Original subtitles

Ky: Wow.

[ Groans ] [Bleep]

Aah!

Narrator: They survived in pairs and in groups.

And now the best of the best

are taking on their greatest challenge yet...

to survive 21 days...

Holy [bleep]

...with no support...

Oh, my God!

...no one to watch their back...

Man: This is my shot.

Narrator: ...Completely exposed.

[ Groaning ]

I'm terrified.

♪♪

Ky: It's gorgeous here this morning.

The rain's holding off for now.

And yeah, the enormity of what I'm about to undertake

has definitely hit me.

My name's Ky. I'm a stunt performer and an outdoor guide.

And I'm from Torquay, Australia.

I've done 21 days in the Louisiana swamplands,

I've done 14 days in the Bahamas,

and now I'm about to do a 21-day solo

in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

Narrator: Ky's solo survival rating, or SSR, was established

based on how she performed on her past challenges

using three criteria...

self-reliance, mental toughness, and skills.

On her 21-day challenge in the Louisiana swamplands,

Ky and her partner's camp was overtaken by floodwaters.

Ky: Everything that we worked so hard for was swept away.

Narrator: They built a raised platform for their fire and shelter.

Oh, my God! I see flames!

...and hunted venomous snakes in the swamp.

Hey, bill! Water moccasin!

I see him. Three.

This is our first bit of food.

[ Laughs ]

And on day 21, she and Billy braved alligator-infested waters

to get to their extraction plane.

[ Screams ]

Whoo!

On her next challenge, she risked her life

in the deadly waters of Andros island

and faced down hungry reef sharks

in search of food for the group.

She helped her teammate Eva overcome her fear of sharks...

...and survived relentless sand flea attacks.

Ky: The sand fleas are so intense.

Standing in knee-deep water

is about the only place that's safe.

Narrator: Her raft-building skills

kept the team clear of aggressive bull sharks...

Ky: Okay, now, we've got four around us. They're circling.

- Whoa! - Whoa!

Man: Oh, my God!

...and got them to the finish line.

See you, Andros. Whoo!

Narrator: Ky begins this new challenge

with a solo survival rating of 8.2.

♪♪

Ky: It's really easy to step up to the plate

when others are suffering around you,

because that's my personality.

I want to get in, I want to help,

and it makes me forget what's going on for me.

I've always wondered if I could survive on my own,

and now I'm gonna find out.

The Amazon is a place that's just going to keep on

giving surprises the whole time.

Out of any of the challenges,

I've probably been put in some of the most buggy areas...

Louisiana, the Bahamas, and now the Amazon.

But I wouldn't have said yes

if I hadn't thought that I was up to the challenge.

As the jungle closes in on me.

This is where the adventure begins.

♪♪

You know, three times,

and it still doesn't get any less weird.

♪♪

Looks like my bag over there.

Narrator: For this challenge, Ky was allowed to choose

just three essential items to keep herself alive.

I have a firestarter...

A pot...

And I have a machete with me.

Finally, of course, the map.

I came in here.

And where I'm gonna aim for is somewhere

where I can have a lot of resources to get a good shelter.

So I'm thinking there.

Well, I'm gonna head in that direction.

Narrator: Ky is entering Cuyabeno, Ecuador,

in the heart of the amazonian rainforest,

where temperatures are warm in the day

but can plummet into the 40s at night.

♪♪

More than 110 inches of rain a year

keep the jungle wet and damp, making it an ideal environment

for swarms of ravenous mosquitos.

Ky: This whole tree is just filled with mosquitos.

Narrator: It's also home to bloodthirsty piranha

and black caiman,

the deadliest apex predator in the Amazon basin,

that can stay submerged for up to two hours

and are adept nocturnal hunters.

♪♪

Ky: There is so much that can kill you here.

Narrator: Under the dense canopy,

pumas, able to leap 30 feet in a single bound,

use their superior vision to stalk prey in the dead of night.

