Episode 1 Ewan McGregor: Cold Chain Mission

This programme contains some strong language.

-BIKE ENGINE STARTS

-I've been an ambassador for the United Nations

children's organisation, UNICEF, for eight years.

And I've travelled the world to see the work they do protecting

and saving the lives of vulnerable children.

There's a vast network that spans the globe,

taking life-saving vaccines to children

living in some of the most remote areas on the planet.

Look where we are!

The routes are called cold chains.

These cold chains are run by governments and various non-profit groups.

Our mission is to take life-saving vaccines to children

along three of the world's toughest cold chain routes.

-HORNS BEEP

-The traffic's just unbelievable!

Go on, son! Go on, go on, go on!

Along the way, they must be kept cold or they'll perish.

I've been on some adventures, but I've never done anything quite like this before.

They said we were going remote,

and this is about as remote as you can imagine.

It's the perfect kind of match of furthering my work with UNICEF

and, at the same time, going on an adventure, which I like to do.

The comparison between my life and where we're going will be total.

For instance, we've got water here. If my children get ill, I've a doctor down the road.

If they get really sick, a hospital's round the corner. And I've got food in the fridge.

I imagine when we get to the very far reaches,

children won't have any of those things.

From LA, I fly to London, then on to Delhi,

and finally, the city of Patna in north-east India -

a country on the verge of eradicating polio.

HORNS BEEP

Patna is the capital of India's poorest state, Bihar,

and where we'll begin our cold chain journey.

With a population of over two million,

it's also one of India's fastest-growing cities.

I need to find my guide, a health worker called Sadique.

He's here somewhere, next to a temple.

Do you know where there's a temple? Like a temple? Do you know a temple?

Man-day? This way? OK, thank you.

-Are you Sadique?

-Hi, I'm Sadique.

-I'm Ewan, nice to meet you! How are you?

-I'm fine, thank you.

Sadique works with international organisations alongside the Indian Government

to help combat the spread of polio in Bihar.

We'll be delivering vaccines to three hotspots

where children are at risk of polio -

a community of migrant workers found along the Kosi river,

the border between India and Nepal,

crossed by tens of thousands of people each day,

but first, a nomadic camp right here in Patna.

The camp is located on the banks of the Ganges river,

beneath a huge bridge.

Oh, that's very clever!

'The children living here are migrants from the surrounding areas

'whose parents have come to the city in search of work.'

Oh, I see!

Oh, I see.

No I haven't seen a five-legged... It's made me feel a bit weird, that!

That is a peculiar thing!

Right.

Cos she's got an extra leg?

OK.

Because the families here come and go,

it's very hard to keep track of whether the children have been vaccinated or not.

Immunisers use informers to tell them when migrants arrive,

and today, there are around ten new families to vaccinate.

Nice to meet you.

This is the vaccinator.

In order to quickly tell whether a vaccine is OK to use,

health workers refer to a heat-sensitive label.

-This is one that's not good?

-Yeah.

So, the first sign is the square in the middle goes dark

and then the circle becomes darker?

Right, OK. Right.

One bottle can immunise up to 20 children.

When they vaccinate a child here with the polio drops,

they put a black mark on their pinkie, on their nail,

which lasts for a month or something. So when they come back,

there will be children they haven't seen before,

but if the child's got a mark, they know it's been vaccinated.

And if it's not there, they know to give the child the drops.

Let me see. Oh, there it is, look.

Look at this little face!

GROUP CHATTER

-SNAKE HISSES

-Oh, my God, look at that!

CHILD CRIES

This is a slightly strange place to be immunising children,

but this little boy is one of the snake charmer's children.

He's got three with him. They realised he's not been immunised.

He didn't have the mark on his fingernail. So, they've just immunised him against polio

about a foot and a half away from two cobras.

Anywhere, any place is a good place to get an immunisation, isn't it?

Good boy.

The vaccine strategy here in India

means there hasn't been a case of polio reported here for over a year.

It's time to leave Patna and head towards our second hotspot.

