Original subtitles

'My name is Levison Wood.' HE YELLS AND LAUGHS

Phew! That was steep.

'In 2014, I walked the Nile, from its source to the sea.'

Yeah!

'Now, I'm taking on an even tougher journey.'

HE EXHALES HEAVILY This is hard going.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...

'I'm walking the length...'

It's absolutely phenomenal.

'..of the Himalayas.'

My journey traces the backbone of an entire continent

and covers 1,700 miles, from the western peaks in Afghanistan,

across snow-covered passes and lush tropical foothills.

Past Mount Everest, to end in the mystical kingdom of Bhutan,

where the Himalayas drop into the Tibetan plateau.

It's like a party.

THEY CHEER

'It will take me four million steps to reach my goal.'

Which nutcase came up with this idea?

'So far, I've trekked through three countries...

'to reach Nepal.'

Absolutely mind-blowing.

'When a car I was travelling in crashed...

'..it looked like the expedition was over.

'But, luckily, our lives were saved.

'Now, I must get the walk back on track.'

All right, Binod? Yeah. Let's do this.

'I'll fulfil a promise to an old friend...'

Good to see you.

'..cross one of this region's most beautiful countries...'

Namaste. Namaste.

'..to reach the world's mightiest mountain.'

That is Mount Everest!

I'm out of breath just standing here!

'Six weeks ago, I was in a taxi on a remote mountain road in Nepal.

'With a cliff on one side and a 150-metre drop on the other.

'Our brakes failed.'

MAN SCREAMS

Binod!

'My mate of 14 years, Binod Pariyar, was also in the crash.

'Binod flew home to recuperate with his family...

'..while I came back to the UK for surgery to fix my broken arm.

'After a frustrating five-week recovery,

'the minute I got the all-clear,

'I flew back to Nepal.'

Binod. LEVISON LAUGHS

Come here.

How you doing? Good. And you? OK?

'To my eternal gratitude, Binod has agreed to leave his family again

'to guide me through his homeland.'

Good to see you, man. Yeah, nice to see you, too.

'We're flying back to where we last walked..

'..the district of Rukum in midwest Nepal.'

Our plan is to go back to the crash site.

I think it will do me good to go and see it.

Bit nervous, of course,

but I think it's the best thing that I need to do.

'And for this leg of the journey,

'I have got my camera crew with me.'

It is a bit weird to be sat in a car again,

bouncing around the same road that, you know, almost finished me off.

Was it here?

I remember, we were coming round here. We lost the brakes,

just as we were coming round this bend. Yep.

And immediately, I felt the car speeding up

and I told the driver to hit... to go into there... Yeah.

..and he didn't. He kept going straight.

And at this stage, it was somewhere down here... Yeah.

..that he did hit the side and the car spun around

and then we went off the edge...

..and went straight down there.

Oh, my God.

How on earth did we survive that?

I can't believe just how steep it is. I mean, I knew it was steep,

but looking down there, God only knows how we survived that.

I remember rolling, I don't know, seven, eight, nine, ten times.

It was like being inside a tumble dryer.

That is where we came off the edge.

All the way up there.

You can see the windscreen is just down here. It's still there.

Wow. There it is.

'At the bottom of the ravine,

'we find the mangled car.'

Wow.

All I remember was, like, being here... Yeah.

..and seeing that wheel. That is the only thing I remember.

But how I got from that seat to there

and you were there...

I was here. Yeah. You were next to me.

Yep.

How I get here and...? I don't know. We were both sitting here together.

There's a lot of things

that can't be explained! Yes.

Incredible. Unbelievable.

I feel strange and...

..I feel lucky, also, that we survived.

It's a new life...I guess.

This is the way the guys

who carried us out carried me on a stretcher,

through all this lot.

Wow. Fortunately...

They carried us up here. BLEEP.

No wonder it felt bumpy.