And deadly snakes... like the venomous bushmaster,

anacondas, and boa constrictors...

coil in place for weeks at a time,

waiting to ambush victims.

Ky: I'm trying to look where I put my feet

so I don't step on anything.

[ Sighs ] Welcome to the Amazon.

♪♪

In the jungle, the camp spot that you choose is everything.

And as you look around here, there's just no clearings,

there's no flat spots.

Nothing's looking ideal yet.

I think my best bet is to find the nearest water

and then figure out a flat spot from there.

♪♪

I think I can see the tree's reflection.

Definitely water down here.

That's awesome.

It seems to be about as high up as the ground goes.

It's not too far from that water source.

This might be my best bet.

I'm gonna put me here, put a little fire here.

Hopefully, I'll be able to string up a lean-to

from this branch to this branch, fill in the back here.

We're building a roof that will be above my fire

and stop the rains from putting it out.

[ Thunder rumbles ]

Oh, that's thunder.

I'm pretty stoked.

For day 1, shelter with a bit of a fire roof here.

It's huge.

I can hear the storm rolling in,

so, priority 1 on day 1 is down.

Now on my energy needs, to go to fire and water.

♪♪

There's not a lot of dry wood.

It's either green or just rotted, wet, soggy wood.

Keeping the fire going could be a challenge.

I need some dry shavings

for a spark to catch in the tinder bundle,

and this stuff on the outside of palms

is a little waxy and perfect for it.

[ Caiman growling ]

Doing a log-lie method of stacking the kindling,

so, my plan is to try and get the tinder bundle on fire

and then just slide it under here

and already have this pile ready to go.

Might look like a mess,

but there's a method to the madness.

[ Laughing ]

Stay with me. Stay with me.

Oh, shoot.

[ Blows ]

I celebrated too soon.

[ Thunder rumbles ]

♪♪

The rain started to come down.

I'm gonna need a fire.

Getting through the night without getting hypothermia,

there's no question.

I just... I need to have fire.

♪♪

Yes!

I feel like this one might be a keeper.

The sun's going down.

My main priority is to keep this fire going,

and this little fire that I'm struggling to keep alive,

being my only source of light out here

in a jungle full of noises.

♪♪

♪♪

[ Thunder crashes ]

The first night.

This is definitely a storm of epic proportions.

♪♪

The rain stopped.

There's so much going on out there.

[ Growling in distance ]

Wish I had fire.

♪♪

Go!

[ Growling continues ]

[ Groans ]

[ Yells ]

[ Growling in distance ]

Ky: Wish I had fire.

This is stressing me out right now.

If it wanted to, it would probably kill me.

Holy [bleep]

Go!

[ Yells ]

[ Leaves rustling ]

Holy [bleep]

♪♪

Well, last night didn't exactly go as planned.

The fire went out.

I saw a puma or a jaguar.

Spent the rest of the night shivering.

Picked a little something

that's gonna make it a little bit more tricky out here.

There's no way I'm gonna make it through without a fire,

and that's a real concern.

I'm just gonna see what resources I have here

and see if there's anything I can improve my situation.

You can smell it. It smells like turpentine or something.

Oh, my God!

This is a copal tree.

This stuff is highly flammable resin.

This is awesome.

I'm gonna take a little bit now, wrap it in a leaf.

Gonna need a bigger bag.

Alright. Let's see it work its magic.

Narrator: The highly flammable resin from the copal tree

was used by Aztec and Mayan cultures as a firestarter

and for purifying rituals.

[ Coughs ]

Yes!

I have a fire. Can't believe it.

I'm stoked.

♪♪

[ Coughing ]

[ Coughing continues ]

♪♪

[ Coughs ]

[ Exhales sharply ] Another rough night for me.

This chest infection I've been fighting went rampant,

and I think I coughed all night.

It's really impacting my game out here.

You're coughing all night, and you can't conserve energy,

and it's a lot of calories,

and the body's just not adjusting to cold, as well.

I'm really, really feeling it.

