Episode 5 Incredible Animal Journeys

My head's spinning.

I can only walk a few metres without getting totally out of breath.

There is no other place like this on the planet.

This is the roof of the world - Tibet.

And I've come here to try and solve the mystery

of one of the most extreme incredible journeys of them all.

All animal migrations are tough but surely none can be as tough

as this one.

-We might be in trouble.

-Oh, look.

-There, there, there, four.

-Four geese, that's fantastic.

One unique group of birds seem to defy the laws of nature.

Bar-headed geese undertake a journey so tough it should kill them all.

By attempting the same journey myself, I hope to find out just why

they do it and how on earth they manage to pull through.

I think they're laughing at us!

This is the starting point for my mission, the forbidden city

of Lhasa in Tibet.

Not that many years ago, I could have been shot on sight for just

being here.

No foreigners were allowed in this exotic, isolated mountain citadel.

Lhasa is one of the highest cities on earth.

At 12,000 feet, you can get altitude sickness just going shopping around here.

So where exactly are we?

Lhasa is the capital of Tibet

and it's buried in the heart of the Himalayas,

surrounded by some of the world's highest mountains.

It's home for part of the year to the extraordinary bar-headed geese.

In summer, they live on extreme high-altitude lakes in Tibet,

then, when the winter comes, they fly south to Nepal.

And this is where we first caught up with them ten months ago.

Bar-headed geese are unique.

Their migration takes them higher than any other bird on the planet.

Where they fly, no other animal dares go.

To try to understand more about these exceptional animals,

a team of American and Indian scientists have set up an ambitious

project to follow the birds on their annual migration.

The plan is to catch the birds at

the most southerly end of their migration in Nepal.

The team use the skills of the local Shikari hunters

to set a trap for the bar-heads.

This traditional system holds them by the legs, but won't hurt them in any way.

Two strong healthy geese are carefully selected and fitted

with hi-tech satellite transmitters.

These are extremely lightweight tracking devices

and won't impede the birds' movement,

but they will allow us and the scientists to follow their every move.

Our birds are named after the mountaineers who first climbed Mount Everest.

So the first goose is called Tenzing.

Another tracker is attached to the second goose, called Hillary.

The power units on the trackers should last for the next ten months,

-time enough to record their entire round trip all the way to Tibet and back.

-Good to go!

Immediately, the satellite trackers start to transmit the birds' position,

telling us exactly where they are.

A few weeks later in mid-March, their journey begins.

Hillary and Tenzing turned north and flew towards Tibet.

Would the trackers survive the extreme altitude and cold?

For that matter, would Hillary and Tenzing?

In fact, the data we got was awesome.

We were treated to an hour-by-hour signal as they flew right over

the top of the Himalayas.

Hillary and Tenzing flew up to 6,000 metres, that's nearly 20,000 feet,

and hit speeds of over 50mph.

Both of our birds then landed on the extreme high-altitude lakes

and settled down for the summer.

So what's it like in the goose's world?

How do they survive at these extreme altitudes?

And why do they undertake such a death-defying journey?

To answer these questions, I'm going to try and join them

in their summer home in Tibet

and then make the return journey with them back across the Himalayas.

I'm getting my gear sorted.

Screws.

If it all goes according to plan,

we're going to end up nearly 20,000 feet up a mountain

for an inflight rendezvous with Hillary and Tenzing.

Up where we're going to be climbing

there's a real danger of altitude sickness.

Fluid leaks into your lungs, or, even worse, leaks into your brain.

It's potentially fatal.

Somehow the geese can handle the problems of high altitude

but it's totally different for us humans.

I can't just go to where the birds are right away.

Because if I did, I'd almost certainly die.

I've got to give my body a chance to adapt to this extreme altitude

and that takes time.

So, to begin with, I have to stay in Lhasa to start to acclimatise.

Lhasa actually means "home of the gods".

This place is the focus for pilgrims from all over Tibet.

People will spend literally all day

prostrating themselves in front of the temple.

