All language subtitles for The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd s02e04 Unusual Places.eng

[intense music]

- Imagine a pristine
valley in Canada

where visitors tend
to lose their heads.

- [Dr. Hakeem] This is
dangerous territory.

- A search party goes
looking for the men.

- And for the fourth
time, there's no head.

- Or an island filled
with adorable monkeys

carrying a not so
adorable surprise.

- It's possibly the highest
concentration of herpes B

in the entire nation.

- While it is extremely rare,
it is also extremely fatal.

- How about a waterfall
that spews blood?

- It is a jarring,
almost biblical scene.

Those who witness it don't
even make it back alive.

- These are the
places so unusual,

they are truly unbelievable.

[intense music]

[intense music continues]

Death Valley, California,

Purgatory, Colorado,

Devil's Pass, Alaska,
some far-flung locations

carry names so ominous
you'd never dare visit.

But one remote valley in Canada

boasts a title so terrifying,

it's got them all beat,

not just because it's gruesome,

but because it actually lives
up to the hype of its name.

[daunting music]

- In the Nahanni National Park

in northwest Canada,
there's a 200-mile gorge,

referred to as

the Valley of the Headless Men.

- [Dan] No picturesque
metaphors here.

The Valley of Headless Men
earns its name

starting back
in the early 1900s.

[tense music]

- Most of us associate
the gold rush

with San Francisco or Deadwood,

but by the late 19th,
early 20th century,

if you wanted to go
prospecting in the wilderness,

you had to work a little
harder to find it.

[suspenseful music]

- People who had been in
the gold rush in California

start pouring into Canada.

- They're going out into

the vast reaches of
the Canadian wilderness.

There's no stores
here, no hospitals.

This is dangerous territory.

[tense music]

- [Dan] In 1904, two brothers,

Willie and Frank McLeod,

are among those looking
for their fortune

in the remote
Northern Territories.

- The McLeod brothers know
they're gonna be venturing out

much farther than
other prospectors.

So they stock up on supplies
like flour, rifle cartridges.

Then they jump into their canoe

and they paddle down
in Nahanni River.

[tense music]

- The conditions
are extremely harsh.

Grizzly bears and wolves,

sub-zero temperatures
even during the day.

There's many dangers.

- [Dan] While camped out
in the nether regions

of the Canadian wilderness,

the prospector's
family doesn't expect

regular communication.

But when two years go
by without any word,

their loved ones fear the worst.

- Willie and Frank's
older brother, Charlie,

pulls together a search party

and goes looking for the men

in their last known
camping location.

[dramatic music]

In 1908,

he finds
his brothers dead

on the banks of
the Nahanni River.

They are fully clothed,

a few personal effects
are scattered around them,

but what's truly strange is

both bodies are
missing their heads.

Naturally, Charlie is
convinced of foul play,

but Canada's Royal Mounted
Police are not so sure.

- Canadian Mounted
Police have a theory that,

in fact, the brothers
probably died of starvation

and then after the fact,

scavenger animals came
and removed the heads.

- This story is full
of holes though.

It's unlikely that both brothers

would've starved to
death at the same place

and the same time.

- And also it just
seems unlikely

that if the bodies were found
by wolves or grizzly bears,

the animals would make
off with just the heads

of both bodies.

- [Dan] Another
strange theory arises.

It might have been a warning
to other potential prospectors.

- Throughout history,
beheadings are very symbolic.

Putting a severed head on a pike

is a clear message to
outlaws and intruders.

So it's very unusual that in
this case the head is missing.

- [Dan] Could a local
legend provide any insight?

[curious music]

- The Dene people settled in
the region 8,000 years ago,

but they never put
encampments or settlements

in this particular valley.

What do they fear?

- Tribal folklore
tells of a race

of man-eating giants,
called the Nakani,

which are said to be twice
as tall as an ordinary man.

They consume human
flesh, so the lore goes,

and they hunt in the valley.

- [Dan] Still, the
case remains unsolved

and appears to be an
isolated incident.

Until 1917.

