink the water, knowing you could die from dehydration? In papua new guinea, I had the challenge of drinking from 100 little streams without knowing what their origin was.
But I've learned that the jungle waters are much fresher than most people think.
Well, it tastes good enough, but there's no way of knowing whether or not it's filled with parasites, so the reality is, I'm pretty confident that this stream is clean and clear.
That's the surprising thing.
I think most people think that all streams and bodies of water are just crawling with giardia and parasites, but they're not.
This stream's probably just fine.
I've been drinking from streams in the jungle so far and there have been no problems, and then there are other times that I got sick, so hopefully this one won't make me sick.
Hoping is not a good way to get through a survival ordeal.
Sometimes you have to take note of the obvious signs of danger.
Now, that's pretty gross.
Dead animals in the water.
Animal feces and no doubt tons of animal urine all around it and in it, so this water's not gonna do me any good at all, not if I actually want to drink it and live.
This would be one of those times where I'd look at the water and say, "you know what? I'm opting for dehydration at the moment 'cause I don't want to drink out of here.
" Nasty and gnarly.
Australia offered me some pretty disgusting water during my week stranded in the outback, so I incorporated one of the lesser-known secrets of survival -- digging for water.
Still got another day to go here.
I've got to find some better water because I'm pretty parched at the moment.
When there's this much water around, and I can see that there is underground springs feeding it, then there's no reason not to dig for water.
Dig down a hole, let the water seep in, let it settle and clear, and at least it is the best of whatever water I can get in this area, and then take that and boil it.
You know, what people don't realize about things like cryptosporidium or giardia, other pathogens and diseases you can get from bad water, is that you don't have to drink it to get it.
You can just splash it in your eyes, get a little bit on your lips or in your ears from washing, and you can become infected.
So you've got to be real careful.
The secret here is that water tends to seep and move through the ground, and as it does, it often filters out a lot of the bad stuff.
So, this is definitely a good spot to get some water, not necessarily this muddy water.
So I want to be able to get fresh water out of this.
As you can see, it's pretty much just mud.
What I'm gonna do is dig myself a hole.
It's already starting to fill in with water.
It's really as simple as that.
If I had to, I could just simply drink this as it is.
But what I can do is, of course, use my bandanna.
Muddy water looks scary, but in the end, it's just dirt, and that's something our bodies can handle.
It's working.
Well, that ought to clean the system out.
In most places on the planet, on most warm nights, dew falls, and an incredible amount of drinkable water is sitting in the form of millions of droplets, just waiting to be collected and used to quench thirst.
A little secret like this can save a life.
I know it's not much, but believe it or not, that actually works.
So there.
Just by wiping down the deck of the boat, and you got to be careful because there's bird poop and stuff on the boat, but able to get some water.
A little drink can go a long way.
Water's gonna become really important pretty quick.
A favorite argument among survival experts is whether or not to drink seawater.
Some scientists have even performed experiments drinking only seawater.
But their calculations on how to do that were extensive and complicated.
The other thing I can do -- I'm only able to it a very, very small amount at a time -- take a mouthful of seawater That's disgusting.
You can't have too much of this stuff because it's very dangerous to intake seawater -- very, very dangerous.
If I take just a little mouthful a day, it actually puts a lot of minerals and nutrients into my body.
I would only do this because of the fact that I have some fresh water with me.
Without fresh water, drinking seawater alone would eventually kill me.
But this next method for obtaining drinking water is no secret.
It seems obvious.
The secret lies in having a way to catch it.
This is a fantastic by-product of getting rained on -- fresh, clean water.
Oh, I'm gonna guzzle up as much of this as I can.
Oh, yeah.
Benefits of rain.
Mmm.
Mm.
It's raining.
And it feels great.
I should see if I can find a way of capturing this water if it really starts to rain.
Rain has to be caught from a large area, and for that, I need a sheet of some kind.
I've got myself hopefully a bit of a rain catch.
And that's the trick of it.
You can't just stand around hoping to catch rain in your mouth like snowflakes.
Mmm.
Bonus water.
Thank you, clouds.
I don't know if you can see it, but there's a big, big pool of water down there.
In many deserts, there lies a little-known secret that all of the smooth rocks will funnel rain from large areas into small, concentrated pockets.
These were the places that the original natives of the areas came to get their constant water supply.
One of the best ways to get this water out of here is actually to get one of those cane reeds and just drink with a straw out of it.
The reason that I would drink out of a straw is because I can actually contaminate it with my own germs, so it's best to keep my human hands and face and lips and all that out of the water and let it stay fresh.
Oh-ho-ho, yeah.
It has a green tinge to it, but that's all right.
That's gonna be good.
Whoo! This is beautiful.
Oh! That's cold.
And it's good.
Here in the cook islands, I was able to take a bag meant to keep the water out of my supplies and turn it into a bag meant to keep the rainwater in.
No matter where I have to survive, if rain is one of my important water supplies, then one way or another, I need a rain catch.
And the benefit of it being something I brought with me is that I know it's already clean and free of animal feces and urine.
This rain catch is working fantastic for me.
This is the regulator.
I'm gonna sacrifice it.
Okay.
Excellent.
Tastes like rubber, but, hey, it's water.
Next I'll count down my top-five ways of handling the issue of water in a survival ordeal.
My list is based on years of becoming dehydrated or refreshed while spending my days concerned with finding a drink or concentrating on other aspects of survival because fresh water was all around me.
These are my secrets of survival.
There are places where water can be extremely difficult to find, and I have to take matters into my own hands.
I have to extract tiny amounts of water out of whatever is around me, including my own body.
It can be a daunting task.
The number-5 way to get water for survival -- making it.
How does someone actually make water? The most difficult way of all is extracting it from your own body.
And this remains a controversial topic thanks to the sensationalizing of it in the main media.
Survival experts know it's folly to drink your own urine straight.
Though it may offer some form of psychological comfort, it does little, if anything, to rehydrate you.
In fact, what you're doing is ingesting a concentrated liquid full of the toxins your body is trying to get rid of.
The other reality is that once you have come to the stage of being dehydrated and thinking that you can get a drink by urinating into a bottle, you won't have any urine to drink.
At best, it'll be a little dribble of tawny-brown urine.
The secret is to take this last bit of toxic pee and extract from it through distillation pure, drinkable water.
All right.
This is a urine still.
Basically, all I did was create a depression to put the cup, and then I peed around that depression, then I put the cup in, covered it over with this plastic, and as the urine evaporates, the distilled water will collect on the top of the plastic and drip down into the cup.
