Episode 2 Lost Land of the Jaguar

North of the Amazon lies another jungle,

still unknown and unspoilt -

the rainforests of Guyana.

A team of explorers,

scientists and filmmakers

is in the heart of this threatened jungle.

Their aim - to survey the animals in this great wilderness.

Here in Guyana, this is pristine - it's untouched. Unchanged.

Wow! Our job is to prove that these forests are worth more alive than they could be razed to the ground.

The expedition is moving into its second phase

and the team must push harder to discover more of

the extraordinary creatures hidden within this rainforest.

There are probably hundreds, if not thousands of species here

that haven't been seen by anybody. And we will find them first.

But it's proving tough. For 48 hours, Steve Backshall

has been battered by one of the world's most powerful waterfalls

and the worst the elements can throw at him.

The storm is getting closer and closer. It's right overhead.

And, er... I'm just a bit scared, actually,

I'm going to get struck.

I'm pretty much the only feature in the landscape at the moment.

If there's a lightning strike down here, then I'm gonna get hit.

Guyana - the size of Great Britain, with just 2% of the population.

The towns are clustered on the coast.

Travel inland and you find nothing but jungle.

In the heart of the forest lies Kaieteur Falls.

It's five times higher than Niagara, and sheltering at its base

is expedition naturalist and climber, Steve Backshall.

Well, that was about the most miserable night in my life.

I was doing fine until the storm hit.

And then all of a sudden I was woken up by this enormous weight on my head.

And it was just all the water gathering in my shelter.

And from then on in, it was a struggle to keep the thing up.

Two nights without sleep and I am absolutely ruined!

It's been worth it.

He's the first naturalist ever to explore this unique habitat that's constantly drenched in spray.

Look at this!

He's discovered a bizarre world crawling with frogs,

where freshwater crabs scuttle through a valley full of orchids.

This is one of the most dramatic places I've ever been.

And just to be completely enveloped in this mist, it just feels like you're part of the waterfall!

It's one of the most exciting,

fantastic places I've ever been in my life!

But it's no place for humans.

For two nights, Steve's had no sleep and little food.

To get out, he must haul himself up 240 metres of rope.

Ascending on a rope which is about as wide as my little finger.

Which is why I'm moving up here at a snail's pace.

God, it's a long way!

The rest of the team are in the jungle base camp and there are monkeys close by.

-Gordon - we've got brown capuchins above the ladies' loo!

-Mmm.

Gordon Buchanan is an expert on South America's rainforest animals.

Were you asleep?

About an hour. I got up at three this morning.

Right, what do I need? Clothes!

What were you dreaming about?

I was dreaming about monkeys, funnily enough!

Premonition!

His job is to record these animals on camera.

So far, he's been tracking creatures through dense forest.

But now wildlife is coming right into camp.

It's right there, sitting.

I hope that's rain that's falling down! And not urine!

-Two of the scientists, George and Raquel, spotted the monkeys near their jungle laboratory.

-Here.

There!

They're brown Capuchins.

They're foraging side by side with squirrel monkeys.

There are eight species of monkey in this part of South America.

The team aims to find out how many live in this forest.

There's one up here. Look! That's right overhead.

Oh my God! There's one right here.

He's just having a bite to eat.

Primates are normally nervous when humans are around.

But this forest is unusual -

it's not been hunted and the monkeys show little fear of people.

They're after this tree, there's some fruits in it. I'm seeing him throwing out the seeds.

Monkeys are important seed dispersal agents for the forest.

Just being so close to camp, I am astounded that there's

any activity here from any animal, let alone a primate.

On the other side of camp, another monkey has just been spotted

by wildlife camera woman, Justine Evans.

Yes, I can see, cos he's moving.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yes! Fantastic.

Got some spider monkeys here.

This one doesn't seem particularly happy about us being here.

It's making lots of little noises.

Getting a bit upset.

He just threw a branch down at us. Amazing arms.

Very gibbon like. This is really an amazing place.

I didn't expect to wander out of camp and see so much.

Especially from down in the understorey.

You normally just don't see anything, it's so hard.

Yeah, it's really great. Good time.

To catalogue the species that live in this remote jungle,

there's an international team of scientists on the expedition.