[intense music]

- A Swiss prospector
named Martin Jorgenson

appears to strike gold.

He sends a letter back
home to his family saying,

"I found it, I'm rich."

- But shortly after
he sends this letter,

he too is found dead
next to his cabin

which has been
burned to the ground.

His body's found
among the ashes.

Once again, there's no head.

- [Dan] Three headless men
found in the same remote place

a decade apart?

Plenty to earn the nickname
Valley of the Headless Men.

Sadly, the mysterious
headhunting isn't over.

[dramatic somber music]

- Decades later in 1945,

there's a body found
in a sleeping bag,

and for the fourth
time, there's no head.

This is thought to be the
body of a missing minor

named Ernest Savard.

Here's the strange thing,

gold mining has been
going on in Canada

for decades across vast regions.

So it's unusual that it's
only this one little tiny area

that there are missing heads.

Whether you believe these
deaths are the result

of some sort of
legend or folklore,

or maybe animal attacks
or rival prospectors,

simple fact is they remain
a mystery until today.

- Not all mysterious locations

have such colorful
macabre names,

but there's one small body of
water in Central New Jersey

that sounds adorable,

Round Valley Reservoir.

But its strange history
is anything but.

[tense music]

- If you look at other
infamous locations

like the Bermuda Triangle or the
Dragon's Sea, these are deep,

expansive natural locations
with erratic weather.

What's weird about Round Valley

is that it's comparatively
tiny and man-made.

- [Dan] For what
it lacks in size,

it more than makes up for
in strange disappearances,

earning the nickname
the New Jersey Triangle.

[suspicious music]

- The longest unsolved
disappearance dates back to

May 4th, 1973, when two men,

Thomas Trimblett
and Christopher Zajaczkowski,

are fishing on the reservoir
in a 12-foot aluminum boat.

- A few days later, the
boat is found capsized

on the eastern shore
of the reservoir.

There's two life
preservers, an oar,

and a broken fishing rod.

And no sign of bodies.

- [Dan] And this is
just the first chapter

in this very disturbing mystery.

- A few years go by.

It's now March of 1977,

and Craig Stier and
Andrew Fasanella

are out on the reservoir
enjoying themselves,

in their canoe rowing.

- They're last seen
paddling their canoe

on the north side heading east.

- And they just disappear.

[dramatic music]

- Just like the
previous incident,

their canoe and camping gear
is discovered on the shore

a few days later.

The authorities send divers
in almost immediately.

They search the area,

and they find no bodies.

[dramatic music]

- Andrew's father is determined
to find his son's remains.

And he appeals to the
New Jersey State Police,

and they have access to a
privately owned submarine

and they bring that
to the reservoir.

[tense music]

- Unfortunately,
they find no bodies.

And this is a
man-made reservoir.

These are fairly
calm conditions.

You're not dealing
with ocean squalls,

or massive waves, or
great white sharks.

[tense music]

- Another decade goes by.

We're now 1989,

John Kubu and Andrew Lawson,

they take a fishing boat
out onto the reservoir.

They again go to
the eastern side.

- [Dan] You can probably
guess how this ends.

- We're on our third time now.

All of their items
are accounted for,

they're camping
gear, you name it,

but they're nowhere to be found.

It's the same pattern
again and again.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Conventional
searches turn up no signs of

any bodies that have gone
missing over the past 15 years.

But in 1993, some hungry
fishermen catch something

that finally sheds some light

on this cold case.

- It's the remains
of Albert Lawson.

The remains that a
submarine could not find

have been caught by fishermen.

John Kubu, his friend,
still nowhere to be found.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] This break
leads to a full-scale

search effort in 2006,

when authorities take advantage
of unusually low water levels.

- A team of state police, FBI,

and Bergen County sheriff's
officers, fan out

on foot and in boats, all across
the 180-foot-deep reservoir.

They even bring in another
state-of-the-art submarine.

- And yet with all this
technology, all this attention,

all these people focused
on this objective,

they find nothing.

- [Dan] Six years later, another
unexpected clue surfaces.

