Unknown Expedition Travel Documentary | Guiana Shield – Suriname Lost World | English

-I'm Steve Backshall.

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-Want to start? .

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a naturalist and explorer.

Watch your rope! The thought of thatcoming down on my head – helmet won't makeany difference.

You will dead in an instant.

Whoa! [Steve] With an expert team.

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[Aldo] That is a tightlanding spot down there.

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I'm pushing deep intoSouth America's pristine jungle.

This is the last greatrainforest left on the planet.

Who knows what we'regoing to find here? Taking on dangers and hardships that have thwartedgenerations of explorers.

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Ah! So close! .

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to find a lost worldof natural treasures.

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No way! .

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never before seenby human eyes.

We came here lookingfor lost worlds.

We found one.

Never seen anything like it.

We've flown for an hour nowover forest and there's just been nothing below usfor miles and milesin every direction.

Mountains that have neverbeen climbed, rivers thatno one's ever been down.

You could just drop a pinin the map and find a place that no human beinghas ever been to before.

Since the timeof Christopher Columbus, every generation of explorerhas been drawn to South America'sforests and mountains.

Many arrived in searchof Eldorado, a mythical, lost city of gold.

But the primeval landscapewe're flying over has repelled even the mostdetermined pioneers.

South America's Guiana Shield stretches over 2 millionsquare kilometres.

It's home to one of the largestpristine jungles on the planet.

We're heading into its heart.

Just looks like adventure, doesn't it? Does make you think what wouldhappen if the plane went down.

I don't want to thinkabout that.

[pilot] All stations, Bravo Sierra.

Approaching for landing, 3.

5 miles.

-[Aldo] Coming in.

-[Steve] Oh, my days! Strewth! This remote landing stripwas built in the 1950s during a large-scale operationto push into these forests.

We are hell and gonefrom nowhere.

Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! These relics are allthat are remain of this bygone era of exploration.

It's perhaps not the kindof thing that you want to see.

It's almost like a.

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a warning.

Now, I want to succeedwhere so many turned back and lead an expeditioninto this lost world, from the mountain topsdown into the lowlands, in search of places wherehumans are still to set foot.

But I'm not in search of gold.

My treasures arethe natural wonders still waiting to be discovered.

This landing stripwill be our base camp.

From here, with the helpof expert jungle pilots and local knowledge, we'll headto the start of our expedition.

And where we're going issomewhere very special indeed.

[inspirational music] This is the Tafelberg.

It means “table mountain” and for good reason.

The top of it just looks likea great big, black tabletop.

It has vertical rock wallshundreds of metres high.

One of the few peopleto have set down here before is field biologistVanessa Kadosoe.

-It looks pretty amazing.

-Yeah! Vanessa was part of a scientificsurvey, over six years ago, that studied the flat tabletop.

But the sheer sides have beena barrier to exploration below.

Mountains like theseare full of waterfalls, gorges, canyons.

Some of the most stunningand beautiful placesyou'll ever see.

And because it's so difficultto move around on them, many of these places havenever before been explored.

Our objective isto find a route down into unknown territory.

Joining me is Aldo Kane.

He'Fs a ropes expertwho will help us reach the most inaccessible partsof this mountain.

Ooh! That is a tightlanding spot down there.

All good? -He's a good pilot, isn't he?-Yeah.

-Okay, we're all set?-Yeah.

Hey! Hey! [birds twittering] [Aldo] What a view.

-Very, very dramatic.

-Yeah.

Amerindian trail-cutters Maniand Uwawa have also joined us.

They were on Vanessa'sprevious expedition.

Where is the closest village? [Mani and Vanessaspeak regional language] [Vanessa laughs] Wow! He says walking would take, like, ten months.

-Ten months?!-Yeah.

[laughter] The closest villageis ten months away? I think it's very far then.

I can honestly say this isthe most remote I've ever been.

-Yeah!-[laughter] -Yeah!-[laughter] [Uwawa makes whooping noise] [Vanessa] So, Uwawa, he's calling a monkey.

So, when they do this, when there's a group nearby, they hear that and they start calling back.

[monkeys whooping] That's cool.

[monkeys whooping] -Monkeys are calling back.