At least that's the hope.
I'm just trying to get the condensation to finish dripping, you know, down the plastic, let the bubbles of water collect and drip into the cup.
Little tiny bit of sand in there, but tastes like fresh, clean water to me.
There is just a tiny bit of water that I've collected using this tree solar still.
Well, for me right now, it's definitely better than nothing.
Mmm.
Oh! Just that tablespoon of water -- and an ant or two -- and just to feel the moisture in my mouth, on my lips.
That little bit, that helps.
Little by little, from my own urine to tree branches to seawater and palm leaves, it comes down to extracting water out of whatever is around me.
But the secret here is heat.
And the tropical sun is a good place to start.
Here in belize, I tried whatever I could -- green grass, palm leaves, and a gallon or two of ocean saltwater -- anything that'll release water vapor once it's heated by the sun so that I can collect that vapor on the underside of a sheet of plastic and focus the drip down into a cup.
A method like this can work continuously.
And in this instance, it has the added bonus of catching rainwater on the topside.
Smells fresh.
Oh.
It's warm, but it's fresh water.
Who'd have thought? It's only an ounce, but it's better than nothing.
So the solar still does work.
All it takes is time.
That's good.
I'm sitting here getting antsy and thinking about things, and I think I just had an idea.
There's a lot of junk on this beach.
There's just rope and tin cans and plastic and bottles everywhere.
We'll see if I can come up with a way to make water.
Using the sun as a passive water still, the next step would be finding a way to increase the heat, perhaps even to the point of boiling.
If I can then trap all the steam and collect it, it would make a much faster-working water still and provide me with enough fresh water to live on.
Let's see if I can make a water still, an active water still, not one that's just dependent on simple condensation.
Let's see if I can make one utilizing fire.
The secret, as it so often does, lies in what is around me.
What junk can I find to make myself something useful? For survival, necessity surely is the mother of invention.
I'm gonna have to create a little bit of a trough so I can feed the fire without having to lift off the bucket.
I'm gonna try and get a bend in this thing.
Ah! I'm trying to get a bend without crimping it.
Hmm.
That should work, actually.
Just trying to make the seal a little tighter by putting that material in there.
If you haven't caught on, what's gonna happen here, or what I hope to happen, is I'm gonna get a fire going underneath this bucket.
Saltwater will hopefully boil, come out through this pipe, steam will hopefully cool.
I'll have a cooling system down here.
So, I've got saltwater in the jar, and when this fills up with water, that should help to keep cooling the steam down.
So, a fire down in here Heats up the barrel, comes out the pipe, down into that bottle, cool water down below helps to condense the steam, and hopefully I get a drink of water.
Any survival technique that can work so I don't have to is a good one.
I don't know if you can hear this or not, but the kettle's boiling.
I'm short of the setup and simply adding driftwood to keep the fire going.
This method works on its own and help my very survival.
Look at that.
That's amazing.
That's basically one day's worth of distilling and whatever that is, 500 milliliters or so, of liquid.
And no salt.
Yes, indeed.
Mmm.
That's amazing.
I've always loved survival skills that keep working when you don't have to.
Making my own water is always difficult.
Wouldn't it be easier just to find existing water all around me? And that's my next secret to survival.
Water is key to survival, especially when you know you have a long time before being rescued or finding your way out.
Primitive peoples throughout the world have had to travel long distances between water sources, so they learn quickly where water exists, sometimes in unlikely places and in sources you would normally never consider as you trudge on past, looking for the next stream.
This vine looks familiar.
It's just like the grape vine from back home.
You know, all habitats have their plants that store water, and the costa rican jungle is no exception.
This is called water vine.
The number-4 way to get water for survival -- using water substitutes.
Plants and trees move a massive amount of water through their roots and up into their stems and leaves, even their nuts and seeds.
Knowing which plants can give me enough water to drink is one of my most valued secrets of survival.
So, what I'm doing here is, here's a stump.
It's already in position.
It's got some very sharp points on it.
So, maybe I can use this to get leverage to get into this coconut a safe way.
So, you just put it in once like that.
You don't keep jamming in.
Wiggle it in and then start to just push down on the other side of the coconut here.
In, wiggle, and push.
This simple method of getting the thick husk off is the secret of getting a drink fast with the least amount of effort.
Survivors, myself included, when first faced with a coconut husk, end up struggling needlessly without knowing this simple secret of tropical survival.
And all I have to do is pop in there.
There we go.
Oh.
I need this.
Not all of the plant water is as easy as drinking from a coconut.
Many of the plants hold great amounts of water, but it's necessary to squeeze the water from them.
The secret in all of these cases, of course, is plant identification, something you have to learn from a local expert before finding yourself lost and having to endure a survival ordeal.
Bushmen would come and cut into these roots and take the pulp and squeeze the water into their mouth.
And it feels juicy, feels wet.
Oh, yeah.
Look.
You can see the moisture.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah.
Lots of juice.
Like, I just got a mouthful of juice from that little bit.
Most of the water available in the slow-moving and stagnant waters of the swamp are undrinkable.
But there's always a drink hidden somewhere.
But this -- this is all wet right down here where there seems to be a bit of a break.
This is water vine.
If I cut this vine, it may give me -- see, it's even wet already just in the cutting of it.
Ow.
Okay, so, that should hopefully start juicing and dripping out.
The catch here is that it will take time.
The slow drip must be collected somewhere to be enough for a drink.
It can do its thing while I'm off trying to effect other aspects of survival, like catching food or making a shelter.
This is an absolute lifesaver.
There's ants in there.
That's okay.
That's just more protein.
Mmm.
Oh.
Water from plants has two sides to it.
On one hand, too much coconut water, and you begin to get the symptoms of diarrhea, the last thing you want to deal with during a survival ordeal.
On the other hand, plant juices can offer more than just plain water.
They can be filled with healthy nutrients, as it was in the case of my small island in the south pacific.
With some preparation taught to me by locals, I end up with a drink that is one day destined to be sold in health stores everywhere.
All right.
This is gonna be good.
Now, those roots that are like that, there are hundreds of them on this island.
If I can get maybe three or four of those a day and drink this healthful liquid, it's really good for getting liquid into my system and it's excellent for the heart.
Mmm.
It even tastes good.
All right, bob's getting a drink of water here.
We've got little pockets of water in this sphagnum moss, and there's two ways of doing this.
Either you can take the moss itself, squeeze, and drink and get beautiful fresh water, or like bob, just bend right down.
Now, you'd think that this water might be stagnant or even bad, but it's not.