HORNS BEEP

We're at the station to catch a train that will take us

deep into the rural heartland of the state.

-TRAIN HORN BLARES

-See you, Patna.

That was the craziest town I've ever been at in my life.

-I've never been in a town like that before.

-No, that was bonkers.

-That was bonkers, wasn't it?

-Pretty bonkers.

-Absolutely nuts!

The train follows the Ganges river west for about 300km

up to the small town of Khagaria, where we'll spend the night.

I must find a way to keep the vaccines cold

and the ice packs frozen.

The hotel kitchen is our only option.

Hello.

I'm going to look in the fridge, OK?

Eh...

Well, I think we'll use this one, if we use one at all.

That's quite cold, I think.

MAN SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

-Off?

-We have it off.

This one's off?

Does the power stay on all night?

Yeah? So, we'll put it in this one.

'This could be the last fridge for a while

'and there's no guarantee it even works.'

AIR-CON UNIT CLUNKS

I can't sleep cos there's something, um...

something in that air-conditioning unit.

A bird or a rat or something, and I can't...

It's freaking me out. Listen to that.

CLUNKING CONTINUES

I woke up with squeaking and...

..that noise, and now I can't sleep because it's...

..there's something living in the air-conditioning machine.

I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is!

I slept like crap last night.

It's definitely the kind of hotel where you sleep in your sleeping bag on the bed.

You don't know about bed bugs and stuff.

I could do a cold shower, couldn't I? A good start to the day.

It's actually quite refreshing, I suppose.

On this Indian morning.

Today, we hope to reach 17 children in need of polio vaccines.

Jesus!

Yeah, I think they're cold enough!

Just check.

Yeah, that's fine. Look.

OK, we're good to go!

It's quite exciting, isn't it, that we've got the 17 names,

the kids. It's nice to know that they're waiting for us today.

It's a big adventure.

OK, let's go!

Our destination today is the village of Terasi - an isolated community

located on the flood plains of the Kosi river.

The only way to get there is by boat.

And the quickest way to get to the boat is by bike.

So far, there's no traffic, which is nice. I'm sure that won't last!

Also, we need to practise where the horn is, cos that's...

that's essential for Indian driving.

BIKE HORN BEEPS

This is my first time riding in India and I'm on a Honda Hero.

This is my favourite thing to do!

Nearly four million of these bikes are made every year,

making it by far the country's most popular bike.

Oh-oh! Oh!

I can hear the ice packs bouncing around in the box.

-It's making me worried about the old vaccines.

-BIKE ENGINE ROARS

I'm so happy to be out of the city.

You know, you get this impression that India is just a country

of noise and city, and then you get out here and it's so beautiful.

'I'm hitching a ride on one of the basic wooden ferries

'that transport supplies up and down the river.

'The cold chain relies on this network of bikes and boats.'

Perfect. OK, let's go. Nice to meet you.

THEY LAUGH

These boats are usually manned by a crew of three -

a captain, an engineer, and someone to bail out the water.

These slow-speed diesel engines were first introduced in India in the 1920s.

They're popular for their ability to run non-stop for very long periods of time.

Going against the current makes for slow progress,

and I can hear the engine is really labouring.

ENGINE STUTTERS

ENGINE CLUNKS

Barely halfway, and we realise this journey might take longer than we thought.

We've had a problem with our diesel tank. It's leaking or something.

Yeah, someone is in there fixing it.

Um, so, yeah, that might take some time.

Cos they're sitting in the sun.

'All we can do is wait while they try and fix the engine.

'With no spare parts to be found here,

'we're reliant on the skill of our mechanic, Rajeev.'

RAJEEV SPEAKS IN OWN LANGUAGE

-Hello.

-Hello.

She looked totally terrified of us.

Well, they mustn't get very many visitors down this path.

How are you?

All right? No, no, I'm just saying hello.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Oh, there he goes, look.

ENGINE FIRES UP

After an hour, the boat is back up and running.

Sand. Never my favourite road surface.

It's taken us over 12 hours to get here from Patna,

by train, boat and bike.

