1 00:00:07,150 --> 00:00:08,630 It's a no man's land. 2 00:00:08,850 --> 00:00:10,470 A complete wilderness. 3 00:00:10,850 --> 00:00:13,490 I was hunting really rare orchids. 4 00:00:13,910 --> 00:00:15,930 Then things started to go wrong. 5 00:00:18,030 --> 00:00:20,030 I'm looking down the barrel of a gun. 6 00:00:20,650 --> 00:00:21,850 We're in trouble here. 7 00:00:22,330 --> 00:00:24,210 This is a kidnap situation. 8 00:00:25,230 --> 00:00:27,790 We want five million dollars. 9 00:00:30,030 --> 00:00:35,030 That's when I realized we'd completely lost control. 10 00:00:36,110 --> 00:00:41,990 They will shout, I will blow their heads off. You have to escape. 11 00:01:09,520 --> 00:01:11,100 I was 23 years old. 12 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:14,260 I was backpacking into Central America. 13 00:01:16,960 --> 00:01:21,940 It was a honeypot, I was told, for orchids, my favourite family of flowers. 14 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:25,320 There's something about the orchids. 15 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:30,220 There's something about their erotic, exotic flowers. 16 00:01:30,940 --> 00:01:33,340 They're just orgasmic, basically. 17 00:01:38,350 --> 00:01:43,330 When I first met Tom, he was going off in lots of different Latin names which I 18 00:01:43,330 --> 00:01:44,330 didn't understand. 19 00:01:44,410 --> 00:01:49,450 At first I thought he was completely barking. 20 00:01:51,470 --> 00:01:56,470 I just thought, wow, he's very enthusiastic and full of life. 21 00:01:57,800 --> 00:02:01,940 I thought, you know, if he was mad of a box of frogs, then he might be 22 00:02:01,940 --> 00:02:03,880 interested in going backpacking with me. 23 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:05,840 Do you know a place called the Darien Gap? 24 00:02:06,040 --> 00:02:10,380 There's a highway that runs from the top of North America all the way down to 25 00:02:10,380 --> 00:02:14,040 the bottom of South America, but there's only one gap in it, and that's the 26 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:15,040 Darien Gap. 27 00:02:27,150 --> 00:02:28,630 Look, let me show my guidebook. 28 00:02:29,170 --> 00:02:33,130 Out came the guidebooks, and I thought, this place is bloody brilliant. 29 00:02:33,530 --> 00:02:37,610 There was something mystical and magical about it. It was a magnetic drawer. 30 00:02:38,190 --> 00:02:42,390 I mean, it mentions orchids straight away. And they even mention orchids in 31 00:02:42,390 --> 00:02:43,390 guidebook. 32 00:02:43,850 --> 00:02:45,810 And bang, I was in love with it. 33 00:02:46,390 --> 00:02:49,410 Yeah, let's do it. I was telling him when to go. 34 00:02:50,030 --> 00:02:55,770 I didn't realise it changed my life forever. 35 00:03:00,140 --> 00:03:04,960 From Panama City, we planned to take a bus to the last town on the Panamanian 36 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:06,260 Highway, which was Yviva. 37 00:03:07,340 --> 00:03:12,800 Yviva is where the Pan American Highway stops and the Darien Gap proper starts. 38 00:03:21,580 --> 00:03:22,740 We got off the bus. 39 00:03:23,220 --> 00:03:28,620 We were accosted by two military personnel with big guns. 40 00:03:29,800 --> 00:03:31,400 We didn't know what was going to happen next. 41 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:34,160 Come with me. 42 00:03:38,620 --> 00:03:43,800 They took us to the Panamanian army base and we met the Comandante there. 43 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:49,620 The Comandante was sitting in a chair with a revolver on the deck. 44 00:03:51,280 --> 00:03:52,720 What are you doing here? 45 00:03:53,260 --> 00:03:58,860 We told him that we were attempting to cross the Darien Gap into Colombia. 46 00:04:01,370 --> 00:04:05,010 And he said, you know, this place is dangerous. 47 00:04:05,710 --> 00:04:09,330 He kept repeating, muy peligroso, it's very dangerous. 48 00:04:10,350 --> 00:04:14,250 He said the civil war in Colombia was still very intense. 49 00:04:14,810 --> 00:04:16,410 There was a big drugs problem. 50 00:04:18,370 --> 00:04:24,030 I thought we could just play the innocent tourist. We're looking for 51 00:04:24,030 --> 00:04:25,410 do us any harm? 52 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:38,060 He said you can cross, but we will take no responsibility for that, 53 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:41,300 and people do get killed in this area in recent years. 54 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:45,360 We weren't listening, no. 55 00:04:47,040 --> 00:04:48,040 Very naive. 56 00:05:04,560 --> 00:05:06,900 The next destination was the village of Paya. 57 00:05:08,260 --> 00:05:13,980 It is the last village left in the Darien Gap before you cross the border 58 00:05:13,980 --> 00:05:14,980 Colombia. 59 00:05:16,740 --> 00:05:21,740 One of the biggest fears I had was becoming lost and disorientated in the 60 00:05:21,740 --> 00:05:22,740 jungle. 61 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:27,760 I really wanted to find someone to guide us and show us the way. 62 00:05:29,100 --> 00:05:35,000 If we didn't get the guides in pile, Paul was adamant about it. We were going 63 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:36,160 back. End of story. 64 00:05:39,260 --> 00:05:42,040 We are looking for guides to go to Colombia. 65 00:05:43,060 --> 00:05:46,780 He recommended two guides. 