Walking Alone in the Wilderness: A Story of Survival (Part 3) | Nat Geo Live

So on my foraging journey, I met this one. It's pure sugar. Imagine, when you are out there, starving, and suddenly there is sugar. In the middle of that little thing there, you've got little insects. The insects build a little house, and inside is pure sugar.

Other tricks, you can use a lot of things, including water plant, lotus plant, and not all of them are edible, and not all of them are edible raw. Some of them, you cook them, they lose the toxicity. You really have to know what you're doing. And this is the knowledge, by the way, coming from the Aboriginal people only. It's not my knowledge. This is only from the knowledge of those 60,000 years they've been living there.

And sometimes, when you are there, I wondering, I'm never wondering why I'm out there, I'm wondering what is out there. Because, I have to make a confession to you guys. I still don't know why I'm walking. Imagine. I've ran all around the planet, once. It's a lot of walking. And I still don't know. We don't always have to know. We don't always have to know things. But the reality, it's not what you think, it's what you feel. What you feel's right for you, you must do.

This is a really good day. This is like a, foof, five-star, top left corner, we've got a little wood house, it's like a tumor in one type of eucalyptus. We've got a little hole in the middle. Inside, we've got a soft shell, like really soft soft shell, and it's like a little bed, and inside the bed you've got insect, little grubs. And you chuck that in a fire, cook a little bit, when the smokes get out of the little hole, it's cooked, you can eat the bugs and the bed. Lovely.

Top, red thing called dog balls. Really sweet and powerful vitamin C, really difficult to find, really rare, grow in a really high grass. You really have to have an eye for this one. Really happy to find it because that will cut my hunger at night. On the right corner, we've got some really, we call that wild peach. Doesn't taste like a peach at all. It's really sour, but I like to have that in my mouth, to make my mouth watering during the day.

And finally, the main five-star food, will help me along the way a lot, it's this one. This is the boab nut. The boab nut comes from the boab tree, and this tree teaches me so much. So, this is amazing takeaway food. See this fruit? This is the boab nut, and inside, you've got what I can eat. It's a lot of work, always, involving that process.

So you have to smash the little powder thing inside, you will find 15 to 20 little nuts. And then, those nuts, you have to roast them, on a fire, but not too hot. You have to make a fire, take the fire away, and roast it under hot sand. And then only, you can smash it between two stones, and start to eat the little white meat inside. So it's a lot of process and work, but, really good news, right? Food that actually I can carry with me. This is amazing thing. Really powerful food, also.

Typical afternoon, in my house. End of the day, after really hot day because I have to say it's really hot, and during this time, because you've got two different times when you can do this. It's during the wet season, or the dry season. I decided to do the dry season thing. More easy, right? But that was also the bushfire season, so I will have this pressure constantly, of having my nose in the wind all the time to smell what's going on in the air, because if there's a bushfire coming in, you need to react straight away, knowing that a bushfire goes 40 kilometers an hour, it's really fast.

So typically there, I've got this flat stone here, and I will be smashing the boab nuts on the stone. That's all I will eat. And, of course, fishing. Well, those water there, they are salty water. Brackish, as they call that in Australia. So they are tidal water. On the bottom you've got the sweet water, on the top you've got the salt water.

So if you want to drink some water, you need to wait when the tide goes down, and only you can drink water. So, that's also tricky, for fishing. Because depend of the tide, you've got the type of fish in it or not. So, you kind of happy to have a fish, right? So let me tell you a story about that fish. This fish, it toxic. You've got this little back fin here, on the spine. If you touch that, not long to live. That's why I put a piece of wood in its mouth, like that.

So the first fish, I'm an excellent fisherwoman, really excellent, because I grew up, we were going, not on holiday, we were going fishing with my father, or my brother. So I'm good at this. So the first fish that I actually took, was like a kid, this fish was jumping out of the water, I would be like so happy! I can still see this fish jumping out. So then later the next thing I hear was like, splash. Crocodile gets it. I was like, really?! How I'm going to do these thing? I'm doing all the work, and they're going to eat all, what?! Not on my watch!

So there's always a solution, right? I been thinking a little bit, I'm going to get you guys. I noticed that I was doing it, the more I was doing a little noise on top of the water. More they're attracted to the noise, right? So I will do that. And then, on purpose, I would retrieve my stuff, and get to my second point, 150 meters away, and fish really quietly here. And grab my fish, and go back to my point and say, haha, got one (laughs).

But, I'm always a fair player, because I will always share my food. This is the rule in the bush, this is the rule with nature, I always share my food. So I will cut the fish, take the guts out, cut the head, and I will give it to those amazing friends of mine, which is the sweetwater crocodiles. How cute they are! They're looking at you! You can't not fall in love with those things. And they are so patient, and they are there waiting, and you give them something, like little puppy really. They become my friend and my soulmate out there.

