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Review of Bear Grylls: Born Survivor

Posted on | April 29, 2008 | 2 Comments

This is the second series of the Bear Grylls survival guide but the Sahara, Part 2 was the first episode I’ve managed to catch.

It began with Bear being dropped from a low flying helicopter in the desert, continued with his meeting a Berber tribe and many tips of what to do should you find yourself stranded in the Sahara. The highlights for the 8 year old were the protein sources that Bear ate throughout: the sand beatle, goat’s testicle, horned viper, camel fat and Sahara frog. All cringe-inducing but very entertaining from his point of view.

He was stunned as he watched Bear skin and clean out a camel and then demonstrate how he could climb inside its carcass and use it as shelter in the event of a sandstorm. I had no idea the water from a dead camel’s stomach was drinkable, that a camel has three stomachs or that oleander bushes are poisonous and that they can contaminate nearby streams with their sap.

I thought the snake tracking was interesting and also the descent down the sandstone rockface to reach the valley floor in search of water.

Despite the obvious going for shock value aspects of this episode, we did find it entertaining and educational. Whereas Ray Mears bushcraft series goes along a similar vein, I felt this one was going for a wider audience, less detailed and more sensationalistic to an extent. To be fair, it did have my 2 sons captivated so no doubt we’ll be tuning in for the rest of the series on channel 4 on Sundays at 8pm.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Review of Bear Grylls: Born Survivor”

  1. traygamb
    May 6th, 2008 @ 10:38 pm

    My 10-year old son has been having fun grossing me out with this show since the beginning. Big time Ughh! The “feast” of Rhino beetle and humongous grubs in the last episode almost did me in. Oh, joy… next episode is the snake’s head and camel carcass.

    Apparently water is drinkable from lots of places in animals that I would never think of… this season a camel’s stomach, last season, the wrong end of the business part of an elephant.

    Where would I be without my boy? For sure my life would not be as entertaining or interesting.

  2. Manic Mammy
    May 25th, 2008 @ 5:43 pm

    Agree totally, Oscar our eldest has tracked down repeats on one of the discovery channels, no end to his glee in trying to gross me out.

    Theres no doubt Bear is the embodiment of many young boys’ dreams of adventure and from that point of view its a great series.

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