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So, this is a photo of a boy and his father in the outback.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.LT

And the dad's looking at his son with a lot of love.

It tells me that that little boy is the only thing

that exists in that moment.

And that boy is me.

I love this photo.

It's so easy to take the parents for granted.

I feel I've been so busy, I probably haven't spent as

much time with my dad as I would want to.

And now he's had a diagnosis.

He has early-stage Alzheimer's,

and there's definitely good days and bad days.

I wanna do everything that I can to help him.

So, my dad and I are going on a road trip.

And it's something we've talked about for years.

Turns out that the experience could help

fight the disease.

If it helps, fantastic.

But I'm also just looking forward to

spending time with my dad.

Hey, can you hold this for me?

Better get the opening titles sorted for the...

What am I doing?

Just stand over there and film me.

Ah, no, wrong way, mate.

Spin that round.

This is the, uh, the opening titles to the

greatest film ever made.

Now, this is not happening.

Hang on.

What have you done?

What have you done?

What have you pressed?

- I haven't... - You've put it into night mode.

Stop pressing buttons. Let's go.

National Geographic presents...

From Darren Aronofsky...

Production by Nutopia!

Wild State...

With... Chris Hemsworth.

And my dad.

That's you.

Did you get it?

Very good.

We'll get that.

We don't litter.

That's right.

MIV one.

Why don't you face it over here, like this?

You're playing favorites with the cameras aren't you?

There you go.

I'm gonna film everything.

Standing behind camera,

in front of camera, all of that.

Let me introduce you to my co-star.

Can you do that, Dad?

No.

This is Craig Hemsworth, my dad.

He's 71 years old now, father to three boys,

and he's got six grandkids.

So, what do you think of, uh, Grandpa?

He's such a lit grandpa.

Such a lit grandpa. - Um, he's so funny.

He's also been married to my mum, Leonie,

for 40... years?

50 years?

40... can I ask Leonie?

We have been married for 44 years.

We met, we've known each other for 45 years.

He's someone with an extraordinary amount

of personal integrity.

And he has this wacky, goofy sense of humor.

Leonie will probably say she was a mother of four.

I think a lot of the time, I'm still a kid at heart.

There, uh-oh, you're gonna get me.

- Right here. - Huh?

With my dad's Alzheimer's, we've started to notice it over

the last two years.

His short-term memory is not great.

Some days, it's better than other days, but,

uh, it's the sort of the way that it sneaks up at times.

It, um, catches you out.

It's confronting and a really tough thing to navigate

because there's something about his personality that's,

it's not a stubbornness, but there's a real sort of

how he does things.

What are you doing, mate?

I'm making a coffee.

Do you want one?

It's six p.m. with a coffee.

Barista in the house.

You're not gonna sleep, mate.

And I'm not sure if it's, is he forgetting this,

or is he insisting on doing it this way?

Or is this a, a symptom?

I don't know.

We as a family we've been talking with clinicians

and specialists and neurologists and so on and

looking at cutting-edge science.

It's about what can we do, what can he do,

to enhance his cognitive health.

This has led me to the work of Alzheimer's specialist,

Dr. Suraj Samtani.

Suraj wants us to meet at a busy public place.

My family and I used to live in Melbourne,

and we've always supported the Aussie Rules football team,

the Bulldogs.

Well, we've come here not for the game,

but for the crowd.

A little bit for the game.

A little bit.

We're here for them, the fans.

We see all these people around you.

They are together with their parents, their partners,

their friends.

Social connections for us is like sunshine.

Without that sunshine, we wither.

So, we did a study with over 40,000 people from

14 countries, from all over the world,

and what we found was that people who were

being social regularly,

their risk of dementia was half compared to everyone else.

Wow.

Social connections slow down cognitive decline,

even for people who have been already diagnosed with dementia.

Does it have to be in large groups like this,

or can it be one on one?

It can totally be one on one.

In fact, one of the most surprising things we found

was that opening up to someone...

Mm.

...having a confidante, really reduces your risk

of early mortality.

So it's the quality, not the quantity.

Yeah, it's interesting.