228 children live in this village.

Their families must contend with the regular floods

which destroy their crops and homes.

Is this your house? Your house? The water came up to about here.

Like, up there. So she said this was all flooded like that.

She had to live up on the roof for four months.

The waterlogged land is a fertile breeding ground for polio

and makes it difficult to reach children for vaccinations.

She's terribly glamorous. I really like her.

Oh, I see.

You need cleaner water place.

It's dirty.

Oh, yeah, right.

She did the pooing,

the mime for pooing...here.

She's saying that people poo here and then there's water to be...

It's not clean.

What happens is the water's being pumped up from underground.

And then when it doesn't filter away properly,

it lies in these puddles which get putrid, and then

all that filth seeps down back into the resources for the pump.

So the pump is basically recycling that filthy water.

That's what happens. Cos it doesn't drain away properly.

Someone's got it on their hands here.

Oh, you've got it on your arm.

WOMAN SPEAKS HER OWN LANGUAGE

Yeah? Like this?

-SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

-Maybe that's the ink.

Or how they make the ink, you know?

And then for this?

SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

Oh, like this?

Cos we do it like this. We go p-p-p-p-p-p-p!

Like this.

P-p-p-p! No.

< P-p-p-p!

Oh, yeah, it's sore, yeah. Aaarghhh! Yeah.

The mothers and children are called

to a makeshift clinic for the vaccinations.

You know, we had 17 kids on our list

to bring the vaccines here for - and there's 26 here,

so since they heard that we're doing this today,

there's more children here, which is great.

We've had to hand over all our supplies,

and this means we must restock the vaccines

ahead of our next stop tomorrow.

This little girl here's got really terrible respiration.

You can hear it. Very bad.

-Where we got the boat?

-Yes.

-Where we landed or where we got in the boat?

-Where we got the boat.

-So it's miles away.

-Yeah.

The nurse is only able to give the vaccines -

she can't treat the children.

BABY CRIES

There we are. There's the first child immunised

from our vaccines that we brought.

So that's really cool.

When we arrived, I was so pleased

to see all of those kids here to be...

..you know, to get the vaccines

that are going to help them to grow and survive.

And I felt quite happy about that, you know,

that we'd brought it and we did our part and played our part.

That made me feel very good,

but hearing that little girl that couldn't hardly breathe,

just that tiny baby who could hardly breathe,

that overtakes everything, really.

So you s...

So you, erm...

Sorry. Sorry, it's difficult to be...

It's difficult to be quite happy about the immunisations.

But it's...it's taking things one step at a time, isn't it? >

Yeah.

It's just difficult to see.

It's difficult to see.

It's difficult for them to be in that situation.

And there's no doctor here, you know?

The nearest doctor's where we got on the boat, you know?

It's miles away.

Anyway, sorry.

-Bye-bye!

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye.

We return by boat to Khagaria

to catch a train north to the border.

The boat journey back should be much quicker

cos we're going with the current.

It took us four hours to get up here. It's four o'clock now.

ENGINE SPUTTERS AND STOPS

What's happened now is that our boat,

the engine has stopped working.

I could go up there and give it a look

but I don't want to step on their toes, you know what I mean?

Might be a bit unfortunate if I go up there and just fix it.

ENGINE STARTS

Yay!

THEY CHEER

ENGINE SPUTTERS

THEY GROAN

Oh, no, we spoke too soon.

Look at the smoke, look at the black smoke.

Hey! Ohhh!

THEY LAUGH

It's not getting enough fuel, is it?

It's not getting enough fuel, that's what's happening.

ENGINE SPEEDS UP

Well done, boys, well done!

By the time we get back to the road, it's already dark.

'We head straight to the train station in the hope of catching an overnight train

'to our third hotspot, the India-Nepal border.

'If we don't get on this train, we're looking at a very long drive tomorrow.'

Yeah?

Right.

So he says to come back after 12?

If we come back after 12, I mean,

it sort of means we have to wait up till 12 to find out, and then,

if not, then we have to be in the cars at five in the morning,

which means no-one's going to get any sleep.