- In 2012, a fisherman's hook
catches on something heavy

that doesn't resist
like a fish would.

And he reels it in.

There is a massive boot
on the end of that line.

He takes a closer look inside,

and there is what looks like
bones and decayed human flesh.

- Unfortunately, due
to the amount of time

that the foot has
spent underwater,

authorities are unable
to use it to determine

any kind of connection
to the missing bodies.

As of today, the New Jersey
Triangle has claimed 26 lives

and at least six bodies
remain undiscovered.

[suspenseful music]

[eerie music]

- As far as the mysterious foot,

that might not belong

to any of the Jersey
Triangle's official victims.

to any of the Jersey
Triangle's official victims.

At just 50 to 100 miles from
Newark or Atlantic City,

a deep lake is a
very convenient place

to dump inconvenient people.

That foot could be anybody's.

- Every day, a half million
people jam onto the 405 freeway

in Los Angeles just to sit in
the world's most brutal traffic.

I'm sure none of these
poor tortured commuters

could even imagine a place

where daily travel offers
stunning mountain views

and a decent upper arm workout.

If that sounds good to you,

and you don't mind the chance
of plummeting to your death,

you might wanna start job
hunting in Los Pinos, Colombia.

[curious music]

- There's an area 60 miles south
of Bogota, Columbia, and it's

some of the most beautiful sites
of terrain you've ever seen.

Mountains, valleys, rivers.

Nestled there is the
tiny village of Los Pinos

in the Rionegro valley.

- It is extremely remote.

It is a 2 1/2-hour hike to
the neighboring village,

where you can buy
supplies or go to work,

or where the kids
can go to school.

- But for the last five decades,

locals have figured out
a way to cut that commute

down to a fraction of the time.

- Each day, hundreds
of residents

zipline 1,200 feet
above the ravine below,

speeding along a
2,500-foot steel cable.

- Not surprisingly,
accidents do happen there.

Routinely, people break arms
and legs from crash landings.

- [Dan] Some might
call it risky,

and the 22 people killed
doing it might agree.

But that's not keeping the
rest of this town

from hopping on the zip line
to get groceries, visit family,

and most often send
their kids to school.

- I lecture my
kids to wear a helmet

if they so much as ride
a block on a bicycle,

but it shows that you
care about education

if you send your kids
down a zip line to get one.

- Obviously, most
places in the world

would forbid busing toddlers
to school by zip line,

but the more remote you are,

the more you get to
make your own rules,

like one unbelievably tiny
place with big ambition.

- 6 1/2 miles off
the coast of England

is a tiny platform about 60
feet off of the ocean surface.

It looks like, from a distance,
maybe that it's an oil rig.

- This small little speck,

about the size of maybe
two tennis courts,

is the Principality of Sealand.

Does the United Kingdom,
the United States,

or the United Nations recognize
this small little micronation?

No, but its royal family
and small number of citizens

have fought fiercely for
Sealand's independence.

[tense music]

- [Dan] Before asserting
its itty-bitty independence,

Sealand served as an
anti-aircraft post

during World War II.

There were three others like
it called Maunsell Forts.

- Their job was to
shoot out of the sky

German Luftwaffe bombers.

[dramatic music]

And they were pretty successful.

They shot down 22 enemy
aircraft and 30 V-1 rockets.

- [Dan] After the war ends,
the battered British servicemen

leave the post to return to
their families back home,

all except one.

- He's a retired major
named Patrick Roy Bates.

And he and his family take
up permanent residence

on one of these platforms.

- [Dan] Roy isn't just making
this a vacation home getaway.

His grand vision, to
make this tiny fort

an independent and free nation.

- The reason he's
able to do this

is that at this point
a nation sovereignty

ends at about three nautical
miles out from the coast.

So these forts that have
been built 6 1/2 miles out

puts it beyond the reach
of the United Kingdom.

That puts Roy in
a position to say,

"This is out in
international waters."

- [Dan] That might tell
us how this retired major

claimed this former
fortress for his own,

but it doesn't tell us why.

The answer is pretty unexpected.