-[Uwawa calls] [monkeys whooping] It's a tantalising taste of the discoverieswaiting for us below.

We follow Mani and Uwawadown a cola-brown river drawn by a thundering roar.

[roar of water] This waterfall is whatwe've been looking for.

An entry pointto an unexplored gorge.

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and the valleysand forests beyond.

-What do you think?-I think it's incredible.

It is “Lost World”, isn't it? [Aldo] Be amazing to getdown there and have a look.

[Steve] Yeah.

It makes my tummygo a bit funny standing here, I have to admit.

I'm quite gladI'm hanging on to something.

It's too late in the dayto attempt a descent, so we set up camp.

[Aldo] Looks likeno rain tonight.

[Steve] No rain, definitelyno rain.

Unquestionably.

I mean, it's not like we'rea 1, 000 metre high mountain in the middle of the rainforest.

Why would it rain here? -It's never going to rain here.

-[Steve laughs] Dry season.

Uh, incidentally, I think this mountain gets12 metres of rain a year.

-12 metres?-12 metres.

In the UK, we measure our rainin centimetres.

[laughter] [bird twittering] Finally, we can takea moment to enjoy our spectacular surroundings.

[birds twittering] Look at that! Can you see him? There are two tinyhumming birds.

And they're right below me, right now.

I, honestly, did not expect this.

He's darting in and outof the water of the waterfall.

That's just so beautiful.

Honestly, I could sit hereand watch this for hours.

As darkness starts to fall, we're keen to find outwhat other animals inhabit theseisolated tabletops.

inhabit theseisolated tabletops.

So we head out withexpert biologist Vanessa.

[Aldo] Oh, he's amazinglooking, isn't he? -[Aldo] Look at those eyes.

-[Vanessa] I like his eyes.

-Beautiful.

-Yeah.

[Aldo] So this isa little scorpion.

Obviously, I have no idea.

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I didn't stay at school longenough to work what this is.

It could definitely give youa bit of a sting, somethingthat size.

[Vanessa] Yes, it will.

I've seem big Marinesfloored by.

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-[Vanessa] Oh!-a small scorpion sting before.

[Aldo] Good spot.

Some of the animals here arenot always what they seem.

Ah! We need a bigger stick.

In this part of the world, it's always best to be cautious.

Whenever you see a snake that has any combination ofblack, yellow and white bands, because it's either a highlyvenomous coral snake, or it's something that'simitating that coral snake.

And it's very, very difficultto tell, be 100% sure.

I've seen him settle downa little bit.

Most animals.

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would have to be pretty brave to take a chanceat knowing which is which.

This one here, by lookingat the size of the eyes and the scales betweenthe eyes and the nose, is non-venomous, but bytaking on those same colours, everything elseleaves them alone.

A bite from a realcoral snake out here would be very bad news.

We all check our tentscautiously before we turn in for the night.

[animal noises] This morning, we're hopingto be the first people to explore this gorge.

But in the cold light of day, the drop lookseven more daunting.

I think it looksreally exciting.

I think it looksvery committing.

There is zero chanceof a rescue.

We're completely on our own.

-Situation normal.

-[laughter] Aldo and I need torecce the route.

Graham, the cameraman, will be joining us, as he's most experiencedon the ropes.

The thing about riggingis more just problem solving, cos there's nevera right or a wrong answer.

Unless it fails.

Set? It takes over 100 metres of ropeto reach the bottom.

[Steve groans] Yeah, that's good.

Slung below me, I have enough kit to recce the gorge for two days.

I'm heavily ladenand need to tread lightly on this fragile rockface.

Lots of loose rock here, mate! It's pretty loose down there, to say the least.

[Aldo] Whoa! I hadn't mentallyprepared myself for this bit to be dangerous.

Um, and if I'm honest, it's freaking me a little bit.

Coming down here, the ropesare going through rocks that are massive andare very, very loose.

And any of those come downon to our heads and the helmet won'tmake any difference.

You will be dead in an instant.

[Aldo] Watch your rope! [rock clatters] Oh, that rock just bounceddown right where our ropes are.

So I'll have to do a lot ofchecking when I get down there.

Our ropes are lyingon a ledge that's still 30 metres short of the bottom.