The flagstones are polished smooth by centuries of pilgrims.

Well, it's time to say goodbye to Lhasa.

We've had three days here and we're all feeling quite good now.

So the altitude is having less of an effect, so it's time to go higher.

And every time we feel good, we just keep adding another thousand feet a day.

So from now on it's going to be a little less luxurious,

our accommodation, we're going to be camping, so we need to buy food.

Sorry!

Look. Say hello!

I'm going to definitely miss...

I'm gonna miss this place. What we're doing here now at the moment

is just stocking up on provisions and this is a vegetarian's dream, as you can imagine,

and hoping that by the time we reach the birds, which is in a few days' time,

that they will still be there.

Thankfully, they haven't moved at the moment, but they could go at any moment.

So...time to push on, I suppose.

Well, we're on our way.

Wherever we are, the team of scientists

will regularly update us via a satellite phone

to tell us exactly where the geese are.

From the latest update, we know Hillary is pretty much

out of range for us just now.

So we've decided to try and meet up with Tenzing.

But the lake he's on

is well over 15,000 feet high and it's the other side of a very high pass.

But why is Tenzing up here?

Well, high-altitude lakes make for a perfect nesting site.

Bar-headed geese are able to survive the altitude and the cold,

but very few other animals can, and that includes predators.

It's just far too extreme.

The lakes are simply too high and too difficult for predators

to get to, so this is a great place for the geese to nest and hatch out

the next generation of bar-heads.

During the short summer, there is an explosion of plant growth.

So, actually, there's loads for the geese and their new families to eat.

If we can get up to Tenzing

we will probably find a big goose-nesting site.

We may even find Tenzing is a proud father

and has his own little family up here.

If we can get there.

To help avoid altitude sickness, we shouldn't climb more than

300 metres per day.

The problem is

finding somewhere to stay overnight which is at the right height.

We've decided to come down to...

Well...

there are several words I can use for it, none of them broadcastable.

So we're just trying to find some accommodation somewhere.

The organisation side of things isn't panning out to be just as we'd like,

but after tonight we're going to be camping so we'll be

in charge of our own destinies.

We'll be cold,

but we'll be in charge of our own destinies.

How are you describing this accommodation?

It's completely squalid.

You'd catch something. Four people to a room, blankets covered in stains,

filth all over the floor.

I really don't think we can stay here, but where can we stay?

I'm mad keen, it sounds perfect!

So, after a good night's sleep, it's time for a bit of breakfast

in the local greasy spoon.

The local roadside butcher

has just slaughtered himself a couple of yaks

and everyone's come round to check out the best cuts.

All nice and fresh and steaming.

Just what you want to see on a full stomach.

But we don't mind the look of this.

The thing we're most worried about is the weather.

It's sunny enough in the village but winter is just around the corner

and there are ominous clouds over the surrounding mountains.

These snow clouds look pretty thick and if we get too much snow,

it will make crossing the high pass to Tenzing very difficult.

Even impossible.

We're just filling up the cars because this is going to be the last

sort of town that we're going to be in for a while,

because we're going to head up to the pass which is over 5,000 metres.

So we're talking probably 16,000, 17,000 feet.

We don't know how we're going to be able to cope with that,

but on the other side of that pass is the lake that Tenzing, our male bird, is sat,

and has been for a while, so...

It's snowing now.

That's going to be a problem, I think.

Well, we've decided to have a crack at the pass

even though everybody else has turned round.

We have got a big truck with all our gear in it and that's going to try

and break through the trail for us and try and bash through the snow.

We don't know if we'll make it to the other side

but Tenzing is on the other side waiting at a lake for us.

This weather might mean that he decides to head south.

So this might be our only shot.

We'll see how it goes.

It's looking all right at the moment.

Although we're desperate not to miss Tenzing, we have to be very careful,

this is no place for taking risks.

If we get into trouble, we're on our own.

-No. No.

-No? Not possible, no?

-No, no.

-OK.

-He's getting out.

He doesn't think it's possible.

I don't know what he thinks.

-They're going up.