- One of Bates' motivations

is that he is a
World War II veteran.

He has fought against fascism,

and now 20 years later
in the mid-1960s,

he is disgusted with the
way the British government

is repressing freedom of
expression, freedom of speech,

and even different
kinds of music.

- He's dealing with a country
that, because of the Cold War,

censors popular culture.

And from his platform

just outside of the
international limit,

he will broadcast a
pirate radio station.

- Patrick sees the possibilities

beyond just setting up
a pirate radio station.

If he's successful in
creating his own micronation,

that means creating
his own constitution,

issuing his own currency.

The possibilities
really are endless.

- The British government
is not happy with Bates,

and they jam his radio station.

Bates resists this, and in 1967

decides that he
is going to formally announce

the sovereign independence
of this nation.

And he names it the
Principality of Sealand.

[dramatic music]

And he gives himself
the title of prince

and his wife the
title of princess.

- This is truly a
slap in the face

to the British government.

To show Roy and his family
that they mean business,

the government has
the British Royal Navy

go out and destroy the
other three Maunsell Forts.

- [Dan] The Bates family is
unfazed by this show of force,

so the British Navy tries
a more direct approach.

- The British government
decides to send a message

by sailing around
the Sealand platform,

harassing the family.

- Roy's 16-year-old
son, Michael Bates,

fires a .22 caliber pistol shot

[gun firing]

down at the boat as a warning.

That does not sit well with
the British Royal Navy.

- [Dan] You'd think civilian
firing upon the British Navy

in broad daylight would
be an open-and-shut case,

but the proceedings take
an unbelievable turn.

- Michael discharged this gun
outside of UK jurisdiction.

Meaning that they
can't pursue it.

- The showdown with
the Crown government

tracks the attention
of a German businessman

named Alexander Achenbach.

He sees potential for
an offshore enclave

where money can be parked
with no questions asked,

with no taxes being levied.

- Achenbach decides
to reach out to Roy

to talk to him about possibly
becoming a citizen of Sealand,

maybe even buying
the whole place.

And he invites them to meet
him in Austria to discuss it.

But this is all a trick

because while the prince
and princess of Sealand

are on their way to Austria,

Achenbach is flying a helicopter

full of German and
Dutch mercenaries

to go invade Sealand
while they're gone.

- So Achenbach takes the
Bates son, Michael, hostage

and declares himself to be
the prime minister of Sealand.

This may be the smallest
coup in recorded history.

- [Dan] The coup may be small,

but they're messing
with the wrong monarch.

- Let's remember that Achenbach

is a businessman and a scientist

and Roy is a retired major.

- Bates organizes his own force,

which flies in and air
assaults onto Sealand

using helicopters.

- Most of Achenbach's men flee.

However, Roy manages to take
Achenbach as a prisoner.

- [Dan] Bates
allows his prisoner

the proverbial one phone
call while in custody

to contact the German
embassy in London.

This is where things take
another strange turn.

- The German officials contact
their British counterparts,

and the British officials say,

"We don't have any
jurisdiction there,

so you're on your own."

Now the German government

has to negotiate with this
tiny little micronation

over the release of
a German citizen.

- Incredibly, this coup d'etat
only further demonstrates

the viability and reality
of Roy's principality.

- Today, Sealand, like
any other country,

has its own currency
featuring the royal family,

its own stamps, even
its own constitution.

They can also stamp your
passport when you visit.

Though be warned, there's
not a single decent hotel.

- Tourist attractions come in
many forms, places of

natural splendor,
sacred spiritual meaning,

or deep historical significance.

So it seems odd that one
isolated plane in Missouri

would draw people
by the thousands,

even though what's beneath it

would send most people
running for their lives.

[tense music]

- In Weldon Springs, Missouri,
you'll find this

sloping hill, that's
covered in gray stones.

It's very brutalistic
in its aesthetic.

- 16,000 people a year

come to walk in what looks
like a massive rock garden.

The huge scale of it produces

this calm, meditative state.

- [Dan] What is the name of this
curious monument, you may ask

This is known locally as the
Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail,

which sounds way more
fun than it should.