66 00:05:47,260 --> 00:05:53,140 We met this guy called Carlos. 67 00:05:53,660 --> 00:05:57,320 He said, we can take you to Colombia, I can be your guide. We are providing you 68 00:05:57,320 --> 00:05:58,320 all food. 69 00:05:58,780 --> 00:06:01,400 And he seemed genuine and friendly enough. 70 00:06:01,880 --> 00:06:06,740 And we agreed, $50 a day, and it would take roughly three or four days. 71 00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:08,000 I'm going. 72 00:06:11,860 --> 00:06:15,900 The whole thing had gathered a momentum that almost became unstoppable. 73 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:22,260 We left Paya heading for Colombia. 74 00:06:22,760 --> 00:06:25,900 We went straight into the primary rainforest. 75 00:06:28,340 --> 00:06:35,300 We ascended hundreds and hundreds of feet, almost vertical, back into 76 00:06:35,300 --> 00:06:36,300 heaven to me. 77 00:06:38,600 --> 00:06:42,520 The rainforest just surrounded us, covered us. 78 00:06:44,140 --> 00:06:48,420 As we went higher and higher, orchids started to just cover the trees. 79 00:06:50,340 --> 00:06:51,940 They were dripping from them. 80 00:06:52,280 --> 00:06:56,840 i began to have a breakdown i couldn't control myself 81 00:06:56,840 --> 00:07:05,840 suddenly 82 00:07:05,840 --> 00:07:07,260 we saw this craft 83 00:07:07,260 --> 00:07:15,520 really 84 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:19,880 shook us that actually we thought what's that for is it a body what is it 85 00:07:21,640 --> 00:07:24,640 We took that as someone who had a nasty end. 86 00:07:27,580 --> 00:07:32,460 We should have said, look, let's stop this. Let's go. Let's get back. 87 00:07:33,540 --> 00:07:36,860 But neither of us had the courage to say that to the other. 88 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:58,480 After a couple of days of walking in the rainforest, we were right in this no 89 00:07:58,480 --> 00:07:59,480 -man's land. 90 00:08:00,280 --> 00:08:02,460 We're in this very dangerous area now. 91 00:08:03,420 --> 00:08:04,420 This is it. 92 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:10,940 We walked into this funny clearing, as if it was like a trap or something. It 93 00:08:10,940 --> 00:08:11,940 was very strange. 94 00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:16,220 And it was weird what happened next. 95 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:25,100 There was this huge commotion. 96 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,900 We just fell to the floor. 97 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:32,760 There was a guy in front of me shouting. 98 00:08:33,679 --> 00:08:36,960 I didn't understand him very well, but I knew what he was saying. 99 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:38,700 Just hands on your head. 100 00:08:41,760 --> 00:08:44,080 God, this is it. They're going to just take what they want. 101 00:08:46,860 --> 00:08:47,860 And then shoots us. 102 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:51,880 Paul was like a ghost. I looked across to see him. 103 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:53,920 Just staring ahead of him. 104 00:08:56,440 --> 00:08:59,540 These two blokes were seriously aggressive. 105 00:09:01,660 --> 00:09:03,660 We, of course, were absolutely frozen. 106 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:07,740 You know, I'm looking down the barrel of a gun. 107 00:09:08,940 --> 00:09:14,960 And behind that barrel, an angry, aggressive stranger. 108 00:09:19,210 --> 00:09:20,650 And it was all over in a flash. 109 00:09:20,930 --> 00:09:22,870 Absolutely kind of boom, boom, boom. 110 00:09:23,450 --> 00:09:24,450 Gone. 111 00:09:26,650 --> 00:09:29,490 We marched to our feet very aggressively. 112 00:09:30,790 --> 00:09:33,090 And marched back the way we had come. 113 00:09:35,190 --> 00:09:38,110 We could just see our guide being taken away. 114 00:09:39,090 --> 00:09:42,730 We don't know to this day exactly what happened to the guide. 115 00:09:43,010 --> 00:09:47,890 But the last time that we ever saw... That. 116 00:09:49,550 --> 00:09:55,330 When I realised, really properly, that we'd completely lost control. 117 00:09:59,830 --> 00:10:03,590 They took us to a dilapidated camp. 118 00:10:04,090 --> 00:10:06,470 Compañeros, tenemos huéspedes. 119 00:10:07,270 --> 00:10:09,550 There was some kind of lean -to's. 120 00:10:10,390 --> 00:10:12,210 They said, this is where you'll stay. 121 00:10:13,490 --> 00:10:17,470 We actually thought, no, we really are in trouble here. 122 00:10:18,990 --> 00:10:20,510 This is a kidnap situation. 123 00:10:25,270 --> 00:10:27,350 We made a series of errors of judgement. 124 00:10:28,710 --> 00:10:29,810 We should have done that. 125 00:10:30,770 --> 00:10:31,770 But we didn't. 126 00:10:39,570 --> 00:10:44,610 One of the most powerful feelings I had was one of guilt. 127 00:10:45,310 --> 00:10:48,050 In a way, it was my idea to cross the Darien Gap. 128 00:10:48,990 --> 00:10:53,590 I mean, he was enthusiastic and really kind of, come on, let's do it. 129 00:10:54,250 --> 00:10:58,330 But still, it was kind of, maybe it's me who's planted the seed in his brain for 130 00:10:58,330 --> 00:10:59,330 doing it. 131 00:11:03,090 --> 00:11:05,490 That guilt feeling was magnified. 