Seriously Raleigh

In the 16th century, rumours emerged of a lost city in South America,

full of gold and great riches. It was called El Dorado.

The Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

realised that if he could discover this legendary city,

he would not only impress Queen Elizabeth I,

he would become rich and famous across the world.

Raleigh had already crossed the Atlantic Ocean,

attempting to take over parts of what is now the USA.

But this time he was heading further south, to South America.

It was an epic journey,

taking Raleigh nearly two months just to reach South America.

He set sail without even being sure whether El Dorado existed.

On his return to England,

he wrote an account of everything that happened on the trip,

though many people have suggested he exaggerated his version of events.

"I have been assured by those who have seen El Dorado,

"that for its greatness and for its riches,

"it far exceedeth any of the world."

Now, the Serious Explorers, a team of children from the UK,

are following in the footsteps of Sir Walter Raleigh

to find out about the challenges he faced

and the amazing landscapes he came across.

Rather than spending months at sea,

they've flown from Britain to the Caribbean.

They're only completing the last part of Raleigh's ocean voyage,

from Trinidad and Tobago to South America.

Just like Raleigh's expedition,

their boat - Scaramouche - relies on the power of the wind,

but for many of the young explorers, it's not all plain sailing.

For most it's their first time on the ocean waves

and seasickness is taking hold.

Every time the boat goes up and down, it makes me feel worse.

Awful feeling.

Like Raleigh's crew in Tudor times, the Serious Explorers

have some basic living conditions to contend with.

Below deck, it's hot, damp, and very cramped.

It's like, really horrible, humid.

We will get to sleep eventually, I think. We'll just get used to it.

Whilst not much larger than Scaramouche,

Raleigh's ship was manned by around 75 men.

Many slept on deck to avoid the incredibly cramped conditions below.

The work was hard and dangerous and men were regularly lost overboard.

Without fridges they had no fresh meat or fruit,

so many sailors got ill or died from diseases like scurvy,

caused by a lack of vitamins in their diet.

Heave!

The Serious Explorers are realising how much hard work Raleigh's crew

would have had to do on board the ship.

Three, two, one, pull!

-That's one sail. We've got another four to go. Yeah?

-Four?!

On other boats, you push a button

and it does everything for you.

On here, you have to do everything.

But travelling this way comes with some perks.

-Ooh!

-There's a dolphin!

I love it, it's just... pure amazing!

It feels really cool and you can see everything from underneath it.

The ship looks gorgeous from this view.

400 years ago, navigating across the oceans took great skill.

Sat navs hadn't been invented

and much of the Earth was badly mapped or not mapped at all.

Using special instruments like an astrolabe,

Raleigh and his team were able to track the position

of the sun, moon and stars.

This helped them work out their latitude -

how far to the north or south they had travelled.

To measure their speed,

a special weighted rope would be thrown overboard.

Along its length were a series of equally-spaced knots.

The faster the boat sailed, the faster the rope would unwind

and the more knots would pass through the sailor's fingers.

By timing how many knots were unwound in 30 seconds,

the crew could work out how fast they were travelling.

Along with a compass reading, this information would let them know

how far they'd travelled and in which direction.

Their journey could then be plotted on a map.

Knots are still used to measure the speed of a boat

but today the measurement can be taken electronically.

For the Serious Explorers, navigation is a lot easier.

The boat might be traditional in style,

but it's fitted with the latest satellite navigation tools

and they have accurate maps, too.

Raleigh didn't have all of our fancy maps...

all of our gear that we have these days,

all this kind of stuff -

GPS, being able to call up a satellite phone,

all this kind of stuff.

He just literally had the sun, the sea, the stars

and a lot of knowledge.

To see what it was like for Raleigh,

Ben's asked the Serious Explorers to plot their location on a map.

Every two hours, on the hour basically,

we're going to take a plot of where we are

so that we can then chart our progress

to the coast of South America.

So we know how fast we're going,

how long it's going to take, all this kind of stuff.

The Serious Explorers take it in turns to steer the ship

but even with modern technology to help them,

they're struggling with the navigation.

We're plotting where we are, but we've kind of not got a clue!

This is where we were at 7.30.

Em...9.45.

If we did go via the way that we've done it,

we'd literally be on land already.

It's a magical boat that can fly over land!

We've definitely done it wrong!

Michael is finding the old methods of navigation quite appealing.

Following...the star which is right ahead of me.

And if I keep dead in line with that,

then instead of looking at the compass,

I can use that and it's a lot easier.

After months at sea,

spotting dry land was an amazing moment for Raleigh and his crew.

Land discovered!

-And for the Serious Explorers, it's a welcome sight, too.

-Oh, look!

There's land, there.

Oh, it's over there!

Look at the horizon, can you see that it's kind of really bumpy?

That is land.

Can't wait to get my feet on to that dry land...

for like the first time in four days.

I have never been so happy in my life!

Welcome to South America.

-Oh, I feel, like, land sick.

-Land sick?!

I feel wobbly coming off the boat.

It's funny, you're sitting there, going...

Just think where we are.

This is exactly what Raleigh would have experienced.

The first stage was actually hitting the South American coast

and that's what we've just done.

Raleigh had sailed across vast oceans in search of El Dorado

but his adventure was only just beginning.

He was about to experience some of the most breathtaking

and unique environments in the world.

Four centuries ago, the Elizabethan explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh

set sail in search of El Dorado,

a legendary city full of gold and precious jewels.

He sailed thousands of miles across the ocean

to reach Guyana in South America,

in the hope of becoming the first person to discover the lost city.

There was no real evidence to suggest that El Dorado even existed.

Sir Raleigh was taking a big risk.

He persuaded lots of important people, including Queen Elizabeth I,

to support his trip, so he didn't want to let them down.

Raleigh and his men spent many months away on the expedition.

One of their main sources of information

about the whereabouts of El Dorado

came from the local tribes they met in the rainforest.

The tribespeople had also heard many stories of the lost city

and agreed to help them find it.

With four-fifths of Guyana covered by rainforest,

discovering El Dorado was like finding a needle in a haystack.

Tribespeople constantly talked of Lake Parime

as the location of the golden city

and also told Raleigh's stories of the gold they'd found there.

"They told me they gathered gold on its shores

"in grains as big as small stones."

Sadly, bad weather meant Raleigh never made it to the lake

and his team had to turn back.

400 years on, a team of children from the UK

are on their own expedition, following in Raleigh's footsteps.

They're called the Serious Explorers and they're here to get a taste

of Raleigh's amazing adventures as he explored South America.