'Ten minutes later,

'we reach Simaretu,

'the closest village to the site of the crash.'

The accident. Accident, yeah.

We appreciate it.

Hello, again! Namaste. How are you?

Good, good! How are you doing?

We had the accident. Yes, yes, I know.

I help you. Did you help carry...? Yes!

Oh, thank you very much!

I help you. I bring you stretcher. You were on the stretcher? Yes!

I have just walked the same way. It is very difficult! Yes. I know.

Thank you very much.

This guy also helped. You were also helping? Yeah.

We appreciate it. Yes.

So many people go and help you. Yes, I know. Thank you very much!

Yeah. How did you know that we had the accident? Did you hear or see?

Ah! So...the sound. The sound. The sound. Sound. Drmmm-bop!

The car come down and over

side of these small houses there. Yeah. And the people is coming down.

"Oh, car accident is there." Yeah. All people go there. I remember.

Very lucky. Very lucky.

I couldn't be more grateful, seriously. You saved our lives. OK.

Thank you very much!

Namaste.

'It's down to the kindness of these people that we are able

'to continue with our expedition.'

Right, back on the road, Binod. Yeah.

Let's do this.

Past the crash site, our first task is to walk 115 miles

to Binod's home town of Pokhara.

From there, we will push 185 miles,

through areas devastated by last April's earthquake.

Past Kathmandu, the largest city on our route,

and, finally, into the eastern wilds beyond.

My doctor told me I'm not allowed to fall over.

HE CHUCKLES

So, in about three or four days, we are going to reach Pokhara.

And that's when we get to be reunited with Binod's family... Yeah.

..after all this time.

They will be so happy.

'We are stepping into one of Nepal's most stunning regions,

'but as we'll discover, it's also one of its most troubled.'

'I'm walking the Himalayas with my old friend, Binod.

'We're trekking to his home in Pokhara.

'En route, we pass through some of Nepal's most fertile land,

'home to rice, corn

'and cannabis.'

This is like 12-feet tall, maybe more.

It just goes all the way down the mountain.

That's all ganja? Yeah, that's all ganja.

HE GIGGLES

Binod, do the goats get high on this?

It's pretty steep.

You wouldn't want to get stoned around here, would you?

'People here depend on these high Himalayan pastures to survive.'

Life is hard.

On the weekends, you see all the kids working.

Young men, girls, carrying these enormous bundles.

Namaste.

Namaste.

I'm never going to complain about my rucksack again.

'For these remote villages, life can be a struggle.

'All it takes is a quick monsoon shower to turn roads into rivers.'

It looks like someone's stuck in the mud, Binod.

It doesn't look like that's going anywhere fast. Yeah.

Namaste. Namaste. How long has this been here?

About two hours. Two hours, really? MEN SHOUT

'Locals rely on this road to transport all their goods.

'At this rate, no-one's going to make it to the market.'

Come on, then, let's go and give 'em a hand.

I have a broken arm. MEN LAUGH AND SHOUT

I'll do my best. MEN CHATTER

Ready?

ALL SHOUT

One arm.

Ready? SHOUTING

I'm not sure this is what the physio had in mind!

ALL SHOUT

'Leading the pull is local trader, Domolana.'

HE SHOUTS

ENGINE REVS

SHOUTING

ENGINE GRINDS

SKIDDING, REVVING

ALL CHEER

LEV LAUGHS

MEN LAUGH AND CLAP

OK, thank you. Thank you.

'As we push east to Pokhara, signs of development start to appear.'

One thing the Nepalis are very good at is building bridges.

And the one up ahead

is the longest in the entire country. Check this out.

344 metres long and 156 metres tall,

the Kusma-Gyadi is the highest footbridge in Nepal.

It's absolutely bonkers.

It's so blumming high.

It's also pretty bloody wobbly.

'30 miles later, Binod's hometown finally appears on the horizon.'

There she is, Pokhara.