My dad and I, we used to live in a community up in

Northern Territory, very remote place,

and we've talked about doing a road trip up

there at some point.

Cool.

I don't know, maybe that would be a good experience

and a, a fun thing to do, right?

Yes.

I think this trip is a wonderful opportunity for

the two of you to spend some time bonding together...

Yeah.

...and also go down memory lane.

We know that revisiting past experiences by talking

to someone about it, even using objects from the

past or places from the past is a great

way to boost our cognition.

This is what we call reminiscence therapy.

For Craig, in living with dementia and trying to cope

with the changes that he's facing,

sharing his life stories through the power of

reminiscence therapy is going to be really

beneficial for his brain.

So if you wanna work out your body,

you do exercises like lifting weights...

Mm-hm.

...to build your muscles.

Well, for our brain, we can do the same thing by

practicing retrieving memories from the past.

Well, we're in Melbourne.

This is where I spent most of my childhood.

I wonder if I could get access to the house I grew up

in and revisit the past?

It's exciting. Let's do it.

After the game.

Woo!

Get in!

See, we're bonding!

So, my road trip with my dad is also going to be

a trip back into our past.

To exercise his memory in order to strengthen it.

And there's only one way we're doing it.

Woo!

Look at this.

Hooley Dooley! Look at this.

There you go. Our chariots.

Hot rods.

Back in the day, my dad raced motorbikes professionally.

I can get on it.

Do you remember when I used to sit on the petrol tank?

- Yeah. - Let's try that.

Let's try that.

This is how we're going all the all the way like this.

Just like when I was a kid.

Beep-beep!

OK, so let me show you my plan.

We're gonna go back to the house we used to live in...

A-ha.

...which was probably the last time you and I lived under

the same roof, 25 years ago.

I want to go back to the house that I grew up in,

in my teenage years in Melbourne,

and then back to my childhood in the Northern Territory,

where my earliest memories were.

We were living in the middle of nowhere,

in the outback of Australia.

Some of the most important memories and experiences

that me and my father, and my mum, and brother, also had.

- I'm excited. - There'll be nostalgia.

- Yeah. - There'll be memories.

It's been a long time.

Alright, Dad, you ready to go back in time?

Back in time.

Here we go.

Woo-ha-ha!

Inspired by my meeting with Suraj,

I've decided to supersize Dad's reminiscence therapy.

So, for the first leg of our road trip,

we're not just going back to our old Melbourne house,

we're going to experience it almost

exactly as it was in the '90s.

With the help of the house's current owners,

the production's art department have taken

photographs from a family photo album of our

house in the '90s,

and basically rebuilt the interior,

sourced old couches,

posters, and photographs...

So that it's exactly the way it was when we

lived there 25 years ago.

They've replanted the entire forest.

No, just kidding.

That was already there.

Ah.

It hasn't changed a bit.

This feels weird, doesn't it?

I know this is going to be a powerful experience,

so I've arranged for my mum to come and join us later.

Should we go inside and step back into the '90s?

Let's have look, eh? Let's have a look, yep.

Hooley Dooley, and the same couches.

Oh my God.

It's a step back in time.

This is wild.

It's literally identical.

I've been looking for that footie.

This is a... charming couple.

How's it feel?

Like home.

Old home.

God, it feels like, um...

like a lifetime ago, but it also feels like yesterday.

Yeah.

Leonie there, eh?

She's, she's coming.

She's coming?

Mm...

Good to be back?

Good memories?

Good memories.

Yeah, absolutely.

It was a good time.

Was five of us in here.

Now, where's Leonie?

She's coming?

Yeah.

My dad keeps asking where my mum is,

even though he's been told that she's coming later.

Wow!

I think it was the first time on the trip

he was displaying his Alzheimer's.

Uh, Dad, look at this.

This has been here for.

Yes!

30 years.

Goodness knows how long, yeah.

Where does it come from?

Did someone make it, or did we buy it?

I can't remember.

Might have been when I was still smart.

Sorry.

And it was, it was concerning.

It the, that you sort of forget momentarily and

then the more time I've spent with him, it's,

it's, it's, it's really obvious.