It feels like I'm in a dream!

And with El Dorado still undiscovered,

there's always the hope that they might just be the ones to find it.

Some of the team prepare to take a horse ride out to Lake Parime.

Assistant expedition leader Polly

shows the explorers a map that dates back to Elizabethan times.

We've got here an old map that was actually made in 1599

and they reckon that El Dorado is on this lake somewhere.

Wow!

The map even highlights El Dorado on the shore of the lake.

Oh, look, come down here.

After a three-hour ride,

the Serious Explorers arrive at the edge of the lake.

They've done better than Raleigh to get this far.

-How are we doing, guys?

-Badly.

Water.

It's a bit overgrown.

Not easy.

Sadly, they have no greater success

in locating the legendary golden city.

But they do get to see some real Guyanian gold.

I've brought this to show you guys proper gold,

it's actually worth about £200.

There's a big chunk, there. Put your hand out.

That's probably £50 worth.

You can quite easily miss it, can't you?

It looks like a bit of sandstone with some fancy paint on it.

It's surprisingly light.

I always imagined it to be...

-Heavy.

-Yeah.

Local people regularly head out into the wild in search of their fortune.

Gold hunter Malcolm has come to show the Serious Explorers

a technique that's been used for centuries to find it,

known as gold panning.

So, if you spin too fast,

-the gold goes out of the side?

-Yeah.

So, I reckon, if we have a demo from him,

cos he's the skilful bottler, yeah?

Amazingly, tiny chunks of pure gold can sometimes be found

mixed up with the mud on the banks of the river.

Gold panning works by washing away the mud and clay,

leaving the gold behind.

The gold should separate and sink towards the bottom of the pan,

where it can be collected.

OK, watch this, guys. This is obviously the art.

The gold will separate to the bottom.

Malcolm has been gold panning since he was 14.

It takes him about 15 minutes to sort through one pan of soil.

Can you see anything?

Although he's been really successful in the past,

this time his luck is out.

Time to see if the Serious Explorers have any more luck.

Good.

Check it out!

Look at that excess water you've got there, Regan.

-Oh, careful!

-Don't get too cocky!

-You're pouring my gold away!

I don't think we're going to find anything

cos it is a long process.

To be honest, it doesn't look like there's anything in there

cos you'd probably see it shining.

It's like Pass the Parcel, if you get the treat or not.

It's funny, trying to see if you've got something.

Finish it off.

That's it.

That's it. A bit more. A bit more into the water.

That's it, you're getting it.

He makes it look so easy.

I don't think I could do it for that long

cos I was getting frustrated with not being able to do it properly.

-He's got the technique!

-You do! Oh, look! I can almost see the bottom.

-I think that's the bottom.

-Seriously?

-Seriously.

I think it was just the bottom of the pan.

I got a bit over-optimistic.

I don't know whether in Sir Walter Raleigh's day

they were using this technique,

but certainly it hasn't moved on for a couple of hundred years.

This is a very basic technique and it works.

And still thousands of people are in the bush trying their luck,

you know, for their gold strike.

And there was a gold strike in southern Guyana about a month ago,

not far from what is reputed to be the site of El Dorado.

Suddenly, all over Guyana, people heard about it

and there were thousands of people flocking on this one site

and they were taking out nuggets like that.

Like Raleigh, the Serious Explorers have found

neither gold nor the mythical golden city.

But Sammie thinks El Dorado was under Raleigh's nose the whole time.

I think, personally, that he did find El Dorado

because I consider Guyana, the whole environment, to be El Dorado

because it is the most beautiful place.

It's like worth gold, basically, it's as good as gold.

This is Mount Roraima,

one of the most extraordinary mountains in the world.

This gigantic triangular slab of rock is nearly 10,000 feet high

and it marks the border of three countries -

Guyana, Venezuela and Brazil.

The unique mountain has often been described

as something from another world.

Over the years, it has inspired

dozens of stories, myths and legends.

In the late 16th century,

the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

led a mission to Guyana in search

of the legendary golden city of El Dorado.

Many believe he was taken to Roraima, where his guides told him

he would find precious jewels and minerals.

"The tribesmen promised to bring us

"to a mountain that had stones the colour of gold."

400 years later, the Serious Explorers,

a team of young adventurers from the UK,

have come to relive the legend of Raleigh.

And for them, first sight of Roraima is awe-inspiring.

It's lovely.

But it is going to be a terror to climb.

I find it hard to believe I'm actually going to get to the top.

But it's a gorgeous view,

and if it's like this all the way from down here,

how amazing will it be from up there? So...

Frustratingly for Raleigh, he was unable to climb Roraima.

"Our guide told me there were diamonds and precious stones,

"but neither he nor his men dared ascend to the top,

"the way up it, so impassable."

A route up Roraima's sheer sides was not discovered

until almost 300 years later, when a narrow ramp was found

on the side of the mountain. But it is not

an easy climb, as the Serious Explorers are discovering.

-Look at that!

-Oh, my gosh!

That's not even steep, that's vertical!

How are we supposed to get up there?

Oh, yeah, wow!

This is getting steeper and steeper.

I thought it was closer.

We've reached the top!

I am so happy.

You might not be able to see it, but I am.

For the young explorers, the arduous trek pays off.

A breathtaking view awaits them when they finally reach

the top of Roraima, something Raleigh never got to see.

-I can't believe we're here, it's amazing.

-We're at the top!

Roraima almost certainly formed

over thousands of years as a result of movements

close to the Earth's surface that literally pushed up the ground

in this area. Because it is so inaccessible, the plants found here

have developed differently to those in the surrounding countryside,

making them unique to this place, what scientists call endemic,

as assistant expedition leader Polly explains.

Plants up here, they only grow here.

You will not find them anywhere else in the world.

If you look behind you at all these trees here,

these are called Bonnetia trees.

And these only grow here. They are endemic of this area.

And it is basically like a sort of flytrap.

What happens is, the insect lands, OK?

And then, it closes up

and it takes about five hours for the plant to digest it.

And all the nutrients go down into the bottom of the plant.

Some of the team go with leader Ben

to an extraordinary area on the summit called Crystal Valley.

This towering gorge, you see all these white, coarse crystals littered all over the ground.

Strangely, this is just the sort of area tribespeople described

to Raleigh, even though they seemed to have no way of getting up here.

Look at all this lot.

These quartz crystals were formed

millions of years ago inside the Earth,

where it is hot enough to melt rock.