It's all fresh rainwater that's just been collecting here in this sphagnum moss.
Nice and clean.
Did that taste good? Oh, it was fresh and beautiful.
In a case like this, the moss not only acted as a rain catch, but it'll hold this water with it available to be squeezed out for weeks.
Water from plants and trees is never an obvious thing.
Like knowing which plants you can eat, it's something that has to be taught by local experts.
It's as simple as that.
It's just a chop off of the vine and water just comes drizzling out.
And even using bamboo for the container.
You've got to chop both ends of it.
Otherwise if you just chop one end and wait underneath it, the suction holds the water in.
This way with this vine, just chop both off and all the water drains out.
Usually it's just the men that come out on the hunt, but this time out, women are with us because we're doing some gathering.
There we go.
Whoa.
Got a big -- lot of water in this one.
Now, this water is just great just to drink, but it's also very medicinal water.
If you have conjunctivitis or a fever, you can drink this water.
Very helpful, very good for you.
Mmm.
That's good.
That's very good.
And surprisingly, it's cold, too.
It's not cold here temperature-wise, but the vine water's cold.
It's beautiful.
These methods can be great for getting a drink of water, but they require strong knowledge of local plant life acquired from people for whom the secrets to survival are just part of everyday living.
Sometimes there's water all around me, so I can get a drink easily enough.
But my number-3 choice on the list makes it all drinkable.
This water, I mean, it looks awfully scummy, and who knows how many pathogens are lurking in here.
I'm gonna see if I can find another way of getting water 'cause the last thing I really want to do is drink this stuff.
The number-3 way to get water for survival -- boil it.
Survival instructors who've seen my work often implore me to please boil all my water.
Well, the truth is, it's just not always possible, but they're right.
Whenever it is possible, boiling can make some of the most disgusting water safe to drink.
You know, until now, I've just been drinking water fresh from the river, and trust me, I've been paying for it.
And then it occurred to me that I can do something else with this pop can.
Here we go.
And now, thankfully, have something to boil water in.
And this is a secret of survival -- always making sure you have something metal that you can use to boil water in.
Mmm.
Oh.
Wow.
Nicely boiled water.
Oh, my god.
That makes you feel human again.
Survival instructors don't like to admit this next point, but you don't really have to get a rolling boil or let it boil for five minutes.
Pretty much everything you want to kill is dead by the time the water simply begins to boil.
You just have to get used to the fact that you're drinking possibly hundreds of little dead bodies of who knows what.
Well, I've tried this before, and I've actually burned a hole through the bottom.
No surprise there.
But I've also had it be successful for me, too.
I was down earlier washing my hands and my face in the stream, and, you know, that's all it can take sometimes to get giardia.
And in these streams there could be giardia or cryptosporidium, so I want to be real careful.
So I'm going to attempt to see if I can boil this water in this water bladder here without burning through.
In theory, it should work.
The secret here is using plastic that's thick enough and then making sure that the flames don't lick up the side and onto any spot where there's no water on the inside.
This is why a metal pot is so much better for survival.
Well, this is not a good sign.
Man, I tried, I tried.
There's my leak.
Well, that's too bad.
I was just about to turn the cameras on because it was starting to rumble and boil.
So I've got a small pinhole leak, but I have purified this water.
Well, I'll drink this up.
I can probably reuse this and get another boil on just as long as I keep the pinhole to the top.
It looks like, obviously, if I'm gonna make this work, I can't let the flames get anywhere near the bag at all.
With plastic, sometimes you can let the flames just lick the bottom, but this is pretty thin, so I think it's always got to be done by pools, and then I can bring the water to a boil in a bladder bag like this.
And that way, I can purify the water and keep the giardia out of my system.
If there's water here, then here's where I'm gonna stay.
Now, see this? Canes like this grow for a reason.
They need more water than the cactus or a lot of these shrubs around here.
I'm gonna check it out.
All right.
This is looking even better now.
Well, actually, this looks pretty sludgy.
It's not really water I'm gonna want to drink just the way it is, but it's promising.
So, if this is like this here, then I'm gonna go up into the canes and the reeds and just dig and see if I can get some better, fresher water there.
If not, I've got this dripping source here.
It's looking pretty slimy.
I'm gonna want to boil this water first.
Let's go up into the canes themselves, see what I can find.
The thing about water is this -- it's usually not what you can see in the water, although dead animals are a good warning sign, it's mostly what you can't see.
The tiny, deadly pathogens and parasites that find their home in any kind of water or come within the bodies of little swimming insects, these are the creatures that, once inside our own bodies, can cause everything from diarrhea to fevers and flus to death.
And this is why, if you're truly unsure in trying to secure good drinking water, it's the best method for making sure that it's safe.
Oh, yeah.
It boiled.
Mmm.
Wow, that's good.
First of all, it's good just to have boiled water.
When you're out in a situation like this, you go so long without anything that's ice-cold or anything that's nice and steamy hot, so to get boiled water is already a godsend.
Just to get water at all in a place like this is a big thing.
Water will never cease from being a major concern when it comes to survival.
And it's not just when it's hot.
Dehydration can kill you no matter what the temperature is.
My next method for obtaining water made number 2 on the list because it's one of my favorite sources of water.
My biggest concern, of course, is the cold.
Of course, I've got to see about getting some food and I can rehydrate myself just by eating snow for now.
Everyone says, "don't do it.
Don't eat snow.
" Well, I don't have any water, so I'm eating snow.
The number-2 way to get water for survival -- eat snow.
I've read the warnings in survival manuals such as, "you'll cut your mouth membranes.
" "It'll cool you down too much.
" Well, both of those things are true about eating snow, and the cooling-down warning is important for when it gets later in the day, but neither of those will stop me from eating snow midday in a survival ordeal because I know I need the hydration most importantly.
Dehydration can offer you a fast road to hypothermia, and both are killers.
I'll take the cuts on my tongue so long as I stay alive.
I've been eating snow for my water intake because the only water around here is either frozen or salty coming up through the cracks.
Now, a lot of books warn, "don't eat the snow.
It damages the membranes.
It cools you down.
" Well, you know what? It's very true.
And if I was just about to go to sleep or crawl into an igloo, then, yeah, I wouldn't eat snow.
It would cool me down, but during the day, when I'm working this hard, eating the cold snow is helping to keep me from sweating, so personally, I don't have a big problem with it.
I'm just gonna come up here.
There's some snow right down almost to the water's edge here.
I'm gonna get some fresh water.
That's interesting.
Mmm.
Oh.
That's good.
