- Hi, I'm Les Stroud, host and creator of Beyond Survival.

Within the scope of filming this series, I circled the globe eight times in 10 months, I was never not in a state of jet lag, to embed myself with cultures who still either live close to the earth, or engage in practices meant to keep their connection to the earth.

It was a chance to stretch my own skills and beliefs beyond what I knew, beyond survival.

In many cases, I had to come to these cultures in a state of humility, offering a gift and seeking permission to take part in their lives, to experience life as they knew it.

I went in without pretense, without presumption, without agenda, and left myself completely in their care, so that I was open to learning their ways.

Hunting, fishing, eating, sleeping the way that they do.

Sometimes it was modern influenced with much connection to the outside world, and other times it was near primitive.

In all cases, I was challenged both in my own well-honed skillsets of survival and wilderness experience, but also in my own belief system about life itself.

I learned to go beyond the technicalities of hunting and fishing, and shelters and fire, and instead to dig deeper into what it means to be truly connected to the earth in profound ways, to go beyond survival.

It's been an exhausting journey just to get in here, and now we're heading out with the dogs at night to see what we can catch.

It's getting a little crazy, we're heading straight up.

It's just boulders and rocks.

Okay, we're right on top of something, but whether or not we can actually get to it is other story.

- (speaking in foreign language).

- I'm Les Stroud.

I'm in Madagascar on a mission to seek out the true masters of survival.

Some of the last indigenous tribes from around the world.

Before they're gone, before the past is lost, before their world vanishes, I can learn their ways.

(upbeat music) Separated from the coast of East Africa, some 165 million years ago, Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island.

I'm here to learn from two of the tribes on the island, the Antandroy who live on the extreme Southern coast, and the Antanosy who live in the remote interior.

The Antandroy live in huts along the coastline, living life between sand dunes and ocean.

They're strong and tough, but survival is becoming a struggle for the Antandroy, as they battle drought from deforestation and over fishing from illegal fishing boats.

From the water's edge, I'll journey to the South Eastern interior of Madagascar, across rough roads and wet mud to find the Antanosy tribe.

Anatonosy means people of the island.

Invited to live in their rural village, I'll hunt with wild dogs and take part in an ancient tribal tradition of seed reading, performed by local shamans, to learn of the connection between spirituality and survival.

Sometimes it's really hard to appreciate just how remote a group of people can be.

You know, you look at it on a map and as the crow flies, it might look like the difference between, well, one suburb on one side of a city and another suburb on the other side of the same city.

Remoteness is not always measured in miles, and maps don't always truly show how remote culture and a group of people can be.

- [Child] Hello.

- Hello, salama.

First things first, time to visit with the village elders.

Salama.

Hello.

You can start by saying I'm very grateful and I'm honored that they've let me come here to experience some of their lifestyle.

- We are so happy to receive you.

- Okay.

Okay.

Right.

(stick cracking) Okay.

It's my first day with the Antandroy tribe, and their village called Ejijiky.

It's early morning and already the sun is scorching hot.

The winds are strong, and the ocean swells and cresting close to 20 feet.

I can't tell whether this is bait or dinner.

Without fresh water, life jackets, or supplies, we're heading out towards the open sea.

The Antandroy speak a mixture of French combined with their local tribal dialect.

But, in these strong winds, communication will mostly be made by hand gestures.

Their brute physical strength is obvious, and an important and necessary survival tool to navigate the open sea.

This is crazy, I had no idea we were coming right out into the open ocean.

As far as I knew, we were just going beyond the small reef.

These guys are out here, no fear.

We got 20 foot swells, no fear at all.

Out we go.

I can't say I've ever been out in swells this big in a boat this small before.

We've got to paddle in swells past the coral reef to reach the bigger fish in deeper waters.

My job is to cast the homemade fishing line out to the sea and hopefully bring in some bounty.

They have a reason to be wary here, fishermen have drowned in rough waves and unexpected storms.

- (speaking in foreign language).

- As soon as I look down and concentrate on working a line, and trying to get this set up, and even trying to work my camera, I end up getting seasick, go figure.

Okay, so now it's all about not puking and looking like a green horn.

Beneath us, the bounty of the ocean is not what it once was, and these fishermen have to travel for many hours in rough and treacherous seas, just to get to better fishing areas, to simply feed their families.