Leonie'll know.

Has she seen it?

Has she come up?

Leonie there?

Wonder if, he keeps asking where Mum is.

Does Mum wanna come and?

I think I'm struggling with wondering,

is this gonna get better?

And that's, I guess, the cloud.

The overarching thought is that, um, where's this going?

It's here.

Oh, I can't remember.

And yeah, look, it's, it's difficult to talk about.

Hey, Mum.

Isn't this insane?

Huh?

It's so wild, eh?

It's, I wasn't expecting it.

I sort of thought it would be interesting to

come back to it...

Mm.

...but it was quite overwhelming 'cause,

because it was like this flood of even talking about it,

a flood of, um... memories.

Mm.

Because, um... you know, it was the first house

that we bought.

Yeah.

Um, Liam was born here, downstairs.

You boys growing up, really pivotal time in your life.

It's nice to remember.

It's nice to think of those times,

'cause they were difficult...

Yeah.

...in one respect, but...

When we lived in this house,

my dad worked as a Child Protection Officer.

He worked incredibly hard for so many years,

taking care of those who are most vulnerable.

I definitely saw the toll that took upon him and,

and the stress it caused.

It was hard time, wasn't it?

Yeah. Yeah.

Like we were both working and struggling, weren't we?

And...

I remember him coming home at times and just this,

I could see the sort of weight that he was carrying

emotionally about it, and, and said, you know,

and asked him sort of what was happening and,

and I remember this one time him just sort of like,

shaking his head and just sort of...

him getting, you know, he didn't say much but it

was just like, oh, just that kind of, um...

um, just aware of the things that he couldn't stop.

We'd all sit around that fire, eh?

'Cause it was freezing,

but having to chop wood, light the fire,

otherwise I remember breathing out...

...and seeing your breath, that's how cold it was.

Cold, cold house.

Hi, you've called Leonie, Craig, Luke,

Chris, and Liam.

Look at this.

Where'd you get all that stuff from?

These were the airplanes we used to build,

and that one has a little, little engine on it,

little petrol engine, but he would build those

things from scratch.

It's got my name on it... Chris.

Yeah, probably made it for you.

I wanna see if it still flies.

Yeah, it'll still fly.

Guarantee it.

Revisiting the house, it was certainly strange.

The detail was extraordinary.

Hey Dad, this, this is you, look.

I was a good-looking fella, wasn't I?

Did you win that race?

I got third in the 650 class or the 750 class.

That's very satisfying, recognizing stuff that,

you know, I hadn't thought about for a long while.

Put your hat back on so you can see.

Suddenly, I remember that.

So, how does reminiscence therapy help?

Our memories are thought to reside in engrams,

patterns of brain cells that fire together

when we recall something.

Alzheimer's is so devastating because

it destroys the connections between brain cells,

disrupting these memory networks.

Reminiscence therapy can help counteract this because it's

a multi-sensory experience.

Seeing, touching, and hearing our past can make it

easier to remember it.

This can also trigger a whole host of associated

details and events, reactivating more memory engrams

and strengthening the neural connections within them.

Remember how many kids' parties we had in here.

Pillow fights.

How many holes we put in this wall.

Sure.

This toilet, Josh McDonald, throwing up.

Throwing up.

Oh, yeah.

- But the seat being down... - Yes.

...the lid being down and just it bouncing off the lid

onto the walls, onto the shower.

Projectile.

And then trying to scoop it up with a...

Oh!

...plate and a spoon.

Yeah.

Let's go in my bedroom.

Hooley Dooley.

This is so...

Hooley Dooley.

This is really weird.

Don't show my wife, photo of my ex-girlfriend there.

What's this?

"Croc Hunter".

"Croc Hunter", that is...

Shall we have a play?

Alright, oh, have you seen this?

I...

This was, uh, Luke Zocchi's and I's,

uh, media project.

Yeah, yeah.

This was my first ever movie...

No, I remember you doing it.

...that we shot here, on location around the,

around the backyard.

Can we see it?

Yeah, you can pop it on.

♪ The Crocodile Hunter! ♪

You almost spelled crocodile correct.

