Top-rated
Sun, Aug 27, 2006
For most people the equator is just an imaginary line running 25,000-miles around the globe. But the countries along the equator are among the most troubled on the planet. In this new series Simon takes a journey around the region with the greatest natural biodiversity and perhaps the greatest concentration of human suffering: the equator. In EQUATOR Simon meets illegal loggers, father and son circumcisers, drunk villagers, and a young woman stuck in the baking desert. Simon and the Equator film-crew are protected by soldiers in a coca field, and UN 'peace-enforcers' in a gold mine. They are blackmailed and abandoned by drivers in one country, and travel through another that has just 300 miles of paved roads - despite being the size of Western Europe. Simon is drenched while white-water rafting, surrounded by a million flamingoes and swallowed by a tidal wave. After being warned about the deadly virus Ebola, Simon vomits blood and develops a temperature of nearly 40C. Diagnosed with malaria, he's saved by medicine derived from the Vietnamese sweet wormwood. One remote tribe takes Simon to their sacred monument, while a father from another tribe of former head-hunters decides to make Simon part of the family. After presenting his 'father' with a fine pair of trousers, Simon is blessed with blood, presented with a short sword, and adopted. Simon discovers a matrilineal society where daughters are called 'iron butterflies', mass graves in the jungle, and islands where protesting fisherman have killed giant tortoises. He helps an orphaned orangutan into a tree, swims with sea-lions, fishes for piranha, climbs the equivalent of half-way up Everest, and discovers the city thought to be most at risk from volcanic eruptions. Simon's trip takes him through the nation suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere, and the African country that's endured the most violent conflict on the planet since the Second World War.
Top-rated
Sun, Sep 3, 2006
For most people the equator is just an imaginary line running 25,000-miles around the globe. But the countries along the equator are among the most troubled on the planet. In this new series Simon takes a journey around the region with the greatest natural biodiversity and perhaps the greatest concentration of human suffering: the equator.In EQUATOR Simon meets illegal loggers, father and son circumcisers, drunk villagers, and a young woman stuck in the baking desert. Simon and the Equator film-crew are protected by soldiers in a coca field, and UN 'peace-enforcers' in a gold mine. They are blackmailed and abandoned by drivers in one country, and travel through another that has just 300 miles of paved roads - despite being the size of Western Europe. Simon is drenched while white-water rafting, surrounded by a million flamingoes and swallowed by a tidal wave. After being warned about the deadly virus Ebola, Simon vomits blood and develops a temperature of nearly 40C. Diagnosed with malaria, he's saved by medicine derived from the Vietnamese sweet wormwood. One remote tribe takes Simon to their sacred monument, while a father from another tribe of former head-hunters decides to make Simon part of the family. After presenting his 'father' with a fine pair of trousers, Simon is blessed with blood, presented with a short sword, and adopted. Simon discovers a matrilineal society where daughters are called 'iron butterflies', mass graves in the jungle, and islands where protesting fisherman have killed giant tortoises. He helps an orphaned orangutan into a tree, swims with sea-lions, fishes for piranha, climbs the equivalent of half-way up Everest, and discovers the city thought to be most at risk from volcanic eruptions. Simon's trip takes him through the nation suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere, and the African country that's endured the most violent conflict on the planet since the Second World War.
Top-rated
Sun, Sep 17, 2006
This programme starts in the Galapagos Islands, where Simon goes swimming with sea-lions, and endures a boat-trip across the ocean that has the local guide, producer Steven Grandison, and then Simon vomiting over the side.
The islands might look gorgeous, but Simon discovers there are concerns the 100,000 tourists who visit each year are threatening the fragile ecosystem. Fishermen in the Galapagos also claim they are not being given a chance to earn a decent living on the island, and have allegedly killed several giant Galapagos tortoises in protest. Fishermen accuse rich tourists of spending their time on the islands staying on luxury yachts chartered from mainland firms. Simon plays cards with fishermen and hears their complaints, then loses some hard-earned money at a volleyball game.
Heading east along the equator Simon arrives in Ecuador, where he travels in 4x4 vehicles along muddy roads and across a swollen river to reach the capital Quito. Simon makes the difficult climb to the top of a dangerous volcano, where a scientist explains that Quito is the worlds most at-risk city due to volcanic activity created by geological pressures on either side of the equator.