They don't have TV sets and radios to learn of off shore, illegal fishing by other countries.

They only know their fish are disappearing, and they would much rather see me bring in a good catch, than give in to the inevitable truth, it's getting harder for them to live as they have for thousands of years.

We've only been out here a couple of hours, but the men decide to turn back.

It's been a lot of work and a lot of calories burned with nothing in return, but this is the price of living off the land.

Or, in this case, the open sea.

Disappointed, we returned to the village empty handed.

(sea lapping) (gentle music) It was pretty much a bust, which is the reality of hunting, fishing.

You're never guaranteed anything.

20 foot swells and no luck.

In the evenings, the women will cook, keep the fires going.

The men will start to make things to prepare for fishing, or hunting, or whatever they're doing for the next day, and that's what we're going to do now.

It's just like anything in survival, in the survival of this village, and in the survival of these people, there are slow, tedious things that must be done.

Things like making a fish net.

You know, I've made nets where I've had to untwine old, thick robe to smaller rope, smaller rope, make a net out of that or rope out of it, and it's no different.

It takes a long time.

So, you've got to put your mind to it.

That's how you catch fish later.

Schooling here is almost non-existent, and there's a shortage of teachers.

Children from the village have to walk miles to the nearest school.

Most stay home to learn to live off the sea, feed livestock, and weave nets like their fathers and grandfathers did before that.

The Anatandroy's ability to adapt to a changing external environment is key to their continued survival.

Survival within a small village like this comes down to what have you got within hands reach that you can make use of, that you can get food or water with.

And, I guess unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, plastic is becoming readily available, especially when you're connected to an ocean.

A lot of stuff floats in.

It's a sad comment, but it's also a testament to their tenacity of survival.

As the first night passes, I'll sleep out on a sand dune.

The ocean can always send in a storm, so they feel obliged to teach me how to make my own shelter.

Tomorrow we'll take only a day to build a house.

It's morning time and the village, they had a hurricane come through last year, wiped out a few huts, and they need to rebuild, build new.

For them, what that means is gathering from way out there and they'll go for a long ways with their cows and a little cart and bring back the supplies they need.

They've pretty much done most of that for the building they want to build, I'm going to go out and help them get a last few pieces.

And, we're going to put a hut together, so that I've got a place to sleep.

These people got to get used to just living with sand, in pretty much everything.

It's in everything, it's on everything.

I imagine you don't even notice it anymore.

The bottom of their feet, they don't seem as flattened out, and they don't even look actually as tough and as hardened as a lot of the jungle people that I've spent some time with.

But, nonetheless they step on a lot of spines, so they've gotta be fairly tough.

This is a sisal tree.

You can find it around the world in the Caribbean islands, Brazil, it's even been planted in Florida.

It's fibers are tough and durable when broken down, creating the perfect twine or rope for building the hut.

It's also resistant to deterioration from saltwater, which will protect the family from ocean spray, and stormy weather.

In order to work on the hut, they told me I must be up crack of dawn and meet with them.

Once you start to get around 10 o'clock in the morning, sun's just way too hot.

Then, these people here will stop working, take a break.

There's a reason why the siesta was invented.

Logging of the Madagascar rainforest began heavily in the 1980s, and local tribes feel the effect in the form of drought today.

The lack of rainfall is directly linked to decreased forest cover.

When the baobab trees are cut down.

With no rain and no forest cover to protect the land from strong ocean winds, coastal sand dunes are creeping steadily inland, turning once fertile soil into desert.

This plant is a sisal, and it's...

They grow it in crops all around here and sell it.

Well, not these people, industry does.

There's a massive sisal farm.

Okay?

Okay.

Not far from here.

And, they wiped out what was originally a massive forest of baobab trees to make the farm.

I'm on the extreme Southern coast of Madagascar, living and learning from the Antandroy people.

It's only mid morning, but already the sun is scorching hot.

We've gathered all the materials needed to make a new hut for me to sleep in the village.

Construction is simple, but we have to hurry to get it done before we get hit by the heat midday.

We'll construct it right here on the beach, and after I leave, a family of four, or even six, will use this hut as their coastal home.

