While you’ve been happily watching nature take its swift and violent course in David Attenborough‘s hotly anticipated documentary ‘Planet Earth II‘ – from the safety and comfort of your couch, no less – you’ve probably never spared a thought for the people risking life and limb to get you that legitimately insane footage.
But the (shocking) truth is, cameramen & women had to spend months travelling to remote locations to get those sweet shots of lion attacks, Medusa-like snake pits, and sloths goin’ for a leisurely swim. (Etc.)
Like a wise professor once said, going into the tall grass can be dangerous. Six producers from the doco have now shared their most hair-raising tales with The Guardian, and the one from Australian biologist and filmmaker Dr Chadden Hunter is absolutely wild.
He told the publication that he was deep in the Okavango Delta in Botswana (on a three-month mission to film an exceptionally badass pride of lions known as ‘Swamp Cats‘), heading down the river, when his tiny dinghy became stuck on reeds in hippo-and-crocodile infested waters.
From The Guardian:
Local cameraman Brad Bestelink said he could get us to the heart of the action in his lightweight boat. After hours of winding through narrow channels surrounded by towering reeds, our dinghy got stuck in the vegetation. Not a big problem usually – but we soon noticed we were surrounded by grumpy hippos.
“Don’t get too close,” warned Brad. “Hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal, and they snapped my last boat in half.” As we waited for them to move off, we were eaten alive by so many mosquitos it was a relief to get out of the boat and sink into armpit-deep black water.
We pushed the boat above our heads, while our legs underwater were getting slashed to ribbons by sword-grass. Then Brad surprised me. He told me to take my shoes off.
“With shoes on you’ll step on a crocodile and press down without knowing. It’ll take your leg off!” The look on my face demanded more explanation. “With bare feet”, he went on, “you can feel a crocodile’s skin and yank your leg out of the way.”
We gingerly pushed the boat on into the night, as long dark shapes lurched out of our way in the inky water. I’ve never paid more attention to every footstep.
The story ends happily for everyone involved (except for the lions, which failed to kill the buffalo and probably starved): Dr Hunter did not step on any crocodiles, nor was he chomped to death by a hungry, hungry hippo, and the BBC scored its necessary footage.
Honestly, go and have a read of all the stories here.
Photo: BBC.