Scrape down just a little bit and lots of good fresh snow here.
Can't drink the ocean water, so That's a great way to get rehydrated.
Now, it does follow that the better way to intake snow water is to heat it up.
And although it's been suggested to warm it in the mouth before swallowing, I find that somewhat unrealistic on an ongoing basis.
No, it's much better, when it's possible, to heat it up in a pot.
Oh, man.
There is nothing like hot water.
Mmm.
I'm gonna put a bunch of snow into this coffee tin.
One of my secrets is to infuse water with medicinal plants to get vitamins as an aid to survival.
Oh, yeah.
That's well worth it.
My water on to boil.
And there's still some leftover caribou fat that had solidified and was on the insides of the pot.
That's great.
It's gonna make it a bit of a broth for me.
This time I'm gonna add in some spruce.
And as well, I'm gonna throw in some willow.
Willow is actually also good if you've got a headache, too.
Many evergreen tree needles are a good source of vitamin c, and broth is still by far the best way to have a survival meal.
Nothing is wasted, so I rarely will boil water without adding to it from the natural surroundings.
This has got some residual caribou broth in it, spruce needles, and willow twigs.
And it's healthful and makes me feel fantastic.
That's all I can say.
I'm gonna throw a couple of spruce twigs into the water.
There's vitamin c in evergreen needles.
Oh.
Oh, that's good.
Mmm.
I can taste the spruce needles in the water.
A little turpentiney, but it takes the blandness out of it just being hot water.
It's so important to rehydrate.
This is a perfect blend of the old meeting the new.
Come over here, chip off a piece of ice that's thousands of years old.
That'll do.
Perhaps there is nothing more pure than water that is locked within an iceberg.
The inuit know that the ice from the icebergs just make the best tea.
They drink a lot of tea here.
Now, this would normally be a fantastic find.
Not necessarily so in a place like this.
Let me explain why.
Normally I'd be quite thrilled to find this much snow because it would represent for me some great fresh water, but here in the colorado rocky mountains, these patches of snow that are left behind in the late spring and early summer, if you see a red, kind of watermelon-colored tinge to the top of them and you eat that snow, you're in for some serious stomach and bowel problems.
Not quite certain what it is, whether it's bacterial or fungal, but I'll tell you, it's the one thing you do not want to eat out here is snow with a slightly red tinge to it.
It will make you sick for quite a while.
One way to get around it, if you really must, and it's the only way to get some water for survival is to simply get rid of the top layers, get away from anything that looks like it might have color to it.
Oh, yeah.
Mmm.
Oh, man.
Cold water In a very dry place.
That goes down nicely.
So what would be my number-1 way for obtaining water for survival? The answer lies within, "what's the easiest?" Because reducing struggle is one of the greatest secrets to survival.
I don't want to have to work at surviving.
I want to find natural shelters, harvest lots of easily picked wild edibles, follow along well-worn trails because it's the struggle to survive that eventually beats us down.
When it comes to water, I want it fresh, safe, and all around me.
Staying hydrated, just vital in the winter bush.
It's hard to do.
You don't think about drinking water 'cause you're around all this snow.
But dehydrated out here can lead to hypothermia.
The number-1 way to get water in a survival situation -- finding it fresh.
This was a no-brainer for my number-1 method.
If I can stop when I need and drink copiously from fresh, available sources, I take out of the survival equation the need for water.
I remove that constant concern that I'll dehydrate and end up with painful, debilitating migraines.
Surviving becomes much more possible, and I can concentrate on staying out of the elements, building shelters, starting a fire, or finding food -- survival actions that otherwise all take a back seat to finding water.
I research well to know where I can find water wherever I find myself having to survive.
I know ahead of time what the odds are and whether or not they're stacked against me.
I'm still taking my chances drinking from a stream like this but that's good.
The blastocysts and the amoebas and the type of parasites that can happen in these waters can lay you up for months in the hospital.
So I'm definitely taking my chances.
But dehydration is a lot more immediate at the moment.
Whoo! Oh.
And the water is wonderfully cold.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's much better.
It brings life right back into you.
Unlike a lot of places I've been, giardia is not very prevalent in the arctic.
The water is all fresh and clean coming straight from glaciers.
I'm looking down there, and I think I can hear the sound of water.
I think I might have found myself a nice little gorge to get down into.
I can see the type of vegetation -- it's called a riparian zone, where I'm starting to see sycamore, and I've been walking through all this mesquite, so there's been a change.
I think I might have found my new home.
I can hear the water.
I can smell the water.
It smells fresh and clean.
The topography of a landscape can betray the existence of water.
The secret is that certain trees or bushes that require enough water to live on can point the way to ponds and streams.
The classic oasis in the desert is a real thing.
And from far away, just noticing the depression in a landscape can give you a good idea where to go to find fresh water.
This little paradise is about five miles and a few hills from my first camp.
And of course, because I have too much camera gear, I had to hike it twice just to get all the gear here.
But I'll tell you.
This little desert creek, man, this is a sight for sore eyes.
This is like shangri-la.
It won't matter how fancy or well-built your shelter is if you don't have water.
It won't matter that you've caught a dozen fish or found a field of edible wilds if you don't have water.
And if your rescuers won't find you for over a week, then the chances of greeting them with a sigh of relief become small as the odds stack against you.
Water is the elixir of life.
It's the energy that flows throughout our planet.
I keep a tradition, and it's this -- whenever I come to a new place, I seek out a stream to drink from directly.
I get down on my hands and knees and take in the water with the intent of feeling connected to this place.
I feel the life-giving energy of the water as it quenches my thirst, and I know that from that moment on, I'll always have a connection to the land because the energy that flows within it and keeps it alive is now flowing within me Cold and fresh.
and becomes my secret to survival.
Oh, that's good.
There's a lot of fresh water around here.
It's a good thing, too.
Otherwise, I'd be reduced to probably having to drink my own pee.
Yeah, right.
Some scenes may contain graphic content, language and nudity which may not be suitable for all audience.
Viewer discretion is strongly advised.
Water For survival, there are few things as vital as water.
This water's not gonna do me any good at all, not if I actually want to drink it and live.
ONE MAN ALONE NO FOOD NO T.
V.
CREW Survivorman Secrets of Survival: Water people worry to the point of panic when it comes to being without food in a survival situation.
The real concern is water.
You can go a long time without food.
Three days without water, and you're flirting with death.
I've had to pick locations to survive in all around the world and in every type of terrain.
