Episode 5 Expedition Borneo

The Heart of Borneo.

A rugged and treacherous landscape of forests, ravines and mountains.

It hides an extraordinary variety of wildlife,

but these forests are disappearing fast.

For the past five weeks, a team of scientists, mountaineers

and filmmakers have been exploring this amazing wilderness.

The expedition has now split into two groups.

To the west, Steve and Justine are attempting a daring descent into the middle of a mountain.

Oh, my God.

To the south, Tara, Tyrone and George are heading deeper into the pristine and unexplored jungle.

These journeys into the wilderness are the climax of the whole expedition.

In these limestone mountains, what seems like solid ground

can suddenly collapse into a deep underground abyss.

Steve Backshall and Justine Evans have been clinging onto ropes

while a tropical storm has blown over them.

Now, with the danger past, they can continue their journey

into the enormous chasm known as Solo.

It's an isolated habitat that's lain untouched for millennia.

Watch the ground when you get down, Justine, it's razor sharp.

-All the trees are very, very spindly compared to what they are just on the other side of the hole.

-Yeah.

-Must have permanent rain, cos when it's not raining, you've still got drips all the time.

-Yeah.

They're experienced climbers, but Steve is also a biologist and Justine's a wildlife camerawoman.

The third climber is Tim Fogg, in charge of safety.

Their aim - to make a rapid assessment of the animals and plants

that live at the bottom of this enormous collapsed cave.

It seems that this cave roof would have collapsed on what was then a huge cavern,

at least a million years ago and this eco-system has been, you know, growing like this ever since then.

It's tough, it's really hard walking because this is just...

this jaggedy, this is what we're walking on, walking on lumps of this

and it's all shifting and you're falling over all the time.

It's just dangerous.

On all sides, there are gigantic stalactites formed over thousands of years.

Every single one of these stalactites is so unique, you can almost play them like a cave xylophone.

MUSICAL NOTES RING OUT

MUSICAL NOTE RINGS OUT

HOLLOW TAPPING

Ha! That one's not so good.

Cut off from the outside world,

this habitat is completely unknown to science.

Both Justine and I are generalists.

What I'd really like to do would be to bring Tyrone and George and Tara down here

who are all specialists in their fields and get them to suss it out.

But at the moment, they're halfway up the Segah river and probably half drowning, so that's not an option.

This one's a tricky rapids cos the water's coming at us from the side and from in front.

Dr Tara Shine is leading a group up the remote Segah river.

It's the first time a team of biologists have ever studied this area of rainforest.

Heavy with gear, the narrow wooden boats are being pushed to the limit

by expert boatmen from the village downstream.

They're trying to get the team as far upriver as possible.

This boat is the heaviest one - it's got all the food in it.

It got stuck halfway up the rapids, everybody had to jump in and pull it out.

If it gets any more exciting than this, I won't be able to cope!

They're now moving rocks to make getting the boats up easier.

Oh, look at the flying bats! Quick, quick, quick, look!

Circling fruit bats.

A little bit eerie, isn't it?

Oh, my God, I've never seen so many of them.

They want to make a first assessment of the diversity of Segah's undisturbed wildlife.

Oh, I think it's really exciting. Definitely no other film crew has been up this river

to capture the beauty of it and bring that back for people to see.

In the team, insect expert Dr George McGavin

and reptile and amphibian specialist Professor Tyrone Hayes.

I'd like to see, hopefully, some snakes or pythons that live along the water.

There's a number of aquatic turtles that one might find.

Keeping my eyes open.

The most amazing thing about being here is that this is the richest place on Earth in terms of species,

so in there are far more species than anywhere else on Earth.

It's pristine jungle, I mean it's the stuff of Jungle Book.

I mean, really, it's clear, clear streams,

beautiful, untouched forest, clear blue skies - I mean, perfection.

And we've got to come right into the depths of it

and very few people get to do that.

This part of the jungle is totally unprotected.

The team wants to find evidence that this pristine jungle should be preserved forever.

If not, it could soon be felled for timber.

Fortunately, Solo is protected within Mulu National Park.

Yet absolutely nothing is known of what lies at the bottom.

Virtually no soil at all

and everything seems to be growing on jaggedy bits of rock.

You see this single-leaf plant has its roots spread out amongst the rock.

These are incredible plants, almost like little sundials.