There was nobody, no human, no sign of human, only snakes, crocodiles. And them... So, once I get the fish, you have to still to cook the fish, so the best way to cook a fish, and be able to eat all of the meat, is to cook in the water, simple like that. And interestingly, I had some salt and pepper with me, never use it. I love the taste of the food, of the fiber, of nature.

So sometimes, when you are there, I had a chance to wash myself. Imagine. So, this is a natural soap. It's one extremity of a eucalyptus tree. So, I took this, and if you smash it between your hands, in the water, it's got the saturation and saponin, it's actually like a soap. It's amazing, makes your hair so shiny, and really works, really.

And the good thing also about this trick, it's if you are in a small billabong, you can actually do that in the water, and that will make a saturation of oxygen in the water, and the fish living there will come up in the surface, with the tummy up, looking for oxygen. You just have to collect your dinner. Thanks to the Aboriginal people. So when you are there like that, you can wash, but not like here. One day it's the left foot, another day it's the right one.

A little bit after, anyway, in my country, a good cheese is a smelly cheese. So, back to the action. This is a typical camp. Things always two knife, you notice? In case if I forgot one. Or in case if I lose one in an emergency. But I will never sleep near the water. It's the last thing you have to do. I will actually stay there, the water is just not far off, collect my food, fishing, then that day I noticed some tracks on the sand. I saw there was some dingos around.

So, rather than giving the inside guts of the fish to the crocodile, I will leave it on the side, cause I know that will be little four legs friend coming to get it. Anyway, I finish my day, eat, collect everything, walk off, because those crocodiles can actually put their legs up and walk five kilometers inland, so you better know where you're sleeping. Pretty high up, right?

There was this typical thing up there, where crocodiles eat German people. What happened, those German people get drunk, and they are feeling really powerful, and they kind of sleep near the water, thinking, you know, you're not going to get me here, 20 meters from the water. They sleep in the tent, completely drunk. The crocodiles come at night, take the bottom of the tent, and withdraw the tent, get in the water, and turn the tent, and the guy is inside the tent half-drunk, and he's going to do spin, washing machine spin, and he doesn't know what's going on, until he's dead.

So, all those stories, I was aware of. So, really every single night, I would go in safe spot. And so what does it mean, a safe spot? Where to go? Where to find my way? So I will study those topographic map forever. This is my skills, I'm so good with maps. Good all maps, you know. Good compass, good on maps, all I need.

Well this map, it's actually dated 1972. Because the government doesn't do any new map from there, there is no need. So, but the mountains doesn't move. So, I will study those forever, because the secret is there. You have to listen to the landscape, to be. If you want to find water, you need to be the water. If I was the water, if I was the stream, where I will go? You have to imagine.

If you want to find a fish, you need to be the fish. Because you need to get in touch with who we are inside, and inside, all of us here, the magical news that I've got tonight, that we are animals. We are mammals after all. Half of it. And the good thing about it, is we can get in touch with that animality. That would help us a lot during everyday life. I use that a lot.

I smell, if I come near you and I start smelling you, don't worry too much, right? Really, we've got senses. You know, the communication between two human beings, it's only 7% on the conversation, on words. The rest, it's invisible. The rest is smell, attitude, feeling. We use our senses, we don't realize at all, and out there, is the only thing you can do, get in touch with your animality.

And when you're starving, I remember, in the Gobi Desert, there's a precious moment where after six months of walking, sweating, painful body. I wake up, open my tent, I'm in the Gobi, there's nothing around me. Only sand, wind, and type of rocky thing. Nothing too exciting. Open the thing, and suddenly that day, I was like a little ice cube, melting in the sand, and I become the wind, the sand, the rocks. I become one with nature.

I believe today, it's why I'm actually walking. Is to get this link, this touch, with who we are. This touch with where we've got the feet on, we are on this planet, all of us. We do not have boundaries, we belong to this planet. This is the magic of it. Well, it's really good diet. After three weeks I lose 12 kilogram. It's quite quick, fast.

Really, walking 12 hours a day, trying to catch my food, it was quite, really a difficult task. But, that was not to forget my determination in this journey. How we can be so determined, how we can go for a dream that bad? Well, there is no recipe. Because, the currency: sweat, pain, but happiness, yes, happiness, fun, sense of humor, do not forget your sense of humor, is the most important thing you will have with you, all your life.

