10,000BC - Episode 6 Dropping Like Flies

10,000 BC Episode 6

*For a brief background to the show, a who's who, and who is still participating  please scroll to the bottom.

There were seven in the bed and the little one said "Roll over, roll over...

Day 22

It's two days after the tribe returned to camp and Klint has set three tasks to see if the tribe have remembered enough of what they learnt in the last week. It is as much an assessment of Steve's leadership as it is of the tribes ability to last the final 5 weeks in the Stone Age. The tasks are:

Fire management

Willow bark processing

Butcher a fresh Deer

Steve already has in his mind what went wrong the first time but Paul B, ever the know it all, appears to take the decision that he is now the leader, mainly because he is still of the opinion that he is King of the Poachers. Mike tries to be diplomatic in adding "OK, you take the deer but you need to shout if your not getting it done in time". Paul B seems takes this as a seal of approval to be leader and then dishes out the rest of the tasks. 

Steve is worried that the deer isn't going to processed in time, before it starts to rot. That if they hang the meat it will get taken by animals in the night.

Klint and Dave agree with Paul B about hanging the meat over night so it can be jerked tomorrow but I'm with Steve on this one, the last time they did that the meat got taken in the night and what was left was infested with Maggots. 

Paul B thinks that Steve is pissed at his authority being challenged and says that he doesn't think he has ever acted like a leader. Not what he was saying when they were buddies coming up with ideas.

Steve is clearly annoyed at the turn of events and feels that he has been usurped. That it is now Mike, Mel and Paul B running the show. Interesting that to us Mel is suddenly one of the main characters as up to yesterday I had to keep checking on the 10,000BC to see what she looked like because we've barely seen her do or say anything. Makes me wonder just to what degree this has been 'edited' considering it's supposed to be a social experiment.

Dave describes it better, that Steve is the overall Leader but that some of the others are like department managers. Mike overall camp routine and Paul B Hunting (has he caught anything yet?).

Steve becomes frustrated with Klint and how time is being managed, especially with the amount of time and energy spent on willow cording. He's also fed up with Klint butting in.

Before Klint and Dave leave the camp they remind the camp that despite the social niggles that are creeping in, they need to remember to function like a family even when they don't get on. 

JP is worried that after the days events it might be about to fall apart now. Which would be especially be sad for him because he's just getting into the swing of things including team work and using his own initiative. 

During the evening meal Steve drops the bombshell that he is thinking of walking not only because of the days events but also because when they left the lodge 2 days ago they were a team and full of Vim and Vigour. Then no sooner were that back at camp that Paul B not only grassed the others up for contraband but also blackmailed them with his threat to walk. 

Mike backs up Steve on the blackmail point and so does JP who goes onto say that Paul B has created an atmosphere. 

JP starts to gets emotional, that the he had joined this to be part of something and he had felt like that up until the return to camp. Now he doesn't feel like he is part of anything. He's also sad as he is close to Steve, who has been like a father figure to him.

Day 23

Jodie is worried that Steve walking, later today, will cause JP to walk too. 

Mike and Paul B take the meat that they stored high in the tree (and saved from predators - so I was wrong) down to the stream to wash it, as when the deer was initially killed it's bowel was ruptured.

Paul B claims none of the experience has been difficult for him and says "..without being egotistical it's been like a camping trip". It might have been for you mate but I think it's been difficult for people to bite their tongue each time you've been a 'Know It All'.

Meanwhile Steve and JP have a final chat. Steve later comments that he holds no grudges and wishes the remainder of tribe the best of luck because they'll need it. Not everyone  listened to the lessons and these people don't deserve him. It's true he was one of the key people that got the tribe this far.

Paul B has a coughing fit and it renders him unable to breathe, and despite being just a few yards from he rest of the camp it's 15 minutes before anyone checks on him and surprisingly its Steve that does. There is no I in team and Steve was always concerned about every ones welfare. 

The medic has been monitoring him and decides to intervene. It is of her opinion that he has a re occurrence of his childhood Asthma. 

As as the sun sets Steve leaves and I have to admit at this point that the 'group howl' has always made me cringe.

Day 24

Paul B is under doctors orders to rest and this leaves the group down to 5 effectively. Now I'm no doctor but staying next to the fire is surely not helping his chest.

Mel admits she is bossy and a perfectionist. With Steve and Paul B out the picture she assumes the leader responsibility and also takes the title of rations Nazi. Did Mel get lost the for the first 20 days? Where has such a strong character been hidden?