If the rockfall has damagedthem, our descent will be over.

I'm doing good, buddy.

I'm just down to where thoserocks impacted our ropes.

So I'm going to give thema good looking over.

-Aldo, go ahead.

-How are the ropes looking? Yeah, the ropes area little bit gritty and you can see wherethe rope's taken the impact, But it hasn't cutthrough the cord at all.

I'm fine carrying down on them.

Understood.

Keep me posted.

[Steve] The final sectionis straight down the line of the falls.

Here, the power of the water has scoured the rockface clean.

The rock that I've gotmy feet on right now, it's incrediblyancient sandstone laid down about1.

8 billion years ago.

The most remarkable thingabout this rock though is that you don't find any fossilsin it, none whatsoever.

Because it was formed beforethere was any life on Earth.

It completely blows my mindwhenever I think of that.

This rock is some of the mostancient left on the planet.

[inspirational music] This place is straight out ofArthur Conan Doyle's”Lost World”, a book I read as a boyabout an expeditionto a tabletop mountain, where prehistoric animalsstill roamed.

But it's stupefyingly beautiful.

There is an incredible rainbowjust directly behind me.

That was fiction, this reality is even more fantastical.

We came here lookingfor lost worlds.

We found one.

Graham and Aldofollow my route down.

Whoo! Just gets better and better! Check this.

Now, we want to push further and reach the jungleat the end of this gorge.

[Aldo] Oh, wow! That's where I thinkwe need to go.

If we can push outthrough that gorge today, once we're at the bottom, I think it heads down and outinto the forest.

Just rigging an abseil up down into the next sectionof the gorge.

We're sort of running lowon kit, so we're, um.

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just making and doingwith what we've got.

Got my first proper lookdown our gorge.

It looks pretty grimand intimidating.

But doable.

I want to get moving.

I'm starting to get quite cold.

So I'm quite keen to push ondown through here, see if we can findsomewhere to camp.

Oh, that's cold! Oh! Oh, no! Our way is blockedby a five metre drop.

But we've used up all our rope.

Oh, it's just tantalising.

It's right there in front of me.

I can see the sunlight up ahead and the way out of the gorgebut we can't get there.

End of the road! With light fading, we'll haveto spend the night in this gorge and try to find a new routeinto the jungle tomorrow.

-[waterfall roars]-So, here we've got.

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a spot that we can sleep.

Or a spot that we can at leastlay down for the night.

Whether we actually sleepor not is another thing.

We've been wet and cold all day.

Now, we can finally changeinto some dry clothes.

[rumbling] [stones falling] [loud bang] That's where we were just.

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That's where we werejust standing.

This gorge is an accidentwaiting to happen.

But for the moment, we're trapped.

Topside, topside, Aldo over.

Aldo radios up to our producer, Anna, with an update.

Aldo radios up to our producer, Anna, with an update.

-Go ahead, Aldo.

It's Anna here.

-Ah, we're fine.

We are tucked under a, um.

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a bit of an overhang.

-[Anna] Okay, and the plan is?-The plan is.

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we have to spend the night herewith.

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daylight goes.

We'll probably head up firstlight in the morning.

Over.

Roger that.

I'll keep the radio on.

Let me know whenyou've made a decision and when you'reon your way.

Over.

It's going to be a long night.

[stones falling] And we're not alone.

Can you see it? So, this is why.

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you should alwaysshake out your boots whenever you're on expedition.

I've been drying mine outcos they were soaking wet, and I picked one upand this wriggled out of it.

It's a scolopendra centipede.

They're venomous.

And when they bite, it really, really hurts.

So it has a nerve toxin, which is incredibly painful.

They're properly creepy and this one was in my boot.

Scolopendra belongto a family of animals that were among the firstto walk the Earth, 420 million years ago.

As we turn in, I can't help thinking what other living dinosaursare waiting to be discovered in these ancient forests.

We're up early to startthe long climb back to safety.

[sighs] Aah! Ooh, yes! Absolutely incredible.

What a place.

These table mountain tops have so many wonders, so many nooks and crannies where people have neverbeen to before and it feels very, very special goinginto one for the first time.

But to reachthe unexplored lowlands, we need to find a safer route.