They are working out of a purpose-built jungle lab

in the heart of the camp.

Studying the plants is Guyanese biologist, Dr Raquel Thomas.

In this forest we have over 6,000 species of flowering plants.

Every time I come in here, there is something new to see and new to learn.

That's why it's important.

In charge of the river survey is fish expert, Dr Phil Willink.

These are places that we need to come to now and work in

before they change, before people move in and ecosystems are impacted.

The expedition's results will be shared with the Guyanese Government.

It's a very poor country, trying to decide whether it can keep

its forests intact, or if they have to be logged for much-needed cash.

-Which one is that?

-That's a wolf spider.

-That's a big one.

There's probably species here that haven't been described yet.

Working with the team is Dr Russ Mittermeier.

He's the president of Conservation International which is campaigning to keep these forests.

In Guyana you still have virtually all of the forest intact.

And it has the greatest remaining rainforest wilderness area on earth.

And if we have rainforest wilderness 50 or 100 years from now,

it's going to be in this region.

So it's a fabulous area. It's unlike any place else on earth.

It really is the hope of rainforest wilderness for this planet.

For an hour, Steve has been dragging himself

up the rope inch by painful inch.

Oh, shoot!

HE GROANS

Steve has climbed some of the world's highest mountains

and run extreme marathons - but this climb has all but defeated him.

BLEEP!

Absolute hell on earth down there.

It's so cold and wet.

As the rest of the climbing crew make it safely to the top,

Steve collapses from the exertion.

The expedition medic is on hand.

Here, have some water.

Sit on this bank over here, mate.

-How are you feeling now?

-Fine.

-You've just got to rest, mate.

You've just done a big exertion after the couple of days down there, as well.

-You really have got to chill.

-Thanks, mate.

-Don't be walking around and don't be grabbing no ropes up here.

-OK!

Steve can now return to what should be the safety of base camp.

But some creatures are getting too close for comfort.

Oooooh!

-This little thing could kill you?

-Yes.

They bite, those ants. They're only little, but they bite hard.

We've invaded their space, not the other way round.

They're just reclaiming it now.

Ow!

Insect expert Dr George McGavin has been stung by a scorpion.

Cardinal rule - do not stick your hand in a bucket you haven't checked.

Right in the finger. Imagine you've heated up a pin

to about 120 degrees C and you stab it right through your finger.

I imagine what that would feel like is what this is.

George's sting is painful, but not life threatening.

Really funny feeling.

Steve is back in camp and the whole team gathers for the usual, piranhas and rice.

The day's work is not done.

After dinner, George has an unpalatable task for everyone.

He's organised a scorpion clear-out.

They split up and scour the camp.

George told me that he'd seen one in the bathroom. Bathroom!

Does it look like a bathroom?!

No, it's just a huge hole.

I think I'm getting a bit of a bum deal here.

Each team is armed with an ultraviolet torch.

Wow! I've found two tiny scorpions. I don't believe it.

Under ultraviolet light, scorpions are easily spotted.

It's amazing how they glow, isn't it?

Just a little itty bitty one.

Good start. Look at that.

Woo-hoo!

There it is.

George and Raquel have the biggest catch of the evening.

There he is. There's the little beauty.

That would have handed you quite a painful sting.

If I was to ease off the pressure on these forceps, it would leap forward, grab my finger,

sting me in the thumb...and that would be very unpleasant.

The fatter the tail, the worse the sting.

-I haven't seen any really big ones yet.

-This is not big?

That's not big, no.

It's big to me!

Scorpions love to crawl into small, dark places,

so it's a good idea every night to turn your sleeping bag inside out.

Scorpions aren't the only unwelcome guests.

There's a highly venomous centipede in the women's dormitory.

Steve. Steve.

Steve.

I've got a centipede in my bed. I was quite hoping you'd remove it for me.

Steve's had years of experience handling poisonous creatures.

Centipedes are way harder to handle than any sn...

Yeah, this is called a scolopendrid, which has a nasty bite to it.

Ooh, it's feisty!

His front feet have adapted into poisonous, venomous claws,

which he uses for biting.

Every one of those feet has a nasty toxin, as well, which leaves horrible scratches on the skin.

He's all right.