-We should go on.

-We should go on?

-I think.

-This is nothing so far.

-Ah-ha.

We're about,

between 4,000 and 5,000 metres,

and our guide is

running up the hill.

Needless to say, I'm ambling.

Running is beyond me at the moment.

If I tried to run up here,

I would

pass out, I think.

-Fall down also.

-Slightly concerned.

We'll find out what's going on.

Oh, it's a snow plough.

That's why the roads aren't clear,

because the snow plough is stuck off the road.

It's fallen down the ravine.

That does not bode well.

I think we should possibly think about a retreat.

I'm not looking forward to the trip down.

We might be in trouble.

It's odd to think I can hardly walk up here without getting exhausted,

but the geese are warming up for a thousand-mile flight over the highest barrier on earth.

They're fuelled up, they're super-fit and they're ready to go.

We need to get up to the lake as fast as possible.

This pass is rapidly turning into

our...

Nemesis...

and now...

-the truck is stuck.

-It's stuck.

He can't get up there, the tyres are very bald.

So now he has to reverse back down

and we'll camp and we'll wait till tomorrow morning

and hope this freezes solid and then we can get over the pass, hopefully.

Sounds like a plan.

We've no choice but to camp beside the road and the temperature is starting to plummet.

That was a good...

night in the tent.

It could have been a lot colder.

Outside it was minus eight,

but inside the tents it was measured at minus two, so shows what a little

bit of insulation will do for you.

The best stuff, the absolute best stuff in the cold,

is what's inside this jacket.

And I hate to say it but it is goose down.

So my apologies to Hillary and Tenzing,

but it is amazingly warm for the thickness.

It's only a matter of a centimetre thick, or even thinner than that,

and it's absolute toast.

And of course that's the secret of how the geese

survive the extreme cold up here.

They've got their own superb down jackets to keep them warm.

There.

No, no, no.

We can hear geese.

We can't see them, but we can hear them.

But it's clearing,

we might get a glimpse of them.

That's great.

Maybe Tenzing

is actually making his way over the pass as we've struggled

and decided to stop.

It's much easier to fly.

This is promising.

There are definitely geese nearby and the weather's cleared,

but the temperature's still falling.

The increasing cold could make the lake freeze over,

then there'll be no food for Tenzing and that will trigger his journey

back south where it's warmer.

We know from the latest data he's still on the lake this morning,

but he could go at any time.

The pressure's on.

But our plan's working -

the roads froze hard in the night and we've got grip.

He's not going to move.

CAR HORN BEEPS

Now you don't see them getting stuck.

That's proper all-wheel drive.

What are they doing up here?

This is an avalanche that we're driving through.

I don't know who's cut the path, but it's just come down from this slope here.

There's quite a lot of snow come down, you can see it's a couple of metres thick here.

I can't believe this, this is crazy.

If that could go now, we could have avalanches coming down off the road right on top of us.

It's pretty extreme stuff.

Thankfully, our drivers are very brave men and very competent drivers,

and they've decided to push on through and we're getting

close to the top of the pass now, so who knows what we're going to see.

It looks like we're going to make it.

Absolutely stunning.

We've done it.

We got to the top of the pass.

The cars have come as far as they can.

What we hoped to do

is to get down there and see the shore,

but there's no way we can risk

travelling down this steep pass, the far side, and not being able

to get back up again, back to where our truck is with all our supplies.

But that's what we came to see.

There it is. That's Tenzing's lake, where he's been all summer.

But this is as close as we're going to get.

Well, needless to say, this is

one hell of a refuge for him

and all the other geese.

It's high,

it's away from many, many predators.

I'm so happy.

What an experience.

What a place.

Oh, look!

There, there, there. There's four.

There, we have. We've definitely got geese.

-Four geese.

-High up there, do you see them?

There are four of them in a clump there.

Four geese, that's fantastic.

We're at 5,200 metres

and they're battling into a head wind,

at least a couple of hundred feet, 200, 300, maybe more, feet above us.