Look at the lakeside down there.

I can't believe it's been... What, 14 years?

Long time. A very long time ago.

I remember as a 19-year-old,

this is where I met Binod, down there in Pokhara on the lakeside.

And the place was in turmoil.

The, um... It was when the royal family all got killed.

There was all the strikes and the protesting in the streets.

I remember there was people getting shot and all sorts, wasn't there?

Yeah. It was terrible.

'Binod and I were strangers,

'but he welcomed me into his home to escape the violence.'

It was probably the trip that changed my life, to be honest.

And it's, um... It's the reason I'm back here today,

was because of that....

that journey.

'But once again, I arrive to find Pokhara beset by troubles.'

There's a lot of people queuing for petrol.

'Anti-government protests in southern Nepal have turned violent.

'India claims it's too dangerous to deliver petrol.

'It's caused a national fuel crisis.'

Look at how far this queue is going.

SHOUTING, HORNS HONK

Literally, as far as the eye can see,

is this massive queue of cars and motorbikes,

and they're all trying to get fuel so they can go home.

It's incredible. I've never seen anything like this.

'And Binod spots his mate Ashok stuck in it.'

How you doing? Good? Yeah, good, but we are having a problem, man.

I know, I can see. Yeah, I know. No gasoline.

And, you know, this is a problem of India only.

Really? Really. How long have you been waiting for?

Maybe six, seven hours. Ten hours since been here.

Hmm. Do you think it will finish soon?

We hope so. We love our country, but we'll not...

But we'll not get down. Back off, India!

Thank you, Ashok. Yeah, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.

THEY SPEAK IN NEPALI

Bye-bye.

Well, that was a pretty strong message there.

Mr Ashok was saying that this is all India's fault.

And, hopefully, this fuel shortage will finish soon, because,

bloody hell, they need it.

HORN HONKS

The biggest issue for Nepal is that it's this pretty small country

stuck between two superpowers.

You know, you've got China to the north

and you've got India to the south.

And, unfortunately, Nepal is kind of stuck

between a rock and a hard place.

It's... Yeah, this is a real milestone in the journey for me.

Yeah, it's like a bit of a homecoming in some ways.

Like, I had some dreams that I can, someday, I can meet again to Lev.

Here now, we are.

It's good to be back.

There was nothing on this side before. No, none of this was here.

All of those buildings that you can see there? Didn't exist.

It makes me sound like an old man,

"All this was green fields!" But it was.

I'll tell you one thing that hasn't changed,

it's as steep as I remember!

'We climb 800 metres above Lake Phewa

'to reach Binod's home on Sarangkot Hill.'

I remember coming here 2001 and meeting his wife and his baby.

Now, he's got two more children,

so it's a bit of a family reunion.

Are you excited, Binod? Yes!

I'm really happy that Lev is coming in our...

our...my home,

and after a long time.

BOTH PANT

Namaste.

THEY CHUCKLE

Michel, good to finally see you again after 14 years!

How you doing? Good?

Yeah.

This is Benita. She is my daughter. Benita, hello. How are you? Fine.

Yeah? Good to see you. And you? I'm OK.

And there is Vishwas! Vishwas, hello! Last...last son.

Namaste.

GURGLES

How you doing? Good. Good. Good!

HE LAUGHS

'Eight weeks ago, I doubted we'd ever make it here.'

Welcome to home.

Thank you, Binod.

Hello, Chandra!

Namaste. How are you?

Fine.

Good to see you again.

Good to see you.

Are you OK? We brought Binod back home OK, yeah.

Good to see you.

She want to see the injur...injury.

The injury, who does? Chandra? It's, um...

It's full of... Full of metal.

Yeah? Yeah. No, it's OK.

HE LAUGHS

Aw.

CHANDRA SOBS

Survivor.

It's OK. It's OK. We came back.

Sit down.

It's OK! It's OK!

Oh, I'm just really, really happy to be back.