132 00:11:06,010 --> 00:11:09,870 Your parents, people you loved, your family and friends, you're thinking, 133 00:11:09,870 --> 00:11:15,190 stupid thing to have done. And if we die here, they'll never find us and they'll 134 00:11:15,190 --> 00:11:16,670 never know what happened to us. 135 00:11:20,560 --> 00:11:22,080 It's not just me having an adventure. 136 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:30,460 I'm involving... Yeah, I was involving people that I love in 137 00:11:30,460 --> 00:11:35,400 a situation that was just a series of errors of judgment. 138 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:58,120 Two days later, we're interrogated by the commandante, the guy that we called 139 00:11:58,120 --> 00:11:59,120 Smith. 140 00:12:00,660 --> 00:12:06,360 He got his notepad out and just went through our name, addresses, what our 141 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:07,500 occupations were. 142 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:12,540 So I said, I'm a gardener. 143 00:12:15,080 --> 00:12:17,120 And what about Paul? 144 00:12:18,100 --> 00:12:19,340 I don't know what you do. 145 00:12:20,020 --> 00:12:21,140 Tom, I work in a bank. 146 00:12:21,560 --> 00:12:23,520 And he said, well, I work in a bank, Tom. 147 00:12:27,160 --> 00:12:28,160 Bunker. 148 00:12:28,540 --> 00:12:30,080 And you put banker. 149 00:12:31,020 --> 00:12:32,740 And he underlined banker. 150 00:12:35,960 --> 00:12:36,960 Ka -ching. 151 00:12:38,160 --> 00:12:42,920 I said it, but then I thought, why did I admit that? 152 00:12:43,540 --> 00:12:46,160 We shouldn't have said that. 153 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:49,360 Anything but bank. 154 00:12:49,820 --> 00:12:50,820 Anything. 155 00:12:57,680 --> 00:12:59,300 Now the atmosphere had changed. 156 00:13:01,260 --> 00:13:03,620 I felt there must have been something brewing. 157 00:13:05,060 --> 00:13:06,060 Mr. Smith. 158 00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,460 Tom. Came along and said, I want a word with you, Tom. 159 00:13:09,680 --> 00:13:10,680 Right now. Go. 160 00:13:11,180 --> 00:13:12,700 Come over to the top of the camp. 161 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:22,100 I was shaking away, trying to stay focused, not knowing what the hell he 162 00:13:22,100 --> 00:13:23,100 going to say. 163 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:30,660 You want to go home and see all your family and friends? 164 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:34,920 Well, yeah. Yeah, well, of course, you know. 165 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:39,820 And he said... We want three million dollars for your freedom. 166 00:13:42,500 --> 00:13:44,020 Three million dollars? 167 00:13:45,740 --> 00:13:47,560 Inside you're thinking, holy smoke. 168 00:13:48,340 --> 00:13:50,300 Three million dollars isn't just going to appear. 169 00:13:52,500 --> 00:13:53,820 It's not going to happen. 170 00:13:58,440 --> 00:14:01,160 And he said, in blunter terms as possible, 171 00:14:02,100 --> 00:14:03,380 Paul will stay here. 172 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:05,980 Paul stays here. 173 00:14:06,480 --> 00:14:11,380 You go home and get the money from England. 174 00:14:13,500 --> 00:14:15,460 Didn't expect that at all. 175 00:14:15,780 --> 00:14:17,060 You have two weeks. 176 00:14:22,660 --> 00:14:25,060 I was completely confused. 177 00:14:26,659 --> 00:14:27,960 Your freedom is there. 178 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:29,720 You could go. 179 00:14:33,300 --> 00:14:36,580 That's it. The whole situation is over. You could be free. 180 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,140 But Paul won't be. He'll be still here. 181 00:14:44,100 --> 00:14:45,100 What did he want? 182 00:14:47,460 --> 00:14:50,460 They want me to go home and get three million dollars in cash. 183 00:14:53,940 --> 00:14:55,360 Tom will collect the money. 184 00:14:56,360 --> 00:14:57,920 From friends and family. 185 00:14:59,880 --> 00:15:01,180 Come back to the jungle. 186 00:15:03,060 --> 00:15:05,480 And then hand over the cash and I'm free to go. 187 00:15:08,660 --> 00:15:10,120 My hair's on the back of my neck. 188 00:15:11,220 --> 00:15:12,220 I thought, 189 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:17,800 well, I'm going to be left behind, aren't I? 190 00:15:22,300 --> 00:15:24,140 And I felt, you know, isolated. 191 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:25,960 Fire up. 192 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:31,920 Tom. Paul, in concrete terms. There was no hesitation. 193 00:15:32,500 --> 00:15:34,460 Tom, it's not going to happen. 194 00:15:34,920 --> 00:15:36,260 Whoever stays here is dead. 195 00:15:36,580 --> 00:15:40,340 The person who stays here is going to die. End of story. 196 00:15:41,700 --> 00:15:42,780 You've got to go back. 197 00:15:43,660 --> 00:15:44,940 And you've got to tell him no. 198 00:15:45,820 --> 00:15:51,100 As he started to talk through more clearly his reasoning, he was absolutely 199 00:15:51,100 --> 00:15:52,100 right. 200 00:15:53,480 --> 00:15:54,480 We agreed. 201 00:15:55,060 --> 00:15:56,060 We're in it together. 202 00:15:56,560 --> 00:15:57,940 We're going to get out of it together. 203 00:15:58,440 --> 00:15:59,520 We'll take them all on. 204 00:16:02,860 --> 00:16:06,980 But, bloody hell, you know, I was absolutely petrified. 205 00:16:13,240 --> 00:16:14,420 It's not going to happen, your plan. 206 00:16:17,400 --> 00:16:19,380 We haven't got three million dollars, we're staying here. 207 00:16:20,860 --> 00:16:22,340 We are staying here together. 