Would've been pretty good to have someone else out here,

just for body heat, added warmth.

I mightn't have got so cold,

and I possibly wouldn't have got so sick.

If I get 21 days of this,

I don't know if I'll be able to make the challenge.

Be great if I can get some rest today

and then get a good day in tomorrow.

[ Coughs ]

♪♪

[ Coughing ]

[ Insects buzzing ]

What the [bleep]?

Honestly, it's madness.

Haven't had many mosquitos until now, but holy [bleep]

Every mosquito bite is like an electric shock

that just makes my skin crawl.

♪♪

[ Insects buzzing ]

Another rugged night for me.

The mosquitos have found me. [ Laughs ]

Here I was, thinking they hadn't followed me from Louisiana.

The mosquitos are just eating me alive.

Man: Damn it! There's so many.

They are the craziest mosquitos

I've ever come across in my life.

They're biting like crazy,

so that tends to play on my mind, for sure.

[ Coughs ]

Last night, I started coughing up chunks...

yellow and green stuff.

Priorities now, if I'm gonna be in for the long haul,

I just have to knuckle in and look after myself first.

♪♪

This forest is amazing, for all the things it has

that can help heal my body as it's fighting this stuff.

Um...

A fire ant bit my nipple.

[ Groans ]

These things don't happen in the city.

♪♪

You might know camphor from your grandmothers

putting it in your drawer to keep the moths away,

but it's also a good insect repellent out here.

I saw some white copal in this direction.

I can boil that up in a bit of water and inhale that,

and hopefully, that will help shift

some of this stuff out of my chest.

It's time to breathe it in, see what happens.

Narrator: A medicinal plant, white copal has antiseptic properties

and a strong menthol-like smell.

When the vapor is inhaled, it works as an expectorant

and is known to clear chest infections.

Smells amazing.

Makes me feel better.

Thank you, copal.

♪♪

Even with the fire, I'm freezing, I'm shaking.

I can't get through the nights, I can't get through the days.

♪♪

Last night, I didn't cough half as much,

so the copal steams are working.

And the camphor saved my butt from the mosquitoes.

But it was cold.

I'm just out of fuel in the tank now.

I'm so hungry.

I need to problem-solve how to get a meal out here.

♪♪

That little monkey... he's shaking down a bunch of nuts.

I know that we can eat what monkeys eat

because their digestive tracts are fairly similar.

These nuts aren't edible in this form,

but I'm going to get water warm, put the nuts in,

wait 'til the water cools, and then you can eat them.

These nuts should just pop like that.

And you can eat that flesh.

Fats are rare out here.

And that's pure fat.

That's not a lot of food,

so it's gonna start getting critical

that I start to get something more to eat.

♪♪

Eight days in.

My chest infection seems to have gone, thank goodness.

Copal is the miracle of miracle plants out here.

My stomach rumblings today are definitely someone

who's really, really, really, really hungry.

I am concerned the more time I spend in this jungle

as to what I'm going to be able to find to eat

that's a solid meal.

I know there's fish, so I'm gonna build a fish trap.

Just getting materials now for a fish trap.

The fish trap has two parts.

It has an outside bit,

and then the inside bit will be the doorway they can get into,

but, hopefully, can't figure out how to get out of.

♪♪

That is awesome.

My first fish trap!

The piranha are the main fish in the Amazon.

If I can get an animal, and put its guts in here,

then the piranha are a frenzy fish,

so they would smell the guts and rush in to get it.

So, next step... live, bleeding, tasty bait.

Nothing.

Wow.

[ Whispering ] There's a little snake in here right now.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

Ky: Wow.

[ Whispering ] There's a little snake in here.

♪♪

[ Hisses ]

[ Groans ]

Oh, you're a little feisty one!

[Bleep]

Just a tree snake.

He was having a go!

The fish trap's not going to work

unless I can get another animal to bait it with.

This is great.

Yes!

Got me a lizard.

Sorry, little lizard. I need to eat.