I suggest we get to bed, get a good night's sleep,

because we have to be up at five to get on the bikes anyway, to ride up to the border.

OK. Anyway, right now we're not going to achieve anything.

Watch your step back, there's people everywhere.

Let's go this way.

CAR HORNS BEEP

We're forced to spend another night at the hotel here in Khagaria,

which puts us behind schedule.

FIREWORKS EXPLODE NOISILY

MUSIC ON SOUND SYSTEM BLARES

I just put my head on the pillow and then,

all hell broke out here, all hell broke loose.

I don't know, it's a wedding or something, I think.

-HE SHOUTS OVER THE LOUD MUSIC

-That's my bedroom just up there.

Everyone's absolutely plastered.

'Well, I'm not getting any sleep tonight, so I may as well join in.'

LOUD MUSIC CONTINUES

HE JOINS IN WITH THE CHEERING

FIREWORKS EXPLODE NOISILY

Thank you very much.

Chai...

Having failed to get on the train last night,

we'll have to drive the vaccines to the border.

OVERWHELMING TRAFFIC NOISE

Unbelievable.

The traffic's just unbelievable!

It's good fun, though, I have to say.

HE LAUGHS

It's no secret that India has the highest number of traffic fatalities in the world.

And you really need to be prepared for anything.

Along the way, I must restock my vaccines and top up my ice blocks.

After eight hours on the road,

we arrive at the border town of Jogbani.

Whoo! That was some ride, bloody hell!

It's a different experience riding here, isn't it?

It's just chaos. It's wonderful.

Good fun.

There's one thing I haven't got for our trek in Nepal, is...

You know the things that keep your legs warm? We call them long johns.

Yeah, maybe we'll find 'em here.

So cool. They don't use cables here.

All the brakes are operated with these push rods.

Which is the way we used to make bicycles in the '30s and '40s.

But they still make them like that here, it's so brilliant.

It's not stretchy enough for my legs.

No, no, it's too small. It's too small, isn't it?

That's got more stretch in it.

That might just about do it.

Big size. The biggest, yeah?

Indian-Nepalese border is, I don't know, a mile and a half, or a mile up there.

And I've crossed a lot of borders. And they all feel a bit like this.

There's generally markets near them.

There's loads of goods going back and forward.

It's busy. They're interesting places.

Two million people pass between India and Nepal every day,

up to 10,000 here in Jogbani alone,

making the risk of a virus entering India very high.

I'm Ewan, nice to meet you.

'Health workers station themselves here with an almost constant supply of vaccines.'

Check these...

They pretty much pounce straight in there, don't they?

They just go straight in. No messing about.

Within seconds, they're given the drops.

'Working in shifts, health workers can immunise up 800 children every day.'

These are the drops we brought from Patna. It's brilliant, isn't it?

'We leave India behind and cross the border into Nepal

'to begin the final leg of our cold chain journey.'

The first stop is Kathmandu.

With a population of close to one million,

Kathmandu is the largest, and pretty much only, city in Nepal.

Today, tourism is its biggest industry,

though my final destination is not on any tourist trail.

The vaccines travel west, to Nepalganj.

And then it's a hair-raising flight up to the Talcha airstrip.

From there, we trek with them to Gamgadhi.

And then finally on to the tiny village of Luma

where I will come face to face with the last child to be immunised on this chain.

Just round here is the national cold room,

where all the vaccines are kept for the whole of Nepal.

So, this is the start of our Nepal cold chain.

-Hello?

-Hello?

-Hello?

-I'm Ewan, hello.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-I'm fine.

-Nice to see you. Namaste.

-Namaste. Welcome to Nepal.

Thank you very much. It's a great pleasure to be here.

After you.

Part of this big load here of vaccines is going to Nepalganj.

So, what we thought we'd do is, we'll mark one vaccine,

and follow that all the way through

to see who gets that vaccine at the very end of our cold chain.

So, let's pick one.