-Cheers, Steve.

-Night night.

-Thank you!

The heart and soul of the base camp is the beach.

It's where the fish are gutted, the boats are stored and where everyone comes to wash and cool off.

It's a welcome respite from the stifling jungle heat.

All the sweat, the dirt, the grime.

The one good thing is, you have the beautiful river out there to bathe in, because it's fresh water.

Absolutely beautiful.

Justine was coming down for her morning wash,

but something has changed her mind.

Oh, dear.

There's a big caiman on the beach.

Exactly where I wash. This is the first proper one I've seen.

The black caiman. It's the largest predator in South America

and like so many animals around camp, is growing bolder by the day.

He's one that could quite happily cause damage to fully-grown adults.

You can see the guys down here cleaning fish.

That croc is 11, 12 feet long,

and this is exactly the way that caimans start becoming a problem in villages round here.

People are cleaning their fish, the caiman gets bolder and bolder, and they eventually take some of

the dogs, then it moves up to taking someone's child.

Whoa!

Caiman are just one of hundreds of intriguing creatures that thrive in these waters.

Steve joins Dr Phil Willink on his survey of fish.

You'd better get something good out of this, Phil!

It's a freshwater anchovy.

Wow, I can't believe I'm risking my life for anchovies!

They'll be the first scientists to search beneath the surface in this region.

We know very few people have been up here.

Who knows what's living in these areas?

There's probably a lot of new species hiding in these rocks and these rapids.

The combination of nobody being here before and a difficult habitat

to collect in, we're gonna find a lot of new species.

With each passing day, more animals and plants are being catalogued in the jungle lab.

Look at this. This is my baby in here.

George has started a study of the forest's spiders.

One of these whip spiders is just about to...

Yeah, look at that.

Look at her egg sac there.

His enthusiasm is not shared by everyone.

-Beautiful!

-Spiders!

Spiders!

-Yeah?

-That's why I stick to plants!

I'll persuade you eventually.

But George has set his sights on finding an even bigger spider.

He's discovered a skin shed by the world's largest tarantula,

the goliath bird-eating spider.

They are here, obviously, cos there's the evidence

of an empty skin. So there's a larger one than this somewhere in the area.

Each time it climbs out of its skin, it's getting bigger?

Absolutely. So it grows a new skin underneath the old skin,

but those fangs are just pin-sharp.

Cat's claws or an eagle's talons.

And they're really hard.

-I've eaten one of these.

-You've eaten these?

-Yeah.

-Fantastic.

We were filming the Piaroa Indians in Venezuela.

This is like fast food for them.

I've heard that, after they eat them,

they use...they remove the claw like this and they actually use it as

a toothpick. They remove the bits of...

Actually, it works! That's bloody good, that!

Back on the river, Steve and Phil's fish survey is off to a bad start.

Their net is caught.

We've either got the biggest fish in the world or it's attached to a log.

I'm guessing a log.

-Is it coming up?

-No, not at all.

Shall I have a swim?

-Go down, untangle it?

-What I don't want is for you to go down there and get tangled in it.

'He's freed the net, but it's full of piranhas.'

Woah!

'Black piranhas are notoriously aggressive.'

Great, they're both chewing holes in my other net now!

He's very close to taking a chunk out of your arm.

God, look at that!

You could actually see the scratches it's made in the metal with its teeth. That is insane!

I can't believe I'm swimming in here!

GRUNTING

What is making that noise? Is it the piranha?

They're making it with their swim bladder somehow, yeah.

Whether it's an intentional form of communication, I don't know.

-Wow, that is a really good-sized piranha.

-Mmm-hmm.

These are bigger than the red-bellied ones they had in all the horror movies.

Look at that!

That is a set of teeth to be reckoned with.

And if they break or they get dull, they replace them.

-Really?

-Yeah.

What good's a piranha with no teeth?

'In the river, they're finding some of the jungle's fiercest predators.

'On land, Gordon's found one of the jungle's most vulnerable creatures.'

Really difficult to see, but just taking a round thing hanging off the tree,

it's a wren's nest, very well camouflaged.

The nest itself is tiny.

You could easily fit it in the palm of your hand.

Smaller than a tennis ball.