208 00:16:22,810 --> 00:16:26,310 And that's the end of it. One person's not going home or leaving. 209 00:16:28,310 --> 00:16:30,070 But they were starting to get annoyed. 210 00:16:31,670 --> 00:16:34,230 You will stay in these woods forever. 211 00:16:35,090 --> 00:16:38,750 That, to me, was... They're going to shoot us. 212 00:16:56,400 --> 00:16:58,880 It had been, you know, three or so weeks now. 213 00:17:00,100 --> 00:17:04,680 And I thought, we're in trouble here, because when they realise that their 214 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:07,760 plan's gone wrong, they're only going to blame us and just shoot us for that 215 00:17:07,760 --> 00:17:08,760 reason. 216 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:16,240 So we were trying to find ways to humanise them, to try and get a good, 217 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:17,260 reaction from them. 218 00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:23,960 And one particularly key moment was with Mr Smith. We tried to invite him to 219 00:17:23,960 --> 00:17:24,960 play cards. 220 00:17:25,990 --> 00:17:26,990 Beggar, my neighbour? 221 00:17:28,030 --> 00:17:29,850 We played a game called Beggar, my neighbour. 222 00:17:30,310 --> 00:17:33,470 At the end of the game, the person with all the cards is the winner. 223 00:17:33,750 --> 00:17:35,130 It's a game of complete charm. 224 00:17:35,710 --> 00:17:38,850 Once the cards are dealt, there's no skill to it. 225 00:17:40,370 --> 00:17:44,070 For the first ten minutes, me and Paul, we were winning everything in sight. 226 00:17:45,410 --> 00:17:50,770 We held all the cards, we had all the big strong jacks, we had the queens, the 227 00:17:50,770 --> 00:17:51,770 kings and the aces. 228 00:17:54,700 --> 00:17:55,880 I looked at Mr Smith. 229 00:17:57,220 --> 00:18:00,620 He was really pretty annoyed at this stage. 230 00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:05,440 It was a very dodgy situation to be in. 231 00:18:05,860 --> 00:18:08,060 There were guns strapped to the side of the table. 232 00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:10,240 He had a revolver in his pocket. 233 00:18:10,820 --> 00:18:12,080 There were guns everywhere. 234 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:23,860 But whatever combination of cards we put down, they lost all the time. 235 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:32,400 Mr. Smith was standing up and looking around with a love face he was losing 236 00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:33,400 here. 237 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:39,340 We flashed a little bit of eye contact, but it was quite clear that we were 238 00:18:39,340 --> 00:18:45,100 both, like, absolutely kind of bricking it, really nervous. 239 00:18:48,100 --> 00:18:52,620 We were sort of thinking, you know, well, we're going to get shot here for 240 00:18:52,620 --> 00:18:54,060 winning this game of cards. 241 00:18:59,400 --> 00:19:00,400 Deal again. 242 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:02,620 Go, go, deal again. 243 00:19:06,720 --> 00:19:10,460 This is the last chance we've got to get him to win. 244 00:19:11,980 --> 00:19:18,500 So I was kind of deliberately kind of shuffling my card to try and make sure 245 00:19:18,500 --> 00:19:21,060 that I was going to be a loser. 246 00:19:35,760 --> 00:19:37,220 He had almost won. 247 00:19:40,140 --> 00:19:42,260 And I played my cards. 248 00:19:52,140 --> 00:19:54,180 Finally, he'd won. 249 00:19:57,860 --> 00:19:58,860 I went. 250 00:20:02,720 --> 00:20:05,000 That was a clear -cut moment when we were taught. 251 00:20:05,370 --> 00:20:09,850 No more kind of playing card game. It's too dangerous. 252 00:20:10,190 --> 00:20:11,190 Hey, Bilbo. 253 00:20:11,550 --> 00:20:12,550 Get out. 254 00:20:13,270 --> 00:20:14,690 Go back to the hut. 255 00:20:15,950 --> 00:20:21,650 They clearly had complete control and complete power on the situation. 256 00:20:25,190 --> 00:20:31,530 The big boss arrived six weeks exactly into our ordeal. 257 00:20:37,100 --> 00:20:42,500 He was considered to be the general, the highest commandante of the group, and 258 00:20:42,500 --> 00:20:44,720 he was coming to sort the whole thing out. 259 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:49,900 The minute he turned up, we knew he was trouble. 260 00:20:51,820 --> 00:20:54,720 We just knew it, and we named him Trouble Ahead. 261 00:20:57,700 --> 00:20:58,940 It was an apt name. 262 00:21:04,680 --> 00:21:05,680 Who is some? 263 00:21:08,040 --> 00:21:14,840 Then a few minutes said Thomas to the top of the camp Sit 264 00:21:14,840 --> 00:21:19,920 over there He had this presence about him he was serious 265 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:25,080 I 266 00:21:25,080 --> 00:21:29,100 Literally was gonna pee my pants 267 00:21:29,100 --> 00:21:34,360 We want five million dollars 268 00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:37,080 for your freedom 269 00:21:39,060 --> 00:21:41,040 Um, I thought it's gone up. 270 00:21:42,860 --> 00:21:43,860 Each? 271 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:46,600 Each. 272 00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:48,540 Ten million dollars. 273 00:21:53,020 --> 00:21:54,120 We haven't got anything. 274 00:21:55,100 --> 00:21:57,240 The lungs just deflated. 