Mel divides the camp into two She and Mike go to the lake whilst JP, Josie and Jodie stay to finish the meat, go foraging, keep the fire going and collect fresh water.

Whilst Mel and Mike are busy burning valuable calories trying to find the way back to the Lake, JP has bad news for the girls that he is planning to walk. Josie begs him to stay and even Paul B stops coughing long enough to try to persuade him to stay. 

When Mike and Mel finally get tot he lake after getting massively lost they are rewarded for a change with a haul of 17 crayfish. 

That evening JP is still there and Paul B is still coughing. On hearing JP's plan Mel & Mike try to persuade him to stay and it has worked for the moment. I'd like to think that they are all asking him to stay because he is a valued member of the tribe but the cynic in me thinks that it's for more selfish reasons of self preservation. 

Day 25

In the early hours Paul B becomes unable to breathe and has to be evacuated from the camp by the production Medics, to receive emergency treatment. It is thought that he has pneumonia.

The group are missing him already and Klint is concerned that if Paul B doesn't return to camp that it'll be game over for the experiment, because the group will have become to small. 

There are 3 strips of deer jerky for each person remaining for the meat eaters but Josie is down to last of her nuts and berries. So whilst Mel and Mike return to the lake, the other 3 must find a Burdock patch. 

Just as they are about to go Burdock foraging a stray dog ventures into the camp. Josie wants to to feed it some deer meat, which naturally annoys JP as that will be one persons rations, he jokes that perhaps they can eat the dog instead. It's so cool to see JP being considerate of others and also thinking about the consequences of actions. If anyone has made a personal journey through this it's him. Josie gives the dog just one strip of meat safe in the knowledge that JP isn't a Grass and Jodie won't say anything because she is her daughter and should know what's good for her. 

On arrival at the lake Mel and Mike aren't as lucky yesterday, and there is no catch of the day. So they catch a Turtle and some Crayfish with their hands and collect some roots. 

Under the guidance of the safety expert Mike has to humanely slaughter the Turtle. Bless him he feels really bad killing, like he has killed a pet. Mel starts going on about, if you are meat eater than you have to understand and be prepared to kill your meat. She might not have felt the same way if she was the one driving a spear through through the turtles shell.

What is 10,000BC about?

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 his    
                                            own 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

Rachel Harding - Education Assessor (Mother of the Camp / Organised)
Paul Wilshurst - Fence Contractor (Stubborn But Hard Worker)

Emily Harding - Graphic Designer                                                      WALKED

Mary Harding - Student
Alice - 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

Kam Khaira - Housewife & Shopkeeper  - WALKED

10,000 BC - Episode 1 & 2 Catch Up

10,000 BC Episode 1 

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: 

Perry Brookes - Landscape Gardener (Geezer)

Rachel Harding - Education Assessor    
Paul Wilshurst - Fence Contractor
Emily Harding - Graphic Designer >>>>> The Harding Family
Mary Harding - Student
Alice - Restaurant Maitre D'

Paul Barnes - Lorry Driver  (Wanna be Bear Grylls) 

Mike Soumelides - Simms  - Firefighter

Josie & Jodie O'Rourke - Bookmaker / Event Manager ( Mother & Daughter )

Oliver Farr - Electrician (Terry's Boyfriend)
Terry Perry - Florist (Oliver's Girlfriend) 

Caroline Mortimer - Retired Secretary (Stone Age enthusiast)

Steve Nicholson - Archer (Amateur survivalist)

Kim Hall - Marketing Manager

Aamer 'Bobby' Hussein - Council duty Manager ("We're gonna die out here")

Tom Reader - Digital Content Creator

John Paul Mullen - Club Promoter (Known as JP)

Kam Khaira - Housewife & Shopkeeper

Melissa Selling - Prop Maker

The only training the volunteers received was a survival skills DVD and Manual.

Day One

First order of day is to put phones, metal and plastics - any modern living times into a plastic bag with their names on, for safe keeping. There are piles of skins and furs, with each persons name on, that will be their clothes for the duration of this experience. There is not however any instructions on how each individual piece is worn. In the stone age people didn't wear shoes but because the volunteers feet aren't conditioned to rugged terrain they have to wear boots and sock.

As the ladies are getting changed Josie announces that she is a strict vegetarian and against hunting, she is only the second most stupid person so far though beaten by the people that wore wedges and brought handbags with them! And yes that's after they've given in all there 'modern' items in.

Caroline doesn't even get her skins on, it is unseasonably hot for October and she falls ill, and is deemed unfit to continue with the experiment.