Classic carpenter, smoke in the mouth, working away on the joint.

The Madagascar coastline can be pummeled by strong winds, sudden cyclones, and even hurricanes.

So, the foundation has to be dug deep for strength.

Never dug a foundation by hand before.

It seems like every man in the village has come to help put up the hut.

You know what happens when you get too many carpenters?

It's always interesting to me to see that every society, except perhaps my own, tends to have a community approach to building someone a home, even for an outsider like me.

That's a hammer.

Definitely the apprentice today.

I'm surprised they're not sending me just to go grab the nails.

But, there would be no nails in this hut.

Simple bindings and lashings, as well as snug fitting pieces of wood, are all that's needed to make a home on this remote ocean coastline.

The heat for all of us is getting extremely intense, even for these guys.

They don't like building in the middle of the day.

You got the roof, it's just about done.

Work a little bit longer on it and then finish it off when it cools off a little bit, I got to stop or I'm gonna get heat stroke, that's intensely hot.

A few more hours of work, some cloud cover rolls in, and a new Antandroy house is complete.

Yeah, that looks awesome.

So, we're closed in, I know we're not watertight yet, but bit of luck, it won't rain tonight.

Let's check it out.

Oh yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Would taken them, you know, probably a week or two, or more, to gather all the materials, hiking far.

But, with a bunch of guys on hand, one day and you got a little mini hut.

To them, a house.

That's going to be awesome.

Well, the roof's not leak proof just yet, but, (inaudible) lots of clouds coming in and hopefully it won't rain tonight.

In this heat, the rain would be very cool.

All right, time to celebrate.

(singing in foreign language) A new hut is not completed until there's a celebration, and the entire village gathers to honor the men's hard work during the day.

The people of Madagascar are known around the globe for their musical nature, cheerful songs, and dance troops.

Not only used as entertainment, their songs tell the stories of their unique tribal history, passed down from generation to generation.

One way to keep the culture alive.

(singing in foreign language) It's morning.

It's actually not a bad night's sleep in here at all.

It's nice and quiet, waves lull you to sleep.

There's people stretched out, asleep on the sand, some are in their huts, some of them outside.

Kids just playing around, just slowly waking up.

The bugs aren't bad at all, there's no seemingly no biting bugs.

There's a lot of malaria here, except in the last couple of minutes, I've been inundated with flies, but otherwise, kind of a slow, easy morning here.

No surprise to see that people just sleep out under the stars here, there's no point sleeping in the huts, except in the morning the flies seem to come on, that's when the bugs come out.

But, I was bitten by nothing all night long.

I actually was in my hut for a good part of the night, and then came outside and just slept outside under the stars.

Just more breeze, a little nicer feeling.

The moisture here seems to never stop.

One of my cameras completely filled up with moisture, even though it seems so much like a desert here.

It's just constantly humid, you're constantly covered with sand, there's sand in everything, there's sand in their food, there's sand all over the place all the time.

I guess you get used to it.

If you took the Sam Bushman and combined them with the ocean and a life mostly based on the ocean, I think you end up with these people, the Antandroy of Madagascar.

Very many similarities.

The land here is harsh, it's hot, it's not extremely fertile, around them are the fridges of modern civilization, encroaching in all the time, yet they're on the doorstep of the ocean and a bountiful harvest of lobster, fish, crabs, that sort of thing.

This is a strange element of survival here, really is a bit of a hybrid.

Harsh desert environment, bountiful, beautiful ocean.

The two come together, and that's where these Antandroy survive.

The village of Ejijiky has a widely spread out population of 16,000, with only 2% claiming any employment.

For most young men, fishing is the only way to earn an income.

For these people's survival, it's definitely a community affair.

One person's good at one thing, one person's good at another thing, but they've got to come together as groups if you're going to survive in a village like this, if you're going to survive at all out in harsh environments.

They all work together, whether it's building a hut, or getting out and net fishing.

The Antandroy make every tool by hand, even their net making tools.

They learn alone, or with friends, starting around 15 or 16 years of age.

Most young men also work a second job as a farmer.

To fish or cultivate land are the only two options.

Here we're carving a tool called a (inaudible), used to wind in and cast out a fishing line.

(upbeat music) Oh, okay.

Oh, okay.