275 00:21:57,760 --> 00:22:03,100 I thought, we're never going to leave. And I just had despair when he said 276 00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:05,200 Go! 277 00:22:23,639 --> 00:22:27,660 We were now worth ten million dollars. 278 00:22:29,120 --> 00:22:30,580 They're gonna kill us if they don't get us. 279 00:22:34,420 --> 00:22:35,560 That's when it sunk in. 280 00:22:36,660 --> 00:22:38,440 Let's just get the hell out of here. 281 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,760 Paul was like, my feeling is that they're not gonna really... 282 00:22:42,970 --> 00:22:45,510 do anything but shoot it. We've got to make our own luck here. 283 00:22:47,550 --> 00:22:51,530 The biggest 284 00:22:51,530 --> 00:23:02,710 problem 285 00:23:02,710 --> 00:23:08,550 we faced was surviving in the jungle for a number of days it required for us to 286 00:23:08,550 --> 00:23:09,550 get out. 287 00:23:10,230 --> 00:23:11,450 We needed things. 288 00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:13,480 Like food. 289 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:21,240 Anytime you saw a sharp object, even a section of a machete, something to cut 290 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:22,240 your way through the jungle. 291 00:23:23,360 --> 00:23:27,720 And if we could do that and choose the right moment, then we would go. 292 00:23:34,500 --> 00:23:37,820 Opposite where we were in the tent was an open palm house with a table in the 293 00:23:37,820 --> 00:23:39,980 middle where they store a lot of the provisions for cooking. 294 00:23:42,690 --> 00:23:48,770 I'd start to go into the habit of going in there with my guidebook and sitting 295 00:23:48,770 --> 00:23:50,870 on it, and then my towel would go down. 296 00:23:51,730 --> 00:23:54,250 I'd better pick up a bag of rice in the towel. 297 00:23:57,410 --> 00:23:59,310 Yeah, I became a kleptomaniac. 298 00:24:01,190 --> 00:24:04,890 Paul was a class act. He should be a professional thief. 299 00:24:07,690 --> 00:24:09,690 Broad daylight with everybody there. 300 00:24:10,990 --> 00:24:11,990 It was class. 301 00:24:12,010 --> 00:24:13,010 It was class. 302 00:24:16,790 --> 00:24:22,830 So over kind of a week, I was able to steal, like, six bags of rice. 303 00:24:25,030 --> 00:24:28,170 And Tom had found a bit of mirror. 304 00:24:32,830 --> 00:24:34,370 And, yeah, done a machete. 305 00:24:35,170 --> 00:24:37,110 That's brilliant. That's a really useful tool. 306 00:24:38,190 --> 00:24:39,930 It's almost an adrenaline rush. 307 00:24:41,420 --> 00:24:43,120 We just were cleaning them out. 308 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,480 After just a few days, we collected what we needed to. 309 00:24:49,340 --> 00:24:55,080 The lighter, the broken bit of machete, enough food to run away. 310 00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:04,700 We had these little, we call them escape pods with us, which were our modifiers, 311 00:25:04,980 --> 00:25:06,820 little rucksacks that we had. 312 00:25:08,180 --> 00:25:09,940 We had everything in place. 313 00:25:11,980 --> 00:25:13,960 There was a chance that we could do this. 314 00:25:19,620 --> 00:25:22,320 But then things started to really go wrong. 315 00:25:25,300 --> 00:25:28,000 I became very ill for a couple of days. 316 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:33,540 This fever kicked in very quickly in the morning. And by the afternoon, I could 317 00:25:33,540 --> 00:25:34,540 barely walk. 318 00:25:36,380 --> 00:25:38,900 I'm going to try and clean them a bit, OK? Just gently, though, yeah? 319 00:25:39,860 --> 00:25:41,340 Tom does forget. 320 00:25:41,850 --> 00:25:48,070 boils and fists appearing on his legs this 321 00:25:48,070 --> 00:25:54,130 was a proper problem walking 322 00:25:54,130 --> 00:26:00,210 and the ability to walk was utterly vital in an attempt to escape 323 00:26:00,210 --> 00:26:06,350 the leg was starting to swell up with these volcanic little eruptions 324 00:26:06,350 --> 00:26:11,980 then he started feeling Something wriggling around in his flesh. 325 00:26:13,200 --> 00:26:17,820 Paul said, look, we don't know what it is, but we've got to speak to Mr. 326 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:19,080 Smear. 327 00:26:19,780 --> 00:26:21,800 Do you know what it is? 328 00:26:23,640 --> 00:26:27,940 It's a... It's like a laid egg. 329 00:26:28,740 --> 00:26:35,240 There's a worm that kind of dug into you and started eating you from the inside 330 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:36,240 out. 331 00:26:40,460 --> 00:26:45,680 He laid me down on a bench. He put a bit of a leaf in my mouth and said, just 332 00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:46,800 grit down on that. 333 00:26:47,580 --> 00:26:52,360 They were smoking cigarettes and then taking the smoke and putting it up 334 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:56,640 the leg and blowing the nicotine onto the wounds. 335 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:01,860 And the minute he put the nicotine on top of each of the wounds, he said, 336 00:27:01,980 --> 00:27:05,640 they're sleeping and they come up and then we'll get them out, producing this 337 00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:09,120 bloody razor in his hand. I thought, this is going to be messy. 