And what are the questions I ask first? Is there a good survival challenge I can take on? What kind of shelters would I make? What kind of food would I find or catch? What are the temperatures and what's the weather like? But before all of that, I'll stop myself from getting further into it and ask myself the most vital question What about water? Without water, survival is just not possible.
There is nothing like hot water.
Without water, nothing moves, nothing grows, nothing survives.
For the next hour, I'll give you my top-five ways of dealing with the problem that is water.
But first, let's take a look at some of my secrets of survival when it comes to the one element without which no one would survive past a week -- water.
It's impossible to tell if water is safe to drink just by looking at it, so you're left with one simple, yet very complicated decision -- do you drink the water, knowing you might make yourself horribly sick, or do you not drink the water, knowing you could die from dehydration? In papua new guinea, I had the challenge of drinking from 100 little streams without knowing what their origin was.
But I've learned that the jungle waters are much fresher than most people think.
Well, it tastes good enough, but there's no way of knowing whether or not it's filled with parasites, so the reality is, I'm pretty confident that this stream is clean and clear.
That's the surprising thing.
I think most people think that all streams and bodies of water are just crawling with giardia and parasites, but they're not.
This stream's probably just fine.
I've been drinking from streams in the jungle so far and there have been no problems, and then there are other times that I got sick, so hopefully this one won't make me sick.
Hoping is not a good way to get through a survival ordeal.
Sometimes you have to take note of the obvious signs of danger.
Now, that's pretty gross.
Dead animals in the water.
Animal feces and no doubt tons of animal urine all around it and in it, so this water's not gonna do me any good at all, not if I actually want to drink it and live.
This would be one of those times where I'd look at the water and say, "you know what? I'm opting for dehydration at the moment 'cause I don't want to drink out of here.
" Nasty and gnarly.
Australia offered me some pretty disgusting water during my week stranded in the outback, so I incorporated one of the lesser-known secrets of survival -- digging for water.
Still got another day to go here.
I've got to find some better water because I'm pretty parched at the moment.
When there's this much water around, and I can see that there is underground springs feeding it, then there's no reason not to dig for water.
Dig down a hole, let the water seep in, let it settle and clear, and at least it is the best of whatever water I can get in this area, and then take that and boil it.
You know, what people don't realize about things like cryptosporidium or giardia, other pathogens and diseases you can get from bad water, is that you don't have to drink it to get it.
You can just splash it in your eyes, get a little bit on your lips or in your ears from washing, and you can become infected.
So you've got to be real careful.
The secret here is that water tends to seep and move through the ground, and as it does, it often filters out a lot of the bad stuff.
So, this is definitely a good spot to get some water, not necessarily this muddy water.
So I want to be able to get fresh water out of this.
As you can see, it's pretty much just mud.
What I'm gonna do is dig myself a hole.
It's already starting to fill in with water.
It's really as simple as that.
If I had to, I could just simply drink this as it is.
But what I can do is, of course, use my bandanna.
Muddy water looks scary, but in the end, it's just dirt, and that's something our bodies can handle.
It's working.
Well, that ought to clean the system out.
In most places on the planet, on most warm nights, dew falls, and an incredible amount of drinkable water is sitting in the form of millions of droplets, just waiting to be collected and used to quench thirst.
A little secret like this can save a life.
I know it's not much, but believe it or not, that actually works.
So there.
Just by wiping down the deck of the boat, and you got to be careful because there's bird poop and stuff on the boat, but able to get some water.
A little drink can go a long way.
Water's gonna become really important pretty quick.
A favorite argument among survival experts is whether or not to drink seawater.
Some scientists have even performed experiments drinking only seawater.
But their calculations on how to do that were extensive and complicated.
The other thing I can do -- I'm only able to it a very, very small amount at a time -- take a mouthful of seawater That's disgusting.
You can't have too much of this stuff because it's very dangerous to intake seawater -- very, very dangerous.
If I take just a little mouthful a day, it actually puts a lot of minerals and nutrients into my body.
I would only do this because of the fact that I have some fresh water with me.
Without fresh water, drinking seawater alone would eventually kill me.
But this next method for obtaining drinking water is no secret.
It seems obvious.
The secret lies in having a way to catch it.
This is a fantastic by-product of getting rained on -- fresh, clean water.
Oh, I'm gonna guzzle up as much of this as I can.
Oh, yeah.
Benefits of rain.
Mmm.
Mm.
It's raining.
And it feels great.
I should see if I can find a way of capturing this water if it really starts to rain.
Rain has to be caught from a large area, and for that, I need a sheet of some kind.
I've got myself hopefully a bit of a rain catch.
And that's the trick of it.
You can't just stand around hoping to catch rain in your mouth like snowflakes.
Mmm.
Bonus water.
Thank you, clouds.
I don't know if you can see it, but there's a big, big pool of water down there.
In many deserts, there lies a little-known secret that all of the smooth rocks will funnel rain from large areas into small, concentrated pockets.
These were the places that the original natives of the areas came to get their constant water supply.
One of the best ways to get this water out of here is actually to get one of those cane reeds and just drink with a straw out of it.
The reason that I would drink out of a straw is because I can actually contaminate it with my own germs, so it's best to keep my human hands and face and lips and all that out of the water and let it stay fresh.
Oh-ho-ho, yeah.
It has a green tinge to it, but that's all right.
That's gonna be good.
Whoo! This is beautiful.
Oh! That's cold.
And it's good.
Here in the cook islands, I was able to take a bag meant to keep the water out of my supplies and turn it into a bag meant to keep the rainwater in.
No matter where I have to survive, if rain is one of my important water supplies, then one way or another, I need a rain catch.
And the benefit of it being something I brought with me is that I know it's already clean and free of animal feces and urine.
This rain catch is working fantastic for me.
This is the regulator.
I'm gonna sacrifice it.
Okay.
Excellent.
Tastes like rubber, but, hey, it's water.
Next I'll count down my top-five ways of handling the issue of water in a survival ordeal.
My list is based on years of becoming dehydrated or refreshed while spending my days concerned with finding a drink or concentrating on other aspects of survival because fresh water was all around me.
These are my secrets of survival.
There are places where water can be extremely difficult to find, and I have to take matters into my own hands.
I have to extract tiny amounts of water out of whatever is around me, including my own body.
It can be a daunting task.
The number-5 way to get water for survival -- making it.
How does someone actually make water? The most difficult way of all is extracting it from your own body.
And this remains a controversial topic thanks to the sensationalizing of it in the main media.
Survival experts know it's folly to drink your own urine straight.
Though it may offer some form of psychological comfort, it does little, if anything, to rehydrate you.