The bird is same kind of size as the wrens that you get in the UK,

and the eggs and chicks that it might have, microscopic, almost.

Yeah, keeping going, Gordon.

'Gordon sets up CCTV cameras by the nest.

'He doesn't want to disturb these timid birds, so he's keeping his distance.'

It takes a huge hassle factor out of it, because we don't constantly have to sneak back and forward.

This is something we just power up, see if there's something going on, and have somebody monitoring it.

'Guyanese student Defreitas Haynes will follow the chicks' progress from the lab.

'It's a unique chance to record the development of these tiny ant wren

'chicks until they fly the nest, if they make it.'

This nest has to be so well camouflaged, because the forest is

full of loads of stuff that will predate on the eggs or the young.

There's snakes, there's other reptiles, there's birds,

there's rodents, pretty much everything will be out

to get whatever's inside this nest.

It's a very dangerous place for this little bird.

'They have no defence against predators.

'They can only rely on not being seen.

'Steve and Phil's fish survey continues.

'They've already found huge piranhas.

'Now, with the help of local fishermen, they're hoping for a far more impressive catch.'

SPLASHING

OK.

This is a big fish. Big?

-Woah, look at the size of that!

-It's a big one!

Oh, that's unbelievable!

That is the banana catfish.

SNORTING AND GASPING

'Surveying fish is not easy.

'They must identify each species and return them to the water as quickly as possible.'

You can tell it's called the banana catfish because it's yellow on the belly, like a banana.

-And probably a good 20 years old, would you say, Phil?

-Could be older. These fish can live for a long time.

This fish is just covered in parasites.

-One popped out! Don't lose it!

-We've got another one, Phil!

-Where is it?

-Just down there, look.

Another one there, look. It's actually scattering blood everywhere.

-It's like a full leech!

-OK.

Let's put our friend here back in,

cos he's absolutely wonderful and we wouldn't want to harm him.

So, old fella, off you go.

Absolutely fantastic.

Excellent.

Nothing like as exciting as what we've got in here.

'The parasitic fish Steve's collected are known as vampire catfish or candiru.'

Apparently, if you stand in the water in these areas and go to the toilet,

it will swim up the stream of urine and right inside you

and lodge inside you, using two backward facing spines.

These candiru actually swim in, latch into the gills of a large fish and drink the blood.

You can see this one here, which dropped out of the gills, is absolutely thick

full of blood.

The big lesson, I guess, is, if you're in the river, don't go for a wee!

'The ant wren nest is unguarded.

'The parents have had to go in search of food.

'Now ants have started attacking the chicks.'

It's not looking good, cos the ants are increasing and the birds are

going...twitch like this every so often.

Gordon, ants are swarming...not swarming, but there are quite a

few ants on the rim of the nest and they're round and inside the nest.

Oh, yeah, they're right in there.

I'm really worried where the adults are, cos the adults, I assume,

would come back and just remove them.

Yeah. When was the last time the adults came in?

Have they been in within the last hour?

-No.

-Is that usual?

I would have thought at this stage they'd be coming in more regularly, at least once an hour.

-With food.

-Yeah. You're probably enjoying this.

You're not a big fan of feathered animals.

No, they're OK, but it is a sort of irony that the ant birds are being

attacked by the ants.

There's an adult.

Oh, look, and a cricket. A bush cricket, look at that!

That's a whopping great bush cricket!

SQUAWKING

Fantastic. Listen to the noise.

Oh, she's eating it.

Now, is she eating it because she has to remove the ants?

-Let's see what happens.

-Oh, yes!

There we are. Come on! Eat those ants, baby!

The ants knew that there was an ant bird around and off they went,

that's it, gone. This is absolutely great.

Higher animals need insects.

Insects are the food of the world, and without insects you wouldn't have any of this stuff.

'Steve's discovered what rules the depths by day.

'Now he wants to learn what hunts by night.'

Ah! Oh, my God!

These are called sabre-tooth characins, or sabre-tooth tetras.

It's the nearest looking thing to an actual monster I've ever seen.

It certainly deserves its sabre-tooth name. That is incredible.

These teeth are so long they need special sockets in their skull

to accommodate them, otherwise they would just pierce their brains.

