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Survivorman- Swamp

Les Stroud stands blindfolded on a sandbar deep in the swamp of Georgia, where “Three Rivers” Charlie has left him to survive on his own for seven days with 55 pounds of camera gear, some everyday items, and his Swiss army knife.

Alligators aren’t the only menace Stroud faces in the swamp. Snapping turtles, four kinds of rattlesnakes, mosquitoes, ticks, and chiggers can also cause deadly injuries to those unfortunate enough to have to survive the swampland of the Altamaja River Basin.

At sunset on his first night alone, the mosquitoes attack in swarms.
Stroud smears mud on his face and neck, which he says doesn’t actually repel the mosquitoes but does create a thick layer they can’t bite through.

The night is colder than he expects, so his goal the next morning is to build a shelter. He finds a flat, clear space to set up, but rather than clearing away debris and brush on the ground, he leaves it and sets it on fire- this controlled burn clears out ticks and chiggers.

To start a fire, Stroud demonstrates a technique that requires only a bit of paper, some lint, and a lighter without fluid. He rolls a piece of the tissue paper into a long cylinder with a funnel opening.

In the little funnel he puts a ball of lint he collected from his cotton socks. This creates what is called a “prison match.” Using the spark from the lighter, Stroud is able to light aflame the lint and tissue paper.

Stroud builds a simple lean-to shelter by staking two pronged sticks in the ground, leaning branches along the sides, and covering the branches with leafy boughs. After spending the night in this shelter, however, the increasing cold has caught him off guard- there was frost on the ground the next morning. Stroud realizes that if he is to survive the next night, he needs a shelter that will keep him off the ground and provide a bit of insulation.

His next shelter is the same lean-to tent shape, but larger. He uses Spanish moss to insulate the sides and to sleep on. Staying off the ground is vital to staying warm and preventing hypothermia. He then layers boughs over the moss to finish off his new home.

Having to rebuild the shelter wastes a lot of energy, and because by this point Stroud has only eaten a frog he managed to whack with a stick, his hunger has overwhelmed him. He spends much of the day sleeping and is overcome with indecisiveness as to how best spend his time in order to survive the remaining time.

Stroud decides to hunt for catfish. Once the sun has set and the swamp is black except for the flickers of his fire and the glow of his camera, Stroud ventures into alligator-infested waters with a spear he made, looking for nocturnal catfish. The first night he is unlucky.

The next night Stroud tries again, with a better plan- a catfish and turtle trap. Stroud takes short sticks and pokes them into the muddy shore in an M-shape. This way, a fish or turtle may swim in, but will have a harder time finding the small opening to get out. He places leftover frog innards in the ‘M’ as bait. By morning, he has captured a turtle, which he roasts on the fire and eats.

Because murky swamp water contains a myriad of parasites and pathogens, a lost traveler couldn’t hope to survive by drinking it.

Stroud finds water vines, which are filled with water. He cuts one open and places his tin can under it to catch the drops. Overnight, the can fills with clean water for him to drink.

Stroud also decides to give fishing a try. Even in the middle of the swamp, Stroud finds garbage- in this case, a rusty, hook-ended spring. Stroud ties the spring to the end of his thin rope as a hook.

Then he uses his knife to cut an oval out of the credit card. He bends the oval in half to make a scoop-shape and cuts two little holes at each end. Feeding the string through both holes above the spring makes a jig. Next, he chews the bubblegum, which does more than provide him with a sugar rush and some extra calories. He blows a bubble and attaches it above the jig to be a float. He puts some bait on the hook and casts his homemade fishing pole into the swamp.

Sadly, he doesn’t catch anything.

One thing any lost traveler needs in order to survive his ordeal is hope. Stroud explains that building a raft gives him hope that he can make it out of the swamp sooner. Acting to help himself rather than wait for a rescue crew motivates him, thus preventing feelings of desperation or hopelessness.

His first raft, three long logs tied together with vines, sinks and throws him into the water before he even has time to get his balance.

Wet clothes at sunset prove to be disconcerting, especially as the mosquitoes come out.

His last night at this camp really spooks him. He’s only a few feet from the water’s edge, and he starts imagining all the swamp legends and stories of alligator attacks. His musings are interspersed with “Blair Witch Project”-style close-ups and fearful breathing to lighten the mood and “scare away the Boogie Man,” he says.

The next day Stroud sets out to build a larger raft. As he’s gathering logs, he comes across an Eastern Diamondback rattlesnake.

He hits it with a branch to kill it. He skins it and cleans it, and while he continues to gather logs, it roasts on the fire draped over forked sticks. Any snake, Stroud says, is excellent survival food.

To cut logs down to size without an ax or saw, Stroud burns the ends until they are the night length. This time the raft holds him. He takes down his shelter, packs his camera bags and sets off to navigate the winding channels of the swamp.

He falls off into the water several times, and sometimes he even has to trudge through the marshy waters by foot in the shallow parts, but he is lucky and never runs into any alligators. After a full day on the move, he finally reaches the main river, where he meets up with “Three Rivers” Charlie and the crew, who have happily arrived to take Stroud and his valuable footage far and away from the Swamp Thing and those pesky mosquitoes.

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