In fact, what you're doing is ingesting a concentrated liquid full of the toxins your body is trying to get rid of.
The other reality is that once you have come to the stage of being dehydrated and thinking that you can get a drink by urinating into a bottle, you won't have any urine to drink.
At best, it'll be a little dribble of tawny-brown urine.
The secret is to take this last bit of toxic pee and extract from it through distillation pure, drinkable water.
All right.
This is a urine still.
Basically, all I did was create a depression to put the cup, and then I peed around that depression, then I put the cup in, covered it over with this plastic, and as the urine evaporates, the distilled water will collect on the top of the plastic and drip down into the cup.
At least that's the hope.
I'm just trying to get the condensation to finish dripping, you know, down the plastic, let the bubbles of water collect and drip into the cup.
Little tiny bit of sand in there, but tastes like fresh, clean water to me.
There is just a tiny bit of water that I've collected using this tree solar still.
Well, for me right now, it's definitely better than nothing.
Mmm.
Oh! Just that tablespoon of water -- and an ant or two -- and just to feel the moisture in my mouth, on my lips.
That little bit, that helps.
Little by little, from my own urine to tree branches to seawater and palm leaves, it comes down to extracting water out of whatever is around me.
But the secret here is heat.
And the tropical sun is a good place to start.
Here in belize, I tried whatever I could -- green grass, palm leaves, and a gallon or two of ocean saltwater -- anything that'll release water vapor once it's heated by the sun so that I can collect that vapor on the underside of a sheet of plastic and focus the drip down into a cup.
A method like this can work continuously.
And in this instance, it has the added bonus of catching rainwater on the topside.
Smells fresh.
Oh.
It's warm, but it's fresh water.
Who'd have thought? It's only an ounce, but it's better than nothing.
So the solar still does work.
All it takes is time.
That's good.
I'm sitting here getting antsy and thinking about things, and I think I just had an idea.
There's a lot of junk on this beach.
There's just rope and tin cans and plastic and bottles everywhere.
We'll see if I can come up with a way to make water.
Using the sun as a passive water still, the next step would be finding a way to increase the heat, perhaps even to the point of boiling.
If I can then trap all the steam and collect it, it would make a much faster-working water still and provide me with enough fresh water to live on.
Let's see if I can make a water still, an active water still, not one that's just dependent on simple condensation.
Let's see if I can make one utilizing fire.
The secret, as it so often does, lies in what is around me.
What junk can I find to make myself something useful? For survival, necessity surely is the mother of invention.
I'm gonna have to create a little bit of a trough so I can feed the fire without having to lift off the bucket.
I'm gonna try and get a bend in this thing.
Ah! I'm trying to get a bend without crimping it.
Hmm.
That should work, actually.
Just trying to make the seal a little tighter by putting that material in there.
If you haven't caught on, what's gonna happen here, or what I hope to happen, is I'm gonna get a fire going underneath this bucket.
Saltwater will hopefully boil, come out through this pipe, steam will hopefully cool.
I'll have a cooling system down here.
So, I've got saltwater in the jar, and when this fills up with water, that should help to keep cooling the steam down.
So, a fire down in here Heats up the barrel, comes out the pipe, down into that bottle, cool water down below helps to condense the steam, and hopefully I get a drink of water.
Any survival technique that can work so I don't have to is a good one.
I don't know if you can hear this or not, but the kettle's boiling.
I'm short of the setup and simply adding driftwood to keep the fire going.
This method works on its own and help my very survival.
Look at that.
That's amazing.
That's basically one day's worth of distilling and whatever that is, 500 milliliters or so, of liquid.
And no salt.
Yes, indeed.
Mmm.
That's amazing.
I've always loved survival skills that keep working when you don't have to.
Making my own water is always difficult.
Wouldn't it be easier just to find existing water all around me? And that's my next secret to survival.
Water is key to survival, especially when you know you have a long time before being rescued or finding your way out.
Primitive peoples throughout the world have had to travel long distances between water sources, so they learn quickly where water exists, sometimes in unlikely places and in sources you would normally never consider as you trudge on past, looking for the next stream.
This vine looks familiar.
It's just like the grape vine from back home.
You know, all habitats have their plants that store water, and the costa rican jungle is no exception.
This is called water vine.
The number-4 way to get water for survival -- using water substitutes.
Plants and trees move a massive amount of water through their roots and up into their stems and leaves, even their nuts and seeds.
Knowing which plants can give me enough water to drink is one of my most valued secrets of survival.
So, what I'm doing here is, here's a stump.
It's already in position.
It's got some very sharp points on it.
So, maybe I can use this to get leverage to get into this coconut a safe way.
So, you just put it in once like that.
You don't keep jamming in.
Wiggle it in and then start to just push down on the other side of the coconut here.
In, wiggle, and push.
This simple method of getting the thick husk off is the secret of getting a drink fast with the least amount of effort.
Survivors, myself included, when first faced with a coconut husk, end up struggling needlessly without knowing this simple secret of tropical survival.
And all I have to do is pop in there.
There we go.
Oh.
I need this.
Not all of the plant water is as easy as drinking from a coconut.
Many of the plants hold great amounts of water, but it's necessary to squeeze the water from them.
The secret in all of these cases, of course, is plant identification, something you have to learn from a local expert before finding yourself lost and having to endure a survival ordeal.
Bushmen would come and cut into these roots and take the pulp and squeeze the water into their mouth.
And it feels juicy, feels wet.
Oh, yeah.
Look.
You can see the moisture.
Mmm.
Oh, yeah.
Lots of juice.
Like, I just got a mouthful of juice from that little bit.
Most of the water available in the slow-moving and stagnant waters of the swamp are undrinkable.
But there's always a drink hidden somewhere.
But this -- this is all wet right down here where there seems to be a bit of a break.
This is water vine.
If I cut this vine, it may give me -- see, it's even wet already just in the cutting of it.
Ow.
Okay, so, that should hopefully start juicing and dripping out.
The catch here is that it will take time.
The slow drip must be collected somewhere to be enough for a drink.
It can do its thing while I'm off trying to effect other aspects of survival, like catching food or making a shelter.
This is an absolute lifesaver.
There's ants in there.
That's okay.
That's just more protein.
Mmm.
Oh.
Water from plants has two sides to it.
On one hand, too much coconut water, and you begin to get the symptoms of diarrhea, the last thing you want to deal with during a survival ordeal.
On the other hand, plant juices can offer more than just plain water.
They can be filled with healthy nutrients, as it was in the case of my small island in the south pacific.
