Bear Grylls – Desert Island

Finally I had time to watch a new episode of Man vs. Wild. This time Bear Grylls jumps out of a helicopter 2 miles from a desert island away. Except his knife and the clothes on his body he has nothing with him.

Swimming the 2 miles is very exhausting and the best way to save the energy is by swimming sideways. The waves are getting very strong closer to the shore and then you definitely need the energy.

He managed to reach a rocky coast and decided first to explore the island. He climbed to a near high rock to get the best view of the surrounding area. He spotted a small beach a few miles away and decided to head in this direction. At the beach was the best place to build the shelter because he could observe the water for near ships and it was the best place to build a signal fire.

His priorities were water, food and shelter. But before he built the shelter he made the signal fire with a huge pile of pine needles. He also needed to make a second fire which has to burn constantly so that he can light up the signal fire very quickly when a boat passes the island.

The shelter was easy to build because the bamboos and hibiscus trees were great resources. The palm trees at the beach offered coco nuts which are a very important energy source. Actually a man survived 25 days on a island just by eating coconuts and the drinking the coconut milk.

On day 2 his first priority was food. He build a spear with a bamboo rod and tried to dive to catch some fish with the spear. Unfortunately this wasn’t that easy so he tried another way. The roots of some special plants he found contained a poison which affects only fish. He went to the rocky coast and the small water holes and smashed with a stone on the roots of this plant. After that he washed the roots in a few ponds and waited until the waves flushed some fish into the holes. They were immediately poisoned and easy to catch.

To cook the fish he build a oven in the sand. Basically it’s a hole in the sand with heated stones from the fire. Above the stones are leaves, then the fish which is also rolled-up in a leaf and then again a big leaves. After that he put sand on top and waited a hour. It’s like a steam oven and it tasted really good. A funny quote: ” When the eyes of the fish are popped out then you know the fish is ready to eat.”

Finally he decided to build a raft to leave the island. With plenty of bamboos and palm trees he managed to build a catamaran and a small sail. While watching the wind strength to check when it would be best to leave he spotted a bottle in the surge. It was important to get this bottle because it would be the best way to carry water with him on the raft.

On day 3 it was raining but these are good news. Grylls collected the rain water with a palm tree and filled the bottle so that he will have water for approximately 5 days on the raft. The wind was easier to handle and so he decided to leave the island.

The first problem on the small raft was the sun. There was hardly any shade and so he used the coconut oil as a protection against the sun and also against the salt water. It was a good way to protect his skin.

Later a tiger shark came very close and bumped a few times into the raft. Bear was lucky because the shark got bored and left a few minutes later.

After long exhausting hours he spotted a boat 5 miles away. One thing you can do so that the other boat gets your attention is to use a highly reflecting material and give signals. For this Bear used his knife and with the reflection of the sun it is possible to make a signal which is visible for miles! Finally he got rescued.