Then I'm ready to start fishing.

♪♪

♪♪

Feeling a little bit weaker today.

Definitely feeling the effects of no food.

♪♪

No fish came in my fish trap.

♪♪

Damn it. Got nothing.

They're not even taking the bait.

I hoped that maybe I could lure the bigger fish

into the shallower waters, but they're not tempted.

They're all staying out in the deep water,

and I only could see tiny fish, like this big,

that I can't catch with this trap, so...

Feeling a little frustrated right now.

Getting a feeling that where the big fish are,

the big caiman are.

Just don't think wading out to chest-deep water

for the sake of a fish meal is worth my life.

Depends how hungry I get, I guess.

♪♪

It's always disappointing when you put effort into something

to have it not succeed.

The only way I can change that is just being more proactive

with my snares and traps.

♪♪

I found a really good little rodent hole.

I'm getting the vine corded for my snares.

Narrator: Using a long vine anchored to a tree,

Ky is setting a noose snare trap

around the entrance to an active rodent burrow.

As the animal exits, the noose is triggered,

tightening around it.

I can hear my tummy growling. It's dreaming of cooked rodent.

♪♪

I'm gonna go and grab some more monkey nuts.

The old monkey nuts.

Supply is running out.

Haven't been eating them much lately

because it's a lot of work to get the meat off the shell,

but at the moment, I'm desperate for anything.

This nut... looks like it's got a hole in it.

Sometimes larva get laid in these nuts.

Yes!

I've never been so excited to see a larva in my life.

Yay!

Usually they taste like whatever food they've been eating.

That is really good.

Ooh, what it's like...

it's like a creamy hazelnut.

Nice little protein shot.

This is like a feast compared to what I've had lately.

Narrator: Ky is eating firefly larva,

which are rich in protein and fat.

Ky: Pretty excited about this right now.

Just means I can make another day out here.

♪♪

Just gonna check and see

if my snare had any luck last night.

This guy hasn't been disturbed at all.

Since I've moved in, most of the animals have moved out.

It's pretty disappointing.

♪♪

[ Thunder rumbling ]

Got another storm coming in shortly.

With this "alone" challenge,

it's a full-energy effort just to be getting firewood.

It's just this constant battle.

It would be so much easier if someone else was out here.

But I'm loving not having to deal with someone else's energy.

So the mental aspect of being alone

[ rain pouring ]Isn't hard for me.

But the physical aspect is definitely wearing me down.

♪♪

Feeling pretty shaky today with no food.

I really don't want to give up out here.

I thought a lot about why

I would want to be doing this challenge, you know?

But in 16 years of stunts, I have won the highest awards

you can win in the stunt industry,

and I still felt like I wasn't good enough,

and it's just all about our self-belief.

This adventure... I mean, just to know that if I did this,

then there's not much else that can stand in my way.

This is day 15.

No food.

I can feel my brain starting to change now.

I feel like my decision-making processes are way slower.

Taking me a lot longer to think through things.

I've been making food a priority for a lot of days.

I just don't know what else I can do to get more.

I've been thinking,

the only thing I haven't tried out here is night fishing.

I know the fish come in from the depths to sleep in the shallows.

So I'm thinking I maybe might make a torch and go down

and see if I can get some fish tomorrow night.

Honestly, I'm just getting desperate right now.

♪♪

This is copal, so the sap is highly flammable,

so it stays alight until there's no more of it left to burn.

Makes me nervous 'cause that's when the caiman are out

and more active... at night.

It's a big risk, but the reward would be huge.

Ready to go, I reckon.

♪♪

Alright, here we go.

I've never done a pitch torch before.

It's kind of like in the Bahamas, though,

when we had the fatwood torches.

Ky: Look how well this burns.

Oh, there's one there!

Get it!

Man: Alright!

[ Cheering ]

This torch is amazing.

I'm really nervous 'cause of the caiman everywhere.

I'm so hungry.

It's kind of shallow here.