With some preparation taught to me by locals, I end up with a drink that is one day destined to be sold in health stores everywhere.
All right.
This is gonna be good.
Now, those roots that are like that, there are hundreds of them on this island.
If I can get maybe three or four of those a day and drink this healthful liquid, it's really good for getting liquid into my system and it's excellent for the heart.
Mmm.
It even tastes good.
All right, bob's getting a drink of water here.
We've got little pockets of water in this sphagnum moss, and there's two ways of doing this.
Either you can take the moss itself, squeeze, and drink and get beautiful fresh water, or like bob, just bend right down.
Now, you'd think that this water might be stagnant or even bad, but it's not.
It's all fresh rainwater that's just been collecting here in this sphagnum moss.
Nice and clean.
Did that taste good? Oh, it was fresh and beautiful.
In a case like this, the moss not only acted as a rain catch, but it'll hold this water with it available to be squeezed out for weeks.
Water from plants and trees is never an obvious thing.
Like knowing which plants you can eat, it's something that has to be taught by local experts.
It's as simple as that.
It's just a chop off of the vine and water just comes drizzling out.
And even using bamboo for the container.
You've got to chop both ends of it.
Otherwise if you just chop one end and wait underneath it, the suction holds the water in.
This way with this vine, just chop both off and all the water drains out.
Usually it's just the men that come out on the hunt, but this time out, women are with us because we're doing some gathering.
There we go.
Whoa.
Got a big -- lot of water in this one.
Now, this water is just great just to drink, but it's also very medicinal water.
If you have conjunctivitis or a fever, you can drink this water.
Very helpful, very good for you.
Mmm.
That's good.
That's very good.
And surprisingly, it's cold, too.
It's not cold here temperature-wise, but the vine water's cold.
It's beautiful.
These methods can be great for getting a drink of water, but they require strong knowledge of local plant life acquired from people for whom the secrets to survival are just part of everyday living.
Sometimes there's water all around me, so I can get a drink easily enough.
But my number-3 choice on the list makes it all drinkable.
This water, I mean, it looks awfully scummy, and who knows how many pathogens are lurking in here.
I'm gonna see if I can find another way of getting water 'cause the last thing I really want to do is drink this stuff.
The number-3 way to get water for survival -- boil it.
Survival instructors who've seen my work often implore me to please boil all my water.
Well, the truth is, it's just not always possible, but they're right.
Whenever it is possible, boiling can make some of the most disgusting water safe to drink.
You know, until now, I've just been drinking water fresh from the river, and trust me, I've been paying for it.
And then it occurred to me that I can do something else with this pop can.
Here we go.
And now, thankfully, have something to boil water in.
And this is a secret of survival -- always making sure you have something metal that you can use to boil water in.
Mmm.
Oh.
Wow.
Nicely boiled water.
Oh, my god.
That makes you feel human again.
Survival instructors don't like to admit this next point, but you don't really have to get a rolling boil or let it boil for five minutes.
Pretty much everything you want to kill is dead by the time the water simply begins to boil.
You just have to get used to the fact that you're drinking possibly hundreds of little dead bodies of who knows what.
Well, I've tried this before, and I've actually burned a hole through the bottom.
No surprise there.
But I've also had it be successful for me, too.
I was down earlier washing my hands and my face in the stream, and, you know, that's all it can take sometimes to get giardia.
And in these streams there could be giardia or cryptosporidium, so I want to be real careful.
So I'm going to attempt to see if I can boil this water in this water bladder here without burning through.
In theory, it should work.
The secret here is using plastic that's thick enough and then making sure that the flames don't lick up the side and onto any spot where there's no water on the inside.
This is why a metal pot is so much better for survival.
Well, this is not a good sign.
Man, I tried, I tried.
There's my leak.
Well, that's too bad.
I was just about to turn the cameras on because it was starting to rumble and boil.
So I've got a small pinhole leak, but I have purified this water.
Well, I'll drink this up.
I can probably reuse this and get another boil on just as long as I keep the pinhole to the top.
It looks like, obviously, if I'm gonna make this work, I can't let the flames get anywhere near the bag at all.
With plastic, sometimes you can let the flames just lick the bottom, but this is pretty thin, so I think it's always got to be done by pools, and then I can bring the water to a boil in a bladder bag like this.
And that way, I can purify the water and keep the giardia out of my system.
If there's water here, then here's where I'm gonna stay.
Now, see this? Canes like this grow for a reason.
They need more water than the cactus or a lot of these shrubs around here.
I'm gonna check it out.
All right.
This is looking even better now.
Well, actually, this looks pretty sludgy.
It's not really water I'm gonna want to drink just the way it is, but it's promising.
So, if this is like this here, then I'm gonna go up into the canes and the reeds and just dig and see if I can get some better, fresher water there.
If not, I've got this dripping source here.
It's looking pretty slimy.
I'm gonna want to boil this water first.
Let's go up into the canes themselves, see what I can find.
The thing about water is this -- it's usually not what you can see in the water, although dead animals are a good warning sign, it's mostly what you can't see.
The tiny, deadly pathogens and parasites that find their home in any kind of water or come within the bodies of little swimming insects, these are the creatures that, once inside our own bodies, can cause everything from diarrhea to fevers and flus to death.
And this is why, if you're truly unsure in trying to secure good drinking water, it's the best method for making sure that it's safe.
Oh, yeah.
It boiled.
Mmm.
Wow, that's good.
First of all, it's good just to have boiled water.
When you're out in a situation like this, you go so long without anything that's ice-cold or anything that's nice and steamy hot, so to get boiled water is already a godsend.
Just to get water at all in a place like this is a big thing.
Water will never cease from being a major concern when it comes to survival.
And it's not just when it's hot.
Dehydration can kill you no matter what the temperature is.
My next method for obtaining water made number 2 on the list because it's one of my favorite sources of water.
My biggest concern, of course, is the cold.
Of course, I've got to see about getting some food and I can rehydrate myself just by eating snow for now.
Everyone says, "don't do it.
Don't eat snow.
" Well, I don't have any water, so I'm eating snow.
The number-2 way to get water for survival -- eat snow.
I've read the warnings in survival manuals such as, "you'll cut your mouth membranes.
" "It'll cool you down too much.
" Well, both of those things are true about eating snow, and the cooling-down warning is important for when it gets later in the day, but neither of those will stop me from eating snow midday in a survival ordeal because I know I need the hydration most importantly.
Dehydration can offer you a fast road to hypothermia, and both are killers.
I'll take the cuts on my tongue so long as I stay alive.