This is maybe why Tenzing hasn't left.

They can fly at 50mph,

but this head wind must be making life so difficult for them.

They're hardly making any progress.

No, they're turning back, they're turning back.

Maybe this is why they haven't left.

God, and we thought life was tough for us,

but flying into a head wind

at this altitude, at this temperature,

well, just talking about it's knackering for me.

Being up here has really brought home what the geese are up against.

It's not just the altitude.

Up here in the mountains, there's some really extreme weather.

They may have to contend with winds of 100mph or more.

If they go for it and they hit the wrong winds, they could be blown

backwards, trapped on a mountain top or knocked clean out of the sky.

The timing has to be perfect.

Tenzing has moved.

Whilst we were struggling back down the mountain to camp,

it looks like his journey has actually begun.

The conditions are getting so harsh,

the geese have started to head south.

But he's stopped again.

So, we're off after him.

I want to follow him right over the Himalayas, if I possibly can.

But this still involves pit stops as we go.

We've got to keep up with our acclimatisation.

I know we keep banging on about

acclimatisation and getting acclimatised,

and I feel I should explain a little bit about what that's about,

because, you know, our geese are

superbly designed to actually live up at this altitude and we're not.

But human bodies and mammal bodies in general

have an amazing capacity to adapt, given the time.

We've only been here now a week, or a bit longer than that,

and we're still in the early stages.

The body is saying, "Hang on, there's not much oxygen here,

"let's concentrate the blood."

Now, to make red blood cells, that takes about two weeks

before that really starts to kick in

and we start to get more red blood cells to carry the oxygen.

What I'm at the stage at the moment, just in this first week, is actually

just peeing a lot.

That doesn't sound like a very clever thing for the body to do, but what that's doing

is actually removing the fluid part of the blood and therefore

upping the cells part, the red blood cells that carry the oxygen.

So just by reducing the fluid in the blood,

you're already sort of increasing the percentage of

red blood cells, so that's why I have to keep taking a leak.

We're on our way to Xigaze, Tibet's second biggest city

and right on our path as we try to follow Tenzing's route.

And I'm bound to say it's going to be very pleasant

to stop camping for a night.

It is odd to look out over what

looks like a normal town, but realise this is all actually

three times higher than Britain's highest mountain.

So far we've been concentrating on Tenzing because he's the only one

we could hope to get near.

But in Xigaze, there's been some news.

We have been hearing from Hillary

right up till yesterday and then suddenly nothing.

This could be down to three reasons.

Her transmitter could have failed, which is unlikely.

Bad weather could be affecting the reception.

But there's a third, much more exciting, possibility.

When she's in the air, when she's actually flying,

the transmitter won't work very well.

Now this could mean that

both our geese, Tenzing and Hillary, are actually on the move.

We're coming to the hardest part of our mission for the geese and us.

Next stop, base camp.

Actually, not Everest base camp.

We're heading for a different mountain, but along our route

there's an unmistakeable landmark.

That there is the biggest mountain in the world.

Yep, that is Everest.

It's an interesting thought that this range that our bar-headed geese have to fly over

is still a young range.

It's not particularly old and it's still growing,

and the important thing about that is that it might hold some clue as to why

bar-headed geese fly over this range, rather than round it like a lot of other birds.

It's an interesting theory.

Around 70 million years ago, India crashed into Asia,

and, as a result of this epic collision, the Himalayas rose up.

But this all happened in a number of stages bit by bit,

and it's just possible the ancestors of bar-headed geese were already making this trip

well before the mountains became so exceptionally high.

As the Himalayas continued to rise,

the geese just raised their game with them and flew higher and higher

until they moved up into a different zone.

Where we are now, there is half the amount of oxygen

that there is at sea level.

It makes doing anything physical desperately hard work.

You've got to remember we're at 17,000 feet,

so there's not a great deal of oxygen.

That's why we've got to take it in turns to do the digging -

I'm at the back of the queue!

That's it, I'm just starting to feel

slightly dizzy now.

