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3 Episodes 2022 - 2022
Episode 1
Wed, Sep 28, 202254 mins
Follow the journey of the mighty Zambezi - Africa's wildest river. It floods across endless plains, fuelling the migration of 30,000 wildebeest, turning villages into islands accessible only by boat. It plunges over cliffs, creating the largest curtain of water on Earth - Victoria falls. It swells up to form great rapids, a challenge for elephants to cross, and it carves out deep, treacherous gorges where the mysterious Zambezi Wave offers the ultimate surfing experience. Zambezi spreads out to fill one of the greatest man-made lakes on Earth, home to giant crocodiles and the iconic African fish eagle, and it flows through 'lost worlds', some of the best places to see African wildlife, where unusual 'wild guests' check in at a safari lodge. Finally, as it nears the Indian Ocean, the vast Zambezi delta gives local scientists a sign of hope for the future - a glimpse of the legendary herds of elephant and buffalo that once roamed here before the devastation of civil war.
Episode 2
Wed, Oct 5, 202254 mins
The almost 3,000 kilometer long Danube, including it tributaries, is the most international river in the world traversing nineteen different countries in its course from its westernmost point in Switzerland east to the Black Sea. While most of the river is fed by Swiss Alps glacial water (one-quarter worth), other headwaters include one fed by underground springs, the minerals collected which have formed a series of waterfalls. These two vastly different examples also lead way to different habitat, such as the Alpine marmot in the Alps, they which are only active for four months of the year in hibernating the other eight months and they feeding largely off alpine vegetation, to an abundance of fresh water fish in the spring fed locale, they thriving in the nutrient and oxygen rich water. The river provides opportunity for human activity, recreational ones including mountain hiking, fishing, and kayaking, to industry, Budapest arguably the hub for using the river as a means of transportation of goods. In the river's mid course, other unique wildlife include: the European pond turtle, some which live in a protected reserve in Vienna; a mayfly whose eggs are buried in the river's clay and whose entire life span is three hours when they, en mass, mate in a breathtaking swarm above the river before dying; and the sturgeon in the lower stretches of the river, whose existence in the Danube is threatened in part by the river being dammed upstream hindering access to their traditional spawning grounds. One of the more interesting juxtapositions of the wild river and urban life is a series of freshwater filled caves under Budapest, the only signs of its existence at the surface being a shaded pond which empties into the river. The final major landmark of the river's course is the Iron Gate Gorge before the river empties into the Black sea, the 5,000 square kilometer delta forming the largest wetland in Europe.
Episode 3
Wed, Oct 12, 202254 mins
Over 3,200 kilometers long, the Yukon is one of the world's most remote of the great rivers due largely to its high latitude in the northwest of North America, with only four man-made bridges over its entire course. In the northern hemisphere winter, much of the river is under ice and in turn snow, and thus is at a standstill. Being frozen however provides the opportunity to use the river as an ice road. One small tributary bucks this trend in its water being heated geothermically. With the Yukon being one of the major Pacific salmon spawning grounds, some species doing so in late autumn, it becomes a battle of they spawning versus being food for the late season Grizzlies, known colloquially as ice bears, who need to fatten up before hibernation. The salmon is easier prey in the river's shallows where the spawning beds are located. Winter does not mean lack of life as moose, lynx and snowshoe hares are still active. The spring thaw brings the return of many migratory animals, with the breakup of ice posing its own challenges for them. The short summer provides little time for humans to use the river it in flowing state, such as for moving goods by barge to the few communities along the river. While the river source is high in the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia, the river delta, on the Pacific, is one large tundra bog due to the relative flatness of the landscape. One of the few settlements along the river is Dawson City, which mushroomed out of nothing during the Gold Rush, with some of the Gold Rush traditions still present. Most of the inhabitants of the river valley are First Nations, whose traditional way of life is changing with climate change.