The leaf turns throughout the day to maximise the sunlight it receives,

especially important here, where you've only got a beam of sunlight

coming down almost at noon

and the rest of the day, almost everything in here's gonna be in the shade.

It's a gloomy, windless world with a constant fall of water from above,

creating a unique microclimate.

Just documenting as much as possible so we can work out what's growing down here.

I didn't think there'd be many mammals,

but we've seen lots of little footprints of rodents,

we've seen signs of snakes, snake tracks -

it is absolutely incredible.

Just found this rather extraordinary-looking little bug,

probably related to the assassin bugs

which is why I'm holding him so carefully cos assassin bugs have a very painful bite.

How I recognised this one is you can see just there, at the front of the head,

is a curled beak which they use for piercing into their victims

and sucking out their insides, which is pretty gruesome.

But the amazing thing about this one is all that incredible algae

that's growing all over its body, or even, I suppose, could be a part of its body

and that gives it fantastic camouflage on the walls of this cave here.

Crazy-looking little creature. Ooh!

These are actually quite small boats

and they rock, as you can see, quite a lot

because they haven't got much draught.

If you move even slightly, the whole thing starts to rock, so it's quite an experience.

The further the team push up the Segah, the shallower and rockier the river becomes.

Just how far they get is up to the experienced boatmen.

Quick, quick, quick, look. Monitor lizard, he was just sitting, basking in the sun on the bank.

The team need to be quick if they're to see any creatures close up.

I thought it was a crab or a water scorpion. so I thought, "I'll get the net."

EXCITED SHOUTING

What they've actually found is a freshwater turtle.

It's a small female.

Amazingly soft, it's just like rubber, isn't it?

They sit on the bottom, stick their head up - see the nose is at the tip?

Then when a fish comes, they shoot their head out and catch the fish.

I've been bitten by one a little bigger than this in the US.

But it's very painful.

Look what's done to me net!

Completely wrecked it.

There's only one way out of Solo -

an arduous 160-metre climb back up the ropes.

But at the deepest part of this crater,

Steve and Justine make an intriguing discovery.

Oi-yah. How about that?

It's amazing.

There's a small opening that appears to lead further into the mountain.

It could even be another way out.

Everything down there is totally uncharted.

No-one has any idea what's down there.

We'd certainly be the first people to go down there.

The idea that we could be exploring a completely new cave passage

to come out at the bottom of the mountain is just bonkers.

I can't believe we can go through there and get out the other end.

It's a long shot, but these mountains are riddled with holes.

The tiny opening could be the entrance to a whole network of undiscovered caves.

On the river, Tara and Tyrone set up their hammocks.

That's as much as you can have.

While George goes for a closer look at the forest.

Ah, wow! That is a caterpillar

and it's absolutely gorgeous.

It's head end, which is up here,

has got these big eye spots on.

If I turn it round, you'll see the head tucked underneath.

I've seen things in the same group and it's always said that they look like snakes.

I suppose if you were a bird and it was angled like that,

you might think twice about it.

In the jungle, insects that aren't camouflaged normally have a very good way of defending themselves.

Up here is an ant nest and if I turn it over...

Ooh, ooh, ooh - they're stinging!

Ooh, ah! They're coming swarming out and they're attacking me. Ah! ha, ha, ha!

You can see how active they are and fierce.

There are literally thousands and thousands of ants there and they're all mean and mad as hell.

Ooh!

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh! Ow, jeez!

Oh!

Ooh! They're everywhere!

How can they get everywhere in such a short time? I was only holding it for ten seconds.

In Solo, the team rest up for the night,

but Steve can't resist getting a closer look

at what lurks in the darkness.

This really is the creature of most people's worst nightmares.

This is a venomous centipede and it's brilliantly adapted,

actually perfectly adapted, to living and hunting in the dark.

Possibly the worst thing about it though is the way they move.

If I give a little tap and you see it run,

honestly, you will see it in your nightmares for weeks. It's horrid.

I might be a bug lover, but that really gives me the creeps.

Corned beef hash. We'll be having it though with rice,

we must have rice three times a day, otherwise the sky will fall down

and some eggs, so lots of protein.

Today was tough.

I fell and busted my knee, I got dragged several metres by the boat,

my feet hurt, my feet are tired,

a huge spider just jumped over my shoulder...

-Cor, look at that!

-That's the biggest one I've seen yet.

That's a cracker. It's a male, it's a Sparassidae,

Huntsman spider, Heteropoda absolutely gorgeous.