These are measles vaccines.

Pick one of these.

I've got a pen.

And we'll mark it with a little hash, like that.

And I'll put that back.

And then we'll see,

just to kind of personalise it, see who that child is that gets that vaccine.

It does bring to mind

one of the important factors in the cold chain, is that they have to be cold!

Come on, gentlemen!

'The vaccines travel west, in a special refrigerated truck.

'So we must fly to meet them at the other end.'

Luckily, last night, we all spent a great deal of effort downsizing,

taking only the bare essentials.

41, sir.

-Have a nice flight.

-Thank you. You too.

Oh wow! Look, look, look!

'My first view of the Himalayas,

'the range of mountains that covers almost three-quarters of Nepal.'

Oh, they're so fantastic, aren't they? Beautiful.

Oh, fucking hell! OK.

NERVOUS LAUGHTER IN THE BACKGROUND

'We arrive in Nepalganj, well ahead of the truck carrying our vaccines.

'In a largely Hindu country,

'this town is home to Nepal's biggest Muslim population.

'And my arrival coincides with a major Muslim festival.'

What's the nature of this festival? What's the story?

'These boys tell me this festival is to mourn Mohammed's grandson, who was killed in battle.

'The colourful towers represent miniature mausoleums.'

CROWD CHANTS

As a display of their devotion,

participants will beat their chests, and even cut themselves.

This festival marks the beginning of the Muslim year.

It lasts for ten days, and this procession today is its climax.

Nepalganj's location close to the Indian border makes it a melting pot of cultures.

I meet an American woman named Candy, who's lived here for many years.

I think I'm the only hotel in Nepal

-that specialises in American comfort food.

-Right.

We do the Southern fried chicken

and the burgers, and the mac and cheese.

When you say "we" came to here, who's the other person you're talking about?

I have a husband attached.

He's not here, he's a kilometre down the road in that direction.

But yeah, he exists.

We have a lodge as well down there, so we're both upscale and downscale.

-Oh, I see. And is he a Nepalese man or an American man?

-Yes.

I did hear that you're one of two wives.

-Yes, I'm senior.

-Senior wife?

-Yes.

Tell me about that. That's quite intriguing.

Um...

I couldn't have children,

so I gave my husband a second wife for a fourth-wedding anniversary present.

Where did you find... How did you organise that?

I met her, and absolutely fell in love with her.

And she actually lived with us for four and a half years, and died.

And this is actually number three.

Oh, my goodness, I'm sorry to hear it.

We have two sons by this wife.

-Her name is Alma.

-Alma?

How does that work? Does your husband split his time between the lodge and here?

Or you're wife senior so he's always with you?

-No, we're already old. No, he stays down there.

-He does?

-Yeah.

That's interesting. That's an interesting life story there.

I'd love to talk to you forever here, but you need to eat.

-HE LAUGHS

-You're very kind. Thank you, Candy.

That's very good.

Very welcome, that is, thank you.

Ah, the Brits abroad. "I'll have a burger, please, with chips. Thanks."

We're here in Nepalganj.

We've chartered a small plane which is going to take us up to Talcha airstrip.

The pilot wants to take off, like now,

but we don't have the vaccines here.

There's no point us going there without the vaccines.

And so we're trying to get the vaccines here to the airport as quickly as we can.

'The roads are bad here in Nepal.

'The truck could still be miles away or stuck somewhere en route.'

So, if we don't make the run today,

it means that the kids up there will be unprotected for the next two, three months.

'The pilot must take off.'

So they want us to fly, because the plane's here.

-Have they loaded it all up and everything?

-That's right.

They're here?

Great.

There it is, look.

OK. Let's get on the plane. Just in the nick of time.

HE GRUNTS

We're up and off, eh?

These communities here just cling to the side of hilltops.

I don't know how they get... There's no roads to them, you see little tracks.

Unbelievably remote. You wonder how people live there, how they survive there.

'There's only one place to land for our next delivery.

'And they say it's one of the world's most dangerous airstrips.'

Look at the runway.