Crikey, how you going folks?

We've got a real bloody ripper in store for you today.

Oh, this is, this is gold.

We're gonna be chasing the Siberian tiger, Australian fox.

It's gonna be bloody unreal!

Let's go have a look-see!

Now, I've got me self a little sun hat.

That was my hat.

Your riding, hat, yeah.

...come here.

Have a look see.

That's what I'm talking about.

Deadly as!

He's, he's digging a hole,

probably to drag some herrings into it.

Remember, when he's not looking over here,

over here, over here!

I've got him.

Oh!

The dog wasn't...

There they go.

...the dog wasn't hurt in the making of this film.

You get him in the full Nelson like so,

and I've got to get him to submit.

Now, submitting.

Sh, sh!

Down, boy, down!

Look at the dog!

Next week, we'll be chasing the Australian grasshopper.

Can't wait.

See you'se then!

So, is there another episode?

The one, wasn't it?

That's it.

That's where it stopped.

It was that and then "Thor".

It's, it's a small leap.

He used to say, "I'm going to Hollywood",

and we'd sort of chuckle and say,

"Oh yeah, good. What's your backup?"

"Don't need a backup, I'm going to Hollywood."

Going back to the house,

there was just this overwhelming sense

of the passage of time.

How was that?

Was that fun? Was that weird?

Was it?

It felt like all of the people that

we'd had there in the past were there.

Particularly with what, um, Craig's going through.

Well, he asked where you were about six or seven times.

You know, just this wave of emotion,

and I think like we say we are our memories, we,

we kind of, you know, our personalities are based

on our experiences and what we've, where we've been.

Part of my emotional response to it is what are

we gonna face in the future?

As a partner, it's difficult because I want him

to still be the person he was and I want the relationship...

Um, yeah, I, I want, I want the rela...

I want those, that relationship.

You know, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night

and it can be quite terrifying to think where it's all going.

Do you think he's aware of, of that feeling?

Do you think he, if he's afraid, what he's afraid of?

You should ask him.

Is he, in private, does he, yeah, I know.

Well, it's been, it's really tricky.

There's a hesitation from me because...

I don't know, maybe I'm avoiding

my own discomfort, you know.

If I was to ask him, sitting around the dinner

table at home, he'll probably,

"Ah, yeah, I don't know"

and shrug it off a bit, you know?

So this is gonna be a goal for me on this trip, to,

to talk about how he's feeling about this and talk about,

and, or ask him,

does he have fears or concerns and what are they?

Because he's not the type of person that will offer that up.

So, for you, like given that you have this same,

you know, genetic disposition...

This has become a very prominent conversation

in my world because I also have two copies of the

gene that puts me in a higher risk category for Alzheimer's.

I feel like it's too far off, hopefully.

Doesn't seem real.

I'd rather just continue on with life.

- Yeah. - Yeah.

But it's not a problem at this point and it may never be,

and so I'm far more focused on my dad right now.

I think my dad got a lot out of today.

The experience of coming back to our old house in Melbourne

has stimulated nostalgia and triggered memories.

It feels like there's been a real benefit.

If someone close to you is living with dementia,

you don't need to do exactly what Chris and Craig are

doing here to receive some of the benefits

of reminiscence therapy.

It can be as simple as listening to old songs together,

looking at old photos together,

or playing home movies and enjoying them together.

It's quite simple to do.

For the second stage of our road trip,

my dad and I are going even further back in time,

to even more distant memories.

Over 2,000 miles from Melbourne,

somewhere I lived from three to eight years old,

deep in the Australian outback.

Alright, Dad, so we're gonna fly to the Northern Territory,

take the bikes, and we're gonna start in Katherine,

and ride all the way along here to Beswick,

which is apparently where the road ends.

It's Bitumen 'til Beswick, yes, that's right.

Gravel from there on.

And how rough is the terrain?

It can be gnarly.

Can it? Yeah.

It can be, yeah, rocky, dusty.

How do you reckon I'll handle it?

We'll see if you can keep up.

- We'll see. - Yeah.