You can see if there's any sleeping fish

in the shallows here.

There's one right here.

There was one right there, but it got away.

I just got to keep going.

♪♪

Man.

This torch is about to go out.

I'm thinking I should just turn back.

Yeah, there's one right here.

♪♪

[ Gasps ]

♪♪

[ Gasps ]

Got a fish!

Oh, my God! I got a fish!

I macheted a fish!

In the middle of the jungle, naked by torchlight!

[ Laughs ]

I'm pumped.

I think I see another one in here.

Caught another!

Thinking I should have been doing this all along.

But you live and learn.

Well, it's a good day.

That's a meal.

[ Laughing ] Oh, my God.

Gonna see if I can gut these

while I have a second of torchlight,

and then I'm gonna cook them up.

It's an awesome feeling to have finally succeeded

in getting some kind of food out here.

Smells amazing.

And I got it in the nick of time.

My first bite of real meat in 18 days.

♪♪

Today is day 19.

Can't even tell you how amazing it is

to have a proper meal in my stomach before extraction.

I've been contemplating my map.

I've got to get to the edge of this lagoon

and then to the middle of the lagoon.

Definitely need a raft because I'm not swimming into the middle

of a lagoon that's infested with caiman.

I can't build a raft and get to the X all in one day,

so I'm gonna need to probably head out tomorrow

and do a two-day extraction.

Today, I just tried to conserve as much energy

as I can for tomorrow.

I have no idea if I'm gonna make it through the next two days.

♪♪

Morning of the 20th.

Yeah.

I've been here long enough.

Narrator: To reach her extraction point,

Ky will first have to journey on land for three miles

through a dense, snake-filled jungle.

She will then have to find a launching point

on the banks of the river

where she will have to construct the raft

that will take her two additional miles

out into the middle of a caiman-filled lagoon.

♪♪

Ky: It's pretty thick jungle.

I think I had the ideal spot from my last 20 days.

I need it to open out a little bit.

The rain's just coming.

It's not real good not having a shelter to duck under,

'cause once I get wet, I'm just gonna get cold out here.

Nothing I can do. I just got to push on.

♪♪

Seems to have cleared out a little bit.

Here's at least an area I could launch a raft from.

Just need to find the right tree now.

Looking for a tree with hollow sections in it,

like bamboo, so it'll be super-buoyant.

I think that's one over there.

It seems massive, but seems to be the only one I can see.

I guess this is gonna have to be it.

♪♪

I think this is too much.

Walking, I can do.

Building a raft on top of it...

My understanding that these trees were super-soft

and easy to chop through, but this one's really solid,

and I'm not able to chop through it.

Might give this one a go.

♪♪

[ Wood creaking ]

♪♪

Yes!

♪♪

Trying to get the smallest pieces,

just to get three of these logs.

But at the moment, I'm having a hard time even cutting down one.

An extra pair of hands, an extra pair of muscles...

anything would help in this situation.

♪♪

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

[ Exhales deeply ]

Doesn't [bleep] float.

Are you [bleep] kidding me?

I'm losing daylight.

I've got to go back to that initial tree

'cause I know for sure that has the air pockets that will float.

♪♪

[ Wood creaking ]

♪♪

Holy [bleep]

I really do feel I've tried to stay positive.

I don't know what else to do.

[ Breathing heavily ]

There's only so many times I can swing that.

[ Exhales deeply ]

♪♪

Definitely one of the hardest things I've ever done.

♪♪

If I tapped on this challenge right now,

I would take that self-doubt with me for the rest of my life.

I'm gonna have to just keep moving

and finish this challenge.

I'm gonna have to chop down this other tree.

Narrator: Ky has burned nearly 45,000 calories

in the last 20 days and eaten barely 1,000.

She's burned close to 4,000 calories today alone,

and her body has been consuming muscle and other vital tissue

to make up for all the fat she's lost.

Ky: Holy [bleep]

Yes!

I'm exhausted.