Bloody hell. It really is just carved into the hill.

'Perched precariously, 3,000 metres high up.

'Only a handful of pilots in the country are qualified to land there.'

Less than 400 metres long,

the airstrip comes to an abrupt end before a sheer drop-off.

The surface, if you can call it that, is a mixture of rubble and stone.

Only a few days earlier, a plane full of passengers blew out a tyre as it landed and crashed.

CLAPPING

Bravo. Whoo! Whoo-hoo!

-That was some landing, wasn't it?

-Unbelievable!

Look where we are!

The aim is to reach Gamgadhi before nightfall.

There's a health post there where we can chill the vaccines, store our kit

and, hopefully, find a bed for the night.

With no roads, absolutely everything here is transported by mule, or on foot.

So, from here we walk.

Many locals earn their living as porters,

carrying supplies up to remote villages in the mountains.

When you see the weight they put on their backs, it's unbelievably impressive, isn't it?

'The more they carry, the more they get paid, so there's fierce competition.'

THEY CHATTER

They're all squabbling cos they want to get a load to carry down.

I suppose if you don't get one, you don't get paid.

Oh, my God.

That girl's got four packs, 15 kilograms each.

That's 60 kilograms she's carrying.

That's really heavy.

They're so cool. I think they're so cool.

There's quite a lot of tartan down there, which appeals to me.

Tartan and nose rings.

It's a really winning combination.

'Also accompanying us is health worker Tiger.'

And how much do they get paid for each load they carry?

-12 rupees.

-12 rupees? That's not very much, is it? Goodness me.

This is Kharna.

He works for the local hospital,

and will be carrying the vaccines.

It's a journey that he makes regularly.

Yeah. This is Gamgadhi, we will go there.

-That's where we're heading now?

-Yeah.

-And it will take us three hours, do you think?

-Four hours.

-We'll have to go round there.

-Yes.

'We set out, following a mule train.'

SHE SHOUTS OUT

Look at this girl.

She's shouting down to her mate.

But the town, look how far away the town is.

They can hear, cos the sound just travels for miles.

SHE SHOUTS OUT

CHILDREN REPLY IN THE DISTANCE

-She's shouting down?

-The stone is coming.

She's warning them that a stone is rolling down the hill.

SHE SHOUTS OUT

-Is she playing, or is a stone really...?

-Yes, she's playing.

-Oh, she's playing.

SHE SHOUTS OUT

Towering in the distance is the Sisne Himal range of mountains,

some of which are close to 6,000 metres high.

And, just the other side of them, is Tibet.

WOMEN SINGING

Fancy a blast on her pipe as well! Sorry. Probably not!

I'd like to say something, but I don't know what to say.

That's like the biggest load of...

We are going to Gamgadhi.

HE REPEATS IN HIS NATIVE LANGUAGE

EWAN ATTEMPTS TO COPY

THEY BOTH LAUGH

-OK.

-OK.

Finally, we arrive in Gamgadhi where we will spend the night.

The market here supplies the surrounding area with imported goods.

90% of adults in Nepal are farmers

and, like most communities, Gamgadhi is surrounded by ancient hand-cut terraced fields.

OK, so we've got to Gamgadhi and we've put our stuff in our little hotel there.

We're going to take the vaccines a couple of streets down the hill to where they're stored overnight,

because we can't let them get hot overnight.

The only trouble is that, a couple of streets away is about two miles down the hill!

And it's now dark. But we're going down there anyway, we haven't got any option.

We're going to put these in, get them safe for the night.

Tomorrow, we'll pick them up and make the long walk over that hill there.

OK, let's go.

Let's find that fridge. Look at that!

-And that powers all the refrigerators?

-Yes.

That's brilliant.

There we go.

They're all good.

You can see the white boxes are all still white.

There it is, look.

A lot of these vaccines are going to stay here

to replenish the stocks here.

Firstly, because the landing strip is going to be shut for almost two months.

So, they may be able to get more up here, but that's going to keep them going in the meantime.

Yeah, that was quite an important delivery, I think.