That's what I've got in my survival kit. First, when people ask me, what you've got in your surviving kit? I say, "my sense of humor, do not walk out of the door" "without it." So because you need it, see. When you've got this kind of terrain to cross, this is a swamp. I need to cross that swamp, and on the bottom of that swamp, there is water. Big hole in some places.

And inside those holes, you've got crocodiles. And snakes, falling from the tree. And, big wild bull, frozen bull not moving, hearing you moving through those dry Pandanus leaves. See, the floor is full of those Pandanus leaves. Dry ones, so whatever you're doing, you're making too much noise. They hear you coming in. It's like playing a little bit with the life you've got.

So you have to trust something, in one stage. You have to trust, in your capability of melting with nature. Because I know I'm in the right spot. I know that what I'm doing, it's where I'm supposed to be. And this is the only way to understand nature. If every one of us here tonight, know where they belong to, it's a magical step to take.

So, I was in this building before I leave for this expedition. Talking with the senior photographer editor here, and she was saying to me, well, Sarah, you don't want video crew with you. Can you just do one concession? Imagine if I give you a photographer, like a few days. Imagine, six days before the end of your journey, I get the photographer on location, and photographer follow you.

I was, you know, like concession a little bit, you have to be flexible a little bit. I say, okay, let's do this, on one condition. Has to be a cute male photographer. Imagine, I'm out there for so long, and she say, okay, I do my best. Helicopter arrive, and this is the person who walk out. I do not know what this woman didn't understand about the cute photographer. That was a woman!

And I can see this woman walking off the chopper, the helicopter, say hi, I'm Krystle. I look at her and say, you're not a man. She was a bit shocked. She had a little bit briefing before, knowing that I'm not going to be that easy to work with. And anyway, we go on this amazing trip. She was unbelievable, all the crazy pictures you saw, amazing picture, that's come from her, her name is Krystle Wright, she's amazing photographer, National Geographic photographer.

And on the top of it, she played a game. She's been really foraging for her own food, also. She knows all about bush tracker by now. And when, when we walked together, at night, we exhausted, really. We make a little fire for the sake of it, really. Boil some hot water, I'll be starving going to bed, counting the days like, four days to go.

But at the end of the day, when the light is off in her little tent, because I would have my little tent, she would have her little tent, the night is quiet, I would hear some (crinkling), wrapping paper going on. Like, what?! Darling? What's going on? Oh, you don't want to know. No, I do want to know. Talk to me, at least talk to me, I can't handle this. I want to know. Curiosity, it's not one of my fortes, I need to know. Talk to me!

She said, "okay." "Flatbread with tuna." Because, it was, of course she would bring food with her. She's working. And so, every night we would have this little game going on at night. To my little, I was like, okay, three days to go, Sarah, you can do this. Every night was getting more difficult, I was getting more starving. And one night, I hear this unusual noise. Looks like a jar, plastic jar thing. Yeah.

And I say, okay. New, this is new, right? She said, no, no no, no. No yeah, that's new. I never heard it. And she couldn't speak pretty much, she had something in her mouth. And I was like, what is it? Mm, nothing. (loud chewing) Nothing really. I said, talk to me. It's Nutella. She was eating Nutella with a spoon, seriously.

Anyway, she tested my power inside me, and we will make joke about it during the journey. She will wait, really, at the end of the day, to actually eat something in her tent, not tempting me or not be eating in front of me. So the magic of those journey, the magical way of walking through this planet, been doing this for 23 years. I walked basically everywhere.

What I can take out with me, If I have to take one phrase out, will be this one. Let your soul touch the earth. Go walking. Because this is the most beautiful thing we can do. Get this connection with the planet. And, feel connected, to the universe, and have faith on what we are, as a species, in this planet. Because we are all connected, that we want it or not.

We are this spiderweb of people connected to each other. And only thing we can do is really understand this connection, that we've got with each other on the planet. And start to look after her, because after all, the planet doesn't need us. We need the planet.

And this is my arrow, my mom, my cute little mom, she will support me all through my childhood, my adult life, and she was this really smart soul. She would say to me, Sarah, do you want to do your homework, or clean your room? Well, I had the choice, right? So she's been this really smart, incredible mom, supporting me.

And she doesn't know a word in English. She doesn't travel at all. But, she will be there, on location, in every expedition I will finish. She'll be there for me. And on the left, it's my assistant, slash cousin, all the family's involved in my expedition. And one day, I did the last bit, the last step.

And this looked like this. There is this heart, inside me, will take me out there walking again, and again, and again, and again. Because I've been doing this for 23 years. I know, this really strange feeling, which is like a link with nature, a direct connection with nature that I've got, I know I will follow that pain again, to go back again, to nature, with my two feet. Because I believe humans can get along with nature again. Thank you very much. (applause)