I've been going about two minutes

and yet all I'm doing is just lightly tossing this snow

and it's, er,

it's knackering.

This mountain is Shishmapangma, an 8,000-metre peak.

The data shows that both Hillary and Tenzing

crossed just to one side on their northward journey up to Tibet.

If our calculations are right,

it's most likely they will fly back south this way using the same route.

If we can get up high enough to the goose fly-by zone, we might

just be there when they go by, but we've still got another 1,000 metres to go.

This will be the toughest part of the journey for us

and Hillary and Tenzing.

No other bird on earth regularly flies this high.

Where they go, there is less than one third the amount of oxygen

that there is at sea level and it can be minus 50 degrees.

The geese can fly up to 50mph but add on a possible tailwind of up to 100mph

and they can slingshot over the roof of the world in a matter of hours.

This whole migration can be over in a single day.

But, then again, the conditions have to be perfect

and they can change at the drop of a hat.

It got to, I think, minus 19, I think, last night.

I just want to get up,

do that final push, get up over...

these mountains and down the other side and down into lower altitude,

where I'm going to feel so much better.

I don't know, maybe the geese feel that way as well,

the ones that have done it before.

The kiddies of this season might not know what's going to hit them,

but the adults certainly will, and maybe that's why they're delaying,

because they feel as crap as I do.

My problem is I can't get enough oxygen out of the air up here.

My body is really struggling,

but how on earth do the geese actually manage to do it?

Well, the answer is, they're mutants.

Way back in their evolution, something amazing happened.

Bar-heads developed a mutation

that altered the chemical composition of their blood.

This mutation allowed their blood to extract far more oxygen from every breath,

which enabled the bar-headed geese to cope with the effects of altitude with no troubles at all.

Unlike me.

There's now no way we are physically capable of carrying our gear ourselves

and it's the end of the road for the vehicles. So it's over to yak power.

Like geese, yaks are highly specialised

to live up at these heights.

I wish I could say the same for me because, despite our careful calculations,

I'm starting to worry altitude sickness may have got me in its grip.

I'm feeling grim.

I get migraines quite commonly

and I've had...

a migraine now

for about three days.

Now, the problem with that is,

there's another thing that happens at altitude, which is

your brain swells, you get what they call cerebral oedema,

and if that's what I've got, and it's not a migraine, then that

can be very, very serious, so I think the option

to take really is to get

to lower altitude as soon as possible

because...

I can't go on feeling like this.

Despite desperately wanting to carry on and being tantalisingly close to our goal,

it's clear to everyone that this is the end of the line for me.

The problem is I can't tell whether

-it's a migraine or not, and that's...

-We can't take any chances at all.

-It's just been going on too long now.

-Yes.

Obviously things haven't turned out the way that we hoped,

but Steve has been getting worse and worse over the past three days and we just can't take any chances.

Which is a shame because today was going to be our big push.

We were going to try and get as high as we possibly could,

maybe even up to goose fly-by level,

and we had everything we needed.

We've got the yaks, we've got fantastic weather

and we spent 14 days acclimatising, trying to getting our bodies ready to get up there,

but it seems our bodies just can't take it.

Altitude sickness is a potential killer

and the only sure way to reduce the symptoms

is to get down to lower altitude just as fast as possible.

We've failed.

It's only when you stop feeling bad that you realise just how bad you did feel.

And now I'm down at much lower altitude,

the nausea has gone, the headache's gone,

I'm warm again,

but I miss being up there.

It was such a strange and stunning place.

It might be the last time I get to that sort of altitude

and there really is no other place on earth like it, really.

You just look around and you see all these peaks and you just want

to go to the top of them and I can understand why people do that now.

And I can understand why people die up there as well,

just refusing to accept that

they shouldn't be there.

Next stop, Nepal.

Thank you very, very much.

Oh, here we go, it's tied as well.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much. Bye.

Bye-bye. Bye!

It's so strange, this whole trip has been about the hardship of

getting out of Tibet and getting over those mountains

and dealing with the altitude, that I haven't thought about Nepal,

where we're going or where the geese are going.

