In 1987, I had this idea that a great way to teach wilderness survival would be to head out into the woods and do exactly that.

Survive.

Now I need the skills because I'd be filming myself alone.

And you, the viewer, would be made aware of that.

And I thought, what a great way to make these skills more relatable to you.

Problem was, the technology was not available for me to film myself beyond the old grainy camcorders as we used to call them.

Well, fast forward to the year 2000, 13 years and indeed the technology became available.

the take home information.

And the skills that you would learn from this series would make you more confident in nature.

You'd stay warm, dry and safe, and therefore you'd be able to reconnect to the natural world.

What you're about to watch is raw and real, and not to be confused with reality television.

These are my journeys into the world of survival and around the planet.

These are the skills that can keep you alive and open the doors to nature.

The only reality that matters.

(intense rhythmic music) As the reality of filming survival in various locations around the world began to sink in, I realized that I would have to have some kind of narrative mechanism that would make sense for why someone would be lost and alone, stranded in some location, forced to survive for the very first time I did it, it was with a canoe in northern Ontario.

Makes sense.

Another time it was ocean kayaking in Costa Rica.

Also make sense?

Well, then I found myself thinking about going to the Arizona desert.

What makes sense there?

Dirt biking.

which I am not so good at, so getting the opening scenes that took some doing, but it still made sense that being stranded on a dirt bike in the desert could happen.

So I found myself in the Sonoran Desert, the only place where the saguaro cactus grows in the wild over 100,000mi█.

Scorpions, snakes, spiders, and intense desert beauty.

I've learned that over time, the beauty of every desert is in the small stuff.

If you get close to a desert, you begin to see how stunning the scenery truly is and how delicious the bounty can be.

And of the four deserts in the United States, the Sonoran Desert is the most biologically diverse.

Its mountains, rivers and valleys.

This would be my first time in an American desert.

Bordering both North and Central America, the Sonoran Desert stretches from Mexico to Colorado, taking in both Arizona and California.

At best, it may see 10 days of rain per year.

(rhythmic music) In the desert, rivers have no water.

Plants are so spiny that you dare not reach out to catch your fall.

The dry heat and wind suck the moisture out of you quicker than you can replenish it.

The animals here have to be prepared to survive the extremes.

(bird squawking) There is nothing average about this place.

Well, I certainly didn't sleep much last night.

It got pretty cold, It really doesn't matter where you look around here, it's just desert as far as you can see.

But I'm using my gloves 'cause what makes me really nervous here is this is perfect place for rattlesnakes to be laying.

Like I said, they're actually quite tasty.

Heat of the day, like this, all you really wanna do is lay around in the shade.

Not much left of my energy bar.

I'm gotta go find some more food.

(upbeat music) Oh yeah, these little guys are awesome.

Strawberry pincushion, and by far the most tastiest treat in the desert, I think.

Mm.

Oh yeah.

They're like a combination between a strawberry crossed with a kiwi.

Oh man, is that good!

I'm bringing my blood sugar level up a notch.

Mm!

Oh yeah, this is the plant you wanna find.

Excuse me while I chow down.

(upbeat music) (stone scraping) Next thing I wanna do is take my digging stick, the one that I put in the fire, underneath the fire to harden.

And I'm gonna turn it into a spear by using these spokes from the motorbike.

And I can grind 'em to a point either on a rock or if I want, (file rasping) the multi-tool has a great file on it just to get 'em into a nice, sharp point.

Once I've got that happening though, I'm gonna take the three of 'em using the C-clamp that I got from the motorbike, I can strap them onto here probably pretty good, pretty tight.

(blows) Okay, there.

I now have a very functional three-pronged spear.

This gives me a confidence boost because it helps me with protection against mountain lions and peccaries, the javelina, which at nighttime, still always give you a bit of the spook.

It's always said that people can last three to five days without water, but here in the desert, the wind is so dry and the heat's so stifling that it sucks the moisture right out of you, reducing your survival time.

I can't see making it to five days without water in a place like this.

I'm finding it really hard to ration my water and I still got four days to go.