It really is a dream come true.

RAIN PATTERS, THUNDER RUMBLES

SHE SINGS, CLAPPING IN TIME

LEV LAUGHS

You're going to be dizzy!

HE LAUGHS

Yes, there you go.

You and me? Is this you? That's me, yeah. And that's me.

Yes! Yes!

THEY CHUCKLE

Was so thin! So skinny, I know!

So skinny, and now look at you!

THEY LAUGH

Now I'm fat, yeah. THEY CHUCKLE

I've still got the same shirt!

I had long hair. You had longer hair?

My Himalayan journey has brought me to Binod's home on Sarangkot Hill.

It boasts views of some of Nepal's most beautiful peaks,

including Annapurna, the world's tenth highest mountain.

There you can see Annapurna. That's Machapuchare.

This is the first real decent view I've had of the mountains,

because it's... Up until now, it's been the monsoon.

But I think, finally, the end of the monsoon has come.

So I've already walked for...

Wow, it must be... Well, it's 1,000 miles now from that direction.

And I've got about 600 more to go in that direction.

For much of this trip, we've had the Himalayas all to ourselves.

Today, we're learning to share them with other admirers.

How are you?! Very well.

Are you liking the mountains?

Yes. So beautiful!

It is very beautiful, isn't it?

Where are you from?

Thailand. You are from Australia?

From England. England? Oh.

How long are you here for?

Oh, really? Yes. So you're helping.

For the earthquake or...?

Really? Mm-hmm.

Would you mind if we just...

if you just took one step to the side while we took our group shot?

Yeah, sure.

Sorry!

It's time to get moving, but setting off means saying goodbye.

Take care, mate. Take care. OK.

And I'll see you soon, yeah? I'll come back again.

Thank you very much. Take care.

Namaste. And we'll see you again soon, OK?

Benita, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

From Pokhara, we continue ever eastwards.

We're still 50 miles from the epicentre

of last April's earthquake.

Here, the traditional way of life remains unaffected.

It's like going back in time. We're back to medieval days.

Namaste. Namaste.

We're following the path to a remote village perched high in the hills.

Mipra.

It's home to the Gurung tribe.

OK.

Namaste.

They're known for risking their lives to collect wild honey.

Thank you. Aw, thank you very much.

Namaste. Namaskar.

Ashba Adur

is a tribe elder who's been in the honey game for 50-odd years,

along with his mate, Kamisaki.

So what makes a good honey hunter?

You need to be strong and fit, or what?

I heard the honey is... is, er, hallucinogenic.

Is that true?

OK! I'll take your word for it.

Ash has invited us on a honey hunt, to see how the job's done.

Oh, wow. This is the ladder, hey?

Bloody hell - it's heavy, as well.

Onwards.

THEY SING

This is the first time they've gone out this season,

and you can tell because it's all overgrown.

45 minutes later, we've climbed up to a narrow ledge.

It's barely a metre wide.

This is insane.

I mean, they've got this grass rope that they're now tying up,

which just goes off into oblivion.

For generations, the Gurung have braved this

deathly 100-metre drop in search of liquid Himalayan gold.

With my dodgy arm, I can't take part.

Though, I'll admit, I'm secretly relieved.

Instead, the guys doing the hard work are Rajkumar

and Min Bahadur.

Have you done this many times before?

So you're not scared?

What are you scared of? Falling or the bees?

Are the bees gonna start getting really pissed off

when we throw that ladder off?

Everywhere? Yeah, everywhere.

OK.

And these boys are all saying we need to get out of here now,

so we're gonna go down and watch it from the bottom.

So there's four guys on the ladder now.

Erm, the guy at the bottom's got, erm, a...

a basket that's, sort of, smoking away.

That's, erm, that's what they smoke the bees out with.

All the bees are coming out now.

You can see them buzzing around. Millions of 'em.

He's right in the danger zone.