Could we attach, uh, some sort of tether from your

bike to mine and you just tow me through the problems?

Just like life.

All the way to Bulman.

So, Bulman is an indigenous community in the

outback of Australia, in Northern Territory,

where we grew up.

We're about four and a half hours from the nearest town

and it was incredibly remote,

about as remote as you could get.

You're outdoors all day long.

Didn't own a pair of shoes.

Me and my mates would just run off into the bush

and disappear for most of the day and survive and come back.

The people there and the connection we had to that

community was very foundational and profound.

We as a family,

we've discussed going back for a long time.

And now we're finally going back to Bulman,

for the first time in 35 years.

I think it's going to be great for Craig to dig deeper,

revisiting distant memories.

Because older memories become semanticized

which is we just remember the meaning of what happened,

but not necessarily all the details.

So he's going to have to work really hard to remember

the context of the memories.

All the things that he could see, smell, hear,

and what he felt at the time.

I know for my dad's cognitive health,

going back to Bulman should be powerful therapy and

there's one place in particular that I'd like us

to try and find again.

Alright, so before we take off,

do you remember where this photo was taken?

I think it was where we used to swim.

We used to go and picnic.

'Cause it'd be cool to try and go back there and...

We could do that.

...bring up a whole lot of, a whole lot of emotions.

Yeah.

I think when the photo was taken,

I think I was about three or four years old.

I have very detailed memories of,

of that area and how it felt at that time in my life

and the comfort and joy and the adventure we were on.

And I'd love to go back there.

Let's get these bikes off.

Here we go, ready?

Right... how does it feel to be back

here after all these years, Dad?

- Bloody hot! - Bloody hot!

Any, any, uh, memories coming up?

Anything look familiar?

Lots of, lots of memories and, uh,

looking forward to seeing the people of Bulman.

Can we get going?

Let's get out of here.

How are the bikes handling?

Ah, it feels good.

It's almost 200 miles of open road to Bulman.

This is where the Bitumen ends, Dad.

Yeah.

Where the terrain gets intense.

Bumpy here.

Oh!

Gonna get drenched right here.

It's awesome being out here on the open

road with my dad.

He's incredibly humble about the things he doesn't

know about, but the things he does know about,

where he's the expert, it's his way.

It's Craig's way.

So when it comes to cars and motorbikes and driving,

that's his area of expertise.

It's good fun, riding with Chris.

Got a little way to go keep up with his dad, but...

What a view, eh?

Spectacular.

Hey, I was wondering.

Got a question for you.

Why did we first move up to the Northern Territory?

A job offer.

Yeah.

What was the job offer doing?

Catching, uh, scrub bulls and buffalo.

- Yeah, right. - Yeah.

What did you know about that at the time?

Nothing, absolutely nothing, no.

Uh, scared the out of me.

Craig, the bull catcher.

Yeah, it's a long time ago and, um,

I still have nightmares.

And that was our job, was catching buffalo and

feral cattle, mostly bulls, would escape from the herds.

We'd catch these feral animals and they'd go off to market.

It was hard work and it was also very dangerous.

Memories that have a sense of adrenaline,

of danger, are stored in the amygdala,

the fight or flight center of the brain.

Even the original sense of fear, anticipation,

and suspense that we felt in that moment,

are going to be preserved and come flooding back to us

with all the vivid detail.

It was a hell of a ride, it was wild.

And I made some good friends along the way.

To build on the benefits of this trip

for my dad, I've arranged for us to meet

one of his old friends from his bull mustering days.

His name's Spencer and it's been 35 years since

they've seen each other.

Research shows us that reuniting with old friends

is uniquely protective against cognitive decline,

compared to talking to family because family members often

know our likes and dislikes.

They might speak for us, or they might complete our

sentences, whereas it's more of a workout for the brain

when we talk to old friends because we have to

remember distant information that we

don't access every single day.

Hey, Spencer.

Hello.

How are you?

G'day, mate, hello, how are you?

How you doing, Spence?

Good to see you, Craig, bloody, bloody hell!

Oh, mate, yeah!

It's been a long time, long time.

Look at you.

Like your old man.

