Original subtitles

Watch out for snakes, and scorpions, and spiders, eh?

Alright.

Where are we going?

Come on. You will see.

Oh, geez, come on.

You just need to be very careful.

This is the most difficult part here.

Alright, I'm up.

- You are following me? - Yeah.

This is exactly what I wanted to show you.

Oh, wow.

As a San Bushman, this place is very special

to me and my people.

That's amazing.

I set out with a mission to go pole to pole

and uncover the secrets at our planet's extremes.

And I've discovered most from the people who live there.

My ancestors drew over 4,000 rock paintings here.

We are looking at images which are over 30,000 years old.

That's magnificent.

So now, I've come to meet a group

whose ancestors were around when woolly mammoths

and saber-toothed tigers roamed the Earth.

So, what do you see when you look at this?

This is a picture of how the San used to live.

Over there, on top,

these are the animals we all lived with.

Elephant. Giraffes.

-Mm-hmm. -This is a group of men dancing.

A woman carrying a baby.

And seeing these handprints, I feel connected to my ancestors.

So, this is the story of my people.

That's what they've put up here for us,

the younger generation, to come and witness this.

-Yeah. -Very important to our culture.

That's amazing.

The San are the first inhabitants of southern Africa.

We are one of the oldest populations on the planet.

The San are pretty impressive.

That's quite a lifespan.

When I think about successful people,

I picture Olympic athletes or entrepreneurs.

But if endurance is your measure,

the San are some of the most successful people

to ever walk the Earth.

I want to find out the secret to their success.

On the penultimate trip of my Pole to Pole journey,

I've come to southern Africa,

to one of the most extreme environments on Earth.

The Kalahari.

So, where exactly are we headed?

We are heading to go and see the Nharo San,

the original hunter-gatherers.

Got it.

How similar to how you grew up is what we're going to see?

Exactly the same.

I was born under a tree.

I grew up with my parents as a nomadic child,

as a hunter-gatherer.

We were on the move constantly, looking for food, foraging.

Some days, I went easily like a week with no proper food.

We had pet scorpions when we were growing up.

We used to make them fight.

Living in the Kalahari is hardcore. It's not for everyone.

It seems like the desert would be a hard place to live, you know.

It's not always easy.

You have to really work hard for your food,

and you have to save it, if there's a need to.

Yeah.

As far as the eye could see,

it's just barren.

The Kalahari Desert means "the great thirst,"

"the waterless place,"

and that's about right.

It just seems brutal to try to live there.

Yeah, it seems very difficult.

But the San people know the land.

-Yeah. -So, I will teach you...

-Yep. Yep. -...what to hunt,

what to gather, and how to stay safe.

-Yeah. -I am setting you a challenge,

that we only eat what we find in the bush today.

Alright, only eat what we find.

- Yeah. - Eat off the land.

Yeah. If you are happy with that.

I trust you.

I don't cook. Never been hunting.

I don't know what I would do

if I had to, like, kill my food.

We just gonna eat vegetables.

Hey.

-Hey. Qoma. -Qoma. Will.

-Jarama -Jarama?

-Hey. -Okay.

It's the click.

Bang.

Welcome!

Thank you, thank you.

We didn't ask him his name.

Will. Will Smith.

He has a difficult name.

Nobody can say Will Smith?

Oh, man.

Will, there's the different clans of the San.

These guys, they are the Nharo.

-I am Bukakhwe. -Bukakhwe.

I want you to meet Qhuikhao.

Qhuikhao, it's a pleasure for me to be here.

From where I come from, this seems like a hard life.

Does it feel like a hard way to live for everyone?

There is food in the bush.

Sometimes we struggle to find food and to survive

but other days we thrive.

If we find food, we share with everybody so that we all survive.

This is what gives us life.

Yeah, that's beautiful.

My name is Qhuikhao.

My father's name is Qoma.

I have a big family.

I have six children.

I'm a grandfather.

We forage and find food from the bush

as well as meat from animals.

It is a lot of work

but we have a good life in the bush.

If I had to learn how to survive out here,

could you teach me?

Show us your hands.

My hands?

No, they're-- yeah, yeah, it's very soft.