It must be absolutely terrifying.

Min and Raj are about to perform the most delicate part of the job.

They must pierce the circular hive, thread a cord through

and detach it in one piece, without dropping it.

That's absolutely incredible.

The length they go to to get some honey.

Mind-blowing. Absolutely mind-blowing.

But the bees have their eye on revenge.

Binod's been stung. Is it painful? Right on his cheek.

Stung?

Stung, by bees, on here. Yeah.

Binod took one for the team. Thanks, Binod.

You're welcome!

Everyone's taking a breather on the way back down.

And there's some dubious-looking milky liquid being

handed around, which smells suspiciously like home-brew.

Is this... This is wine, is it?

All right.

HE COUGHS

THEY LAUGH

Ashba Adur, thank you.

So is this... Is this... Is this a good amount of honey?

Not even one litre? No.

Narimiya Gurung

is a retired midwife, and a bit of a honey connoisseur.

Narimiya's special honey comes from poisonous rhododendron nectar.

I think I'll try today's catch instead.

There's still a lot of bees crawling around on that.

Mmm, it's tasty. What is all that stuff?

Pollen. This is pollen?

Yeah. So you eat the pollen?

Yeah. It's very tasty and it's very, erm, good for, erm...

that kind of guy who is suffering from gastro, you know.

That kind of guy that's suffering from gastro? OK.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Farting.

Yeah.

The Gurung believe a spirit lives in the Himalayas, who must be

repaid for taking its honey, so after a hunt they make an offering.

THEY LAUGH

So this is the puja. This is the ceremony.

Everyone that's been involved...

Everyone that's been involved in the honey hunt gets given a...

like, a necklace.

Er, just a little bit for me.

'Then the Gurung drink their home-brewed roxy,

'as a remedy for bee stings.'

Three, OK.

BOTH COUNT: ..two, three.

It's like the bottomless cup.

It's never... You literally can't drink it fast enough.

'With everybody well-oiled, the party kicks off.'

MUSIC AND SINGING

The roxy's certainly helping with Binod's bee sting.

Binod and I have been hunting wild honey with the Gurung tribe.

But now, we must bid farewell.

Thank you.

Namaste. Namaste. Namaste.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye. Bye-bye.

The next 90 miles of our journey draws into an area hit by last

April's earthquake, on our way to Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

Soon, signs emerge of the worst natural disaster to hit this

country in 80 years.

The closer we get to central Nepal,

the closer we get to the epicentre of the April earthquake.

And, er, that says it all.

That's the World Food Programme distribution centre.

And I guess that's where they bring the supplies in country

before distributing it out into the villages.

Nepal is one of the world's poorest countries.

The quake left over 8,000 people dead, 21,000 injured,

and 2.5 million homeless.

All of this area was really badly affected.

Even the buildings that you think look OK

have got big cracks down them.

The town of Manakamana lies on the edge of the region

hit by the earthquake.

Yet all that remains of its 17th-century temple is

a photo and some scaffolding.

Not much left of this place, either.

Namaste.

So, was this your house?

This one was your house, the one that's completely destroyed?

Completely destroyed.

Rajindra Shrestha and his mum

now live next door to what was their home.

Wow. This is just completely smashed, isn't it?

Where were you when it happened?

Mmm. I know the feeling.

THEY LAUGH

Namaskar. How are you?

So this is your house?

It's incredible that you're still alive.

You're Indian Army, ah. British Army.

You're supposed to be very strong soldiers. Is that right?

Namaste.

Six months on, and many Nepalese are still waiting for help.

The next morning, we should be on our way to Kathmandu,

but I've got a problem.

This is going to hurt.

My arm's playing up.

As you can see there, the, um, the stitching has actually come apart.

And, er, it's kind of burst a bit.

And it's now a little bit infected.

It's really painful when I try and carry a bag.

But I don't have time to hang around -

I've got to press on and hope it improves.