[dramatic music]

- Beneath these rocks
and encased in concrete

is a million and
a half cubic yards

of asbestos, mercury,
radioactive uranium,

and other toxic byproducts of
Cold War era nuclear weapons.

This is the former site
of an explosives factory.

The Department of Energy now
uses this land as a dump.

It's carefully engineered

to safely contain
these nasty products,

but it's a dump.

And now it's also a
tourist attraction.

[somber music]

- Coming here and seeing
this 17,000-acre space

gives you some sense of how huge

the world's nuclear
arsenal must be.

I mean, this is
just for leftovers.

- So an odd meditative thought

that one might have
walking on this trail

is that humanity has the
capacity to wipe itself out

a number of times over

and to contemplate
and think about

the close calls where
we've nearly unleashed

that incredible
arsenal on ourselves.

[explosion booming]

- What's more toxic than
a tourist attraction

with a radioactive half-life?

How about an island
of dirty monkeys?

[dramatic music]

- It is 1930s Florida, and a

tour boat operator
named Colonel Tooey

takes people on a boat ride
around a small man-made island

in Silver Springs, Florida.

But business isn't great.

- He needs a gimmick.

He needs something
to increase interest.

His genius marketing strategy,

release 6 rhesus macaque
monkeys on the island.

So word will spread about
the tour on the island

and the sightings of
rare animals it provides.

[monkeys screeching]

- The rhesus macaque is not
indigenous to North America.

They shouldn't even be here.

[tense music]

- [Dan] But that doesn't stop
Colonel Tooey from setting them

loose in Silver Springs Park

and inviting the
world to come see.

- The monkeys are
very resourceful.

Macaques can survive
in any conditions.

And what do monkeys do well?

Procreate.

They make a lot more monkeys.

[monkeys screeching]

- Eventually, the
monkey population in

Silver Springs State Park
explodes to over 300.

[monkeys screeching]

And tourists come out
in droves to snap photos

[camera shutter clicking]

of these cute little monkeys.

[camera shutter clicking]

But before you snap
that monkey photo,

there's one thing
you might wanna know.

[monkeys screeching]

- Rhesus macaques are common
carriers of the herpes B virus.

In monkeys, it causes little
more than a cold sore,

but in people, it causes

high fevers and brain swelling.

- Since 1932, there really
have only been about 50 cases,

but of those 50 cases, 21 died.

So while it is extremely rare,
it is also extremely fatal.

- [Dan] It's also
very contagious here.

With hundreds of
monkeys running wild,

the possibility of
transmission is high.

- Even if you're not
trying to make contact,

the monkeys have been known
to get territorial and attack.

They look cute and cuddly,

but they can be very aggressive.

[monkeys screeching]

The lack of awareness
about this place

is a dangerous factor.

People like to think, "Oh,
this is a special place where

I can see monkeys," rather than,

"It's possibly the
highest concentration of

Herpes B in the entire nation."

[monkeys screeching]

[upbeat classical music]

- I'm speaking for myself here,

but if I know there is a place

where my chances of contracting
Herpes B from a feral monkey

are, say, any higher
than absolutely 0%,

I'm not going there.

- Grave sites serve to
memorialize those who've passed,

but there's one in France meant
to honor a World War I hero

that actually holds the
remains of something else.

- We all know of
General George S. Patton's

storied career in World War II,

but well before
he was a general,

he was stationed in France
at the end of World War I.

- In 1917, he's Captain
George S. Patton.

And he's assigned
to the Tank Corps

of the American
Expeditionary Force

stationed in Bourg, France.

[tense music]

- This is where tank
crews are trained

before they head to the front.

So, to avoid any
enemy surveillance

of this new technology,

they're stationed far
from the front lines.

- Even though these
soldiers are operating

very high-tech machinery,

the camp itself was
very hastily assembled.

And it's very, very sparse.

There's no running
water, there's no heat.

And for bathroom facilities,

basically they have
just a huge open latrine

that's dug at the back
end of this encampment.

