10,000 BC Episode 8
*For a brief background to the show, a who's who, and who is still participating please scroll to the bottom.
Day 37
Two weeks left of the experiment and rations are still top of the agenda. Mel has divided the rations up till the very last day. The group are of the opinion that they need to get foraging over the next 2-3day because the frost is due any day and once that arrives the ground will be too hard and berries will be damaged.
Paul is still on his hunting mission, so he takes Mike with him on a mile walk to set just one snare. They are knackered mentally and physically and half way back Paul realises he has left the unused snares there. Perhaps it would have been better to rest there and set more snares before attempting the trek back.
Mel, Josie and Jodie go foraging, I can only assume that JP is having is extra hour in bed. Paul and Mike meet up with them at the Sloe bush and collapse onto the grass with fatigue. Jodie is naturally worried that if the two strongest members are getting weak what does it mean for the rest of them.
Paul calls a campfire meeting when they get back to camp, he wants to discuss how the rations are being split. He feels they should eat everything they've got this week instead of over two weeks. Mike is diplomatic and points out that they did that at the start of the experiment and that didn't work out. Mel suggests knocking the hunting on the head to conserve energy. I'll swallow my words and it seems Veggie Josie had the right idea in the first place, I'm also sure she's a little bit pleased they've all had to go Veggie out of necessity.
Paul is still on his hunting mission, so he takes Mike with him on a mile walk to set just one snare. They are knackered mentally and physically and half way back Paul realises he has left the unused snares there. Perhaps it would have been better to rest there and set more snares before attempting the trek back.
Mel, Josie and Jodie go foraging, I can only assume that JP is having is extra hour in bed. Paul and Mike meet up with them at the Sloe bush and collapse onto the grass with fatigue. Jodie is naturally worried that if the two strongest members are getting weak what does it mean for the rest of them.
Paul calls a campfire meeting when they get back to camp, he wants to discuss how the rations are being split. He feels they should eat everything they've got this week instead of over two weeks. Mike is diplomatic and points out that they did that at the start of the experiment and that didn't work out. Mel suggests knocking the hunting on the head to conserve energy. I'll swallow my words and it seems Veggie Josie had the right idea in the first place, I'm also sure she's a little bit pleased they've all had to go Veggie out of necessity.
Day 38
JP is up and leading Mike & Mel to a Burdock patch he knows of, this looks like it might be the resurrection of the Burdock Whisperer. Turns out that Mike has never been Burdock digging. So JP shows him how to dig them up effectively and enjoys giving his little gardening programme demonstration. Watch out Titmarsh !
Jodie and Josie are back at camp making a Stone Age paste that can be made into energy bars for the tribe. They both admit that if everyone had been like them from the start they'd all be dead by now. These girls crack me up and what I like most is what you see is what you get.
The Burdock hunting party arrive back, triumphant in a kill that totals a whooping 33 Burdock.
With the temperature down below zero that night JP and Paul have abandoned their shelter and joined the communal bed.
Jodie and Josie are back at camp making a Stone Age paste that can be made into energy bars for the tribe. They both admit that if everyone had been like them from the start they'd all be dead by now. These girls crack me up and what I like most is what you see is what you get.
The Burdock hunting party arrive back, triumphant in a kill that totals a whooping 33 Burdock.
With the temperature down below zero that night JP and Paul have abandoned their shelter and joined the communal bed.
Day 39
Paul and Mike go out hunting again the next morning with a new plan of action, rather than stalking the prey they are going to hide and let the animals come to them. They find a hollow in a field where Paul has seen Deer before. Mike lasts 2 hours in the freezing cold and heads back to camp. Undeterred however Paul heads further into the reserve.Huddled round the Mike explains he is cold to the bone (In my opinion that kind of cold is only remedied by a warm bath) and he thinks that they should forget trying to get a kill, the area is to vast and the animals are probably much fewer as now they be be starting to seek shelter from winter. He discusses how miserable it is and Mel makes the hilarious but possibly true point that Paul is so determined to get a kill he'll end up killing one of them.
We get some insight into Josie's mind over matter for when she goes to the toilet. Josie is repeating to herself that she is entering a luxury bathroom and has luxury soft toilet paper.
Mike tries to broach the subject of stopping the hunting with Paul but he is having none of it and he is further buoyed up when JP returns from a walk to report a sighting of a pheasant and herd of boars. He insists that JP takes him back out to where he saw them. Paul is of the opinion that they should return at night with weapons but he lays some snares, in the meantime, for the next 4 hours.