Thank you. My buddy.

Can you tell him thank you so much?

Because that was a long time with that big heavy box on your back.

Thank you very, very much.

And that's the reality of this, that's the reality.

The only way to get to this town is by doing that very, very long walk

with that very, very heavy weight on your back.

That was our first night sleeping in the mountains.

And today, we head up to Luma.

And how was your first night sleeping in the mountains?

It was good.

It's good.

GUITAR RIFF

# I woke up this morning

# I was sleeping in a sack

# I had to walk to Luma

# And then I had to walk back. #

THEY LAUGH

I had my assistant bring it ahead,

because I won't sleep on anything but a bed of pink roses!

Didn't you know that about me?

'We're making the final ascent to the village of Luma,

'a trek that will take about a day.'

Beautiful light in the morning.

We're going over there. Over this hill.

So we just go down here.

Then, there.

Up here.

Over there.

And then it's up on the other side of that hill up there.

Namaste.

Namaste.

Burning plastic there.

The streets are just thick with the smell of burning plastic.

People just make little bonfires in the street

with their rubbish, I guess, from yesterday.

'We return to the hospital to collect the vaccines.'

Morning.

-How are you?

-How are you?

-Good. You?

'Kharna has lived in this area all his life.

'He does vaccine runs every month.'

Do we have colder ones?

So, we've got everything.

But we took the ice packs out of the freezer, and they were liquid.

You know how in India we kept banging them together,

and they've got to feel like bricks?

Well, they're not. They're still liquid.

I mean, they're cold, but they're not really cold.

It's quite a long way, isn't it? Seven, eight-hour, seven-hour walk?

The quicker we go, the better.

'I'm told the last leg of a cold chain is the most difficult.

'The more remote you get, the fewer resources are available

'to help keep the vaccines cold and the tougher the terrain.'

-It's an amazing bridge, is it quite new?

-Five years.

'Nepal is still struggling to get back on its feet after

'the end of a decade-long civil war.

'This region was the site of intense fighting

'and what little infrastructure existed was destroyed.'

Once we've crossed this bridge, it's up, up, up, up, up.

Here we go.

'Since the end of the war, this bridge has been repaired and improved.

'It's a vital link to the outside world

'and the gateway to the last leg of our journey.

It doesn't look too far but I believe it's, you know,

false horizon, false horizon, false horizon.

Then we go down the next valley and up the next.

It's good. It's so beautiful. So beautiful. It's quite hardcore.

'As we climb higher, I'm really starting to feel

'the effects of the altitude.

'Every step is a struggle.

'We've been walking for nearly four hours now

'and I know we've still got a really long way to go before we reach Luma.'

I think we've reached the saddle now,

so we've climbed up about... I don't know how high it is.

A lot. And then we go back down this one

and back up the other side.

So we're a third of the way there.

Is that correct? We're about a third of the way there.

'For people living in the mountains, the average travel time

'to reach a motor road is 22 hours.'

Oh, there's a mill there!

Namaste. Hello.

Oh, my God, look at that!

'With no electricity and limited materials,

'people up here are still relying on ancient technology.

'Today, there are about 25,000 of these traditional water mills

'being used throughout rural Nepal.'

They've hollowed out this log and the water comes shooting down from upstream,

turning round the water wheel which, in turn, turns round that stone.

'This mill grinds the wheat and maize into flour for the village of Luma.'

So we've got one last push on up this hill to get to Luma.

We're almost there.

'Luma was settled around 600 years ago...

'..literally carved into the mountainside.

'Most of the children born here will stay here all of their lives.'

We did it! Yay. We made it! Luma!

-Luma.

-Luma, woo-hoo!

'This tiny village is a full day's walk from anywhere,

'and I guess they don't get too many visitors here.

'They're just as curious to meet us as we are them.'

I've never seen anything like it, it's unbelievable!

Here we are.

And what about these, where do we take these?

What do we do with these? Keep them in here?

That was quite a walk.

It's unbelievable, this town, isn't it?