I got to find shelter for tonight,

and I'm gonna have to work on this in the morning.

I think no matter how many leaves I put on it,

if it rains tonight, I'm gonna get wet.

I'm really nervous.

Just don't know what kind of animals are out there.

♪♪

[ Insects chirping ]

That was a hell of a day.

All I did today was chop trees down 'til I almost threw up,

and I've got nothing to throw up,

so that's saying something.

I thought a few times today that I wished

I could just say the words "I quit."

Honestly, I just wanted to say them.

And I couldn't open my mouth to get the words out.

I've tried everything to be positive

in every situation I've been given,

but it's been the biggest challenge I've ever faced.

My hands are shredded. My body's shredded.

Freezing, I'm shivering.

I got nothing left, I don't think.

Oh, [bleep]!

[ Groans ]

♪♪

Every now and then, if I stand still too long,

the ants just start crawling on you,

and they're definitely looking for their next meal.

Aah! They're right up my crotch.

[ Laughs ]

Aah! They're awful up your bum.

[ Laughs ] There's just nothing you can do

when you get bit on your bits by an ant.

Somehow I know that one's gonna make the cut.

[ Laughs ]

My mum's gonna be so proud.

Little bastard.

♪♪

Oh, [bleep]!

[ Groans ]

♪♪

♪♪

It was a long night.

I'm so shaky this morning.

Honestly, I don't know even now

if I'm gonna make this challenge.

I got a raft to build.

There's only so much this body can do now.

♪♪

Feel like I can hardly raise my arm to make another chop.

But I'm out of choices.

If I don't get this tree into the pieces I need,

I'm not gonna get out of here.

This tree is my only way to extraction.

♪♪

That's one.

♪♪

I got my three logs.

Super-heavy.

Now I have to get them down to the water,

where I can build a raft to launch.

[ Grunting ]

♪♪

Barely, but they're floating.

I'm hoping that's the hardest part of my day today.

Now I need to get some crossbeams.

Then I'm gonna grab some Liana vines to tie it all together.

♪♪

I'm afraid I'm not gonna be strong enough to get to the X.

My arms have taken quite the beating

over the last few days with all the macheteing, so...

♪♪

That was a fricking caiman just there.

Now my exit from this place is guarded by a caiman.

That is not good.

♪♪

I got to go out and to the right.

Guess I need to get started.

Here goes nothing.

♪♪

♪♪

Gonna be a slow journey.

All I can do is count the arm strokes and keep doing them.

♪♪

If there's nothing big that catches me through here,

I might be able to make it through.

♪♪

[Bleep] I'm stuck.

Can't get 'round this.

♪♪

[ Grunts ]

♪♪

I just cut myself all up getting through those trees.

[ Groans ]

Certainly bleeding right now,

and there's definitely piranha in the Amazon.

♪♪

So I just got to keep paddling.

I have no clue what's keeping me going right now.

Just the fact I can put one arm in front of the other

is probably the only thing.

♪♪

I've come so far. I've been through so much.

I can do this.

♪♪

I hear a boat. [ Laughs ]

♪♪

[ Chuckles ]

Can't believe it's over,

and I'm still here.

And I didn't quit.

♪♪

[ Sniffles ]

It's probably the definition of everything I have.

It feels amazing to have come out here

and spent 21 days in the Ecuadorian Amazon.

I've learnt that I am so much stronger than I thought I was.

I think the biggest gift that I take away from this

is knowing that I always was enough.

Finishing this challenge means to me

that I'll never have to ask myself

if I'm good enough again.

♪♪

Narrator: During her 21 days, Ky lost a total of 20 pounds.

She exhibited extreme mental fortitude, ingenuity,

and physical prowess,

proving herself to be an elite survivalist.

Her solo survival rating rises to 9.7.

Ky: This is the last one for me.

I have nothing to prove to myself anymore.

I'll miss the jungle, but you can definitely miss something

without wanting to be there.

[ Laughs ]

See you later, Amazon!