[intense music]

- [Dan] The summer and
fall of 1918 sees some of

the most intense fighting

of an already long
and brutal war.

[dramatic music]

Patton is sent to the front
lines in order to pack up

and shut down Bourg's
tank training facility.

- Just as they're ready to get
these tanks out to the front,

the mayor of Bourg
approaches George Patton.

And he's distraught.

- Patton hears the mayor saying,

"Oh, I'm so sorry that
you lost this soldier.

Oh, what a complete shame
that this man was lost

not in battle, but in training."

And Patton's first thought is,
"What are you talking about?"

- So the mayor takes Patton
to the rear of the camp

and to a, what appears to be,

a freshly filled
rectangular hole

on which is a cross that
reads "Abandoned Rear."

- The mayor thinks that this
is the name of a dead soldier

who's buried under
that pile of dirt.

- [Dan] It is not the
final resting place

of a fallen soldier,

although you could
call it a rest stop.

- It absolutely makes sense

why this would look like
a grave to the mayor,

but this is just a
filled in latrine.

George Patton, he says
absolutely nothing to the mayor.

Patton knows that
this mayor has seen

so many young
Frenchmen already die.

And now he sees these Americans

who are willing to give their
lives for France effectively.

And out of charity, Patton
doesn't have it in him

to embarrass the
mayor in this moment.

[dramatic music]

- During World War II,
Patton's once again in France

and he decides to take a
little detour to visit Bourg.

- And Patton sees a man
who looks pretty familiar,

and he asks him, "Were you
here during the last war?"

It's the former mayor of the
town, and he says,

"Yes, General Patton,

I was here and so were you.

Back then, you were, of
course, Captain Patton."

- [Dan] Then their reunion
takes a strange turn

when Patton is brought over
to a very unusual memorial.

- The site of the
covered latrine

where he stood with
the weeping mayor

during the last world war

is now an actual
historic grave site.

The locals had decorated
it in honor of the man

they thought had died
in the training camp.

- We know this story because

Patton wrote about it
in his diary

that this great American hero,

Abandoned Rear, was now

the subject of a permanent
memorial in the town of Bourg.

- And he writes about how he
never told them the truth and

that he will never
share this with anyone.

And we probably never
would've found out

had he not been killed in
that tragic car accident.

And then his diary
gets published,

and so the world knows the
truth about Abandoned Rear.

- Even after all
Patton had seen,

this grave site dedicated
to the Abandoned Rear

has got to be one of the most
unbelievable places

the general had ever been.

- Nestled between 2 mountain
ranges in Romania is a place

many locals have long avoided

for fear of the terrifying
secrets hiding within.

[intriguing music]

- Hoia Baciu is a
very ancient forest.

The whole place looks
like it's something

out of a dark fairy tale.

[ominous music]

[ominous music continues]
[birds chirping]

- You don't think of
trees as inspiring fear,

but when you look at these
eerie growth patterns

of the trunks and branches,

it leads you to wonder
that something unnatural

might be happening here.

- [Dan] Incidentally,
this happens to be in the

Transylvania region of Romania.

Perhaps you've heard of it.

- Because of its presence

in over a century of
literature and film,

Transylvania is
forever locked in

as the center of vampires
and horror stories,

and writers did not choose
it randomly as a setting.

- [Dan] Dating back to
the Neolithic period,

the forest holds a very
long and rich history.

- Settlement in Hoia Baciu

goes back to about 6500 BC,

making it one of
the most ancient

settlement sites in Europe,

arguably older than
Stonehenge itself.

[tense music]

- In the late 1400s,
the area to the south

was controlled by
Vlad the Impaler.

This was a famously violent time

that a mass killing would've
happened in these woods

is certainly not
out of the question.

But there's early folklore

about it being
haunted by the souls

of murdered peasants
from long ago.

- Legend has it that Hoia Baciu

is named after a young shepherd

who, along with his 200 sheep,

went missing in the forest.

And there were no remains,

whether human or
animal, ever found.

- Another story tells
of a five-year-old girl

who wanders into the
forest and gets lost.