Shall we sit down and have a chat, man?

Yeah, come on.

Bloody hell, 35 years, that is a,

that's a very long time, really, um...

Sure, sure.

You look good, you sound good.

Welcome home.

Thank you.

Yeah!

You guys mustered cattle together first, right?

And buffalo, yeah.

Everyone used to call him Chuck Norris then.

Yeah.

Craig was this crazy white man,

chasing all these buffalo around in the bush.

I remember one part, he just jumped out and grabbed

this buffalo by the tail and pulled him down,

and everyone was like,

'What? Look at this fella!

What he's doing? He's crazy!'

From then on, everyone started calling him Chuck Norris.

Alright, so how does this thing work?

How do you catch the buffalo?

Oh-oh!

Here we go.

Ready?

Ready.

Captured.

Captured and then release it.

Dare to pop my head just there?

Looks like a safe piece of equipment.

Oh!

And you're doing this, you're doing this at about

50, 60 kilometers an hour.

Exactly.

You guys are wild.

It's amazing watching them together

and, and seeing the connection they have and,

and the friendship they shared, and how immediate

and present it is, the moment they start talking.

Where was I sat?

Up here on the front?

I was, I was underneath, underneath here, yeah,

the dashboard, hiding.

I can see it in my dad's eyes and in Spencer's eyes,

how much they appreciate each other

and the time spent together.

So you don't muster cattle anymore.

You became a mechanic and that's what you do full-time?

Yeah, thanks to your dad.

He was like a brother figure to me.

Every time I need some advice,

I'll always ask Craig to help me out with it.

But he's been an inspiration to me to, to

become a mechanic.

The expertise from him has given me that choice,

to get a better future, get a better job.

He would do these things off his own initiative

and he'd mostly bring my tools back.

Yeah, I, I would.

There's still a couple

I've got to talk to him about.

You're a better student than I was.

Yeah.

Tried to show me some of the things with the car,

and none of it I took on board.

Waste of time.

Waste of time with me.

Yeah.

So, so Spencer would have been a teenager.

What are your memories of him?

As a teenager?

Yeah.

Um, you, do you remember him?

No, I'm saying, what, what were

your memories of Spencer?

With Spencer?

Um, he was a good fella, a good lad.

Um... you know, clever but yeah, no, a bright fella,

good, uh, and good, good, good person.

Um...

In the middle of this conversation with Spencer,

there's a moment where my dad becomes quite confused

about who he's talking to.

It's incredibly painful to witness and I want us to talk

about how he's feeling about what's happening,

but it's been hard to find the right moment.

You know, to see, you know, your dad who, um, who is...

who has been in control for so many years and

been in charge and, and now to see such vulnerability there...

I wanna take that from him now.

I wanna, I wanna help him figure it out.

But it's that sort of question mark and the,

the unknown, I think, that's really confronting.

Yeah...

On the outskirts of Bulman,

Spencer's got together some of Dad's other old mates for

a homecoming ceremony.

Oh, good, you guys made it.

Hey, how are ya?

Glad you made it.

Yeah, how are you?

Good to see you, Spence. Remember Ewan?

Hello mate, how are you? Ewan! Oh, yes, Ewan.

How are you? Are you alright?

- Glad you guys made it, yeah. - You guys look fantastic.

Yeah, we're gonna do a proper welcome.

The welcome is the spiritual ceremony.

The significance of that is to let the spirits know

that Chris and Craig are back.

There are certain sacred places in

the dreaming spots, that's just like, um,

blessing them back to the community.

And because we're spiritual people and it's our belief,

or our religion, you might as well say.

Thank you both for coming and now we're here

in this water, just thought I'd do us like a blessing.

- Thank you. - Thank you.

Both my dad and I feel incredibly privileged

to be welcomed in such a fashion.

Instantly, the sound of the bush and the smells

reignites these memories from my childhood.

It feels very comfortable, it feels very safe.

Immediately taken back to a time that everything seemed

far less complicated,

and to really feel like we're coming home

and we're a real part of that community.

Dad and I couldn't return to Bulman without Mum,

so she's flown in to join us.