I should really think about maybe finding another water source.

It's not that it's really hot, it's about high 70s or so during the day, but it's so dry, just sucks the moisture right outta ya.

I'm already starting to get dehydration headaches.

Whether I like it or not, I'm going to have to leave this little spot if I want to survive the week.

I have to go up and over a few hills to see if I can find a place with some water.

Some areas of the desert you can walk a few miles, find some water.

In other areas, you can walk 60 miles and not find any.

Sonoran Desert is 100,000 square miles.

That's a lot of desert.

(gentle music) Traveling through this desert is anything but easy.

Every plant stabs with its spine.

Every rock shifts under my feet.

When I climb the hills, I have to remain ever mindful of not putting my hand within striking distance of a rattlesnake sunning itself in the heat of the day.

Water, I've got to find a good source of water.

All day I've been suffering from fatigue and dehydration headaches.

If I can spot a valley with a green belt in the middle, it may mean running water or maybe even a small river.

This is tough, hiking.

It's a couple miles since my last camp.

But I'm looking down there and I think I can hear the sound of water and I think I might have found myself a nice little gorge to get down into.

I can see the type of vegetation.

It's called a riparian zone where I'm starting to see sycamore.

And I've been walking through all this mesquite.

So there's been a change.

I think I might have found my new home.

I can hear the water, I can smell the water.

It smells fresh and clean.

(water gurgling) This little paradise is about five miles and a few hills from my first camp.

And of course, because I have too much camera gear, I had to hike it twice just to get all the gear here.

But I'll tell ya, this little desert creek, man, this is a sight for sore eyes.

This is like Shangri-La.

Oh, this is beautiful.

(water rushing) Fresh, clear, cold water.

Yeah, it was such a beautiful place that I wasn't thinking as much about survival as I should have been, barely noticing that I was only peeing once a day, and it was very dark, indicating dehydration.

I may still be losing weight due to a lack of nutrition, but at least I can stay hydrated now, and keep clear of heat stroke.

Now, this is an oasis for survival.

And I still need to get my fire going.

(stick rubbing) (Les blowing) (fire crackling) Well, I banked up all these stones and made myself a little sort of pad here.

I'm gonna sleep underneath this juniper tree.

It's a great place to sleep.

It keeps the dew off you at night.

And there seems to be some sort of residual heat that stays underneath these trees.

They're a great place to sleep underneath when you're out here.

Sun's settin' pretty quick.

That was an awfully long day just gettin' here.

But I am now in paradise it would seem, paradise in the middle of the desert.

These age-old traditional skills are helping to keep my mind off my ever growing hunger.

(rhythmic music) You know, it just amazes me how long the small wood in the desert stays burning nicely.

This is the wood, I'm getting it from the mesquite trees.

And just an armload lasts me all night long.

In Canada, I'd need at least five or 10 times that much with spruce and pine.

So it's great.

You just got a nice, little, low fire going all night long.

And this is a good spot.

It's frosty cold out everywhere else, but underneath this juniper tree, it does feel a little bit warmer for some reason.

And of course, I've got no frost on me.

Ah, this is nice.

Now that I'm settled in here, I'll just keep drinking tons and tons of water all day to try and kill the desire for food because I am getting, I'm just really hungry.

(chuckles) But that's what I gotta go do, is start looking for some more food.

But thankful that the water's there.

This juniper, (wood snapping) I chewed on a little sprig of this juniper last night just before bed, and the chemicals in it, it seems to work on the bacteria.

I wake up in the morning and mouth tastes pretty fresh actually.

It also works well enough so that I can have another smoke bath.

(rhythmic music) Ah, fresh and clean.

This agave is a very useful plant.

And if you're careful, it has a neat trick that you can do in case you need a needle and thread.

If you're really careful, ow, really careful... Uh.

(slurping) Ah.

Ah.

(spitting) You can actually pull yourself out a needle and thread.

That spike from the top of the agave plant, and I just bit below it to break the fibers.

And then, I got a really strong cord here, super strong.

I mean, I can't break that no matter what.