-Oh, God, OK.

-This is a top predator.

They're extremely fast. They swim around and they come up below fish

and just spear them and just kill them instantly, just like that.

They spear them, the fish are immobilised and then eat them.

I've got my fingers disturbingly close to those teeth.

I would imagine those would just go straight through to the bone, wouldn't they?

They'd go right through your hand, no doubt about it. They're very strong.

And he's got to go back.

Let's see if I can put him in without losing my hands!

Yeah, careful.

Now we're seeing the night shift, the big cat fish, the sabre-tooths.

By day, the piranhas rule the rivers. You're never safe.

Just going to move very slowly, keep an eye out for spiders.

'In the dark of the forest, George and a team of local

'trackers are stalking the world's largest tarantula.'

You're coming this way?

Yeah, I can see your light. Have you found a new hole? Over.

You can see it at the hole?

It's there?

INDISTINCT TALKING

OK, I'm on my way. Wait there.

Oh, wow!

There it is. Oh, my goodness!

Theraphosa blondi, the goliath bird-eating spider.

Oh, wow. Great.

The trouble with this is, the first fright that she gets and she'll

dive into that hole again and we won't ever be able to get her out.

That's OK, that's fine. I'm going to

try a little stick to tease her forward.

Is there any way you could round the back and block the hole?

'Poor sighted, tarantulas hunt by sensing vibrations in the ground.

'They wait to pounce on passing prey.'

She is a beauty.

That's it, that's it, that's it.

Now, these guys don't normally bite as a first defence.

They normally flick hairs, and she was flicking hairs.

Let's just block that hole...

'The barbed hairs are designed to irritate a predator's skin, eyes and lungs.'

Those hairs are extremely irritating.

I want to cough. Don't let me cough.

Cos if I cough, she'll get a fright.

I'm desperately trying not to cough at the moment.

OK, it's gone. Thank God for that.

These guys have inch-long fangs, and you really don't want that in your finger.

Oh, dear.

Do not cough.

But you see how incredibly beautiful she is.

She moves serenely like...

Oh, she jumped.

I'm going to try and get her back in the box, only because I want to see

how heavy she is, after which we will bring her back

to her hole here.

I've got to get back. It's flicked the hairs and there were

clouds and it's gone on my face, gone up one arm, inside my arms.

It's gone up this arm. I've actually inhaled some of them so I'm coughing.

Which shows what an effective way

of putting off enemies it is.

You don't need inch-long fangs if you can make somebody twitch and itch all over. Agh!

'Early next morning, Steve and Phil are trawling the shallows by camp.'

-Look at these ones.

-We have around a dozen species right here.

They're all related to tetras. This is called the characidium.

Here's a cichlid.

-Oh, yes.

-Popular in the aquarium trade.

Oh, I think we have something interesting here.

This, I think, is a brand new species.

-No way!

-Undescribed.

How do you know just by looking at it?

Because I've worked on the Guiana Shield before in different countries and I've seen fish

similar to this in the same genus, but this is looking very different.

So we'll try to make some more comparisons.

But I think we have a brand new species to science right here.

-No way!

-Really.

-All that hard work finally paid dividends.

Right here, right by camp, right with all the piranhas.

And everything else. This is a very small area, about 10ft wide.

Caught a dozen species.

That just exemplifies how high the biodiversity is here.

-Yeah.

-Oh, we've got another one! Two.

Great stuff!

-I'll get this into the aquarium.

-Yeah, thank you.

'All the indications are that this area is completely undisturbed,

'never fished, never hunted, and its ancient trees intact.

'In the 21st century, that makes it a rare rainforest indeed.'

Oh, come on, baby. I want to weigh you, that's all.

Now, come on, be nice. Just go in this bag. There you go.

'George's giant tarantula has spent the night in the lab,

'and he's taking its vital statistics before releasing it.'

Just feeling her in my hand,

she feels about the weight of a small spiny rat.

Now, that's 85 grams.

That's a good size.

This is an amazing place.

All the animals here are just huge.

It is a land of giants, this.

You've got giant plants, giant otters, giant spiders, giant this, giant that.

You know, and this being the world's biggest spider species,

for me, is an enormous thrill, an absolutely enormous thrill.