Awesome.

This place is a bug hunter's dream.

I'm sure individuals in the past have been here before

because it would be very hard to find anywhere, on Earth where humans haven't been

except perhaps caves and ocean floors,

but... this is the real deal.

It's completely unspoilt.

Tomorrow's cave descent will be fraught with danger.

They have these things called false floors and they're literally suspended and you walk onto them

and if you're lucky, they hold and if you're unlucky, you go though them

and the whole lot can just go down like a crust.

-Got to watch where we're putting our feet.

-Do be very careful

and if you get that hollow sound when you're walking, you want to be very aware.

Last night I woke up in a cold sweat just imagining myself

stuck in a hole with cave crickets and centipedes swarming all over me.

Thoroughly unpleasant.

Last time we'll see that for a while.

The other hole, down below us,

just uninviting darkness.

It's pretty treacherous to walk down these rocks

and it's, it's all loose.

I'm quite nervous now.

Oh, God.

Wow! We're just entering through this, this high sided area

with these ferns and palms and it's just like the Lost World in here.

It's one of the most fantastically beautiful places I've ever seen.

Dripping with mosses and ferns, just breathtaking.

These are great, all the roots of the trees trying to get down to water level to absorb water.

It's a totally different atmosphere to the rest of the river

cos all of a sudden, it just closes in around you.

Deep underground, the narrowing in the rock is rather more extreme.

I can see the way on and it looks as if it's getting bigger,

but just before it is a blade of rock which we've got to go over the top of.

It looks as if I can just get my body through it.

-So it's a squeeze.

-It's a squeeze.

If Tim's going to struggle to squeeze through, how the heck am I going to get through?

We're pretty much the same height, but I reckon I weigh about half as much again as Tim. All those burgers.

Ooh, that's very tight.

If you get to a stage where it's getting difficult, go back out.

-Squashing everything.

-Oh!

How d'you feel that was, Steve?

I'm not built for caving.

Oh, we'll get through now, Steve.

Steve's wedged underground with thousands of tonnes of rock above him.

Steady with your feet. You can crouch down now.

Oh, God. This is the kind of thing I've been seeing in my nightmares.

You've got to push one arm through.

OK.

Yeah. Good man.

HE EXHALES SHARPLY

If it gets any tighter than that, I'm stuffed.

The Segah team have found the perfect place to make camp

and to explore the jungle.

I was sitting over there with the guys and we heard this barking sound

and they jumped up and started shouting "monyet", which is monkey,

so then we saw these long-tailed macaques way up in the trees over here.

That's the first primates we've seen on this river.

It was absolutely amazing.

What's becoming clearer and clearer is that there's an awful lot here worth looking after

and that, you know, it looks like it would be good idea

for more steps to be taken to safeguard this area into the future.

Whoop!

Ooh, listen to that!

Whoop!

God, it's big in there.

Hundreds of metres underground, they find that the pothole has opened out into a massive chamber.

Tim, it's huge.

I can see.

I can see 45, 50 metres in front of me, at least,

and above us, it looks even bigger, Steve.

This is great. Look at that.

It's absolutely vast.

I'm 100% sure this is the first light that has ever been in here.

We're the first people ever to set foot in here.

First humans ever to see that view

out through that chamber and these roofs.

Awesome.

That is quite something.

This is true, original exploration.

Finding a way through this labyrinth won't be easy, there are so many dead ends.

They must remember each and every twist and turn -

getting lost would be fatal.

Just found an absolutely perfect skeleton.

It almost looks like a fossil, which of course in due time, it will be.

It's not a bat, as you can see that the rear limbs are pretty much the same size as the fore limbs.

That's the lower jawbone there,

that's the body twisting round there to the back limbs

and this jawbone here's very interesting.

I'm guessing some kind of rat.

That's what we're going to look like in a few hundred years.

Amazing stuff.

Far from the death and sterility of the cave,

George is surrounded by countless forms of life.

Hee, hee, hee!

I'm not at all upset that I was unable to go down a big hole,

though I'm sure there are very interesting things there,

but this is just...breathtaking.

That's a huge cicada.

The whole of the abdomen is hollow.

INSECT CROAKS

Hear that?

That's probably one of the ones that wakes us up in the morning.

Look at that, it's a beauty. It's an absolute beauty.

The sheer variety here is, is just staggering.