Combined with huge pressures below the surface,

the rocks became crystals. As Roraima formed,

they were brought up to the surface, where they have been ever since.

-Phenomenal.

-That's the best, like, shiny.

-That's very cool.

But then, you get huge great things like this. But all naturally formed.

-Could I buy this?

-No.

Wonder how it forms the flat bits, like that, the pyramid on top.

That's amazing, where did you get that one?

-On the floor.

-This is so pretty.

Meanwhile, Polly's group are looking at some weird features,

shaped over millions of years by harsh weather.

This is called Indian Camp.

-I see lots of faces with massive noses!

-It's really cool.

They call him The Guardian, he stands there and watches over.

I actually thought it was a proper person when I saw it.

It's got random shapes, like stuff you won't find anywhere else,

like we are on Mars, or something!

I've never seen nothing like it. And it's quite amazing, actually.

This place is absolutely bonkers.

For the Serious Explorers,

the trip to Mount Roraima has been a truly memorable experience.

They are the youngest expedition ever to have made it to the top.

To get up to 10,000 feet, it's incredible.

And before they leave, one lucky member

of the team is treated to a view

Sir Walter Raleigh could only have dreamed of.

This is crazy!

Oh my, whoa! That is cool.

Happiest kid on the planet right now.

It is like landing on the moon.

There is just nothing like this I've ever seen in my life.

Wow! Oh, my!

HE LAUGHS That is mad.

We've walked all the way up there.

Whoa-ho-ho!

It's from the air that you really get a chance to see just why Roraima

is one of the most extraordinary geographical features of our planet.

In the 16th century, the explorer Sir Walter Raleigh was

the first Englishman to visit Guyana in South America.

He came in search of a lost city called El Dorado,

which according to legend was full of gold.

With over four fifths of the land here covered by rainforest,

the fastest way of getting around is often by river.

Guyana's local tribespeople helped guide Raleigh

and his team through the country's complex river network.

But with huge distances to cover, in the intense heat,

it was far from easy, as his journal reveals.

"We began to despair, the weather being extreme hot.

"The further we went on the river, the weaker and weaker we grew."

Guyana's rivers are the lifeblood of the jungle.

Not only are they the best way to travel through the rainforest, they also provide food

and the resource of water for drinking and washing.

400 years after Raleigh's expedition,

the Serious Explorers, a group of children from the UK,

have come to Guyana to follow his footsteps.

The explorers are given the opportunity to try out the kind

of traditional canoes that would have been around in Raleigh's day.

Just paddle downstream, OK?

Dug-out canoes have been used by local tribes for thousands of years.

Each one is carved from a single tree trunk, making them very strong.

But even when hollowed out, they are extremely heavy,

weighing up to two tonnes.

Controlling them is tricky, as the teams discover.

Backwards on the right, girls. Lots of power.

Now, stop paddling on the right-hand side, boys.

Right-hand side, boys, quickly.

The river here is very calm,

but even so, the Serious Explorers are struggling.

We have been on the water about five minutes and we have been

stuck in about five trees, so it's all quite entertaining!

The rainforest, the rivers running through it and the whole

surrounding area change dramatically between seasons.

Tropical areas usually have two wet seasons,

when it rains very heavily, causing the water level in the rivers

to rise by as much as 15 metres.

When this happens, vast areas of land become flooded.

The Serious Explorers' expedition is taking place in what is supposed to be dry season,

but as they undertake an epic 70-mile canoe journey down the Burro-Burro River,

they suffer the heaviest downpours locals ever remember.

Their technique and communication has certainly improved,

but now the weather is working against them.

The rain doesn't seem to hinder you, to be honest.

You just keep on going through it.

Because it's not really freezing, it's not so bad.

Just as we build our homes near roads and shops,

most people in Guyana construct their houses alongside the rivers.

The Serious Explorers' guides from the local Macushi tribe

have brought no food with them, relying on fishing on the river.

They demonstrate to Sammie and Nikita traditional techniques

for catching fish, which have been used for generations.

-I just launch it?

-How did you do that?

Because I'm skilled.

Their method is simple. Just a line, a hook,

some bait and a strong arm.

Lionel, what's the biggest size fish you ever caught?

We have the typical arapaima

which is about eight feet long and it weighs 400 pounds.

I want to catch a fish!

I think I might enjoy if I did actually catch something.

Hopefully soon.

But although the river is teeming with fish,

it can take a long time to actually catch one.

Patience is vital.

Oh, my goodness gracious me!

That is huge!

He's that big, Sammie!

Finding huge fish is not uncommon.

South America is home to the world's largest freshwater fish,

the arapaima, which can grow up to three metres long.

SHE LAUGHS

This is my fish. I caught this.

If we catch another one like this, I'll definitely do it. I love fish!

That is some big fish! First time and he catches that!

That's a baby one!

One of the aims of this expedition is for the Serious Explorers

to break a record by becoming the youngest group

to reach the bottom of Kaieteur Falls.

But the huge unseasonal rains mean the river ahead is heavily swollen.

Their planned path along the gorge is flooded,

so they have to forge a new and treacherous route

through virgin rainforest by the river.

They are exploring new territory, just like Raleigh.

The beginning was fine, then when we started getting

to the tricky bits, everyone was falling through little ditches.

There was things to slip on, like big boulders

and actually everything in the forest will hurt you.

And it was absolutely killing.

We've just done a route that nobody's ever been down before. Pioneered brand-new track.

-Wow!

-Look at that.

It's here the young explorers really get to experience

the power of the river.

Quite scary, isn't it? Just a bit!

The water is sent crashing over the rocks and boulders,

creating turbulent currents called rapids.

-Look up, guys.

-Whoa!

-That's huge!

-Wow!

Woo-hoo-hoo!

At last, they reach their destination - Kaieteur Falls.

The heavy rainfall has had a dramatic effect

on the size of the waterfall.

It's now twice as wide as usual.

The sight is spectacular.

The waterfall is the height of a 75 storey skyscraper.

The swollen river cascades down an amazing 741 feet

to the rocks beneath.

Really incredible to see and just being so close to it. It's crazy.

Really, really cool.

So, so beautiful. I never expected it to be that good.

Nowhere else in the world does so much water fall uninterrupted

over such a vast distance. The Serious Explorers have already

achieved an enormous feat by getting to the falls.

But now they're going for another record.

They want to be the youngest group ever to abseil down the falls.

They head to the top for a thrilling descent,

almost touching-distance from the region waterfall.

Oh, my goodness! That is the best view in the whole world!