I've never seen anything like it before. It's so amazing.

It took us two days to walk here.

There's no roads or anything here, that's the only way to get here.

I don't think I've ever been anywhere so remote in my life.

And if something were to happen here, you know, the only...

the only way out is that two-day walk back, and even then,

you've got to fly somewhere. None of these people could afford to fly anywhere.

'Around 100 families live here in traditional stone and mud houses.

'The construction methods and building materials have not changed since medieval times.'

Look at the filth that the guys are in.

They were having a little tea break

and when I was coming up they put down their stuff,

they weren't literally drinking tea, but they were having a wee rest.

When they saw me, they all ran to the front and dropped a beam off the end.

A huge cloud of dirt and smoke enveloped me

and they all had a laugh.

Namaste.

Look at these stones, they've been used for hundreds of years, haven't they?

-What have they got in the different holes?

-That's mustard.

-This is rice.

-And why do they mash it up like that?

-De-husking.

-Oh, they're just de-husking it.

Oh, I see, of course.

Of course. I didn't know that, pretending like I knew that. I didn't know that.

Hello?

We may not be able to find a way down here, I don't know.

I'm not really that well versed in the way around this town yet, you know?

-Namaste!

-Namaste!

-Do you like our 13-man tent?

Maybe there's another one round the corner. But maybe not, eh?

I think we might have to form a small pyramid inside of people.

Four of us along the bottom, three in the middle, and two at the top.

'As the day comes to an end, the village is still bustling with activity.

'But as soon as the sun goes down, so does the temperature.'

'With quite an audience assembled, the vaccinations get under way.

'Finally it's time to meet the child who's going to get

'the measles vaccine I marked all the way back in Kathmandu.'

Hello. Namaste.

Hello, nice to meet you. Hello.

-Namaste. What's her name?

-Nirmola.

Nirmola? Here, let me sit down here.

'Nirmola lives here with her parents and two older sisters.'

And how did you meet?

THEY SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGE

So he's saying he came to this village with his goats to look

for more goats to buy. And he came to this house to see if they had goats,

but he met his wife instead.

And now they have three kids - six, four and eleven months.

And the eleven-month-old is the child who's going to be getting

our measles vaccine that we've carried all the way from Kathmandu.

'Nirmola's sisters have both been immunised.

'But Nirmola missed the vaccinator the past couple of times he visited,

'as she was strapped to her mother when she was working in the fields.

'I take the family off to meet the vaccinator.'

Here's the immuniser.

Oh, they're still all right, yeah.

There it is. There's the one we marked in Kathmandu, and it's for Nirmola. There we are.

NIRMOLA CRIES

Oh-h-h!

There we are. That's the job done there, look.

We marked one phial to make it individual somehow, you know,

for us to think about this one child.

It was an idea, almost, but now it's become a real reality.

That phial is symbolic of the whole cold chain, really, for me.

How heavy was she? Eight? Eight kilograms.

These children shouldn't be left out

just because they live in the middle of nowhere.

They deserve a future too.

And I think it's absolutely worth the effort

and there are luckily people who will make the effort to get

to these kids, and that makes me feel really good.

Yes, I will.

Thank you for being such a loyal companion,

and good English, too, at the end there! Cheers.

I hope so.

I don't know how easy that will be up here.

I hope so.

Bye-bye. Take care. Thank you.

I really like them, what a lovely family!

She's very fun, smiley and funny.

It's very clear now what the cold chain means, you know.

It is a very organised but difficult-to-maintain chain.

It's like one chink in that chain

breaks it, and it's fragile and it's absolutely essential

and life-saving for these people.

'Next week, I follow a cold chain through the Republic of Congo...'

Bonjour, je m'appelle Ewan.

What we'd like to do is take vaccines to children living out in the jungle.

'..where I see just what it means to be remote.'

Is that an owl?

'Both physically...'

OK. Swimming.

'And socially...'

Once we leave this town, we'll be as far away from civilisation as you can imagine being, really.

'In a country where, for some, slavery is still a reality.'