No way!

'Another animal has come in to camp.'

Somebody said there was a vulture and I thought it was just on the tree.

How long has he been here?

Um, just five minutes.

The reason that vultures have a bald head is because they feed on smelly, rotting carcasses, and if they had

feathers on their head, it would just get completely matted up

with rotting flesh and blood and guts.

So they've evolved to have a completely bald head so it's more manageable.

Vultures never wake up with a bad hair day or a bad feather day.

This system is working like a treat.

We've got live pictures coming from two very different species of birds.

It's just incredible how quickly these chicks are growing.

This is all flight preparation,

really, making sure that the feathers are all in order.

Before too long, they're going to realise what these wings are for,

and they're going to flutter out.

'In just a few days, Gordon's surveillance cameras

'have recorded a variety of animals that live in and around camp.

'So far, most of the expedition has been focused on a small area of forest.

'But across the border in neighbouring Venezuela, Steve has another challenge.'

Where Guyana meets Venezuela and Brazil, there's a remarkable range of mountains called the Guiana Shield.

'Some are totally unexplored.'

The tops of the mountains are isolated from the forest below, so

anything that lives up there - plants or animals - is exactly like it's on an island.

It's growing completely isolated from everything below.

And that's our mountain. Look at that!

'Steve's aim as a climber is to be the first to scale Mount Upuigma.

'His aim as a naturalist is to discover what lives at the top.'

Nobody has climbed this mountain before, it's absolutely certain.

We would be the first people to place our hands on that rock.

'To reach the top, Steve will have to push himself if he is to succeed.

'Joining him are two of the best rock climbers in the world, John Arran and Ivan Calderon.

'Tim Fogg is the rope safety expert.'

The few biologists that have got on top of these - they're called tepuis,

these mountains - have found new species of plants and animals,

and that's what we're hoping to find.

That was a hairy landing!

'A football field in a tiny Venezuelan village is the only place to land.'

Hola. Buenos dias. Hola.

This is one of the most beautiful villages I've ever seen.

This mountain up here is Acopan.

It looks just like a fortress, like a child would draw a fortress.

And then looming over from the other side is our mountain, Upuigma.

Look at that. What a place to live!

'There's a 20-mile trek before they can even think about climbing.

'Their destination, Mount Upuigma.

'Villagers call it The Castle.'

What is it, man?

'In camp, there's a commotion.

'Yet another animal has been spotted.'

You see it moving there?

-In between the hole there?

-Yeah.

'It's helped itself to food from the kitchen before disappearing into the trees.

'Gordon has grabbed another of his cameras and is on the case.'

This is the scene of the crime.

'He wants to catch the raider red-handed.'

It has walked through the kitchen, so there's obviously something in there that it likes.

It's quite appropriate that we're using this camera to catch

a thief, cos that's kind of what they were designed for -

observing people stealing stuff.

Yeah, it is pretty good.

'The trap's set for the mystery animal,

'but Gordon's taken his eye off the ant wrens.'

The chicks are gone.

The nest's just here.

The chicks have either flown the nest or been eaten.

I just can't believe that they're gone of their own accord.

I'm just hoping it's not something more sinister.

And the adults are stressed.

There's one of the chicks right here, just in here.

I thought it was the adult. It's a female. But just bobbed down. Lost sight of it.

First he sees one chick...

and then the other.

Oh, brilliant!

That's a very different chick from when we first met.

Against all the odds, the chicks have made it.

Fantastic.

As the team gets closer to the mountain,

the going gets harder.

The approach to the rock face is steep and heavy going.

Once there, it'll take three days to climb.

It looks a whole lot different when you get up close, doesn't it?

Even from a distance you could tell it was big, but not that big!

You can see some places up there which are really dark, deep orange.

I think they could be really dangerous up there.

It's unreliable rock to climb. Huge chunks can be pulled away without warning.

They'll start the ascent at first light.

For now, they need food and rest.

In camp, the mystery thief is back.

Oh, yes, there it is.

Look at that. Weird.

Opossums. They've been helping themselves to the kitchen supplies.

We've got two opossums, just here behind the kitchen.

-Goodness me. They're freaky animals.

-Oh, wow.

Sweet, isn't it?

