Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11850 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-01
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 360 minutes

Synopsis
Features five episodes from the second series of the popular survival programme. In 'Birch Bark Canoe' Ray learns and demonstrates how to craft a birch bark canoe. Also features: 'Canoe Journey', 'America', 'Sweden' and 'Four Seasons'.

Customer Reviews

Part man, part beaver
All of the episodes on series 2 are wonderful. Just wonderful. And the extras are superb. Filmed on location, they'll have you itching to make a cedar match-box. But, in a sea of utter wonderfulness, two episodes stand out in particular. Those being "Four Seasons" (episode 5) and, most of all, "Birch Bark Canoe" (episode 1). In Four Seasons, Ray Mears takes us through British countryside and shows us how indescribably beautiful it is whatever the weather. What really stands out with this episode are his absolute pride in British nature, and his absolute respect for it.

As he tramples around in the mud and crunchy leaves, he sounds like a man in love as he says "...this is why I still live here to this day..." Given this is someone who has seen every corner of this earth - lived in it, breathed it, adapted to it, even - it speaks to the beauty of Britain that this is the only place he could call home.

It's perhaps a little peculiar to feel a sense of national pride regarding our countryside, but I defy anyone not to when looking at the episode's soaring, sweeping aerial shots of all parts of Britain, during all seasons. Breath-taking. In this same episode, he shows us just how in love with nature he is; how he cares for its well-being, and feels we are in a relationship with it.

In early March, he fashions a shank and a funnel, and sticks it in a Birch tree in order to gather its sap overnight. It does so (a whole bucket-full, no less!) and of course there's a hole left in the trunk. At this point, he lovingly creates a plug to prevent the tree from bleeding to death, and to prevent infection. That one sentence made me catch my breath some: it had never before really occurred to me that a tree can bleed to death, or get infected. It so eloquently shows that trees are living creatures, susceptible to many of the same dangers as us. It profoundly affected my perception of nature, and my appreciation of it. In his own words: "having taken this gift from nature, I need to fulfill my end of the bargain." Nature looks after us, and it is our responsibility to look after it right back. No other programme has made that quite so abundantly clear.

But the absolute highlight of this series is episode 1, where he travels to Canada to learn how to build a Birch bark canoe. Am conscious about writing too much, but it's impossible to be brief when discussing the sheer excellence of this 60-minutes of tv.

He meets with Pinnock Smith, a native Algonquin who is an expert in making Birch bark canoes. (Not that he paddles. Ray discovering that is a lovely moment...) Over the space of 9 days, they build - from absolute scratch - an entire canoe. No measuring tools, no drills or saws or nails. Just an axe and a crook knife, along with birch bark, cedar and roots for cord. Nothing else, at all. It's incomprehensible, and the logistics of it are mind-boggling, but we are witness to their making it, and what a journey it is.

They are creating it on the bank of a lake, on lush grass, surrounded by lush trees, with bird song, and the sound of gentle waves in the background and it's nothing short of inspirational. A lovely part of it is seeing the friendship develop between Ray and Pinnock. The latter, initially, is reserved and somewhat unsure, but as the episode progresses, they start to joke more and laugh more, and it's so nice to watch. They clearly hold each other in enormously high esteem; they recognise each other's integrity and enthusiasm and by the end of it, they have clearly been through something together, and it's genuinely heart-warming.

Slowly, they build this beautiful craft. They hurt all over, and the tedium *must* have been dreadful at times, but at no point does the enthusiasm waver. The passion they both exude is infectious, and it's what makes them carry on despite their hands being in agony and the exhaustion and the weariness. There are no complaints, though. They split wood endlessly, shape wood endlessly, stitch wood endlessly, all by hand, with simple tools - we can't even imagine how intensive and painful it would be. But they keep going, slogging away at it, for the love of it and it's just wonderful to watch.

Pinnock talks about his peoples' history, and how they are fast losing much of their culture. He explains how 60 years ago, it would have been peculiar not to know how to build a canoe. Canoes were woven into the very fabric of the Algonquin culture, history and race. They invented them, travelled in them, *lived* in them. Birch bark canoes were their everything. He goes on to explain with great sadness that he's now the only person actively making them. It's a terrible loss, and Ray Mears' passion for it will hopefully re-ignite, or ignite, that passion in others.

But what's so fundamentally special about this episode is its serenity and peace. There is a brief storm, with hail the size of pennies, and even that in no way detracts from its inherent feeling of stillness. The sun is shining, the breeze is rustling the leaves, and the lake is lazy and slow - it's absolutely beautiful. If I'm ever having trouble sleeping, I put this on, and it lulls me to sleep. Not because it's in any way soporific or boring - it's not. It's absolutely fascinating. But it's just so gentle, and somehow, it quietens your soul.

We don't live in a very nice world. It all seems to have gone terribly wrong, and terribly scary and loud. In the hour you're watching Ray and Pinnock build this canoe, you'll be taken away from the world's ugliness entirely. You'll be taken to the bank of a lake where the breeze is soft, where the water is gentle and where nothing bad could ever happen.

Beautiful.

Ray Mears - Bushcraft survival series 2
Brilliant DVD you could watch time and time again, recommended for antone who loves bushcraft/great outdoors. Watching a birchbark canoe being built is fascinating. A great DVD

I sooo wish I could afford to buy this....
I would dearly love to afford to purchase this DVD, but at £46.50 I cannot. I have never seen a DVD so highly priced. I would need to know much more what areas it covers before buying.