Whoa! That is cool! Those waves are immense.

This is amazing. The best thing about this whole trip.

Securely tied with ropes and pulleys, they experience close-up

the extraordinary power of nature, and see firsthand

one of the most jaw-dropping views of the Guyanan rainforest.

It's just incredible.

Everything's just perfect.

Well done, guys. Excellent.

Rainforest are home to an amazing range of wildlife.

They take up just a 20th of the land on Earth,

but are thought to be home to around half

of all the different kinds of plants and animals in existence.

Rainforests are found only near the Equator,

in hot, humid, tropical areas.

The largest of all is the Amazon Rainforest in South America.

Just to the north is Guyana's smaller

but even more spectacular jungle.

In the 16th century, Sir Walter Raleigh came to

this part of the world in search of great riches.

The rainforest could not have been more different

to Elizabethan England.

"On both sides of this river,

"we passed the most beautiful country that ever mine eyes beheld."

400 years on, a group of young adventurers from the UK

are following in the Tudor seafarer's footsteps.

They are the Serious Explorers and for one in particular, Regan,

coming here has been a lifelong ambition.

I've been waiting for this more than half my life.

I love reptiles, amphibians

and all the wildlife you get out here.

At first glance, the rainforest might look like a taller version

of a British forest, but it has some unique and extraordinary features,

as expedition leader, Ben, explains.

It's very easy to look but not see, yeah?

And what I mean by that is you just look at your feet, you look

very superficially at the first line of green

that you see around you.

Start trying to look through it

because it is the most amazing environment to be in.

I just want you to start taking in the smells, taking in the noises.

You can hear parrot cackling in the background.

It's a very, very cool environment to be in.

First little bit where I came in, I thought it was a bit boring

but then Ben started explaining what we could hear and see

and then I started looking more and I thought it was really fascinating.

The jungle is also very hot and humid.

It gets really sweaty. It's such a difference.

You walk and the sky just goes and you're in the shade

but the humidity is just unbelievable.

You can't even imagine it.

It's like shutting yourself in a steam room. You sweat instantly.

There are thousands of different species all living together

under the forest canopy - and many of them can be dangerous.

Every single animal that can kill you lives in the jungle.

It's a prison for bad animals!

Local guide, Lionel, shows the group some of the animals

-they need to look out for in the jungle.

-ALL: Whoa!

And a scorpion!

There are about 2,000 different species of scorpion in the world.

Only a small number have poison strong enough to kill people,

but even little ones like this can be extremely dangerous.

Look at the size of that baby!

-And you know they jump four feet, don't you?

-Really?

I'm going to be thinking it's crawling up my back all night now.

Amazing just to think these are all around us.

I don't know why like it, but I think it's quite pretty.

They're quite special.

Small but no less painful are bullet ants.

A bite from one of these could have some frightening results.

If he bit you, your hand would swell to the size of a baseball glove.

-Have you been bitten by one?

-Many, many times.

Four of them on my leg. They get into my pants, and...

Oh, my goodness!

Everybody run!

Oh! What on Earth?

-It's a bumblebee poison dart frog.

-Absolutely stunning, huh?

The bright colours of the bumblebee dart frog warn off predators.

That's because their skin secretes a poison

which could kill anything that tries to eat them.

Jungle boffin, Regan,

explains how the poison is produced from their food.

In captivity, they're not poisonous. It's their diets of insects

like mites that give them the poison.

The largest they really grow is 1.5 inches.

But it's not deadly unless

you've got an open, bleeding cut on your hand.

Then you've got a bit of an issue.

It's not just creepy-crawlies

that the Serious Explorers could encounter.

The jungle is also home to a large number of snakes.

Not all of them are venomous, but they can still be pretty lively.

Rainbow boa. Non-venomous.

Key thing with boas, they are feisty, feisty snakes, yeah?

And although they're non-venomous,

this one's struck about four or five times, just trying to

get him out of the bin, and nipped Lionel in the process.

-OK?

-He's cool.

Rainbow boas are called "constrictors".

They aren't venomous, but wrap themselves tightly around their prey

and squeeze them until they can no longer breathe.

That is so beautiful.

Their bodies are full of powerful muscles

and they can strike from a distance of more than half their body length.

-Just like holding a dog tail.

-OK.

OK, take it back, take it back, take it back. Aaah!

I was always really careful where I sat down, but I'm glad

I know what is in the jungle and what I need to be aware of.

Not every creature in the jungle is dangerous,

but they can cause problems, as Sammie discovers

when she's bitten by a tick.

Expedition doctor Fi checks it out.

Well, ticks are, yeah, incredibly common in the jungle,

so it was only a matter of time until somebody

were to find one on their body.

Ticks are parasites that feed on the blood of other animals.

They usually drop off once they've eaten, but until then

they can be very tricky to remove.

Fortunately Sammie appears to have found this relatively early,

but that could go to sort of double or triple the size

once it's had time to suck blood.

So we need to get the tweezers right underneath.

-Ow.

-Can you feel a bit of pulling on the skin there?

-Yeah.

Little bit of a tug of war, OK?

-Ow!

-If it's not going to come easily we can always burn it, OK?

Or we can put a little bit of Vaseline on there, OK?

Put a dressing over it, so basically the tick can't get any oxygen,

it's going to suffocate.

So hopefully within half an hour or so should suffocate under that.

The jungle is an ecosystem

full of creatures that feed off each other in a food chain.

For example, leafcutter ants depend on the leaves of trees.

Anteaters feast on the ants, and other larger creatures

may then eat the anteaters.

The jungle is in a delicate state of balance in which

all the plants and animals depend on each other.

The rainforest in Guyana has hardly changed since Raleigh's day,

and remains one of the few areas of unspoiled jungle

anywhere in the world.

Eight young British adventurers aged 12-14 have come to Guyana

in South America to explore the spectacular unspoilt rainforest.

They're following in the 400-year-old footsteps

of the Elizabethan adventurer Sir Walter Raleigh,

the first Englishman to explore Guyana.

Four-fifths of the land in Guyana is covered by rainforest,

so a large part of their time here is spent in the jungle.

This is one of only a handful of rainforests left on the planet

that haven't been damaged or destroyed by humans.

It certainly had an impact on Raleigh, as his journal records.

"There is no country which yielded more pleasure.

"It hath so many plains, clear rivers,

"and all sorts of beasts in great plenty.

"For health, good air, pleasure and riches,

"I am resolved it cannot be equalled."

Across the world, rainforests like this one are under threat.