With Mani and Uwawa guiding us, we head offacross the tabletop.

This must be the riverbed thatruns to the top of the falls? Yes, it is.

This is the riverbed.

The nearby gorgesall look unstable and strewn with rockfall.

So we make a new plan.

This looks like our ride.

We're returning to base camp.

We're returning to base camp.

The pilots will fly west to scour hundreds of kilometresof dense forest in search of a new landing site.

Wicked.

All right.

Yeah.

Fingers crossed.

Aldo and I are heading east.

Though the interior of thisancient forest remainsuntouched, at its edges our modern worldis starting to encroach.

-Is that it?-Yeah.

We're checking out reportsthat gold miners are pushing into these forests.

It's way bigger than I expected.

We're heading in on the ground to try and meet thesemodern-day prospectors.

I have some friends herewho have contacts, that, hopefully, can get usto the right place to seewhat's going on.

The mines in this areaare operating illegally, so we've agreed not to revealthe identity of the workers.

Oh, wow, yeah.

Look.

We're still not sure how the miners will reactto our arrival.

So we've just rolled intothe mining camp.

We need to tread carefullybecause everyone hereis here illegally and what they're doing could getthem locked up for a long time.

So, I think the first thingto do is just shake some hands, smile and just get a handleon what's going on here.

-Aldo.

How are you?-Aldo.

How do? -Hi.

Steve.

Nice to meet you.

-Hi.

I'm all right.

[laughs]So are you the boss here? So what do you do here? Can you show the job you do? The miners are much morerelaxed than we expect.

We're being given full accessinside a clandestine industry.

It's like a frontier town.

This is the modern-dayGold Rush really.

And it's staking a claimon a piece of land to dig, exploitand then leave behind.

So the guys down here in the pitare blasting away with high-pressure hoses, blasting down all of the ground, which is going to get sieved outand all the tiny flakes of gold that are in itwill be separated out.

This silty wateris pumped up into trays, where the heavier sedimentcontaining the goldis collected.

So once they've got enoughof this material thathas the gold in it, they separate the gold outusing mercury.

And mercury is extremelypoisonous and some of that leaches out into the water.

The water flows into the streams and it kills everything.

Builds up in the fish, builds up in the people Builds up in the fish, builds up in the people living downstream of here.

It's so difficult.

You know, I'm talking to the guys here and they're just trying to makea living and they're decent, nice people and.

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you can't really blame themfor what they're doing.

This is what they do for a joband it's a hard life.

The big problem though, a relatively small minelike this, that's only generatinga few kilos of gold, could be compromising hundredsif not thousands of miles of forest and, more importantly, of the waterways.

Scientific reports show that6, 000 kilometres of waterways across the Guiana Shield have already beencontaminated by gold mining.

The pristine forests that remainare incredibly precious.

And that's why it's soimportant to explore them, to reveal theirnatural treasures before it's too late.

The pilots have found an alternative landing sitein the jungle, two hours from base camp.

We'll be the first peopleever to set down there.

This is the last greatrainforest left on the planet.

You see nothing, no signsof civilisation whatsoever, no imprint from human beings.

Once on the ground, we'll be onour own for around ten days.

From our Drop Zone, we must hack our way down a small, unnamed creek.

If we make it through, we'll reach a larger rivercalled the Lucie.

From here, it's an endurancepaddle to the first signof civilisation – the Amerindian villageof Amatopo.

Who knows what we'regoing to find here? Our Drop Zone is just big enoughto get the helicopter in.

This is the middle of nowhere! -Thank you very much, Ricky!-You're welcome.

To help us navigatethis unknown territory, we've flown in a new local team.

Jan Willem and Diego Graanoogst are jungle survival experts.

They learnt their skillsfrom living with Amerindians at Amatopo.

But even they haven'tpenetrated this deep.

Nobody ever came here before.

Unbelievable place.

Their jungle knowledgewill also be key to finding what lives here.

I'm going fora stand-up paddle board.

The hope is, this will lift me up above the height of the river.

Give me a better chanceof seeing wildlife.

I'm hoping this could bea bit of a revelation.

Finally, we takeour first paddle strokes into this primordial forest.

We don't know what lies ahead, but this jungle couldcontain dangers, discoveries or both.