Simon presses on to the Colombian border, passing through the most dangerous and lawless area of Colombia, where government forces regularly battle guerrilla rebels. Colombia has been ravaged by decades of conflict that has taken more than 250,000 lives. Around 3,000 civilians still die each year as a result of violence between the army, drug lords, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas. Mired in violence and at the centre of the global cocaine trade, Colombia is enduring the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere. Simon goes on patrol with the Colombian army before trekking through the jungle to discover the other face of Colombia: endangered animals and a remote Indian tribe with a sacred equatorial monument to the middle of the world.
Simon then heads towards the equator inside the La Paya National Park in southern Colombia with Carlos, the head-warden of the park. Colombia has a rich history, amazing sights, and more bird species than any other country in South America. Just before they hang-up their hammocks and go fishing for piranhas, Carlos tells Simon that much of the park, on the far western side of the Amazon basin, has been occupied by left-wing guerrillas from the FARC organisation. Wardens face enormous challenges from loggers, poachers, guerrillas and drug-lords.
In Brazil speedboats take Simon along the Amazon river, through vast untouched tracts of the Amazon rainforest, to meet remote indigenous tribes now suffering unemployment and alcoholism. Much of the rainforest in the equator zone in western Brazil is still pristine, and there are numerous tribes living in complete isolation. Several have never had contact with the outside world. However loggers and farmers are slowly moving in their direction from the south.
Simon races east across Brazil to his final destination in time for the Pororoca wave, a unique natural phenomenon: a tide that coincides with a full moon sends a mini-Tsunami wave up the Amazon tributaries. Experienced surfers (and complete amateur Simon) have one chance to ride the tidal bore before returning to townbut Simon and the boat-crew forget the wave happens twice a day, and their large boat is nearly tipped into the river late on the closing night
The islands might look gorgeous, but Simon discovers there are concerns the 100,000 tourists who visit each year are threatening the fragile ecosystem. Fishermen in the Galapagos also claim they are not being given a chance to earn a decent living on the island, and have allegedly killed several giant Galapagos tortoises in protest. Fishermen accuse rich tourists of spending their time on the islands staying on luxury yachts chartered from mainland firms. Simon plays cards with fishermen and hears their complaints, then loses some hard-earned money at a volleyball game.
Heading east along the equator Simon arrives in Ecuador, where he travels in 4x4 vehicles along muddy roads and across a swollen river to reach the capital Quito. Simon makes the difficult climb to the top of a dangerous volcano, where a scientist explains that Quito is the worlds most at-risk city due to volcanic activity created by geological pressures on either side of the equator.
Simon presses on to the Colombian border, passing through the most dangerous and lawless area of Colombia, where government forces regularly battle guerrilla rebels. Colombia has been ravaged by decades of conflict that has taken more than 250,000 lives. Around 3,000 civilians still die each year as a result of violence between the army, drug lords, right-wing paramilitaries and left-wing guerrillas. Mired in violence and at the centre of the global cocaine trade, Colombia is enduring the worst humanitarian crisis in the western hemisphere. Simon goes on patrol with the Colombian army before trekking through the jungle to discover the other face of Colombia: endangered animals and a remote Indian tribe with a sacred equatorial monument to the middle of the world.
Simon then heads towards the equator inside the La Paya National Park in southern Colombia with Carlos, the head-warden of the park. Colombia has a rich history, amazing sights, and more bird species than any other country in South America. Just before they hang-up their hammocks and go fishing for piranhas, Carlos tells Simon that much of the park, on the far western side of the Amazon basin, has been occupied by left-wing guerrillas from the FARC organisation. Wardens face enormous challenges from loggers, poachers, guerrillas and drug-lords.
In Brazil speedboats take Simon along the Amazon river, through vast untouched tracts of the Amazon rainforest, to meet remote indigenous tribes now suffering unemployment and alcoholism. Much of the rainforest in the equator zone in western Brazil is still pristine, and there are numerous tribes living in complete isolation. Several have never had contact with the outside world. However loggers and farmers are slowly moving in their direction from the south.
Simon races east across Brazil to his final destination in time for the Pororoca wave, a unique natural phenomenon: a tide that coincides with a full moon sends a mini-Tsunami wave up the Amazon tributaries. Experienced surfers (and complete amateur Simon) have one chance to ride the tidal bore before returning to townbut Simon and the boat-crew forget the wave happens twice a day, and their large boat is nearly tipped into the river late on the closing night