And just like the
shepherd and the flock,

she completely vanishes.

Then five years
later, she shows up,

and seemingly unaged.

Obviously, the difference
between a child

from the age of 5 to 10
would be significant,

but she looks exactly the same.

- [Dan] Centuries later, in 1960

the forest gains
international attention

for an otherworldly reason.

- Alexandru Sift, a biologist
who is working in the area,

notices some strange
activity in the skies

of what he believes is a UFO.

- [Dan] But he is
not the only one

to see these
mysterious sightings.

- In 1968, another UFO sighting

is reported by a military
technician named Emil Barnea

who takes photographs
of strange objects

hovering above the forest.

There's now a record

of two people with
technical backgrounds

reporting sightings and
capturing photographs.

[dramatic music]

- The communist government

considered any sort
of paranormal report

to be either complete
hogwash or state sabotage.

Barnea actually loses his job

after he makes these
sightings public.

- In addition to
the UFO sightings,

Emil Barnea's photographs

also point to an area of the
forest known as the clearing.

It's an enormous area
where nothing grows.

There isn't any apparent
anomaly in the soil

and there's no explanation
for why the clearing

is barren of trees
and other vegetation.

- What is widely known as
the mysterious clearing

and the haunting
shape of the trees

make the Hoia Baciu Forest
unlike anywhere else on earth.

Now it is the absence
of trees except for one

that gives this next location

in the otherwise
barren Sahara Desert

its unusual appearance.

[suspenseful music]

- When you look at
the Tree of Tenere,

you're looking at
the only sign of life

in what is this vast desert
wasteland of the Sahara.

It is legitimately the
only living vegetation

for 250 miles in all directions.

[dramatic music]

- The Tree of Tenere

is regarded as the most
isolated tree on the planet.

- If you're traveling
from sub-Saharan regions

through Niger to Morocco,

this is one of the few landmarks

that lets people
know where they are

and that they're
on the right path.

It's like a lighthouse
on a sea of sand.

- [Dan] But it wasn't
always this bare.

- Many thousands of years ago,

this area was lush and tropical.

We see rock art of
giraffes and hippos,

indicating that it was a
much more lush, rainy area

than the desert
that we see today.

- [Dan] Starting
about 6,500 years ago,

weather patterns changed

to turn this area into
the desert it is today.

- For over 300 years,

this tree has an
incredibly rough life.

It has to dig down
deep into the soil

to be able to get what
little water is down there

to survive.

- [Dan] But in 1973,

this over 300 year old
survivor meets its match.

- In a region where there
are very few obstacles,

one drunk driver

manages to plow
right into the tree.

[tires screeching]

[car crashes]

[subtle music]

- If you were sober and knew
exactly where this tree was,

finding it and hitting it at
night would still be difficult.

The fact that this
guy was drunk and lost

and just happened to
hit it by accident

is almost impressive.

- The remains of the tree
are taken to the

National Museum of Niger

where they built sort
of a monument to it.

- That's a strange
place unto itself.

I mean, this is one of
the few tombs in the world

built for a tree.

[tense music]

- Some humans are born with
a thirst for knowledge and a

passion for risky exploration.

The Antarctic tundra is full
of skeletons that prove it.

But one discovery by a group

of early 20th century
scientists is so strange,

it might have had them
wishing they'd stayed home.

[tense music]

- We're in Antarctica,

and there is a race to
get to the South Pole

between the Norwegians
and the British.

The British have
Robert Falcon Scott,

one of the greatest
explorers of all time.

As part of his party,

he has a geographer
by the name of Taylor.

- Taylor is in this
valley in Antarctica,

and he finds something
pretty unbelievable.

- Emerging from the glacier

is a five-story frozen waterfall

of deep red.

- This is something
that you definitely find

in the Book of Revelations.

- It really stands out.

The entire landscape is
blanketed in white snow.

And there's this
waterfall that looks like

hundreds of gallons
of blood pouring down.

So you've gotta wonder,
"What is the cause of this?"

- It is an extraordinarily
rare sight.