The first explorers in theseforests were naturalists, biologists – people likeDarwin, Alfred Russell Wallace.

This was mostly inthe mid- to late-1800s and they were discoveringnew things every single day.

And as a kid, I can rememberreading their stories and being gutted that I wouldnever have a chance to do that.

That that all happenedin a different age, but.

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it turns out you still can, here in these forests, to the north of the Amazon.

[Aldo] This area trulydoes feel untouched.

That's pretty amazing.

[Steve] Gliding silentlydown this creek, my paddle board helps me toget closer to the wildlife.

When you're on the river, you can paddle clean past things becausethey just look so like everything elsethat's around you.

We call anythingthat's in the water that looks like a crocbut isn't, a loggerdile.

It's actuallya smooth-fronted caiman.

So motionless in the water.

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that you'd never see him, until he moves! [animal call] Wildlife can be hard to spotin the thick jungle.

But we can hear itall around us.

Spider monkeys.

They're really curious.

[bushes rustling] There's something movingclose by.

Where was it? [whistles] Diego and Jan usean Amerindian trick to draw it out into the open.

[whistling] [whistles] [Steve] No way! No way!That is absolutely amazing! Tapir.

Tapir, right here, right here.

[whistling] This animal has never seenhuman beings before.

Doesn't know what we are.

Doesn't know to be afraid of us.

And that is a very, veryspecial thing.

This is the largestwild animal in South America.

And to see one up this closeis so, so rare.

And to see one up this closeis so, so rare.

This is one of the first animalsthat gets hunted out as soon as human beingsmove into an area.

It's a privileged glimpse intothe life of this shy giant.

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and what makes this forestso special.

This is unbelievable.

I cannot believe how much wildlifewe've seen already.

We've only been on this riverfor a couple of hours.

There's a long way to go.

But almost immediately, you get a sense of the huge task ahead.

This is not ideal.

Any one of these little stumpscould rip the bottom outof these boats.

-Oh!-Well done, Jan.

Good effort! It takes the restof the day to navigate through tangles of fallen trees.

Rule number one in the jungleis don't fight the jungle.

You never win.

You've just got to go with theflow.

If you do two kilometres, you do two kilometres.

If you do ten, you do ten.

It's slow going and frustrating.

Time to make camp.

One great thing is I am soimpressed with our local guys.

-Yeah.

-Jan and Diego.

They're super hard working, really, really goodwildlife spotting.

I think they're goingto be gold dust.

[Aldo] Nice, nice.

Look at the size of that.

Look at the teeth on it as well.

This wolf fish isvery, very good eating.

Uh, and this'll be smokedover the fire.

It an ancient Amerindian wayof preserving fish in this tropical climate.

So you'll leave thissmoking all night? Yeah, all nighttill the morning.

-It'll be ready for breakfast?-Yeah.

But the commotion and the smellof blood in the water attracts predators into camp.

[Steve] Oh, look at that one!Look at that one! Right, green.

-Holy moly!-That's amazing.

Jan? Jan, can I get the net, please? [Jan] Hold him.

Yeah, yeah, I'm watching out.

Watching, watching.

It's not going to do it any harmbeing out of the water for a short period of time.

But it could do usa lot of harm.

Stingrays arein the shark family.

They're essentially justa completely squashedfreshwater shark.

But they don't bite you.

Instead, they sting.

Got to be so, socareful doing this.

On the tail here.

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which comes down to a stinger.

which comes down to a stinger.

The barb itself is serrated, incredibly sharp.

And as it lashesthrough the wound, it leaves behind a venomthat creates enormous pain.

I've met people who've steppedon these stingraysand been stung, and they've lost completeuse of their leg and lost enormousamounts of tissue.

And they're here in these riversin numbers that I have simply never seen before.

There areabsolutely thousands of them.

Right, I'm going to get himback in the water.

[Aldo] Steve.

Eye shine.

Where? Oh, yeah.

Croc.

It's the biggest caimanwe've seen.

I'm going to risk a closer look.

Yeah, got it.

As we're getting furtherdown the river, we're getting different kindsof crocodilian.

So this is a spectacled caiman.

When they're fully grown, he could get to be three metresin length and be a reallydecent size.