And if I want, I can peel it apart and break apart, just tear apart the fibers and just get it down to one single, tiny, strong thread.

And I mean, that can be used as a suture if you've got a bad gash, or certainly for clothing, or anything else you need sewn together.

And if the edge here is just a little bit too, see that edge there?

If that's just a little bit too thick, you can grind it down on a rock.

And you got yourself one good, strong needle and thread.

Very useful plant.

Now, I'll also take a couple of the leaves off because I can pound them (rock pounding) and pull fibers out from the leaves as well that I can use for tying.

This just breaks apart the agave leaf, and as you can see, underneath it is all kinds of fibers.

They're really strong and can be used for great rope with cordage material.

Lots of good fibers there.

All I have to do is (rock pounding) get rid of the mush out of it.

(dramatic music) He may not look like much, but the javelina, which is like a wild boar, is a very aggressive animal.

And this one is right in my area.

(dramatic music) It was a matter of just being as quiet as I could and staying up high, getting onto little rock ledges so that he couldn't see me.

They can't look up, so that's your only defense.

If you're on the ground with them, they'll chase you.

(dramatic music) I find that if I gorge on water, it tricks my stomach into feeling full.

And at least for a time, the possibility of slowly starving to death seems distant.

But a surprise in this hot dry desert is just how much there really is to eat.

Far more than way up in the boreal forests of the north when it comes to what you can pick or catch year round.

Of course not all of it is a choice meal.

(upbeat music) There we are, little grasshopper.

What you do, get as many of them as you can.

And just hold 'em this way and pull off the head, which pulls the stomach out with it.

And this thing, which actually stays kickin' for a while, is part of a meal.

For now, oh, I know what I'll do.

Once you get enough of them, you make yourself a little, well, it's kind of like a, (spitting) it's kinda like a fish stringer.

It might be a bit big, this one.

And you poke it through.

There we go.

And there's one.

Let's see if I can get some more.

All right.

I'm gonna show you against my shirt, there, you can see it now.

There we go, there's a nice little feast.

Look at this big, juicy guy.

Look it, you see?

They see they still keep kickin' even after their heads are completely gone.

So there you go, there's my grasshopper kebab.

(upbeat music) (footsteps crunching) All right, well, time for my little grasshopper kebab.

My little treat of the day.

Now, I can roast it beside the fire, but doin' it this way on top of a rock like a frying rock like that is a real cool and easy way to do it.

So I think I'll just put these guys on there.

Ah, well, while I wait for these grasshoppers to roast up nicely on my little rock fire, I can show you these guys.

And I picked these up on my way through from the first campsite.

These are the beans from the mesquite tree.

It's the legume family, good, good food source.

Now, these guys can be ground up into a flour or (chewing) just eaten raw.

Mm, and they're kind of sweet, actually, they're nice.

A little hard.

Now, what I wanna do is just move that over.

Gonna give these guys just a last roasting just to make sure they're fully cooked because they can carry tapeworms.

So give these guys a last little roast here, but I think they're cooked pretty nicely.

And let's see here.

Mm, here's my big, big one here I got.

(crunching) Mm, mm, mm, mm!

When you're hungry.

Mm, mm, mm, mm!

Mm, wings, legs, and all.

Mm, and there's 1,000s of those guys all around me, so I think I'll keep eatin' on them for a while.

Bon appetit.

(dramatic music) You know, there is one insect out here that I don't wanna run into at all.

Killer bees or Africanized bees.

They are in Arizona.

In fact, a friend of mine was stung by a number of them not too far from here.

You never know what's gonna set 'em off.

Either a snapped twig, walk a little too close to their hive, whatever it is, I don't wanna find out.

My day's drawing to a close, the sun's setting quickly.

I've been able to munch on grasshoppers today.

And I ate more of those prickly pair cactuses.

But I'm still not feeling much energy now.

I'm gettin' pretty tired.

And the week's starting to get long on me.

So one more full day when they come and get me.

(harmonica music) I've got back a few needed calories from the grasshoppers and the mesquite beans, but it won't be enough.