It's funny, they asked to see my hands and feet.

You know, that's not normally something I get asked to show.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah, that's not-- that's not good.

Yeah, that's not good.

Look at that.

They're like, "aw!" They're like, "That's a useless foot."

Look at that soft foot.

It's like he has never stepped on sand.

I don't do bare feet.

I keep my socks on on the beach.

He said, "You gotta rub that in the sand. You gotta rub..."

I'm not gonna make it. I'm not gonna make it.

I have soft, non-survival feet.

They're not Kalahari-ready.

Oh, that's bad.

But these are the only feet I got,

so you're gonna have to teach me how to survive.

So, Qhuikhao, is there some, you know, beautiful secret

about your way of life?

Yes.

I will teach you.

Alright, so I-- are we-- ready to begin my education?

- Let's go, eh? - Alright.

I might need my walking stick.

Looking around, it's crazy.

No cars, no phones, no tech developed in the last century.

We're heading into the bush to hunt dinner

for a whole village with nothing but a couple of sticks.

I just can't see how that's gonna work.

There we go, see?

That's part of why I wouldn't be good out here.

Just a little bit too tall.

Yeah.

We the San are very short people, huh?

Yeah.

I've never been hunting.

One time, I guess I was probably 22,

and, uh, Quincy Jones took me fishing.

I caught the fish, I was like, "Oh, wow, this is amazing!"

It goes down, and Quincy dropped a rock on it.

I was like...

Oh, they just walking through the bushes?

Those things are sharp.

-This is how you use that, Will. -Oh, that's how you--

Ah, got it, use the stick to put-- okay.

I'm just-- I'm-- I'm not that dude.

Yeah.

It doesn't look like there's any food whatsoever out here.

The Kalahari is a tough place to live.

It is the largest unbroken stretch of sand on the planet.

It becomes so hot, it can get up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

The dust can be so strong,

that you can't even see the next person next to you.

You can't even see.

We need knowledge, and experience, and skills

to know where to find food.

Stop.

Stop.

So, there are lots of tracks here. Lots of tracks, they've been here.

The sand is like a newspaper to us.

It tells us who walked here and how long ago.

Kudu.

Let's go quietly in to make the kill.

This is my first hunt, so I wanna know exactly to do this.

You use the wind direction.

The wind is top of the range.

-Alright, so I see this. -Yeah, get that.

Yes, so which way the wind is blowing.

-Wind is going that way. -Yes.

You have to be downwind all the time.

Downwind, got it, got it, got it.

So that animals don't smell you.

-Got it. -When you are using a bow and arrow,

you have to be like 20 meter...

-Mm-hmm? -...to shoot.

Hunting without modern weapons relies on stealth.

You can only get close enough if you are totally in tune

with everything around you.

Qhuikhao is an excellent tracker.

My father taught me to start tracking

and the importance of using all your senses.

Those are kudus. A young male with three females.

I'm still glad I have shoes on though.

This is-- this would be a rough hunt with no shoes on.

The quieter you go, the better for your hunt.

They saw us.

You were making noise.

Ohh.

Yeah, you're making too much.

He's looking over here.

I messed it up, and, uh, Qhuikhao looked at me

like I was keeping us from eatin'.

That kudu could have fed Qhuikhao's whole family

for a week.

That's a scary prospect,

that there's no guarantee of food out here.

Will, we are hunter-gatherer.

- We have to keep going. - Keep going.

- Until we find food. - Yeah.

My first lesson is, life out here is tough.

You need resilience, adaptability,

and above all, persistence.

The San have lived here over 100,000 years.

In that time, this place has changed enormously.

There has been volcanic eruptions...

heavy droughts, giant earthquakes,

and enormous sea level changes.

But the San have stayed and adapted

to every single pressure they had.

It's endurance on a whole new level.

Will, in nature you have to earn your food.

It's not always easy, but you will always find something,

if you know where to look.

- Okay. - Yes.

Alright, I'm gonna tune in a little bit.

Help me see the secrets.

First, you have to learn how you put your feet on the ground.

Humans have been touching the ground with bare feet

for millions of years.

It's important to be barefoot. You get connected to nature.

Mm, got it. Okay.