Not only are these
the first Western eyes

that have ever seen this
extraordinary sight,

but five of those who witness
it don't even make it back

alive from the expedition.

- Thomas Griffith
Taylor does make it home

and is one of the few
people who has seen

the blood waterfall
with his own eyes.

- [Dan] Through the years,

scientists worked
to finally uncover

the secret of the falls.

- The mystery of Blood Falls

leads scientists to
discover the source of

the water, a lake of salty brine

buried deep beneath
the glacier itself.

But why red?

The primary suspect is algae.

There are many
species of red algae

that can bloom in
numbers high enough

to stain waterways red.

But when they look at
the samples,

there's no algae present.

- [Dan] It's not blood,
but something far stranger

and almost otherworldly.

- This briny lake has
been cut off and trapped

by the glacier
for over a million years,

but amazingly,
it's full of life.

A community of microorganisms

has evolved there in
complete darkness,

taking their energy
not from sunlight,

but from minerals dissolved
in the water itself,

including iron.

Iron provides color,

but the brine is not
red beneath the ice.

It only turns red when
it oxidizes at the falls,

when it mixes with air.

- Blood Falls is an
unbelievable natural phenomenon,

perhaps only to be outdone by
an unusual lake in Venezuela.

Whoever coined the phrase

"lightning doesn't strike
in the same place twice"

clearly has never
visited Lake Maracaibo.

[tense music]

- In 1499,

the Italian navigator
Amerigo Vespucci,

when he first reaches
South America,

encounters this strange
lake, Lake Maracaibo.

And he sees on this lake
a floating city of huts.

And he calls this city
Venezuela or Little Venice.

- Today, Lake Maracaibo

supports the livelihood
of about 20,000 fishermen,

many of whom still live
on these small tin shacks

that sit on stilts
above the lake.

- [Dan] This city on the water

also happens to get
struck by lightning

more than any other
place on Earth.

[thunder roaring]

- Right where the
Catatumbo River

empties into South
America's largest lake,

lightning storms rage for
up to 10 hours a night,

almost 300 nights a year.

[thunder roaring]

- The footage of this
place might remind a person

of some sort of
Hollywood special effect,

but it's altogether real.

[thunder roaring]

- [Dan] Throughout history,
this lightning has also provided

a strategic advantage
to the locals.

- In 1597, when Sir Francis
Drake tries to sneak attack,

the light from the constant
barrage of lightning

actually uncovers his attack

and the inhabitants are
able to fight him off.

- In 1823,

during Venezuela's war of
independence against Spain,

Spanish ships attempt to
descend on the settlement

under cover of night.

But again, they're given
away by lightning storms,

and Simon Bolivar's
makeshift navy

is able to drive them off.

- [Dan] What exactly
is attracting lightning

to this location specifically?

- In order to get lightning
storms in the United States,

we generally need to have severe
thunderstorms that are

created when cold air comes down

from Canada, and it meets

nice moist air coming up

from the Gulf of Mexico.

But here in Lake Maracaibo,

the conditions are constant.

Every night, we have this battle

of moist air meeting dry air,

and it creates a
constant thunderstorm.

- The area receives thousands
of strikes per night

and about 1.6 million per year.

This wins it the
Guinness World Record

for the location with
the highest concentration

of lightning on Earth.

[thunder roars]

- Here in Lake Maracaibo,

recently, a group of
researchers discovered

an entirely new
kind of lightning,

a lightning that we
call dark lightning.

[thunder roaring]

It's a flash of gamma rays.

The same kind of radiation

that transformed Bruce
Banner into the Hulk

is the kind of radiation
that we first identified

here in Lake Maracaibo
before we found it out

anywhere else in the planet.

- Despite the frequent storms,

I'd advise against
bringing an umbrella,

especially if it's metal.

[upbeat music]

We visited the world's
tiniest nation,

and met some very
infectious monkeys,

celebrated parks built
on nuclear waste,

and monuments dedicated
to human waste.

All proof in the end

that our planet is
home to some places

that are truly unbelievable.

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