Hello!

For Craig, he's coming back to a community that

embraced his family, so we're really tapping into

the power of social connections,

which is what Chris and I spoke about at the stadium.

I knew I'd see you.

Hello, how are you?

How you going?

Good.

It's about being part of this whole group of people.

He's still growing.

I'm still growing.

Every day, he gets a bit more.

A sense of trust and belonging which is so powerful,

that warm feeling of connection.

It's beautiful.

I just loved seeing the people again.

They still have this amazing capacity to open

their hearts to people and to welcome us as part of

their family and their community.

I think that's why it's stayed as such a strong

experience for all of us, is that sense of,

of being welcomed.

Hi! Here we go! Here we go! Oh!

Hello, how are you?

- Good. - Hello.

I was glad that Chris brought Mum and Dad back.

They just came in and just connected.

Yeah.

With Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris!

No, another Chuck Norris.

I don't know that he acted like Chuck Norris or

behaved like Chuck Norris.

I think he represented something mythical.

Any time anyone gives him sort of a compliment,

he kind of shrugs it off and says, "Ah yes."

He definitely didn't go, "That's right,"

you know, "Yeah!"

I mean, nobody looked at them as, you know, oh,

not indigenous or white folks, you know.

They, they were just blended in.

She used to take care of me...

- Yeah. - ...and make me damper.

- Yeah. - Is that right?

- Yeah, and keep you fed too. - That's right, you kept me fed.

Thank you.

Engaging with the wider community more actively

is key for someone living with dementia.

They give us an opportunity to do what we call social bridging.

Anything from volunteer work to joining a walking group,

or a singing group.

We see that people who do community activities

at least once a month have slower rates

of cognitive decline.

- Yeah. Yes. - Walk this way.

Yeah.

Unlike with family and friends,

social bridging works with our less close ties.

This kind of connection activates brain regions

involved in decoding speech, recalling faces,

and deciphering unfamiliar behavior.

Every part of the brain is firing.

As we walk around Bulman, it feels like pieces of a

puzzle being assembled.

So many memories that were fragmented and, and distant,

and now seeing different places

instantly bring those memories to life.

I remember spending a lot of time in this freezer

with, uh, one of my mates...

Yeah.

...and we used to come in, sneak into the freezer 'cause

it was the only cold place.

I remember that really well.

Yeah, this is it.

This is where I would hang out and eating all

the ice creams, chocolate bars.

Remember doing my homework just here and I think we have

a couple of photos of me asleep at my little school desk.

When I say homework, I was drawing some pictures.

Bulman had a huge impact for me,

particularly the relationships I think that we formed.

Lochlan!

I think there was a, a greater sense of

engagement for my dad.

- Good to see you! - Likewise, wow!

He was much more kind of comfortable and outspoken

by the end of this trip than he was at the beginning.

Fowler, good to see you!

You got the best seat in the house, this one.

Ooh!

You know, he's always been a very happy person,

but I think something was ignited in there.

It's a very special place for us.

It was home for a number of years, very much our home.

It was wonderful to reflect on those times.

It was wonderful, yeah.

Having a multi-sensory experience like being back

in Bulman is evoking a lot of emotions.

All the familiar streets, places, houses, people,

are triggers for these memories and every conversation

he has is a trigger for shared memories.

So this is reminiscence therapy at a supercharged level,

combined with the power of social connections.

It's a very strange paradox that dementia attacks

our connections and attacks our memories,

but it's those same connections that paradoxically

fight the disease.

It's far simpler than what I think

we set out searching for.

It's about showing up, it's about being there for

your family, your friends, your loved ones.

It's about connection.

For our last night in Bulman,

Dad and I are going to camp,

just the two of us and our rekindled memories.

Do you remember coming out to some of the out,

out stations on the motorbike...

Yeah.

...sitting on the tank in front of me?

I do, yeah.

Feet up on the handlebars.

Weaving in and out of the trees.

It's probably scare the hell out of me now

but at the time, it was...

Ah, no, it was all very responsible riding.

It was, and it was incredibly dangerous and

you instilled in me a daredevil,

high-risk-taking tendency.