They're marsupials. Like kangaroos, they carry their young in a pouch.

They eat anything, they're omnivores.

They eats rodents, they'll eat birds' eggs, they'll eat fruit, whatever they can get their hands on.

I just wonder if they've set up home, metres from where we've set up home.

Isn't it true that in the last week, things have been coming closer to the camp all the time?

Yeah, almost every day there's something new showing up.

Have a look on the ground, because I saw tonnes of spiders and ants and things.

Oh, you can see a few wee ants there.

It'd be great if we'd found one of the big spiders and put this outside their burrow really close.

There is one. There's a hole just about 10 yards that way.

Ooh, there we go.

Just ten metres from where George and Gordon are sitting, a tarantula is stirring.

Some folks call it the skeleton tarantula, because it has these little white marks on its legs.

Oh, what's that?

-That is a biggish cicada, that.

-Here he goes.

It's going forward.

-Oh, it's got it!

-What speed! Jeez!

You don't get faster than that.

I haven't seen that before in the wild, ever.

What's actually happening here, all spiders can't eat solid food.

They have to eat fluids.

The fangs are being used to draw the prey towards her and then she's basically emptying enzymes over it,

in saliva, and then she's supping the soup of the bug, insect soup,

-which she then swallows. There it is.

-Oh, wow!

Look at that fang, it's just tearing it apart.

-It's cutting it.

-It's just scything through it.

-See how quick it was.

-I'm loving this! This, this is it.

This is what the world is composed of.

Mount Upuigma.

First light.

A last meal on solid earth before the trial ahead.

For three days, they'll have to eat and sleep strapped to this mammoth wall of rock.

Isolated from the world far below, they've no idea what wildlife they'll find at the top.

We really don't know where we're going.

Up, I think, is the watchword.

What do you think, what do you think about the first run?

The thing is, it's going to be very loose.

OK, sure.

-Good luck, mate.

-Thank you, I'm going.

Steve will be third on the ropes, behind Tim and Ivan.

Big block going down!

Jesus!

Are you all right, Ivan?

Cannot talk right now.

I've been waiting a long time for this,

but having seen Ivan struggle so hard over this first pitch, I can't pretend to be particularly, er...

..well, happy about the whole thing.

I think terrified's more the word.

-OK, I'm climbing Ivan.

-OK.

-Good luck, Steve.

Ooh, heads, heads, heads!

Every single thing that you hold onto could ping away at any second.

And the consequences of that would just be,

well, they'd be death, there's no two ways about it.

I don't want to sound over-dramatic, but...

-Did you come this way?

-Yeah.

Oh, dear me.

Very glad I wasn't leading that move.

Not only is the rock sheer, but in parts overhanging, and the way ahead is difficult to make out.

Here we go.

My God, Ivan.

Yeah, that's it.

A little bit left.

Right on. Right on.

Very nice, man.

-Good job.

-Good job.

That was hard.

In the jungle, the trees above base camp are buzzing with activity.

Gordon scrambles for his camera. Yet another species of monkey has come into camp.

One of the tiniest in the world - tamarins.

Keep nice and quiet.

(Great, right here. They're right here.)

It's so tricky.

I don't know how many there are,

but there's movement up there and then some more movement over there.

This is a first for Gordon.

They're rare, They're only found in a very small part of South America.

They're very characterful.

They tend to stick to this understorey, foraging about, eating insects,

but being very small, makes them very difficult to see.

There!

The golden-handed tamarin.

Standing at 25cms tall, they're pint-sized primates.

They're quite... They're like gremlins.

They move through the mid-storey, foraging in family groups.

There's some lovely grooming going on. Two of them, on the branch here.

Oh, a third one, a little one.

It's a baby one!

To see three of them at one time is nothing short of a miracle.

There's one right in the open.

Oh, what a beauty!

They supplement their diet of fruit and insects by sucking sap from tree trunks.

It's incredible how they cling on with these big claws.

It's almost like bats' claws that they have.

I can just see, it's got strings of gum coming from its tongue.

Fantastic!

That was just absolutely brilliant.

They're such a tough little monkey to try and follow, even tougher to film.

I think I've nailed it, got some really, really nice stuff of them.