And now it's happening and I have no idea what to expect.

I've never been there before but I'm really looking forward to it.

We're heading for Nepal because that's where the geese were tagged

and that's where they'll finish their journey if and when they cross the mountains.

But it's starting to get just a bit late.

As I'm crossing the border,

Hillary and Tenzing are still in Tibet up on the high-altitude lakes.

The geese are massing together in groups close to the mountains, waiting, but waiting for what?

The geese know by the change in day length that it's time to go.

Perhaps they're waiting for exactly the right weather.

Right now they seem to be stuffing their faces,

getting as much fuel on board as they possibly can.

This one flight will burn a huge amount of energy.

And talking about energy, we may have a problem.

The power supplies on the satellite transmitters Hillary and Tenzing are carrying

are only supposed to last ten months and that time is more or less up.

All I can do now is try and get ahead of them and wait for them

at their final destination in Nepal.

Hello!

HORN BEEPS

Well, they're still behind those mountains.

It seems that Hillary and Tenzing haven't found the motivation to fly all the way over here yet.

And, standing here, we can only guess why that isn't so.

It could be the extreme cold on the other side,

it could be that they're waiting for the right winds,

or it could be something more sinister.

You see, they might not come over here at all.

Flying over the Himalayas isn't the only problem they have to face.

On top of bad weather and transmitter problems,

there's now something else to worry about.

Something that's been making headline news.

China has become the latest Asian country to confirm an outbreak of

bird flu. Today, China confirmed two new outbreaks of the virus.

Earlier this year, the flu virus killed 6,000 wild geese and ducks

in China's Qinghai Lake.

That's worrying because it's a staging post for migratory birds.

Millions of years of evolution have prepared Hillary and Tenzing

for flying over the highest mountains in the world,

but nothing could possibly have prepared them for the bird flu.

It looks like thousands of geese have already died

and if our birds are on lakes with

infected birds, this journey could come to an abrupt halt.

But we have to remain hopeful.

We know from the latest data,

the geese are still moving around on the other side.

So I'm rushing towards Royal Chitwan National Park,

the very same place Hillary and Tenzing were tagged nearly a year ago,

to wait for them to arrive.

It's amazing that their tiny little transmitters are still

kicking out a signal but, worryingly, it looks like Hillary's battery

is starting to fade.

Royal Chitwan is an amazing place,

absolutely teeming with spectacular wildlife.

It's famous for its wild Indian rhinoceros.

And it's famous for its tigers.

But what's the attraction for bar-headed geese?

Well, during the winter, this place is fantastically lush.

There's just no comparison with the high-altitude lakes in Tibet.

There's tons of food for hungry geese.

So you might think this would be paradise for Hillary and Tenzing?

Well, not really.

Royal Chitwan has a dark side.

Dhan Badur has worked here all his life.

So this is obviously quite an excellent place for the birds to live,

but quite dangerous as well, I suppose?

Yes, it is, yes.

You have to be very careful when you walk through the bushes. Anything could happen.

-This is a very good area for the tigers and the rhino.

-OK.

-OK?

-Right.

Steve, look, the tiger tracks.

Thanks. Is that a male or female?

-Female.

-Beautiful.

-Lovely tracks.

-It came this way from this grassland here.

So probably going to look for some deer?

Yes, probably.

You've never had an accident with them? You managed to get away obviously?

Yeah, nearly, nearly, many times, but not yet.

Yes.

-Right, I'll stick with you then.

-OK.

I don't want to lose you here.

Yeah. Good, I don't want you to lose me here either!

OK, so we'll go a little bit up and check whatever there.

See the tall grass?

Could be there somewhere.

That's the ideal sort of hiding place then, is it?

Yes, that's quite a good place for the tigers.

Also here it's quite good because we have here safe area.

So you always keep an eye out for trees?

Yeah, keep an eye on tree.

So we'll call that one Steve's tree.

-Steve's tree, OK.

-OK. Which one's Dan's tree?

That one.

