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Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild Season 5 Episodes
Season 5 Episode Guide
8 Episodes 2016 - 2016
Episode 1
North Cascades, Washington State, USA
45 mins
*Ben stays several winter days in a Washington state forest with British woman Lynx, who decided after a rough camping in the Swedish forest to leave modern life and imitate cave man lifestyle in harmony with nature. She has a well-equipped modern lodge but reserves that for visitors, forsaking contemporary comforts. Most of the year she's alone, except for paying holiday 'pupils' in summer, and occasional visits form her adult daughter who mostly lived with her father since the divorce when she was a toddler. Ben admires her self-reliance and varied skills, including archery, finding participating in chores hard and tiresome, deserving her rare treat, a self-built open air hot-tub (in modern metal), before spending a night in a jointly built snow bricks shelter.
Episode 2
Ruaha National Park, Tanzania
45 mins
Ben is in the Tanzanian Ruaha wildlife reserve with Andrew 'Moli' Molinaro from Yorkshire who was raised in Africa and his California-born wife Noelle. They left the urban rat race to organize safaris for tourists. Nature is exciting but spectacularly dangerous, a river flood literally wiped out all they built up in five years, but the couple remains eager to start over nearly from scratch, living nearby dangerous animals like crocodiles and hippos, even taking 'calcuated' risks with lions and elephants, as sensible Ben experiences shaking in his boots.
Episode 3
Gadacs, Hungary
45 mins
In 2015, Briton Gareth Shone and his Anglo-South African wife, society college drop-out Julia Pryke, who met in Sweden, bought a derelict farmhouse in rural Hungary via Internet they never saw before. Ben lives with them for a week, helping them to install a window and assist them in buying chickens at a local market which Gareth must bring himself to kill. Even harder is facing a first-ever visit from her posh socialite mother, who can't grasp her daughter reversed her social promotion back to a living standard below grandmother's. They already nearly exhausted meager savings and have no plan, relying on Gareth's handyman skills and welcoming locals, especially friendly neighbor József.
Episode 4
Selkirk Mountains, British Columbia, Canada
45 mins
Ben flies to Vancouver and drives 11 hours in British Columbia to spend part of the spring low-season with a couple which built practically from scratch and runs from their grand main house a surprisingly comfortable wood cabins resort for eco-tourists in the Selkirk Mountains. Julius Strauss was a fearless war correspondent, who resigned with PTTS and found his Estonia Reuters handler, Kristin, prepared to marry after dumping their EU spouses and start a new life in the Canadian wild. Ben admires on a private tour Julius's achievements as handyman, tracking point and grizzly bear spotting guide, and sympathizes with his fury over lost busies and utter waste, even from an economical viewpoint, when cheap hunting permits kill bears and turn others shy for a long season.
Episode 5
Ibiza, Mediterranean Island
45 mins
Ben must travel only shortly, off the touristic coasts of Balearic party island Ibiza, to the more pristine interior. There, the secluded valley of Casita Verde, Ben enjoys the retreated life of former British Merchant Navy radio officer Chris Dews. In contrast to this series' typical recluses, he didn't abandon most modern comforts but built a semi-simple, semi-luxurious yet environment-friendly modern commune, sort of seeking best of both worlds.
Episode 6
Khatgal, Outer Mongolia
45 mins
Ben builds a yurt, uses a freezing outhouse, joins a wolf-hunt and learns how to wrestle when he meets Micky and Trina Cofer who, along with their four children, left behind the comforts of America to become missionaries in Outer Mongolia.
Episode 7
Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina
45 mins
Ben joins the opportunist Appalachian forest community around Tod Kershaw, a retired ex-con engineer, who minimize their ecological footprint drastically. That means sacrificing comforts and even food hygiene, while collecting from the wild, recycling maximally and 'scavenging' whatever they find as road kill, hunt leftovers or food waste from supermarkets in dumpsters, even his truck runs on used cooking oil. The community pulls together as needed, and enjoys visits from abroad, especially a helpful strong gentleman hunk like Ben a swell as their loved ones.
Episode 8
Morocco, Atlas Mountains
45 mins
Moroccan Mostafa won a green card for the US, lived the American dream with native Dina, and when she sold off her business they left the wealthy life for a simple dream of subsistence in his native Atlas mountains region. Ben is commandeered to help finish his won guest house and astonished she's happy to stay home on their tiny farm, meeting people only a few times a year, while he barters at the market, but their farm dream taking off dangerously slowly, their only backup plan is selling rabbits. Visiting kin confirms it's hard for their families to understand the choice against luxury to pursue simple happiness living from their own produce.