Requirements of 2014 health and safety dictate that the producers provide: 

Shelter - 4 Mesolithic Huts 
Clothing - Skins & Furs
Purpose built source of fresh water 
Enough Apples, Berries, Nuts, Rock Salt and Honey to sustain them for a fortnight
Flint, Tools and a Bow
24 hour supervision by Survival Expert & Doctor  (only intervene if serious)

Klint Janulis Stone Age Archaeologist & survival expert will stay with them for  2 days, to acclimatise them to stone age living.

There is a clearing, where the shelters are situated, that will provide there living and working area. Only 18 remain. 

A recently killed Deer is provided for them to harvest food, clothes and tools from it but it has to be done with in the first couple of hours. 

A lot of the women get tearful about seeing the dead deer but admit they are going to get to have to get used to it. 

Paul W, Paul B, Terry and Melissa all have a go at separating the Deer up.  Both Pauls are at odds with each other as to the best way to do it but Melissa is enjoying herself.  All the butchered parts of the deer are stored by hanging them on trees. The meat cannot be cooked and then stored away as it will make them sick.

There are wolves, bears and boars in this area and a fire is the only way to keep themselves  and their possessions safe is a fire. Oliver uses a bow drill  to try and start the fire, but it's not easy especially with the mosquitoes biting every one. They finally get some flames but had no kindling ready so it blew out. It's nearly dark and has started to rain but luckily Paul B finds some remaining burning embers, which they keep alight by blowing on until enough kindling is gathered. 

Rachel and her 3 daughters took on the task of digging a latrine and collecting leaves for toilet paper. As they do so, just an hour into the experience, Rachel is  already thinking ahead and starts eating worms.

Perry is the first to poop but would have preferred to sit on a log with his bum hanging over the side then just squatting but he manages. Already I'm less survivalist than these people because I can't even wee if I'm squatting. 

The deer is being cooked and Bobby makes the point that they can't even see each other in the dark so how will they know when it's cooked. They all tuck in though and no one is bothered that they are eating Deer, Terry even comments how nice it is.

As he leaves the camp for the night, Klint is worried that they are still treating this as a camping trip not a way of life. 

As everyone starts turning in, Paul B plans to set some traps tomorrow and catch at least a boar, Steve is worried about the strong dynamic and current lack of leadership. 

Day Two

Steve organises a team meeting to find out everyone's skills, after they find out that all the provision that were left by the production team like the fruit and and veg, even the flint. For his effort he is voted in as the group leader.

Klint shows the volunteers how to make flint blades in order to correctly cut the meat. Fair play to everyone sorting the meat out they're picking out eggs and maggots, where the flies have been.

A small group are then taken out by Klint who shows them where to hunt and Paul B is of the opinion that Steve should be out there with them because he is an archer. 

On the way back Paul B comes across a little stream, and has a little cats lick. Who knew such a simple thing could get you totes emosh for home comforts.

Meanwhile Perry and Steve upgrade the latrines so they are more 'pleasant' and they chat as they work, Perry is soon in tears about his missing his Nan but more so that he has recently had his best friend, who passed away and for that reason he feels he shouldn't be there and sadly leaves. 

The team of 20 is now down to 18, only two days into 8 weeks

Before he leaves the came for good, Klint shows the last group, that includes Josie, what resources are available to help them day to day and how to harvest burdock root which grows wild in the area and is like a sweet potato. Josie is pleased to be picking them as that's what she'll survive that, and a pound of acorns a day. 

Everyone is back at camp readying for the evening and Bobby finds flies in the hides that are supposed to  be using as covers at night. A guy from the production support team comes out to try and get the larvae out of the skins but there are too many, so for the time being the volunteers are given Blankets from 2014.

With that Klint bids his goodbyes and remind them once he leaves now, they are on their own for the next 2 months.

10,000 BC Episode 2

Day Three

The tribes first day with Klint helping them and they are worried they've not retained enough of the information given to them by Klint. 

Steve is pissed off because everything is a mess and someone has even burnt half a mallet.  Paul B and Kym are in agreement that Steve needs to take charge and a meeting is held. 

He suggests that they start getting organised with food and shelter, planning in advance. He then makes the mistake of asking if anyone had anything to say. Paul B pipes up that he didn't like being told to shut up by one of the Harding Daughters last night, who were trying to sleep. That escalates very quickly into an argument between Paul W & Paul B. Oliver steps in to point out that arguing like this, already, is toxic and they need to start working as a team. 