(inaudible) all right.

Whew, done.

Now, we just have to make a net, which is only going to take two weeks, and then we can go fishing.

I'm on the remote Southern coast of Madagascar.

I'm with the Antandroy people, preparing to go fishing by free diving.

They don't have access to just buying snorkels and things.

They make snorkels, and masks, and flippers, out of just garbage found on the beach.

Beaches everywhere in the world, garbage, especially plastic and rubber, is strewn upon it, and they make use of it to build items for survival, like snorkels.

With fish populations decreasing, the men must dive deeper and deeper to make a catch.

Making dive masks, which they call masky, is an example of their ability to adapt to the encroaching, modern civilization.

In some ways it's got to seem like easy pickings for them to find rubber and plastic along the shoreline, and be able to manufacture it into things that they can use.

It's a lot easier than hiking for many, many miles, and having to dig out roots and make rope out of plants.

Life on the ocean, and survival on the ocean, is always easier than deeper inland.

The ocean has been giving up bounty for thousands of years.

First, it was natural bounty.

Now, it's unnatural bounty.

It's still usable.

Positive bent on a sad story, I guess.

(man laughing) Really?

He did that fast, there you go.

That's working the rubber with the hot knife.

All right, time to go use it.

The Antandroy's method of fishing with the net requires strong swimming skills, deep lungs, and a lot of luck.

A phrase among fishermen here is, "It depends on the sea."

And, asking for the luck and grace of the gods is a common local tradition.

Running the net out to its full length, we paddle beyond the break wall of reef, and set anchor.

Jumping in the water, we swim another 75 yards and slap the water to scare the fish towards the net.

Next, we free dive 20 to 40 feet down, to scare the marine life out of the coral and weeds on the ocean floor.

The Antandroy fishermen know where to find, and how to target, different species of ocean life.

Whether it's fish, sea urchins, snails, crabs, or sharks, each species requires a different method and tool.

But, lobster is the most valuable catch.

We got two of these guys.

Two lobsters.

That's the reality of fishing.

You just never know what kind of luck you're going to have, or if you're going to have any luck at all.

In this case, spent a bit of time putting the net out, a couple of men using the boat, diving down, it's a lot of calories expended, but we wound up with two of these babies.

So it's a sweet deal today.

Sometimes, it's nothing.

These are nasty little spikes here.

You gotta be really careful how you catch these things, 'cause they'll spike right into your hand.

There are fewer and fewer lobster to catch, and a few thousand mouths to feed.

It took five men, 200 yards of fishing net, and two hours of calorie burning effort, just for this tiny catch, and this won't change after I leave this place, I know this looks like fantastic survival, and it is, but the reality is on this side of the sand dunes, life is harsh, it's a desert.

On that side of the sand dunes is the ocean, and it can be bountiful.

The Antandroy are both metaphorically and literally living between two worlds.

With the ocean supplies dwindling, and their farmlands turning to sand, their future is uncertain, yet they still make time to just be human and express themselves.

I would have thought that there'd be no problem with working out steam with this kind of lifestyle, this kind of survival.

But, they've asked me to join them this morning because apparently they have other ways of working off steam.

This is Ringa, an ancient wrestling custom that pits man against man in a friendly but serious competition of physical strength and skill.

Participants have been known to walk up to two days from outlying villages to compete for the winning prize of local currency or goods.

And, with that prize, the winner could purchase better fishing tools, or badly needed medical supplies, usually for malaria.

(crowd cheering) (upbeat music) The big thing about the match is the taunting.

A wrestler announces his chosen opponent by giving them a scarf to tie around his waist, and then the taunting goes back and forth until it's time to enter the ring.

The object then, is to get the opponent on his back.

It's a simple challenge of strength and agility, and I wasn't going to get away with just spectating.

The largest and strongest of the Ejijiky villagers challenges me to show him what I'm made of.

(crowd cheering) The heat hasn't taken so much out of me that I can't give him a ride for his money.

I may be smiling, but I mean as much business as he does.

(crowd cheering) Customs like these tell me much about the nature of the Antandroy people.

Maintaining enthusiasm, and a friendly competitive spirit, while surrounded by a harsh landscape and adversity, all the while facing an uncertain future.

(upbeat music)