I've been eating snow for my water intake because the only water around here is either frozen or salty coming up through the cracks.
Now, a lot of books warn, "don't eat the snow.
It damages the membranes.
It cools you down.
" Well, you know what? It's very true.
And if I was just about to go to sleep or crawl into an igloo, then, yeah, I wouldn't eat snow.
It would cool me down, but during the day, when I'm working this hard, eating the cold snow is helping to keep me from sweating, so personally, I don't have a big problem with it.
I'm just gonna come up here.
There's some snow right down almost to the water's edge here.
I'm gonna get some fresh water.
That's interesting.
Mmm.
Oh.
That's good.
Scrape down just a little bit and lots of good fresh snow here.
Can't drink the ocean water, so That's a great way to get rehydrated.
Now, it does follow that the better way to intake snow water is to heat it up.
And although it's been suggested to warm it in the mouth before swallowing, I find that somewhat unrealistic on an ongoing basis.
No, it's much better, when it's possible, to heat it up in a pot.
Oh, man.
There is nothing like hot water.
Mmm.
I'm gonna put a bunch of snow into this coffee tin.
One of my secrets is to infuse water with medicinal plants to get vitamins as an aid to survival.
Oh, yeah.
That's well worth it.
My water on to boil.
And there's still some leftover caribou fat that had solidified and was on the insides of the pot.
That's great.
It's gonna make it a bit of a broth for me.
This time I'm gonna add in some spruce.
And as well, I'm gonna throw in some willow.
Willow is actually also good if you've got a headache, too.
Many evergreen tree needles are a good source of vitamin c, and broth is still by far the best way to have a survival meal.
Nothing is wasted, so I rarely will boil water without adding to it from the natural surroundings.
This has got some residual caribou broth in it, spruce needles, and willow twigs.
And it's healthful and makes me feel fantastic.
That's all I can say.
I'm gonna throw a couple of spruce twigs into the water.
There's vitamin c in evergreen needles.
Oh.
Oh, that's good.
Mmm.
I can taste the spruce needles in the water.
A little turpentiney, but it takes the blandness out of it just being hot water.
It's so important to rehydrate.
This is a perfect blend of the old meeting the new.
Come over here, chip off a piece of ice that's thousands of years old.
That'll do.
Perhaps there is nothing more pure than water that is locked within an iceberg.
The inuit know that the ice from the icebergs just make the best tea.
They drink a lot of tea here.
Now, this would normally be a fantastic find.
Not necessarily so in a place like this.
Let me explain why.
Normally I'd be quite thrilled to find this much snow because it would represent for me some great fresh water, but here in the colorado rocky mountains, these patches of snow that are left behind in the late spring and early summer, if you see a red, kind of watermelon-colored tinge to the top of them and you eat that snow, you're in for some serious stomach and bowel problems.
Not quite certain what it is, whether it's bacterial or fungal, but I'll tell you, it's the one thing you do not want to eat out here is snow with a slightly red tinge to it.
It will make you sick for quite a while.
One way to get around it, if you really must, and it's the only way to get some water for survival is to simply get rid of the top layers, get away from anything that looks like it might have color to it.
Oh, yeah.
Mmm.
Oh, man.
Cold water In a very dry place.
That goes down nicely.
So what would be my number-1 way for obtaining water for survival? The answer lies within, "what's the easiest?" Because reducing struggle is one of the greatest secrets to survival.
I don't want to have to work at surviving.
I want to find natural shelters, harvest lots of easily picked wild edibles, follow along well-worn trails because it's the struggle to survive that eventually beats us down.
When it comes to water, I want it fresh, safe, and all around me.
Staying hydrated, just vital in the winter bush.
It's hard to do.
You don't think about drinking water 'cause you're around all this snow.
But dehydrated out here can lead to hypothermia.
The number-1 way to get water in a survival situation -- finding it fresh.
This was a no-brainer for my number-1 method.
If I can stop when I need and drink copiously from fresh, available sources, I take out of the survival equation the need for water.
I remove that constant concern that I'll dehydrate and end up with painful, debilitating migraines.
Surviving becomes much more possible, and I can concentrate on staying out of the elements, building shelters, starting a fire, or finding food -- survival actions that otherwise all take a back seat to finding water.
I research well to know where I can find water wherever I find myself having to survive.
I know ahead of time what the odds are and whether or not they're stacked against me.
I'm still taking my chances drinking from a stream like this but that's good.
The blastocysts and the amoebas and the type of parasites that can happen in these waters can lay you up for months in the hospital.
So I'm definitely taking my chances.
But dehydration is a lot more immediate at the moment.
Whoo! Oh.
And the water is wonderfully cold.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, that's much better.
It brings life right back into you.
Unlike a lot of places I've been, giardia is not very prevalent in the arctic.
The water is all fresh and clean coming straight from glaciers.
I'm looking down there, and I think I can hear the sound of water.
I think I might have found myself a nice little gorge to get down into.
I can see the type of vegetation -- it's called a riparian zone, where I'm starting to see sycamore, and I've been walking through all this mesquite, so there's been a change.
I think I might have found my new home.
I can hear the water.
I can smell the water.
It smells fresh and clean.
The topography of a landscape can betray the existence of water.
The secret is that certain trees or bushes that require enough water to live on can point the way to ponds and streams.
The classic oasis in the desert is a real thing.
And from far away, just noticing the depression in a landscape can give you a good idea where to go to find fresh water.
This little paradise is about five miles and a few hills from my first camp.
And of course, because I have too much camera gear, I had to hike it twice just to get all the gear here.
But I'll tell you.
This little desert creek, man, this is a sight for sore eyes.
This is like shangri-la.
It won't matter how fancy or well-built your shelter is if you don't have water.
It won't matter that you've caught a dozen fish or found a field of edible wilds if you don't have water.
And if your rescuers won't find you for over a week, then the chances of greeting them with a sigh of relief become small as the odds stack against you.
Water is the elixir of life.
It's the energy that flows throughout our planet.
I keep a tradition, and it's this -- whenever I come to a new place, I seek out a stream to drink from directly.
I get down on my hands and knees and take in the water with the intent of feeling connected to this place.
I feel the life-giving energy of the water as it quenches my thirst, and I know that from that moment on, I'll always have a connection to the land because the energy that flows within it and keeps it alive is now flowing within me Cold and fresh.
and becomes my secret to survival.
Oh, that's good.
There's a lot of fresh water around here.
It's a good thing, too.
Otherwise, I'd be reduced to probably having to drink my own pee.
Yeah, right.