Animals hear you when you're wearing shoes.

When you're barefoot you blend better.

The first time I put on shoes

I felt like I couldn't walk they were so heavy.

Qhuikhao told me when I walk barefoot,

I can feel what's moving a half-mile from here.

That's a very powerful idea.

Now, we all have feet.

But for the San, they're not just a way to move,

but a precision tool to sense the world around them.

Almost like plugging in to the Earth to feel what's happening more effectively.

Stop.

You must stop.

Guinea fowl tracks.

These guinea fowl tracks are still very fresh.

We know they are headed that direction.

Let's set a trap.

Alright, so they need to snatch that out?

- Mm-hmm. - Oh, so hold on, so I--

let me see, see how it's looking.

Ooh!

That was interesting,

'cause she was like, sizing me up to see if I would be any help at all.

This is all bent.

I'm gonna let them. I'm think I'm gonna let them.

Yeah, yeah.

That woman walked up and got that thing

out of there so fast.

It was the African equivalent of,

"Move out the way, boy, you don't know what you're doing."

So, I did, and she handled it, thank God.

So, Qhuikhao, what are you making?

You tie a rope to set a trap and catch the guinea fowl.

Mm-hmm.

You get a stick this size

and put it here to hold the trigger in place.

I have no idea how that's gonna work.

You don't just put a trap anywhere.

- Yeah, yeah. - You have to see

in what they are digging, and you use that as the bait.

Yeah. Yeah, it's wild.

It's such intricate knowledge and understanding.

I remember doing a lot of these growing up.

I made my first trap when I was about five years old.

My father was my mentor.

I want to teach our children our ways.

If I die they must know how to survive in the bush.

In San, survival is not for today or tomorrow,

it's for the future.

Passing knowledge to the younger generations is key.

My great-grandmother used to say

"Bought sense is better than that you borrow,"

meaning, the things that you learn through actual experience,

that kind of knowledge is really powerful,

and the comforts of the city have kind of broken

that basic simplicity in the transfer of knowledge.

That's very cool.

In the modern world, people think success

is having all those fast cars and big houses.

But in Qhuikhao's world,

success means understanding the environment.

It's more about knowledge, teaching the youngsters,

passing on the knowledge to them.

They are going to set traps all around here.

We can come and check the traps in the afternoon,

just in case one of the traps has caught something.

That's amazing.

Yeah, if it was up to me, we wouldn't be eating tonight.

Yeah, trying to-- trying to get some food

is a-- is an all-day gig.

It's like an oven out here right now.

At least the bird'll already be cooked if we catch it.

You look like you are thirsty, Will.

Water?

Yeah. Definitely.

He could see my lips were all dry.

Oh, can I help with that?

Sorry. Help with the dig-out?

- Yeah. - Alright. Ouch.

If you are not resourceful, to be able to store water

in the Kalahari, you're going to die.

Water is gold in the Kalahari.

It can be up to eight months without rain.

When the rains come...

the water is soaked up by the Kalahari's sands.

Animals can trek over 300 miles in search of a drink,

but we have the secrets to overcome this.

We store water in the ostrich eggshell

-and bury it for later. -Wow.

That's fantastic.

The hardest problem,

solved with the most ingenious, simple solution.

I've never seen anything like that before.

One that probably worked just as well 100,000 years ago as it does today.

That's amazing.

That's amazing.

Yeah, yeah.

That's fantastic.

This will be our meal. It will be your meal tonight, eh?

- Wow. - Yeah.

Like, that counts as like a good score for today.

That's a very, very good score.

That will-- makes me happy.

That also makes them happy.

It's an achievement. We have got something to eat.

That's enough for how many people?

Depends on our numbers.

-Everyone should have a piece. -Mm-hmm.

But at least we have a meal to share.

Alright. Whee!

For you to survive as a hunter-gatherer,

you have to share what you have with one another.

As a child, there was times where I was very hungry

and I was very thirsty.

There was also times when I thought we are going to die,

you know, because there's nothing.

Kalahari taught the San to be cooperative,

to be caring to one another.

When you take everything away, all of the modern comforts,

and you-- you get down to the basics of human survival,

things just get really simple and really clear,

how much we actually need each other.