It's estimated that every day,

100 square miles of rainforests are cut down,

and every year, thousands of species

of animals, plants and insects are threatened with extinction.

Environmentalists warn that if this rate of destruction continues,

then in just 100 years' time there will be no rainforests left at all.

In Guyana, local people are now working to help protect

the creatures most in danger of becoming extinct.

One of the Serious Explorers, Megan, has been given a chance to meet

a magnificent but highly endangered animal - the harpy eagle.

Harpies are one of the largest birds of prey

in South America, but the loss of their natural habitat

has driven them towards extinction.

There are so few of them left that

encountering harpies in the wild is incredibly unusual.

Megan is lucky enough to meet local guide Sydney,

who points out a rare harpy nest high up in the trees.

-That's the nest.

-I can see it.

-Do you see it?

-Yeah!

It's one of the strongest birds of prey.

The strength of its legs would take monkeys off of branches.

Even little children, you know? Babies. They're that strong.

-How big is that one up there?

-Um, this, I...

I wouldn't be able to tell you,

but the adults can grow their wingspan to about six feet,

six feet six.

About this.

Now that you're here, would you like to get closer to the bird?

-Yes, please!

-Good.

Right foot through that one.

Trees in the rainforest grow very tall, so to get

a close look at the harpy eagle, Megan has to

climb 100 feet up - jungle style.

It's a little bit frightening,

because apparently I'm not far off prey size.

Stand up.

Perfect.

The harpy has excellent vision,

and keeps a close eye on Megan as she's hoisted up into the trees.

She's massive!

Oh, look at her feet! Her claws are like that long!

This harpy is just an eight-month-old chick,

but it's already nearly a metre tall.

SHE CLICKS HER TONGUE

Hello! Hello!

She's only a little baby.

The adults must be absolutely huge.

That was absolutely amazing.

He's about that tall compared to me, so he's pretty big.

I was looking, I saw a bit of his feet, claws like that big!

I crossed my fingers last night that he would be here this morning,

and he stayed there and I got to see him!

In another part of the rainforest is another wildlife project.

This one is designed to monitor a creature that's been around

since dinosaurs were alive.

Caimans are a type of crocodile found across South America.

Like all crocs, they're threatened by humans.

They're being driven towards extinction as a result of

the trade in their skin.

The powerful reptiles live in and around jungle rivers,

where they lie in wait for their prey.

Tonight, the Caiman Project is being visited by Serious Explorers

Jake, Josh and team leader Polly.

The caiman are hard to spot.

The one thing that gives them away

is the reflection of the searchlights in their eyes.

The idea is that you're trying to get one that's out in the open,

and one that's bold enough that it stays up on top of the water.

This is a long-term mark-recapture study,

we've been running for about four years.

We catch a caiman, we release it back into the wild,

and hopefully in a few years we can catch it back,

or in a couple of years, so you can see how it's growing,

when it sustains injuries.

Trying to get a full life history of individuals,

and then as well, assessing the population.

The more the researchers know about the caimans,

the more they can work to protect them.

What's the biggest caiman you've caught?

The biggest one we've caught on the project

was about 12 feet two inches long.

-What do they actually eat?

-Caiman are very opportunistic.

Something drinking water at the river edge, er, fish...

Er...birds.

Even turtles that are going up on the sandbank to nest.

All of a sudden, a caiman slinks past in the darkness

and the team try to catch it.

Look at that!

Jake and Josh are amazed by its strength as it tries to escape.

Although this one is thrashing a lot,

the researchers make sure it doesn't suffer any ill-effects.

We can see its teeth!

This is so crazy.

The team move quickly so the caiman doesn't become too stressed.

One false move and the men in the boat

could be dragged into the water by the powerful caiman.

It's so huge.

They control it using special catch-poles,

and they make sure its jaws are taped shut

before bringing it to the river bank for a closer look.

-You can imagine swimming in the river!

-No!

-I don't want to swim in the river any more!

-With that beast!

-Jake, he's twice the size of you!

-That is scary.

By measuring the head,

they can use a special formula to work out how big a caiman is.

This is useful if they find skulls of caiman that have died

or been killed by hunters.

By comparing the measurements they took the last time

this caiman was caught, the team will be able to

track its growth and compare it to other caimans in the area.

The team turn the caiman over to reveal

a completely different-looking surface -

one that's smooth and streamlined for the water.

-It's smooth on the bottom.

-Did you say it's like tiles?

They've measured every part of this caiman. Just one thing left -

its weight. Josh and Jake help out.

Not off the ground!

-It's still not off the ground.

-Ohh, that's heavy!

120 kg.

With measurements taken, it's time for the research team

to release the caiman back into the river.

-That is cool!

-Whoa!

-'That was phenomenal.'

It was great to be so close to a caiman.

The textures of the skin, some were like rock hard

and some were squishy and fleshy and soft.

It's just seeing it so close up, I mean,

every single part of it you could see perfectly.

It was brilliant. Every second of it.

Researchers still know very little about the behaviour and habits

of many of the world's endangered creatures.

What they do know is that it's important to stop

their rainforest homes being destroyed by logging

and other human activity,

if we're to prevent many unique animals becoming extinct.

400 years ago, the Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

crossed the Atlantic Ocean

in search of a lost city called El Dorado that was said to be

full of gold. Raleigh spent many months planning his adventure,

believing that if he could find the legendary city,

he would become rich beyond his wildest dreams.

It was a massive expedition

that took months to complete, but Raleigh didn't go alone.

He had many men with him,

and he recruited a number of guides from local tribes

when he landed in Guyana.

He knew little about his destination,

but Raleigh researched the trip carefully

before he set sail.

400 years later the Serious Explorers,

a team of children from the UK,

have come here to retrace part of Raleigh's route.

For expedition leader Ben, this is the culmination

of almost a year of planning.

The biggest thing with an expedition is,

what is it that you're going to do?

It's actually coming up with a fairly firm idea or concept.

And the only way to do that is to read loads of books,

get maps out, and speak to people

that have been there or that have done similar activities

to what you're thinking of doing. Get all the knowledge you can

as early as possible,

and then you can really refine an idea and make it better,

bigger, greater than you ever thought.

Raleigh's expedition to Guyana

lasted for many months. He encountered

landscapes and wildlife

totally unfamiliar to an Elizabethan Englishman.

The Serious Explorers will have only five weeks for their whole trip,

so Ben has a lot to fit in.

They're also getting to try potentially dangerous activities

that require careful planning, from climbing epic mountains...

