Australian Wilderness with Ray Mears
Renowned bushcraft expert Ray Mears returns to one of the harshest environments, the Australian outback, and travels through it in order to explore how wildlife and people adapt, thrive and survive. Ray swims in turquoise waters with whale sharks in out on the Ningaloo reef, and discovers fossils of their giant prehistoric ancestors in Ningaloo's limestone cliffs which rose out of the seabed 20 million years ago. Ray also traverses through large mangroves and the waterways of Kakadu, where he encounters salt water crocodiles, and stays with an aboriginal family who share with him the history of farming with fire and finding ingredients to make a meal out of the bush, as well as climbing into mountain ranges and exploring deep into the ancient Walpole forest, on the trail for the quokka, one of Australia's most timid marsupials.
Episodes
Twenty million years ago the sea bed erupted to create the great limestone cliffs of Ningaloo. In the rocks, Ray encounters the fossils of giant prehistoric sharks, before swimming with their modern descendants, the whale sharks, out on Ningaloo reef.
On the waterways of Kakadu Ray meets the fearsome salt-water crocodile and stays with an aboriginal family, who share with him the secrets of farming with fire and creating meals from the bush.
Ray visits a landscape which was old before the dinosaurs walked the earth. He flies over fantastic rocks and hidden waterfalls, travelling through towering gorges to see a prehistoric sight.
Kangaroo Island is the 'wild jewel' in Australia’s crown. In the bush, Ray meets an echidna. It’s the only mammal with a true beak, and it lays eggs! Ray learns that the echidna is an ancient, living bridge between reptiles and mammals.
Ray visits one of earth’s last great marine wildernesses, rides the biggest tides in the largest concentration of islands and encounters the world’s most massive oyster.
Ray explores the Flinders mountains. He meets three different species of kangaroo, while Australia’s largest bird of prey, the wedge-tailed eagle, soars overhead.
Sixty million years ago a great forest covered a large area of South West Australia. It’s still there, and Ray travels through time in a primeval landscape of giant trees to meet the quokka, one of the world’s oldest marsupials.