338 00:27:10,620 --> 00:27:11,620 Yeah. 339 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:19,560 I just think that's not a good idea. He turned the blade to open the wound. 340 00:27:20,700 --> 00:27:23,600 He got these big thumbs out and he went right. 341 00:27:23,900 --> 00:27:27,460 He just shot his finger the other side and then the pain came through. 342 00:27:30,340 --> 00:27:34,880 And up came the worm. 343 00:27:39,150 --> 00:27:40,930 White maggots, basically. 344 00:27:51,470 --> 00:27:55,930 After the operation, it was painful to walk. 345 00:27:56,830 --> 00:27:58,990 No possibility of escaping. 346 00:27:59,370 --> 00:28:01,690 We got very disheartened about the whole thing. 347 00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:20,860 Just as the healing process was taking place, they came in and told us we were 348 00:28:20,860 --> 00:28:22,060 going to start walking again. 349 00:28:31,540 --> 00:28:34,400 It was a forced march we went on. 350 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:37,220 Day in, day out. 351 00:28:39,260 --> 00:28:42,760 We were going into seriously. 352 00:28:43,879 --> 00:28:44,879 Hardcore territory. 353 00:28:45,140 --> 00:28:46,460 Very, very hot. 354 00:28:48,140 --> 00:28:49,900 The humidity, the heat. 355 00:28:50,500 --> 00:28:53,380 I was baking hot. 356 00:28:54,300 --> 00:28:56,420 I mean, you could fry an egg on those mornings. 357 00:29:00,340 --> 00:29:01,580 Loss of sense of balance. 358 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:04,920 They were very dizzy and hazy. The vision was starting to go, but you were 359 00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:06,700 prodded on by a gun to go faster. 360 00:29:13,100 --> 00:29:14,900 It was just too much for me in the end. 361 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:33,140 I came to 362 00:29:33,140 --> 00:29:35,480 in the worst camp ever, ever. 363 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:41,200 In this camp, the atmosphere was... 364 00:29:41,640 --> 00:29:43,180 Definitely much more aggressive. 365 00:29:47,940 --> 00:29:49,820 The lady we nicknamed the beast. 366 00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,960 She came out and said, you will dance now, you. 367 00:29:56,280 --> 00:30:00,180 I started to awkwardly dance. 368 00:30:02,340 --> 00:30:03,700 Dance all the time. 369 00:30:05,100 --> 00:30:09,600 She might sort of pull the trigger and be a bit... trigger happen, accidentally 370 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:10,780 shoot us. 371 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:14,360 Oh, safety off. Oh, no. Bullet in the head. 372 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:21,520 They were angry with us. 373 00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:28,460 You know, they'd come up with this idea that they were going to get some money 374 00:30:28,460 --> 00:30:31,060 for us and it wasn't happening the way they thought it might happen. 375 00:30:32,500 --> 00:30:37,060 And they were literally just shouting out, you know, I will blow their heads 376 00:30:37,060 --> 00:30:38,060 off. 377 00:30:42,510 --> 00:30:48,030 And then they'll just give me a really hard, long stare and just draw their 378 00:30:48,030 --> 00:30:49,590 finger across their throats. 379 00:30:53,610 --> 00:30:55,530 And I thought, they're just going to kill us. 380 00:30:56,690 --> 00:30:58,910 Just for no reason, just to get rid of us. 381 00:31:07,230 --> 00:31:09,070 The throat drops into your stomach. 382 00:31:11,180 --> 00:31:16,580 absolute kind of terror, this is the end, that's it. It's going to be lights 383 00:31:16,580 --> 00:31:17,580 out. 384 00:31:19,980 --> 00:31:24,760 It was getting really twisted stuff, and we thought we have to escape. 385 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:34,020 There was fear, and if we were found breaking out, they'd come after you 386 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:35,079 wouldn't they? 387 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:36,080 With a vengeance. 388 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:42,800 We were very nervous and wary about it. So that's when we started to write the 389 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:43,800 wills. 390 00:31:44,500 --> 00:31:50,040 In case we get split up, we should write a note home to our parents. 391 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:57,660 So we agreed to swap the wills so that at least if I was to die in the woods, 392 00:31:57,880 --> 00:32:00,760 they'd at least see my will that I'd left with Paul. 393 00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:05,120 Dear Mum and Dad, 394 00:32:05,930 --> 00:32:07,490 Things aren't looking too good. 395 00:32:07,950 --> 00:32:10,350 Love you lots. I hope everything's going well at home. 396 00:32:10,710 --> 00:32:13,730 Really sorry about the situation that we're in. 397 00:32:20,670 --> 00:32:25,850 Dear mum and dad, you know, if this gets to you, that's because Tom has gone out 398 00:32:25,850 --> 00:32:28,950 and give Tom, like, a good welcome. 399 00:32:30,890 --> 00:32:33,310 No, he's proved his friendship. 400 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:40,620 in incredibly difficult circumstances and we said we go now 401 00:32:40,620 --> 00:32:42,500 it was that moment 402 00:32:42,500 --> 00:32:51,140 two 403 00:32:51,140 --> 00:32:55,900 pods were ready to go we thought we don't go now we're going to die 404 00:32:55,900 --> 00:33:02,720 the biggest problem 405 00:33:03,500 --> 00:33:07,120 we faced then was how do we get out of the tent without being seen? 406 00:33:08,340 --> 00:33:11,560 So we thought the only way out of the tent was out the back. 407 00:33:14,980 --> 00:33:17,340 We got a bit of a broken bit of mirror. 