(rhythmic music) That's the last time I let this fire go out.

That was easier the first time I tried it.

There's always the worry that my fire will be out when I return to camp.

So I'm going to try a traditional method of keeping fire.

(upbeat music) Keeping my mind active is still my best path to survival.

I'm getting hungry enough now.

It's time to show you what I can do with these prickly pear because these guys can be eaten as well.

Ow, just cut off the rim here 'cause I don't need it.

And go around some of the spikes and spines.

See how difficult it is to work with this type of plant?

Can you believe this is actually what the natives farmed here?

They would farm this prickly pear cactus 'cause its fruits are so good.

And you can also do what I'm doing.

Now, I wanna try and cut away the skin.

Helps to have a good, sharp knife for this.

Well, here, just to show you what I can eat on this thing.

Move a few things outta the way.

Now, there's still all these little veins, these white veins, and you don't actually want them either.

There's actually a little line in between the two veins, and that's the edible stuff.

Not only that, but if you've got a bad cut or a burn, you can put it on it and it's very cooling to the skin and helps to cool any kind of burns or cuts.

Pull a piece off like that.

You can eat this raw or you can put it in, gather it all together and put it in a pot and boil it, and boil the slime off.

But you know, it's not bad raw either.

(rhythmic music) (air whooshing) Check this out.

Fire bundle worked absolutely perfectly.

If it flamed up, I kind of snuffed it out a bit.

And now, all I have to do is add some twigs and some grass, and blow it into flame and I'm in business.

Worked like a charm, one big, fat cigar.

(dramatic music) Crikey, this here's your most classic black widow spider web.

Now, I'm not gonna make eye contact.

I'm gonna back away slowly.

No, seriously, this is a classic black widow spider web.

It's all gnarly and messed up.

She's hiding in there somewhere.

Her bite is about 15 times more powerful than that of a rattlesnake.

It's just such a little bite, but it's a potent one.

You know, you can actually take old webs and kind of spin 'em up and even make a little string out of 'em.

It's very, very strong, strong-spun web.

(gentle music) You know, about the worst thing about it being December here in the desert is that critters like scorpions are lookin' for nice, warm places to crawl into at night.

Like under some guy sleeping.

(air whooshing) Well, it's my last full day and it's a frosty, frosty morning, let me tell ya.

You know, it amazes me during this desert winter, how much there is to gather and eat in terms of wild edibles.

Up in Canada, in the boreal forest, you've got maybe six weeks to gather wild edibles.

After that, if you don't hunt and you don't fish, you starve.

(bird cawing) You know, what you can also get some food source from as well is simple grass.

You don't actually swallow the grass blades, but you chew on 'em for as long as you can and get the juices, which is essentially chlorophyll, which is very good for our bodies.

Once you're done chewing, spit the blades out.

(air whooshing) (water dripping) Ah, cold and fresh.

You know, utilizing our natural environment to survive in and doing things like eating live scorpions or cutting down live trees are only necessary if you truly have to survive.

I've shown some ways of surviving a very harsh climate.

While you're out, leave only footprints.

Let's set up some good protected areas so that our grandchildren also have this beauty to enjoy.

(upbeat music) I think the toughest part of the last day was knowing that I had to hike all of my camera gear all the way back to the first location to meet up with the crew.

And there's like this small thing in the back of my head, "Okay, are they gonna be there?"

'Cause I don't wanna do another night out here.

And so I had that to look forward to, the fear.

Is the crew there or aren't they there?

One way or the other, I have a long hike and I had to get all the way back to the first location.

(dramatic rhythmic music) Directly inspired by his own survival expeditions, journeys and challenges.

World renowned survival instructor Les Stroud brings you survival, essential skills and tactics to get you out of anywhere alive.

Available for 19.99.

In addition, the book will to live Dispatches from the Edge of Survival is available, featuring Les Stroud's own top ten survival stories of all time.

Just 21.99.

To order, please go to lesstroud.ca, and click on shop or go to the Les Stroud YouTube channel.

Survivorman Les Stroud.