-Steve, are you coming?

-Yes, yeah, yeah, I'm still here.

This is a very dangerous place.

I wish he wouldn't keep saying that!

Now, I understand this obviously is a dangerous place to walk around on foot for a human.

What's it like for our geese? Is it dangerous for them?

Pretty dangerous for them too, because we have lots of predators

-like jackals, jungle cat, bird of prey, so many things.

-Yeah.

So they have to keep their eyes and ears open?

They have to be careful too, yes.

So, although Royal Chitwan is lush and beautiful,

this is a very dangerous place for the birds to come to at the end of their migration.

There are so many potential predators out to get them.

If the geese didn't get driven away because of the extreme cold in winter,

they would probably be much better off staying in Tibet all the year round, never migrating at all.

But they have no choice.

I know how they do it and now I know why they do it.

There's just one final question -

are they going to do it?

Right now, I'm getting concerned we may never find out,

because the transmitters' batteries are due to fail any time now.

The ten months is very nearly up.

And once they switch off,

it's game over.

In any normal year, the geese would have arrived here long before now,

but this year they are late, getting on very late.

We're scouring the park day in, day out.

There's not a sign of a single goose.

There are actually only around 18,000 pairs of bar-headed geese left in the world.

They are very nearly an endangered species.

And because there are so few, the fact that they haven't managed

to cross the mountains yet is concerning.

They're late, they're very late,

which is disappointing for our film but it's actually even more worrying just for them

because it isn't a big population.

I hope they're OK.

I'm having to get my head around the idea

that I'll never find out what happened to Hillary and Tenzing.

And I have to say, after all I've been through to try and follow their story,

it's a hard thought to swallow.

But, just when we thought it was all over, we're back in business.

Just before the transmitters stopped working - and I do mean just before,

it was only a matter of a few days - Hillary and Tenzing made their move.

They crossed the Himalayas, but, true to form,

they're still not following the script.

They didn't stop in Nepal,

they headed on and on, all the way to here - India.

We know exactly where they landed,

but now the transmitters have switched off

and stopped transmitting for ever.

-So what the

-BLEEP

-are we going to do?

I've come too far and suffered too much.

I'm simply not prepared to give up now.

But I have to say, it's beginning to feel like mission impossible.

There's just one more final possibility.

When battery power fails, people power has to take over.

This is a really rural part of India.

People are out working in the fields from dawn to dusk.

Is it possible someone has seen Hillary or Tenzing?

THEY SPEAK LOCAL LANGUAGE

They were sitting around the area of the river where he spends a lot of time.

He saw them flying by at sort of eye level.

When I spoke to him on that day, that's what he said.

So did he understand it was a bar-headed goose or does he not

really have an interest in birds?

I showed him the birds and he said, "Oh, yeah, there were

"three or four. One of them had a red band around its neck".

And that pretty much identifies the bird because now I've shown him

the bird in the bird book and it is the same bird.

That hardly seems possible.

In the vastness of India,

we have an eyewitness who's actually seen Hillary.

Could Hillary still be here?

And where exactly did she finally choose to end her migration?

I'm using a handheld GPS to find the exact spot Hillary made her final transmission.

Well, this is the place.

This is where, before her transmitter turned off, the last fix we got for Hillary was here.

Well, it was within a stone's throw of this very position.

And not only that, we've got an eye-witness account.

Someone has actually clapped eyes on that red collar of hers.

So we can say for definite she made it.

Hillary chose well.

This is probably a far better bet than the dangers of Royal Chitwan.

There's no possibility of being ambushed by tigers or jackals.

Hillary and Tenzing have led me a merry dance.

But because of this project, we're just that little bit closer

to understanding the extraordinary world of the bar-headed goose.

And now that I've discovered for myself exactly what these geese

actually go through, I have nothing but respect for these truly extreme animals.

And even though I didn't find them,

it's enough to know that Hillary and Tenzing did definitely make it.

But, wherever they may be now, these two extraordinary geese

are still writing their own stories.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd, 2006

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