from BBC press office

Ray Mears Goes Walkabout – Desert Ep 1/4
Sunday 25 May
8.15-9.15pm BBC TWO

Britain's foremost survival expert, Ray Mears, goes walkabout in Australia in his new series.



The aboriginals of Australia have a tradition of travelling their country, maintaining their culture, looking after the land, telling stories and visiting family. They call this practice Walkabout. In this series Ray follows suit as he makes four journeys through the wilderness of the Australian Outback.



He begins in the desert. Deserts have a particular beauty unmatched in the natural world; places of great stillness, life there is reduced to the basics. Ray explains what to take for a journey into the desert and how to pack a vehicle so that it becomes a mobile headquarters. Australia has no large land-based predators, so it's perfect for sleeping out under the stars and there's nowhere better to do that than the desert.



Ray is following in the footsteps of John McDouall Stuart, one of the unsung explorers of Australia. His contemporaries, Burke and Wills, tend to get the attention for their ill-advised, fatal south-to-north crossing of this continent. They were typical of their age, setting out with an army of men, food and equipment, determined to conquer the land rather than work with it. But Stuart had a very different approach, travelling fast and light – much closer to Ray's own attitude to travel.



Stuart's early forays into the Outback provided him with the knowledge to forge a route across the continent. It's the skills that Stuart acquired on these journeys that Ray focuses on, showing how to wring water from these arid lands. He travels this burnt, inhospitable landscape, bringing alive the story of Stuart and his men and gaining ever more respect for those early explorers as he goes.



These journeys represent something very close to Ray's heart: the most important thing that can be learned when travelling is to be open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. For Ray, this is the only way to promote understanding and learning. Australia presents a fabulous opportunity to show this, encompassing so many different natural habitats, with a rich indigenous culture and many tales of exploration and survival.

Maybe Oz has no large critters, but they have some nasty snakes, so sleeping in the vehicle sounds like a plan to me...

Thanks for the heads-up Jackal, must set to record.

I keep trying to find his previous DVDs at a bargin price but they never seem to get reduced.

Ray Mears is awesome, and I can't wait until I can track this show down in the future!

I wish we got BBC Two here. We get BBCA (America), or would if we paid for it.

In any case, please let us know how it is!

Didn't the bush tucker man do something similar some time ago.

Many Australians are happy to use a basic swag and sleep on the ground with a mossie net.

Actually, snakes are not what worry me but scorpions and spiders.

Which is why if it is actually sleeping on the ground and not in a swag, I keep the boots on, sleeves down, gloves on and a head net over a cap.

Never had a problem.

I've seen some episodes of this programme now. In the most recent one, he hangs out with the bush tucker man for a while.

(I couldn't help but wonder if they played practical jokes on each other. As in, "Here, eat some of this - you'll love it.")

"...I keep the boots on, sleeves down, gloves on and a head net over a cap..."

Having been there done that, I have to say that is not a comfortable way to sleep! And being on the hard ground does not make it any better.

How 'bout critters crawling up your pants leg? Do you blouse your pants or anything???

Ha Ha. Not fun at all if the ground is hard, you are right.

But there is usually soft ground or sand near a billbong or stream and a hip hollow and sand pillow is good sleeping.

I do tuck the pants leg into the boots too. Once thats done I don't worry much even though you can see lots of little eyes shining at you

The critter that freaks me out is the centipede and that's why I'm in a hammock in the jungle! I usually leave animals alone but if I see one, I'll kill it