Paul B wants to catch something, possibly the size of an elephant given the size of the trap he makes. JP, Oliver, Jodie and Paul B set off in search of a game trail in order to lay the trap and arrive at the tribes water source. Just as they start setting it up it starts to rain, so they abandon it for now but Paul B still reckons they'll "fucking heroes" despite leaving it unfinished. 

Tom has started a basket weaving group, having realised the genius that they have nothing to put stuff in if they go foraging etc.

Back at the camp, the tribe has not waterproofed any of the shelters and water is pouring in through a huge hole in one. The tribe all comes together to fix the shelter with the huge hole before the other shelters.

Kym feels there is a divide between old and young and Mike has named their young group 'Team Awesome'. 

Once the rain stops, Paul B heads back out to finish the trap but before he even gets there he catches a Salamander, which has to be checked first to see if it's poisonous. He then decides that he is too hungry and needs food right now so he decides to have a snack on the 3 day old rotting carcase of the Deer they cut up. Then he decides to cut up the whole thing, wash it out in their fresh water supply (!) and take it back to camp. Oliver lets Paul B know that the Salamander is deadly poisonous. 

Steve, Mike, Oliver  and Perry realise that some of the young 'uns are sitting in the shelters, stuffing there face whilst the rest of the camp is out working to find food and material to improve the shelters. So Steve gently confronts them in a nice way, just asking if they could come and help out and leave the valuable rations for now but frankly they couldn't give a damn. 

Paul B decides to burn the tree down and JP is asked to get a lit fire torch and some firewood to put around the tree. He comes back having got it all wrong and is upset that he has got it wrong and they are laughing. JP walks off from the group and ends up in tears but he's not sure why. He feels like he's not learning fast enough. He is also worries that he is being perceived as lazy.

Emily is under the impression that JP will be walking soon.

In the evening everyone has dinner of berries, nuts, mushrooms and deer ribs before turning in for the night. 

Team Awesome are pleased to have Oliver and Terry in their shelter now as they have such a positive aura. 

Day Three

In the morning it comes to light that the Team Awesome had a deal, in their shelter, to take it in turns to keep the fire going but when Paul B woke up it was nearly out. An argument starts between Paul B and JP because JP thinks that he woke up in the night and put the fire out completely but he won't listen to Paul B trying to explain he can't have because it was still going. 

Paul B still hasn't set his massive boar trap and the camp is conscious that food supplies are running low, so the group split into 3 groups to forage over  a large area but one group are barely a few metres from camp. 

Tom finds a stream with edible plants all around, in order to get a better harvest he goes back to make a bag to carry back as much as he can. He also takes Terry, JP and Alice so they can not only increase how much is brought back to camp but so they also know where to go for food and water. 

However Tom was too busy, on his initial journey, looking up at all the nature around that when he tries to take his group back he can't remember the way. They get to the meadow and realise they are going in the completely wrong  direction. So they start to make their way back to camp in order to pick up the right route.

They finally find it in the late afternoon and Tom makes the suggestion that they should start making maps of the area in clay. The abundance of nettles and burlap is foraged and JP finds lots of bone and twine. 

Steve, Emily and Melissa find a downed silver birch so they try to harvest the bark but they are unable to get it off effectively and leave it

The key to Stone Age hygiene was to keep their camp clean and unfortunately the unused deer meat was left hanging in the trees and attracted flies, which has lead to flies all around the camp. Kym and Oliver find it and clean it up but they want to have a meeting about hygiene. Steve's group return after four hours with only meagre amounts of burlap and herbs. 

There is further bad news when Kym finds that someone has done a poo in camp instead of the latrines. Mike and Steve decide the best course of action is to get the person who did it to pick it up and move it themselves, like rubbing a puppy's nose in it.

Later that afternoon Paul B and Oliver are rushing to get the Boar trap set and once set it should stake the boar in the head or body,  when it trips the switch. 

With everyone back in camp, no one is taking responsibility for the poo but a process of elimination (the fact that there was only one person to leave a shelters in the night) it's found to be JP. Whilst he says he did do a poo he says that, that one is too big to be his. Kym is in tears, of anger that JP is refusing to move the poo.

Poo-gate looks like it's finally over when JP moves the poo. A team meeting is held about general hygiene and Kym makes the disgusting but true point that if someone treads in it, then takes their boots off and then eats with their hands they are eating human faeces. 

 * Apologies if I have got anyones name wrong, it's hard to learn 20 new peoples names when they are only flashing up on screen. I will try better. I would also like to say sorry for the the possible overuse of So and But *