We've reached the top!

..To abseiling down vast waterfalls.

Oh, my gosh!

And just like Raleigh, they're also

spending time living deep in the jungle.

Though the trip's been carefully researched by Ben,

it's a real expedition where anything can happen,

so they need to be ready to adapt to the changing conditions,

from the terrain to the weather.

This is the plan that we came up with for the Serious series.

By its nature you'd think it would be really detailed - it's not.

On this front cover is literally, that's four days.

So we kind of know what we're trying to achieve on a day-to-day basis,

but we know that it's inherently flexible

and it's going to change.

One of the key things on any expedition is nutrition.

400 years ago there was very little long-life food

and no refrigeration,

so food had to be sourced locally and eaten fresh.

For the Serious Explorers, ensuring a balanced diet is still important,

and planning meals is a key part of the expedition leader's job.

One of the biggest elements in planning an expedition

is what you're going to eat. And I can't stress that enough,

because you get obsessed by food so quickly,

and it becomes the main topic of conversation on like day two,

all the way through, about all the things that you're missing

from ice cream to jelly to, I don't know,

a particularly favourite chocolate bar or a particular biscuit.

The key thing in planning is you've got to get the right kind of food

that's got the right energy to keep you going

over a long period of time. Some of our trips are five weeks long.

And you just imagine, if you put all the food that you ate in a week

on the table and thought you had to carry that, you probably couldn't.

And so you have to work out what is, where can you buy this food,

am I going to take it with me or am I going to buy it locally?

And does it have the right nutrients that I need

for what we're going to be doing?

What happens in the jungle is you tend to try and use dry goods,

staples such as rice, noodles,

that are really high carbohydrate but actually they're slow-burning,

so they deliver that energy to you over a long period of time.

But frankly it's a bit bland, so you need other things to go with that.

We were lucky that we could

supplement our diet with fresh fish along the way,

which supplies all sorts of proteins and essential oils

that you need to keep going.

But the key thing is that you've got to get that right,

because if you don't,

you're going to have some really unhappy campers on that trip.

The Serious Explorers are operating in an area

about the size of mainland Britain, using lots of different

modes of transport, and a large part of their time will be spent walking.

As such, the expedition leaders have to be strict on packing.

12 kilos. Technically they all should weigh the same,

you know what I mean?

-What's too heavy?

-Unless somebody's sneaked something.

-Yeah, like make-up or mascara.

-I didn't bring any!

Golden rule about packing is just remembering "light is right".

And everyone does it - "I just might need this, I just might need that."

Don't do it. Don't do it.

You've probably done it many times - you've been on holiday,

and you've come back and half the suitcase you haven't even touched.

If you're having to carry all of your stuff including food,

expedition kit for the group,

and your personal stuff,

it's a lot of kit. It weighs a lot.

And every single ounce, every single tiny bit

mounts up over a period of time.

Stay light. Light is right.

For some of the team, packing light is proving difficult.

We're not allowed to take any deodorant or anything.

-I'm going to stink!

-Everything the team have packed

is essential to their comfort and safety.

It's obvious that you guys have lost already

quite a lot of your kit, haven't you?

So from now on on this trip, OK,

every one of you is in charge of your own personal gear.

If stuff goes missing, right, you lose something, tough.

One of the most uncontrollable elements on the trip is the weather,

and it can change at any time.

It doesn't matter whether you're in the UK -

we've all been on that one day where it's hailed in the morning,

it's sunny in the afternoon,

and suddenly it's freezing cold in the evening -

it's exactly the same on an expedition,

and you need to be prepared for the unexpected.

In fact, the Serious Explorers

experienced some of the wettest weather on record,

for what's meant to be the dry season.

Not only does the weather impact on safety, it can cause delays,

so plans have to be flexible.

But the team also have the latest equipment and outdoor clothing

with them, something Raleigh would definitely have been jealous of.

400 years ago, Raleigh didn't have all of our sort of

modern-day technology

and all of what we've learned over the centuries

as far as modern-day clothing. I mean, we're very lucky now

that we've got an outfit for every single occasion.

On an expedition, yes you've got that to a certain degree,

but you can't carry all of it

so you've got to have versatility in whatever you take.

Generally the rule is that it's better to have lots of layers,

and therefore when it gets hot you can take layers off,

when it gets cold you can put layers on.

And it's having those layers within each layer, of trapped air,

that keeps you warm or, conversely, can keep you cool.

But while the kit may have changed dramatically, major expeditions

have always involved a huge amount of planning,

and the more preparation put in in advance,

the more the expedition members can concentrate on

enjoying unique experiences and amazing adventures

in some of the most remote places on Earth.

In the 16th century, the Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

embarked on an epic voyage to discover

the legendary city of El Dorado, a mysterious place

some believed was full of gold.

400 years on, and the Serious Explorers, a team of children

from the UK, are on their way to Guyana in South America

to retrace part of Raleigh's route.

When Raleigh came here, he was heading into unknown territory.

Although he had a team of men with him and local guides to help,

he was in an unfamiliar place full of great danger.

If anything went wrong,

it was unlikely anyone would come to his rescue.

400 years later, the Serious Explorers

have modern safety equipment

that would have seemed like science fiction to Raleigh.

But remote jungles can be dangerous.

The Explorers' safety is being taken care of

by expedition leader Ben Major, an ex-army officer

who's led expeditions in just about every extreme environment on Earth.

No one expedition is the same,

and every expedition throws up unique challenges.

And the key thing about that is all about safety.

You do expeditions all over the globe and it might be one minute you're in

-40 in the Arctic or the Antarctic,

the next minute you're in hot, sweaty, tropical jungle

in +30, +40 degrees.

And of course your equipment,

the way that you operate is completely different.

And that's where, you know, you've got a completely different rule book

as to how you go about planning and delivering the expedition safely.

Part of being prepared involves practising

what the team will do in an emergency.

Assistant expedition leader Polly explains to the group

how to deal with someone falling overboard.

First thing we do, shout, point.

"Man overboard!" And I mean shout.

You will be amazed how quickly a person can disappear.

Without warning, Ben decides to give the young explorers

a practical safety lesson.

Help! Help!

-Somebody keep an eye on him.

-Keep an eye and point!

-There!

Man gone overboard.

And we're just like making sure that we know where he is,

making sure that we're pointing at him

so then, like, you don't lose him in the water.

-Is someone still pointing at him?

-ALL: Yes!

In just a few moments, the strong current has swept him

a long way from the boat.

But it's not just the current they need to think about.