408 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,960 I started just to etch the cut in the back of the tent. 409 00:33:26,060 --> 00:33:27,220 Plastic was easier to cut. 410 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:34,670 But the noise it made made this Kind of rasping sound. 411 00:33:36,930 --> 00:33:38,310 I thought, 412 00:33:40,130 --> 00:33:42,550 oh God, are you sure to hear that? 413 00:33:43,150 --> 00:33:50,130 He's only 10 yards away. 414 00:33:54,930 --> 00:34:01,590 I thought, 415 00:34:01,830 --> 00:34:07,390 what? they realized that we had this kind of idea to escape. 416 00:34:08,830 --> 00:34:10,710 They were going to shoot us. 417 00:34:16,650 --> 00:34:17,270 We 418 00:34:17,270 --> 00:34:27,449 needed 419 00:34:27,449 --> 00:34:28,510 some sort of cover. 420 00:34:35,310 --> 00:34:36,429 some thunder in the distance. 421 00:34:42,110 --> 00:34:46,690 We thought, wow, that's brilliant. If it comes this way, that noise of that 422 00:34:46,690 --> 00:34:51,929 thunder, the noise of the rain, it means he wouldn't hear a thing. And then we 423 00:34:51,929 --> 00:34:54,110 could sneak out the back and be off. 424 00:34:57,510 --> 00:35:00,750 And we were thinking, right, it's got to rain, it's got to rain. 425 00:35:02,990 --> 00:35:05,610 The storm was coming. We could hear it. We thought, this is it. 426 00:35:06,670 --> 00:35:10,630 Hearts were just coming out of our chest. The ribs were cracked just from 427 00:35:10,630 --> 00:35:11,870 excitement of it. 428 00:35:14,350 --> 00:35:16,590 When thunder and lightning was that close, it was going to rain. 429 00:35:17,150 --> 00:35:19,590 It was guaranteed. It was never going to fail. 430 00:35:32,010 --> 00:35:33,010 It didn't rain. 431 00:35:33,250 --> 00:35:37,870 For the first time ever, I think, in the whole nine months, it never came. 432 00:35:50,130 --> 00:35:56,870 First thing in the morning, these two messengers 433 00:35:56,870 --> 00:35:57,870 arrived. 434 00:36:00,300 --> 00:36:02,800 And they went over to whisper to the commandant in charge. 435 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:06,420 And the reaction was instant. 436 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,020 He was just furious. 437 00:36:12,380 --> 00:36:13,480 He was just mad. 438 00:36:15,700 --> 00:36:20,760 We thought they may have seen us or had a hint of us trying to escape. 439 00:36:21,460 --> 00:36:28,080 And me and Paul were like, you know, holy crap, we are really in trouble 440 00:36:38,859 --> 00:36:42,420 I thought, these guys are serious, and they're going to shoot us. 441 00:36:53,300 --> 00:36:56,480 He looked at us, and I thought, we're going to die now. 442 00:36:58,180 --> 00:37:00,020 He said, totally out of the blue. 443 00:37:02,260 --> 00:37:03,260 Get your stuff up. 444 00:37:06,660 --> 00:37:07,740 You're going home. 445 00:37:11,900 --> 00:37:13,180 Utter disbelief. 446 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,400 And we thought, well, is this really happening? 447 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,020 It can't be this sudden. Why are they just giving up? 448 00:37:23,320 --> 00:37:28,000 Somewhere I thought, just let these guys go. Just get rid of them. 449 00:37:30,440 --> 00:37:32,540 Why he did it, I'll never know. 450 00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:39,100 They pointed down the path and said to leave the forest and follow that path. 451 00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:42,980 Kind of around the 12th of December. 452 00:37:44,420 --> 00:37:47,100 And they shook us by the hand. They wished us Merry Christmas. 453 00:37:48,100 --> 00:37:49,660 Happy Christmas, you two. 454 00:37:50,020 --> 00:37:53,080 If you come back, we'll blow your heads off. 455 00:37:54,460 --> 00:37:55,580 Is this really happening? 456 00:37:56,260 --> 00:37:59,580 But we really were off and gone. 457 00:38:01,660 --> 00:38:03,240 And we never looked back. 458 00:38:07,339 --> 00:38:10,320 We're home for Christmas. We're going to be eating turkey in a couple of days. 459 00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,620 I mean, it was just before Christmas. 460 00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:17,360 And then we came to this tea junction. 461 00:38:17,600 --> 00:38:18,600 Which way do you think we should go? 462 00:38:19,300 --> 00:38:20,840 Um, left or right? 463 00:38:21,460 --> 00:38:23,280 Let's go straight on or we should go up there. 464 00:38:26,380 --> 00:38:27,800 We have to make a decision now. 465 00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:28,939 I don't know. 466 00:38:28,940 --> 00:38:29,940 Your call. 467 00:38:32,540 --> 00:38:34,800 So I said, well, why don't we go left? 468 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:36,800 Yeah. 469 00:38:38,890 --> 00:38:40,230 So we turned left. 470 00:38:44,570 --> 00:38:49,630 The rain began to melt. It was absolutely torrential. 471 00:38:51,350 --> 00:38:54,890 It was like something out of a murky Florida swamp. 472 00:38:56,430 --> 00:38:59,750 And the paths were just impenetrable. 473 00:39:01,590 --> 00:39:05,150 We waited for just hours and hours. 