Ah, wow!

That's the biggest bee in the world.

Look at it. There it is.

I haven't seen one before in the wild. In collections, in museums, yes.

That Uranid moth is certainly the biggest moth I've seen flying,

the biggest cicada I've seen flying

and the biggest bee I've seen flying in the wild.

There's a huge variety of stuff here.

Look at these guys, look at these.

Further along the riverbank, Tyrone and Tara are on the hunt for snakes.

There are 150 species of snake in Borneo

and many come out at night in search of prey.

Tyrone catches a venomous mangrove snake.

Amazing.

But this isn't what he's really after.

While gathering wood, one of the boatmen caught a glimpse of a far more dangerous snake.

Young man saw a cobra earlier

and says it's in a nest and though he was reluctant,

we've convinced him to show us where it is.

Cobras, of course, are venomous and can be very dangerous and deadly.

I tell you, it'd be really freaky if I was here on my own.

I wouldn't be here without someone who knows where they're going.

Oh, jeez, there it is. It's moving, you guys.

It's a female on a nest of leaves.

-Oh, wow, look at that.

-Looks like a cobra all right. A king cobra.

It moves fast enough that this is as close as I'm going to get.

Wow, awesome.

The king cobra's raised hood is a clear threat display.

It says, "back off or I'll bite."

I like the motion, I like the mystery,

I like the way that they move...

This one's particularly beautiful,

yet probably one of the more deadly snakes in the world.

This female is protecting a clutch of up to 40 eggs.

Seeing a king cobra is a good sign.

They're top predators, eating only other snakes.

They can only survive in a rich and diverse habitat.

She's gone under the leaves, we don't know where she could pop up

and she also may have a mate around,

so I think we've outstayed our welcome.

Let's back up.

OK, bye, cobra.

That was awesome.

On the riverbank, George sees his bug sheet

as an encouraging measure of the health of the jungle.

Ecosystems are made up by small things

and without insects, you simply wouldn't have large animals

and all the rest, cos that's what they eat.

If you removed all the insects,

ecosystems would collapse basically, in a year, I reckon.

Oh, wow.

This is, this is more like it,

I mean, this is, this is evidence

that this area is incredibly rich, very, very pristine, if you like.

Oh, look at that! Oh, wow!

In the cave, every potential way through is blocked.

-I'm afraid we're back to where we started and we've checked every lead.

-Oh, no.

We've been at it for a fair few hours now

and there just doesn't seem to be any way out of this huge chamber.

I really don't think we can push on any more.

I think time-wise, we've just run out, lights are beginning to go...

But this is a true labyrinth.

-Just feast your eyes on something that nobody else has ever seen.

-Yeah.

On the Segah, the team has also come to a halt.

The river is so shallow that the boats can go no further.

It's time to turn back.

-I'm a bit sad that that's all behind us now.

-Well, you can't have everything, can you?

You can hardly expect to stay here forever.

Yeah, no.

Back to reality.

We're off.

Oh, that's nice - look at that, daylight.

Oh! I'm glad to see that.

I've never been gladder to see blue sky.

It's quite something to be somewhere no-one's ever been before,

but as far as I'm concerned it can stay that way.

THEY LAUGH

They've reached daylight, but they still face a haul out of the chasm

and an arduous jungle trek.

We're now leaving the Lost World for the last time. This is it, we're going.

It's been great being here in Borneo seeing new environments, new animals, new species.

It's been so magical up here,

little bit apprehensive about going back to reality.

Beautiful. I hope it remains unspoilt forever.

We've made a real decision to go to places deliberately,

that people haven't been to before

and it makes things a lot harder, but the sense of achievement is that much greater.

It's been incredible. Great adventure.

The expedition is now over. In the last six weeks,

they've explored throughout the mountains of Borneo,

from the highest jungle peak...

Stunning.

..to deep underground.

Absolutely vast.

They've filmed Borneo's spectacular animals.

-They've been bitten.

-Ooh-ya, ow!

They've bled. And they've got thoroughly carried away.

They've found over 200 species, from the rare to the deadly,

the beautiful to the plain weird.

Ah, wow!

The discoveries of the expedition will now add to the growing body of scientific evidence

proving that this threatened rainforest needs protecting forever.

It's the living, beating heart of Borneo.

There he is, there he is.

That's what we share the toilets with here!

Absolutely extraordinary.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

Email [email protected]