I remember one occasion when you said,

'Go faster, go faster', and I got faster and faster

and I remember looking around to see how you were doing and

you were sitting there with your eyes rolling back, going,

'A-ha-ha!'

You were in ecstasy.

I went, "OK, there's a future racer in the Bulman."

It was very good.

Yeah.

Lots of fond memories.

Yeah.

This has been a really good journey for me to understand

my dad on a deeper level, and his past and his memories.

Well, give us a nudge if I fall asleep on you.

Yeah.

If you fall asleep the same way you fall asleep in my movies...

That's because we watch them 10 times.

But since talking with my mum,

I haven't really sort of asked him about his Alzheimer's

and as strange as it sounds, it's hard for me to ask those

questions and I think we, we have been avoiding it,

uh, just for our own sort of...

comfort, I guess.

Having, you know, being in early stages of Alzheimer's,

does it, what is your, your feelings about it all?

Is it something that scares you, or?

Um... yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, look, absolutely because, um, you know,

that whole notion of feeling that...

I guess I can't look after myself or be reliant upon

other people to make decisions for me, almost.

Some days things are quite clear and I can,

uh, make sense, and then some days it's not.

It's not so clear, it's not so, um...

you know, correct.

Unquestionably, there can be periods of darkness and

you've got to remind yourself, hang on a minute, you've,

uh, just been there, or just done that, or...

um, I forgot what I was, where I was going with that,

but a good example.

It's not over yet.

It inspires me to not miss a minute.

What are you, what are you afraid of?

Being a burden, is probably the,

the biggest issue, I think.

Um, and just losing contact with people.

You're not gonna be burden, mate.

We're all in it together.

We'll take care of you...

Just as you took care of us.

Mm.

I'm very thankful for the life,

the childhood that I had, the life you've...

Yeah.

...set up for us, you know.

I'd give you a hug if there wasn't a fire between us,

but unfortunately, we have to...

Come on.

It's a long-distance high five.

It's a challenge.

It's one that, you know, I'm not giving up on,

and I'm not asking for sympathy.

Understanding, but at the same time,

not making that onerous on people.

It would be nice to think that there's some benefit out

of sharing this for others who might be going through

the same experiences.

Every year, there are 10 million new cases of

dementia worldwide.

If someone close to you is living with dementia,

remember that there is a lot you can do by helping them

to stay mentally, physically, and socially active.

Encourage them to do group activities.

Use the power of reminiscence to rekindle old memories.

Empathy and understanding is the

most powerful treatment of all.

Before we leave Bulman, there's one last thing I wanna

do with my dad.

Alright, Dad, so, according to Mum,

this photograph was taken somewhere down here.

Any of it look familiar?

Little bit.

I think the home movie I've been making on

this trip will be great reminiscence

therapy in the future.

Memories.

So they've still got this rock.

This is it.

Do you remember jumping off this rock?

Yeah, I used to love coming here.

I remember, uh, being on your back and you swimming

me across the other side.

- Yesterday. - Yeah.

It's probably one of the most real memories that I have, is...

Yeah.

...is this place, and you kids growing up,

and we're back together.

Yeah, the best part's been you and I getting...

Yeah.

...to hang out for these, these few days...

- Yeah. - ...and.

So, I don't know if this grand piece of

reminiscence therapy will have a long-term effect.

I know in the short time, I definitely noticed that he

became more engaging and outspoken, more comfortable.

So, hopefully it continues on, but right now,

I feel so thankful for how I saw something

awaken within him.

I have him now, right here with me,

and hopefully I have him for many more years,

but ultimately, I don't know and I can't control that and,

and I just find myself just wanting to spend more

time with him and just appreciate every moment.

This is a photo, uh, a photo of me and my dad

and it's so funny because, uh, in my, uh,

the photo looks like me and...

makes me think of my own,

uh, my own kids... and how...

and how I look at them, you know?

And like I can see such love in that photograph

and, um, that's what I feel so lucky for, you know,

that I had someone and I still have someone who,

um, who, who just cared so much.

Love you, Dad.

Love you.

Love you, mate.