To have lots and lotsof apex predators, it means you've got to havelots and lots of food.

So if you've got a lot of crocsaround then it means the rivers are full of fish.

And that's a really good signfor how healthy this river is.

As if there was any doubt.

Okay, fella.

Large predators arein decline around the planet.

It's a rare and wonderful sightto see them thriving.

We must tread carefullyas we head downstream.

We're up earlyand making good progress.

The deeper into the forestwe paddle, the further we are from ourDrop Zone and potential rescue.

We've hit a snag.

Quite a bit snag, actually.

Our river was just broadeningout and then, suddenly, it just ties itself upinto tiny little.

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creeks that go nowhere.

We're, all of a sudden, in the middle of the jungle, with no way on.

Oh, I dread to think whatwill happen if we can't paddle on from here.

We are stuck.

Our unnamed creek has cometo an abrupt end.

We spread out, looking for a way through.

-Dead end?-It's a dead end.

Just rocks.

Um, so now we're walking, walking everything back up.

If we can't finda route forward, our only option is to turn backand drag our boats upriver to the heli landing site.

But we have technologiesthat explorers of old didn't.

We're putting upthe camera crew's drone.

So if you could sendit that direction, down that stream firstand see if it goes anywhere.

So that's the main streamthat we came in at.

So that's the main streamthat we came in at.

Looks like it ends inan oxbow lake.

-[indistinct]-No.

If we spin it nowand start heading south.

That must bethe river there.

Oh.

Way far off.

It's a way forward.

We've got to crack on.

We'vegot a lot of ground to cover.

And this next bitcould be tricky.

After two hours, we breakout of the forest, and we're back onthe main channel.

Yeah, baby! It's going to be a super camp.

It's our time to relax.

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-[Steve laughs]-Oropendola nests.

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and spruce up.

Just better to cleanmy clothes on me before I clean myself.

Just having a washin the shallows and all of a suddenthese massive fish came to within just.

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this far away from me.

I'm going to try and getsome shots of them.

The waters are murky, but I'm intrigued to seewhat lies beneath.

Oh, my.

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It's absolutely alivewith piranhas.

I've never seenanything like it.

And the biggest black piranhasI've ever seen.

They look like they're aboutthe size of this net.

[sighs] Wow! I think the next stagehas to be to catch one.

Only the cleanest rivers cansupport such a huge population.

So this is themighty black piranha.

The largest species of piranhafound in the world.

They're also knownas the redeye piranha.

I think you can see why.

Theyreason they haven't targeted me is that they focus on animalsthat are distressed and in trouble and wounded.

So that movement in the wateris very, very specific.

And they pick it upwith the lateral line, which is that linerunning down there.

It's an organ that detectsvibration in the water.

And those symptoms of distress, are enough for these to come inin great numbers, target them with those incredible teeth.

Those teeth are someof the sharpest inthe whole animal kingdom.

And they swim in, take a quick bite, and then swim away again, super, super quick.

If I was injured, if I was bleeding, then I wouldn't last minutesin this water.

These predators are yet anotherhazard to contend with These predators are yet anotherhazard to contend with on this challenging journey.

Okay, shall we set him free?Off you go.

We're now in a section of river where we're totally exposedin an emergency.

We can't go back and ahead of us is over a week's paddleinto unknown territory.

[Steve] Just bring itup here, Diego.

[Aldo screams] We were just lowering the boat.

When the boat came down, it pulled me in after it and I landed and potentiallybroke my thumb in the process.

Um.

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I think it's quite bad.

[Aldo inhales]Trying to just suck it up.

Trying to put a brave faceon it, as always, but this isn't good.

We are a long way awayfrom anywhere that we could do any kindof evacuation.

And so, he's kinda right.

Hedoes kinda have to suck it up.

Our plan now is to pushas fast as we can to the Lucie.

The wide, fast-flowing riverwill carry us back to Amatopo.

If things takea turn for the worse, there should be placesto land a chopper.

But we still have at leasttwo days of hacking and dragging to reach the end of this creek.

Feels like hard work today.

With Aldo incapacitated, the other crew membersare having to step up and it's taking its toll.

It's obstacle after obstacle.

And it's hot.