Day 40
Next morning it suddenly looks like Paul has pushed himself too far and he is unable to go back out hunting, so JP steps up to the plate and goes back to the boar patch with the bow and arrow. I hope that's mud he has covered his face in. JP sets and ambush by climbing to the top of a tree and is still out after darkness falls.Back at camp the rest of the tribe are singing JP praises, as they tuck into a ration supper, and are honestly impressed with the new improved JP.
JP has been lured out of the tree the sound of Boar and four appear. If he doesn't strike his life could be in danger if the boas decide to charge. The production rangers are alerted and tell JP it is too dangerous to make a kill with a gun let alone a bow and arrow. If this had been said in the beginning then not as much energy would have been wasted on hunting.
Day 41
Mike, Mel and JP arrive at the lake mid morning It's been a few days since they have been here and they are hoping for a larger catch than last time but there is only a couple of crayfish and 20 tiny little fish. Mike decides to put a fishing line into the lake to see if he can get a bite. As Klint explained earlier, when people are at this level of exhaustion cognitive skills are greatly effected. For this reason Mike is struggling to tie the worm to the line for 5 minutes. Then After 2 hours without a bited Mike is deflated and for the first time is thinking that he just wants to leave.
What is 10,000BC about?Day 42
Mel, Josie and Jodie go back out to forage Sloes and shocks Josie by saying that she has been very negative, which comes as a surprise to Josie as she see's herself as a much more positive person in general.
Paul goes out to check the snares and finds one has been triggered but the animal has managed to escape. Total kick in the balls
Paul calls an emergency meeting and everyone says how they feel, Mike is consumed by how much he doesn't want to be there, Mel says her body is hating her and Paul doesn't feel he has anything else to give.
There is some animosity when Jodie and Josie say they are fine / surviving because they are seen by some of the tribe as the ones being carried by the tribe. The girls have always been honest though, they always asks what needs to be done and always do what is asked of them if it's within their limits. They seem to do a lot of the menial tasks that possibly go unnoticed. Like when you say you're a housewife and everyone assumes you sit on your arse all day watching Jeremy Kyle.
20 volunteers, from a cross section of people of the 21st Century, were sent into a Bulgarian hunting reserve, similar to prehistoric Britain, to survive 8 weeks in the Stone age, without any help from 2014 (Filmed through October & November 2014)
The chosen ones for the experiment, from a cross section of modern day Britain are:
Paul Barnes - Lorry Driver (Wanna be Bear Grylls and someone that clearly lives on hisown for a reason)
Mike Soumelides - Simms - Firefighter (All round handy guy to have around and always
positive. Has a degree is hugs)
Josie & Jodie O'Rourke - Bookmaker / Event Manager ( Mother & Daughter )
John Paul Mullen (JP) - Club Promoter (Looked like he might walk to begin with but has
knuckled down and getting on with it / Chatterbox)
Melissa Selling - Prop Maker (Possible contestant for Where's Wally?)
Steve Nicholson - Archer (Amateur survivalist / Tribe Leader / Strategist) - WALKED
Paul Wilshurst - Fence Contractor (Stubborn But Hard Worker)
Emily Harding - Graphic Designer WALKED
Mary Harding - StudentAlice - Restaurant Maitre D' (Willing to help out every day)
Perry Brookes - Landscape Gardener (Geezer) - WALKED
Kym Hall - Marketing Manager (Strong, Organised, Natural Leader) - WALKED
Oliver Farr - Electrician (Terris's Boyfriend / Survivalist Skills / Keen to Try Anything and
Embrace Stone Age Life) - WALKED
Terri Perry - Florist (Oliver's Girlfriend/ Positive Person / Kind & Caring) - WALKED
Caroline Mortimer - Retired Secretary (Stone Age enthusiast) - UNABLE TO CONTINUE
POOR HEALTH
Aamer 'Bobby' Hussein - Council Duty Manager ("We're gonna die out here" / Self
Proclaimed Lazy) - WALKED
Tom Reader - Digital Content Creator (Keen team member/ not shy of hard word work/
Nature Lover) - WALKED
Great to see the last six are really starting to focus on tasks and getting into a "rhythm". I like the way they are being filmed spending a lot of time just gathering one kind of food. That must dramatically increase the amount they are getting for the time they spend.
ReplyDeleteBiggest disappointment is that they didn't work as a group to try to surround the deer/boar and drive them toward someone with a spear/bow, ideally using landscape or if not some kind of simple fencing.