It's not different in New York, you know. You need each other just as much.

It just feels like you don't.

Yeah, "all for one, and one for all,"

is a-- is a real idea in the Kalahari.

As many pieces of chicken and turkey

that I've eat-- I've never seen this process before.

Mm.

Wow.

Yeah, I'm a city boy. I can see that right now.

I think I would be in charge of entertainment.

If you all go hunt, you know, and you all can prepare the food, and...

Oh, man.

I got some matches in my bag.

You have other ways of making fire.

You run out of matches.

Well, this one, you'd never run out.

Mm-hmm.

Oh, and you take turns, yeah.

Alright, hold up. Hold up.

We give it...

Oh, damn.

-Alright. Ah! -Ah!

The tip broke off.

- Alright-- Oh! Okay. - Ohh!

Alright, you got it, you got it. You got it.

Oh, look at that. Look at it.

Oh, oh, there you go.

We not got a fire yet, because of me, yeah.

There it is, there it is.

Wow.

That's just an ember in there.

That's fantastic.

Come on, man, come on, come on.

Wow.

Yeah. Yes.

I am in awe of Qhuikhao's ability to just conjure life in this landscape.

Wow.

We walked into the bush holding nothing but a few sticks,

and by the end of the day, we were cooking a full dinner.

Survival is not about the possessions you own.

It's about what you know.

There's a self-reliance that develops where you really know you can make it,

no matter what, you know. One of the reasons

they're the longest-surviving group on Earth

is because of that resilience.

It's such a different way to live,

and one that's barely left a mark on the planet

for all of those years.

That was a-- a new kind of revelation for me.

I grew up in this lifestyle.

- Mm-hmm, yeah. - You find food, and you survive.

-Mm-hmm. -You see your family,

you see your grandkids, you teach them how to survive.

But the truth is, hunter-gatherer populations

are in dramatic decline across the world.

This could be the last generation of San...

-Mm-hmm. -...to still live in the Kalahari.

Life in the bush used to be good

but a lot of changes have happened.

We are struggling and aren't allowed to hunt

because it is not our land anymore.

Now our children have to go to town and attend school.

We would like to be free to live our culture

and teach our children our ways.

These changes are happening so fast that my younger brothers,

they did not get the last bit

of the raw hunter-gatherer lifestyle I had.

Now, I live in a town.

I'm a man that crosses two worlds.

When I start talking about my origin, I can see myself.

Remembering the best moment I've had.

My parents, I thought they were poor.

But as I've grown up, I just sit and realize

they were able to give us food and give us protection,

without having nothing.

Now, I realize my parents were rich of knowledge.

Eat.

Eat this.

Taste it.

-That's too much? Cheers. -Cheers.

To live, you don't need many things.

You have to judge between your wants and your needs.

It's really nice to sit and watch the San people,

and the love they share with the little they have.

It'd be a real tragedy if, uh, the cave paintings

were all that remained of this.

You know, as life moves forward,

and things change, and progress is inevitable,

you know, the question is,

how do we maintain the knowledge and wisdom

of the ages?

Wow.

We're not going to go back to being hunter-gatherers.

That's amazing.

But spending time with the San

made me think again about the history we tell ourselves.

- Thank you, thank you. - You're welcome.

The Egyptians built towering pyramids.

The Romans laid the foundations for great cities.

And our modern machines mean we can now reach

beyond the sky.

But alongside that,

there is also a deep history of people

successfully living with our planet,

rather than trying to conquer it.

Those of us who live in concrete jungles,

what is the idea that we're missing?

Humans are not separate from nature.

We are nature.

That is the secret of all the San.

Yeah.

-Ah, bring it in. -Yeah.

Now, this is a real moment.

North Pole is just ahead of us.

The ambition of the entire journey is gigantic.

-Ooh! Ooh. -Ooh, that was a big one.

This could be a breakthrough

for climate change.

How can you not be all in?

There's no way this is a good idea.

Come on, Will. Come on, Will.

If somebody offered me that script as a movie,

I mean, like, come on, man. Come on, really?

Three, two, one.

- You send that to Matt Damon. - Go.