The tamarins are the final addition to the intensive survey around base camp.

This phase of the expedition is now over.

I've seen new fish, I've seen a jaguar.

I've seen giant otters, I've seen bird-eating spiders.

Every fourth or fifth insect I see may turn out to be a new species.

The scientists' work is far from over.

Everything they've collected needs to be catalogued

and if it's an animal new to science, it must be named.

Gordon and George are now setting off on a major new mission,

a gruelling two-week river journey into an isolated part of the jungle.

Are you sure we have enough stuff?

The Rewa that we're going to is truly the middle of nowhere.

It's probably as remote as you can get anywhere on the planet, really.

-Have fun. Have a good time.

-Yeah, I will do.

Their destination, the headwaters of the River Rewa, one of the most inaccessible regions of Guyana.

The few fishermen that have visited reported wild animals showing little fear of man.

If anywhere in South America could be described as completely untouched, this is it.

The Upper Rewa is sealed off from the outside world by a formidable set of rapids and waterfalls.

With two weeks' supplies packed on board, they're travelling light and living rough.

On the face of the mountain, the climbers have come up against an intimidating wall of rock.

This next session is impossibly hard.

Well, it looks it to me anyway.

John's one of the best climbers in the world,

and so he's already heading up it.

This is fantastic climbing.

Really quite amazing that it's possible to climb up here.

There's just enough little holes.

You can't see any of them until you're within a metre of them.

So it's quite intimidating to launch up it.

Just seeing a blank wall ahead.

John, can you talk me through this next pitch please?

There's about 15 or 20 metres of vertical wall climbing.

The first half is really quite hard.

OK, John, well, to me that sounds like it's outside

my ability and possibly dangerous for me to be trying.

Probably wise, because the chances of falling

off some of the loose blocks onto the others are really quite high.

Steve's a skilled climber, but this rock face is beyond even his limit.

He must heave himself up the ropes, free hanging in space.

He's six hours into the climb and not even a quarter of the way up.

George and Gordon have reached the rapids that guard the headwaters of the River Rewa.

The rapids are impassable.

The only option is to drag the boats and carry all the kit overland.

We've got logs laid down over the rocks, so hopefully the boat

will slide over these rollers and then up through that gap

and then up beyond the falls.

It's the hottest part of the day.

The temperature is 40 degrees and humidity 100%.

One, two, three.

-Right, one down, two to go.

-What?

-Two more to go.

-I don't think I've ever been so tired in my life.

There are still miles of rapids ahead.

It's this barrier which makes the Rewa so special, protecting the forest and its animals from man.

Clinging to a cliff face, Steve's running out of light and the weather is on the turn.

It's coming in at an absolute rate of knots. We've got black sky

and a curtain of rain approaching us and we've got to get our sleeping arrangements up

very quickly otherwise we're going to get drenched.

They'll have to sleep on this vertical rock face, strapped to it in glorified camp beds.

Above them, 200 metres of loose rock. Beneath them,

115 metres

of nothing.

We have two Portaledges.

Each one is big enough for two people,

but since there are five of us, Ivan has rigged himself a hammock.

-How is your bed?

-Is just perfect.

I'm free hanging but we have a lot of protection,

so we'll sleep with a harness and attach it to the protection.

This is difficult enough in the light, hanging here in this ridiculous spider's web.

But trying to do it in the dark is nigh on impossible.

Obviously, all night long, we have to stay sleeping

in our harnesses and clipped into as many things as possible.

Cos if you roll out of bed here,

you get more than a bump on the head.

For the first time, I guess I'm starting to think whether I really

am capable of this, if it really is something I should be trying to do.

It's no wonder no-one's ever climbed this mountain before.

I mean, it's overhanging, vertical,

nasty, loose rock, vegetation.

I mean, this is very, very far from a nice day's climbing in the Lake District.

Something very serious could happen up there.

Not so sure I'm going to sleep so well tonight.

In the third and final phase of this expedition,

Justine is on the search for giant anteaters.

It's coming straight towards me.

Gordon and George struggle on up the river, and are rewarded with a wealth of rare sights.

What a fantastic bird!

And Steve battles exhaustion as he nears the top of the mountain.

HE PANTS

Ohhh!

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