The temperature of the water has a crucial impact

on survival, and in some places, even off the coast of Britain,

a person can be too cold to swim in just 10 or 15 minutes.

Pull him up.

OK, Ben?

-Oof!

-All right, mate?

OK, guys, we need to make sure now he's OK. OK? So...

You can see how difficult that is to get people back in a boat. Nightmare.

It was really scary, cos you were worried for him,

and then you had to like keep concentrating

so that you didn't leave him in the water too long.

They've got to be aware of... basically the severity.

If someone goes over the side,

you can seriously die very, very quickly in these kind of waters.

The largest part of the expedition takes place in the jungle,

home to thousands of different animals and plants,

so there are plenty of hazards.

If you think about the jungle, you think, you know, snakes,

you think large cats

that are going to come and eat you in the middle of the night.

You think about crocodiles. All this kind of stuff.

What you really want to be concerned about is the small things,

and that is the sun. It's incredibly hot.

Or it's the lack of water, and dehydration.

But the biggest thing is things like insect bites,

and insect-borne diseases, for example malaria.

When one of the team becomes ill, insects are the number one suspect.

How are you feeling?

Chanelle has reacted badly to an insect bite

and her face has become swollen.

Doctor Fi wants to find out what's happened.

Tell me how you do feel.

I feel like I can't see!

Although she seems OK, the next part of the trip

takes them into a very remote area,

and Ben and Fi are worried that she could get worse.

For Chanelle, it's devastating news.

If we were to take you into a remote, remote area

and you were to get bitten badly,

the next thing that could potentially happen could be life-threatening.

And that's what we're concerned about,

and we can't guarantee your safety.

And for that reason, and that reason alone,

I'm afraid we can't take you any further.

I'm so, so sorry.

Because of the risks to her health,

she's unable to continue with the expedition.

With four-fifths of Guyana covered by jungle,

a large part of the Serious Explorers' time

is spent in the rainforest.

Before they go into such a dangerous environment,

they need to prepare belt kits,

which contain everything they need to survive

if they become lost or separated from the rest of the expedition.

What we're going to do now is just cover,

just trying to get you organised, but most importantly,

it's a fundamental bit of safety kit that you need for the jungle, OK?

And that is the belt kit.

It's a belt which has got two black pouches on,

and it's got a water bottle pouch.

Sometimes you get separated from your main rucksack, yeah?

And therefore you want to have your essentials on you.

The belt kits are mini survival packs,

and the Serious Explorers have to think about

which items they need to keep with them at all times.

In the first pocket, in that one, well,

I'll have my water bottle in there, so it's handy in my kit.

Then second one I'll have lunch in there, if I get really hungry.

Third one I'll have like daily things like penknife,

compass and whistle, head torch. That's about it.

Like Raleigh, the Serious Explorers are sleeping in the jungle.

It's their first night,

and before it gets dark they need to find somewhere to set up camp.

To avoid the jungle wildlife they sleep off the ground in hammocks,

with a waterproof sheet and a mosquito net for protection.

Everything likes to come out at night - snakes, scorpions, spiders.

As soon as the light drops, the jungle comes alive,

and they're going to be going, "What's that? What's that?"

Ben points out something dangerous they haven't noticed.

We're going to have to move you I'm afraid,

all of you guys in this area cos this one's dead,

rotten completely with all the fungus growing on it.

Also the bark is just soft and you can see that I'm just...

And the last thing we want is that to come down with a stiff breeze

in the night and crush Nikita or any of the others.

I'm sorry, guys.

The number one killer in the jungle is deadfall.

Dead trees or dead branches that are suspended above you

that come down in the wind. And that's what everyone kind of forgets.

So think about the small things and not just the obvious things.

One of the most important things on any expedition is water.

Most of the time the Serious Explorers are travelling on foot

or in small canoes,

and taking enough drinking water for everyone would be impractical.

So like Raleigh, the team rely where they can

on local sources of water like lakes and rivers.

It's a hot, sweaty environment and you go through

so much fluid in any one day.

And generally, depending what're doing, you're going to need

to take on board about anything from five litres

all the way through to possibly 14/15 litres a day.

And the last thing you want to do is to carry that water.

It weighs a lot, roughly a kilogram per litre.

So if you have to carry three or four litres it's too much.

Luckily in Guyana, you've got an abundance of rivers

and loads of water to drink.

However, it's not clean.

It has sediment in it or it might possibly have bacteria in it.

So you need to purify it.

And there's two main methods, one is to boil

which obviously during the day is not that practical, you have to

wait for the water to cool down.

Whereas if you just add chemicals then you may have to

wait 20-30 minutes and then you can drink.

And they tend to come in little dropper bottles like this

where you can literally add so many drops to a litre,

wait half an hour and then take them on board.

But water -

can't, can't stress how important it is for keeping your body healthy.

The Serious Explorers are travelling through extreme environments

that have barely changed since the time of Raleigh' expedition.

ALL: Wow!

Like all the early explorers, Raleigh was heading into the unknown

and there were dangers all around.

But 400 years on, with access to modern equipment

and expert help, the Serious Explorers are able to

take on even the most spectacular challenges with minimal risk.

400 years ago the English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

set out to discover El Dorado,

a legendary city said to be full of gold.

His expedition brought him

to Guyana in South American where no Englishman had been before.

To Raleigh it was like nowhere he'd ever seen, with vast rainforests,

epic mountains...

..raging waterfalls

and exotic wildlife.

Also unique were the local tribespeople -

ancient clans of forest dwellers

who lived in harmony with their environment.

Raleigh was almost certainly the first white person they'd ever seen.

He was unsure as to whether he'd be welcomed,

or face immediate attack.

He brought gifts from England as a way of making peace

and in his account of the trip he describes how

he found the people of Guyana surprisingly accommodating.

SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

"Despite the hardness of their diet and the great labours

"they suffer to hunt, fish and fowl for their living,

"in all my life, either in the Indies or in Europe,

"did I never behold a more goodly or better-favoured people."

Four centuries on and a team of children from the UK

have come to Guyana to follow in Raleigh's footsteps.

Just like the Elizabethan explorer,

they're relying on local tribespeople for help.

Nowadays the tribespeople dress in modern clothes,

but for many of them their way of life

has changed little since Raleigh's day.

Fewer than 75,000 tribespeople live in an area the size of

England and Scotland combined.

While a few have access to technology like mobile phones,

most have no mains electricity or running water.

They still live along Guyana's rivers

and rely on the rainforest for both food and materials.