Relentlessly hot.

So we're kind of a day behindschedule already, but.

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Yeah.

We'll just see howit goes tomorrow.

Okay then.

Horrible, horrible day.

These are the sick, lame and weary boats.

Broken thumband a sprained neck.

[birds whistling] [Steve] Oh, mate! It's been a painful few daysfor Aldo.

-That looks really sore.

-Yeah.

Could've been worse.

Could have broke my wrist and then falling in the waterand been bitten by a wolf fish.

You could have beeneaten alive by piranhas.

-That would've been a bad day.

-Yeah.

Thankfully, we're getting closeto the end of this creek and there are clear signsthat we're firmlyin Amerindian territory.

Though we're the first modernhumans to come down this creek, there are signs thatway off in prehistory there are signs thatway off in prehistory this actually might have beenquite well used.

These marks on the rockare believed to be where people have sharpenedtheir stone tools.

So they would have been nomadichunter-gatherer peoples at least 600, maybe 1, 000, years ago.

It's quite a thought thatI'm the first person to sit here running my handsdown these grooves in over 1, 000 years.

We're still a long wayfrom Amatopo.

At least six days.

But we've finally reachedthe mighty Lucie River.

It's taken all our resolve, but we fought our way throughsome of the toughest, unexplored jungle on the planet.

We've just come around a cornerto the most tranquil, perfect image I've ever seenin the rainforest.

The water is like glass.

The reflections are so perfect, you almost can't tell which way's upand which way's down.

It's absolutely spectacular.

[Aldo] When you get out ontothese wide expanses like this, it always gives me thatlittle bit of a thrill, being able to see the sky beforeit gets dark in the jungle.

The Lucie welcomes uswith its stunning wildlife.

[Steve] Giant river otters.

There's a pair of themjust downstream of us.

And they're truly intriguedby us.

Really interested.

It's a rare encounter.

This species is now endangered, as few of these pristinerivers still exist.

-What a day, man.

-I have to say, of this year of staying insome pretty astounding places, -this is the most beautiful.

-It's stunning.

-Don't you think?-Just getting the last lights of the sun.

After all the brutal hours ofsweat and blisters and grime, moments like this make itall worthwhile.

It's exquisite.

Our elation is short-lived.

We still face many kilometresof gruelling paddling.

We still face many kilometresof gruelling paddling.

For the next 48 hours, we dig deep, but our energy reservesare running low.

[Aldo] Oh! My back hurts.

Jan calls his friendsat Amatopo.

They're relieved to hearthat we're safe.

[Steve] Jan's brotherlives in Amatopo.

And it seems that they'vebeen worried about us and they've.

.

.

they've come up to find us.

We weren't supposedto be meeting them for.

.

.

Well, anothercouple of days yet.

But it looks likethey're almost with us now.

[air hissing] That is a sight for sore eyes.

Hey! Rather than a three-day paddle, it's an eight-hour motorboatride to the village.

Hello! It's awesome! Amatopo is the most remotevillage on this river.

Amerindians have beencustodians of this forest for millennia.

I want to find outwhether the modern world is beginning to alter lifeeven here.

So I'm meetingthe village chief.

-Hello-Hiya.

Steve.

When they first saw us, they were worried thatwe looking for gold.

Yeah, they were a bit afraid.

They are worried.

Nobody wants anybody to come hereand destroy the nature.

And this is one of the mostcleanest rivers there is in Suriname.

It's very special.

We think it'sthe place in the whole world that has the best forest and we want to show people, we want to show peopleback home how it should be.

Over the last two weeks, wepushed deeper into these forests than anyone before us.

And the natural riches wediscovered are, to my mind, far more precious thanall the gold in Eldorado.

It's so unbelievably important.

It's important for the wildlife, it's important for the peoplewho live here, but, ever more, as there are fewer placeslike this left on the planet, it's important for everyone.

These places are vital.

They're absolute treasures and we have to do everythingwe can to protect them.

Am I right?Do I get one of those? Boom! ♪ EXPEDITION WITH STEVE BACKSHALL IS AVAILABLE ONAMAZON PRIME VIDEO IS AVAILABLE ONAMAZON PRIME VIDEO ♪ ♪.