474 00:39:06,050 --> 00:39:08,400 We just kept... Going round in circles. 475 00:39:09,920 --> 00:39:10,960 And getting lost. 476 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:13,140 Not knowing where we were going. 477 00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:19,580 We were both thinking, we're going to die. Not because of a gun. 478 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,160 We're going to die because the jungle's going to kill us. 479 00:39:30,500 --> 00:39:34,160 After three or four days, we'd eaten all the food, it all gone. 480 00:39:34,900 --> 00:39:36,580 The bodies were starting to go. 481 00:39:37,050 --> 00:39:38,390 Trench rock was kicking in. 482 00:39:38,670 --> 00:39:40,550 It was just a nightmare. 483 00:39:41,710 --> 00:39:44,910 Paul turned to me and said, We're struggling here, Tom. 484 00:39:45,370 --> 00:39:46,630 Tom, this isn't working. 485 00:39:48,950 --> 00:39:50,470 We've got no idea where we are. 486 00:39:51,990 --> 00:39:57,550 I suggested to Tom that we go back to the guerrilla camp 487 00:39:57,550 --> 00:40:04,270 and ask them to make it clearer about what we exactly needed to 488 00:40:04,270 --> 00:40:05,270 do. 489 00:40:05,730 --> 00:40:06,730 To get out. 490 00:40:07,410 --> 00:40:08,450 We should go back. 491 00:40:09,770 --> 00:40:10,770 They'll shoot us. 492 00:40:11,410 --> 00:40:18,210 It was kind of one of the few moments during those nine months that things got 493 00:40:18,210 --> 00:40:21,710 a bit heated and kind of voices were raised. 494 00:40:22,290 --> 00:40:24,670 Look, we don't have any choice, all right? 495 00:40:25,590 --> 00:40:28,550 I didn't want to do it. I just thought, well, we're going to end up in trouble 496 00:40:28,550 --> 00:40:30,210 here. I think we should carry on. 497 00:40:30,650 --> 00:40:35,070 We were nearly out of here. Freedom was just at the end of our... 498 00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:42,200 end of our fingertips look we've got to go back i just look shut up let's get 499 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:47,700 this over in dublin go back up the hill we went 500 00:40:47,700 --> 00:40:54,380 we walked for 501 00:40:54,380 --> 00:41:01,140 two days and then made the very demanding ascent to the the camp 502 00:41:13,420 --> 00:41:17,800 Out came one of the foot soldiers. 503 00:41:20,020 --> 00:41:22,900 He looked at it in absolute horror. 504 00:41:24,520 --> 00:41:28,920 And I thought, if anyone you want to see, it's not him. 505 00:41:30,820 --> 00:41:32,840 I was petrified. 506 00:41:35,100 --> 00:41:36,620 Were they going to shoot us? 507 00:41:45,990 --> 00:41:49,930 What have you been doing for the last five days? 508 00:41:51,730 --> 00:41:53,750 Corley said, oh, we just got lost. 509 00:41:58,050 --> 00:41:59,770 And that eased the tension. 510 00:42:00,870 --> 00:42:03,830 They thought we were rubbish and, yeah, we were rubbish. 511 00:42:06,170 --> 00:42:07,870 And they kind of laughed at us. 512 00:42:08,490 --> 00:42:12,010 It's those two gringos who just are clueless, basically. 513 00:42:14,670 --> 00:42:16,870 He laughed it off a bit and said, you must turn right. 514 00:42:18,970 --> 00:42:22,590 And we said, oh yeah, we know the mistake we've made. Stupid tourists, 515 00:42:22,590 --> 00:42:23,590 idiots. 516 00:42:23,710 --> 00:42:27,030 Thank you. And we romped. 517 00:42:27,930 --> 00:42:29,030 We romped. 518 00:42:29,270 --> 00:42:30,270 Right! 519 00:42:41,740 --> 00:42:45,180 We just walked and walked until we got to where the National Park headquarters 520 00:42:45,180 --> 00:42:46,180 are. 521 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,960 They had a radio and they radioed the embassy. 522 00:42:53,980 --> 00:42:59,020 I genuinely just didn't think he could believe that we were there in front of 523 00:42:59,020 --> 00:43:00,020 him. 524 00:43:03,740 --> 00:43:07,700 The next day a Red Cross speedboat came to pick us up. 525 00:43:09,160 --> 00:43:13,920 The floodgates were released and there it is, whoosh, out it comes. 526 00:43:16,020 --> 00:43:21,180 Sheer and utter joy at somehow having got through it. 527 00:43:24,340 --> 00:43:25,540 Lucky to be alive. 528 00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:30,780 A hundred times over in big red bold capital letters, lucky to be alive. 529 00:43:31,100 --> 00:43:34,140 Oh, goes without saying, because we should be dead. 530 00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:52,640 There were low times, there were terrifying times, but we always believed 531 00:43:52,640 --> 00:43:56,020 had the confidence that we would one day get back to England and see our 532 00:43:56,020 --> 00:43:57,020 families. 533 00:43:59,820 --> 00:44:04,260 Mum told me about the vigil they'd had for me, all the candles lit in the 534 00:44:04,260 --> 00:44:05,260 at home. 535 00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:11,600 When you started to hear these stories, it made you realise how stupid we were 536 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:14,480 for doing it, but how amazing it was to get out. 537 00:44:19,530 --> 00:44:24,050 the lengths that my parents had gone through to try and find out what had 538 00:44:24,050 --> 00:44:25,050 happened to me. 539 00:44:26,390 --> 00:44:29,770 Very brave and very good people. 540 00:44:35,590 --> 00:44:41,770 And I'd put them through things that they didn't deserve to go through.