The Serious Explorers have been invited to

a traditional celebration by the Macushi tribe,

carried out before first going on a trip into the rainforest.

When you come into the forest we believe that there is

a connection, a spiritual being,

therefore before you leave for the forest, you have a blessing.

The ceremony is led by a local shaman, or medicine man.

The spirit form the forest and your spirit will now be one.

Enjoy your stay with all living beings in the forest here.

Almost everything the Macushi eat

is grown or caught in the surrounding area.

I have the fruit from the forest, banana,

this is the cassava bread,

and then the smoked fish we call Himara.

You're welcome to have anything you want to taste here.

Having survived on plain noodles and rice for most of their journey,

for the Serious Explorers, the Macushi banquet is a real treat.

It's so different to what I'm used to,

it's a bit hard to take it all in.

It's just brilliant, that's all I can describe it as.

SINGING AND DRUMMING

It was really funny dancing with the tribespeople round the fire.

Oh, I've got to go!

SINGING AND CLAPPING CONTINUE

I loved it, I thought it was absolutely amazing.

It's given me a bit of peace of mind

knowing that there's a bigger spirit,

or a bigger thing that's looking out for you.

We've been blessed so hopefully we've luck on our side now.

ALL CHEER

Back in Raleigh's day, there was no long-life food

and it would've been impossible for his men to feed themselves

without help from local guides and the tribes they met along the way.

Experts in foraging, the locals knew what was safe to eat

and what to avoid.

They were also expert hunters.

Today Macushi guide Lionel gives the Serious Explorers a lesson in

traditional hunting techniques his people have used for generations.

Oh my goodness!

The tribe have set up an exercise to test the Serious Explorers.

To hunt animals in the jungle,

you need to be fast, as Lionel demonstrates.

That's actually quite scary.

Now it's the Serious Explorers' turn.

Even with the targets moving slowly, they're still hard to hit.

The Macushi arrows can be fired at tremendous speed

and are powerful enough to kill large animals, including monkeys.

-This is, of course, if you can get the hang of using them.

-SHE LAUGHS

Yeah!

Regan scores the first direct hit.

Make it a goody, make it a goody.

Sammie, I think we'll leave it there.

But to eat well in the jungle you don't need to have a bow and arrow.

Every inch of the forest is literally crawling with food

in the form of insect and grubs.

The Serious Explorers decide to try some.

I'll eat most things

but I won't eat a grub or anything that bursts in your mouth.

If you're hungry, guys, you'd eat them.

The trick is you just hold its head and then just bite its body.

-Eugh!

-Hold its head...

Guys, shut up and let me just get in the zone.

He's got it, he's got it. Shh.

Don't spit it out immediately, chew, chew, chew. What'd you think?

Did you hear that pop in his mouth?

Surprisingly, insects and grubs are very high in protein.

Some can even be eaten raw, and are still used today

by local tribespeople as a way of supplementing their diet.

Although some of them taste strange,

the explorers find they're not all bad.

Oh, that's well nice.

LAUGHTER Is it actually?

-Chew, chew. It's like cream cheese.

-Kind of nice actually.

Who's feeling EVEN braver?

-How do you eat it?

-No.

-Tell us how you eat it.

Are you going to go for it?

Good girl.

It's really disgusting.

Go for it. Survival situation, yes, just chew it, chomp it, yum it.

What does it taste like?

If you're you going to puke go that way!

It's all creamy and disgusting but it tastes like off cream.

I just ate a spider!

Over generations the Macushi tribe have developed remarkable skills

to survive in the rainforest.

To them it's like a giant living supermarket.

It's very likely that Raleigh

and his team would never have survived their epic expedition

without the help of local tribespeople and food of the jungle.

Their encounters would've given them a unique insight into tribal life

and the traditional skills used for centuries in the jungle.

The tribes are an important part of Guyana's heritage and even today

they provide a vital support network to anyone visiting the rainforest.

But there are concerns that their unique knowledge, skills,

and way of life may eventually die out as the tribespeople

come into ever-greater contact with the modern world.

In the late 1500s the Elizabethan explorer Sir Walter Raleigh

sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a legendary city

said to be full of gold.

It was called El Dorado

and despite there being little firm evidence for its existence,

he set off on an ambitious expedition to be the first to find it.

Even today much of Guyana is almost uninhabited

and has changed little since Raleigh was here.

He would have lived in very basic conditions as he explored

vast open plains and dense jungles.

400 years later, and eight British children have come to Guyana

to follow in Raleigh's footsteps.

They're the Serious Explorers team and they're spending

their entire five-week expedition experiencing the great outdoors.

The young adventurers are well away from 21st century civilisation

and have to manage without modern comforts like electricity,

running water, toilets and beds.

They're staying in a range of exciting places from tents

to caves,

jungle huts

to hammocks.

After a night in the open comes a challenge.

As of tomorrow, we are going to be really doing something that

I've certainly never done before with a bunch of people of your age.

We're going to bung you into the rainforest to

survive for the best part of 36 hours.

-Oh my God!

-Are you joking?!

How are we going to do that?

You'll be down to minimal kit

so literally like a real survival situation,

so you'll really have your belt kit and that'll be it.

You'll be with us, won't you?

Nope.

You guys are going to be looking after yourselves.

Stage one is learning to build a shelter.

You're looking for four trees

that are going to provide an area long enough for you to sleep in.

So what we've got is four trees.

One, two, that one leaning, three and that one there, four.

This horizontal piece is going to form part of your roof,

it's just trapped against the uprights by the v-shape sticks.

See that?

You're going to need palm to make the roof.

Notice he's lying it so the leaves are going in the same direction.

This is so the water runs off the leaves rather than

collecting in the middle.

What's going in now is basically the bed slats.

So all those, big, big leaves of palm you've taken down,

they've got huge stems with no leaf on the underneath,

are now actually going to become your slats for your bed

so you don't waste anything.

Having a raised bed is really important to protect you from

the insects and animals on the jungle floor.

The biggest thing to have a comfortable night out

in an improvised shelter like this is the bed,

that you concentrate on it and spend time on it.

It's not known exactly what conditions Raleigh faced

as he camped out on his expedition.

But it's likely local tribes would've built similar shelters

for him to sleep in.

While on their night out,

the Serious Explorers will have to find their own dinner.

They've already discovered that the rainforest is full of food,

providing you know what's safe to eat.

Local people have hunted and foraged here for generations

and even developed their own jungle gadgets.

So we're just going to show you guys two types of traps