Though the pain in my arm's not letting up.

Well, the scab just isn't healing.

Um, and I'm wearing a shirt and obviously it just rubs it.

It's just making it worse, so I need to just leave out to air.

And the only way I can do that

is by cutting the arms off this shirt

and looking like an '80s rocker.

You want to be Bon Jovi?

That's one of the greatest singers of all time.

Can you sing a song?

I don't have my air guitar with me.

I left it behind.

A day's walk east, we finally reach the biggest

city in the Himalayas - the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu.

But the fuel crisis has turned its highways into car parks.

This is the main route - in fact, the only route to get

into Kathmandu from the west,

and, as you can see, it's total chaos.

Nothing's barely moved for hours.

Some people are queuing up for fuel.

Others are trying to get out of the city to go back to the villages.

They really do have the patience of a saint.

Namaste. Namaste.

Hello, how are you? Fine.

Yeah? Where are you going?

Terai. How many... How long on the bus?

One day, up there, on top?

I think it'll be two days just to leave Kathmandu.

It's... There's a big queue there. Good luck.

Swayambhunath Temple lies in the heart of the city.

And the monkeys who live here have the best view

of this incredible place.

Welcome to Kathmandu.

For you, I have to say welcome to Kathmandu. Thank you.

It's the city I've being looking forward to getting to for months

and months and months.

I've finally made it.

And somewhere down there, we might find a decent beer.

Nepal's capital is the Himalayas' most popular tourist destination,

but Kathmandu is suffering damage of a different kind after the quake.

This is the first time I've seen Kathmandu this quiet.

Um, you know, there's a few people about -

a few tourists - but not many.

As you can see, there's barely any cars on the road.

But, um, the tourism industry has been absolutely devastated

this year because of the earthquake.

Mountaineering shops like this are normally bustling.

Namaste. Namaste. How you doing? You all right? I'm fine. Good.

A one-stop shop for everything. Yes! How's business?

Could be better. Could be better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I bet.

So are people still coming to climb Everest?

Well, Everest has always been a magnet.

Before I arrived in Kathmandu, I had visions of the whole city

just completely flattened. But that's what...

You know, that's kind of what we've seen on the news, and, um...

550. Cheers. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, sir. Nice meeting you.

really good to meet you. Thank you very much.

And good luck with the next tourist season. I hope it improves.

Yeah. Thank you very much. Take care.

Mount Everest isn't on the Trans-Himalayan route.

It's 60 miles to the north-east, on the Tibetan border,

but I can't come all this way and miss it.

We're leaving Kathmandu and walking 60 miles to the town of Charikot.

From there, we'll hitch a lift to get one of the greatest views

of the world's tallest mountain.

We're treating ourselves to a first-class ride

up to the very best vantage point.

We've taken off from Charikot and we're going to fly all the way

up to the Everest National Park, and hopefully land on Kala Patthar,

which is a hill with the best view of Everest.

I cannot wait!

There it is, right there in the middle.

That is Mount Everest.

That one there.

And to come up here and see it so close really is a dream come true.

It's absolutely phenomenal.

Here we are right in the middle of the Himalayas.

Everest has captured my imagination ever since I was a boy.

Now, I'm truly in awe of the mightiest mountain on earth.

All those peaks up there are above 8,000 metres.

HE LAUGHS

Wow!

Do you want to go and climb Everest now?

Climb Everest? Yeah. Maybe another day. Another day.

I'm out of breath just standing here.

Top of the world, isn't it? Incredible.

'Next time, we discover a mystical kingdom...'

Wow, that is nuts!

'..of unusual beliefs...'

Yeti, up there?

'..and untouched peaks...'

There's no wimping out now.

'..where the gods give a warning...'

You should be careful.

Well, that doesn't bode well, does it?

'..as we push to our journey's end.'

1,000 metres, it's going to be hell.

Subtitles by Ericsson