Ben Fogle: New Lives In The Wild

Ben travels to a remote island to live with a former Sydney businessman.

Ben travels to New Zealand and meets hunter-gatherers.

In this opening episode, Ben journeys to the swamplands of south Georgia in the USA, to live with 64-year-old Colbert, a former city fat cat earning big bucks in the world of high finance, who has turned Tarzan. Colbert now lives in his hand-built wooden cabin, totally off the grid and with no toilet – a far cry from the luxurious pad he used to own. From Colbert, Ben learns some of the vital skills needed to survive in this dangerous backwater, including skinning road-kill, spearing frogs, drinking swamp water and building a human nest. He also discovers that his host is a sex guru! Facing the dangers of living in the wild, humidity and mosquitoes, Ben embraces what it is like to truly live alone in one of the biggest swamps in North America.

Documentary series in which adventurer Ben Fogle meets people who have given up the rat race to start a new life in the wilderness. Ben journeys to one of the 7,000 remote tropical islands in the Philippines to live with Jungle Neil Hoag, a 45-year-old former cabbie from Florida who struggled to make a living before finding the love of his life on the other side of the world and becoming a coconut farmer.

Ben heads to Africa and the deep desert sand dunes of Namibia. He lives with 50-year-old Gideon David and his young family in the largest conservation area on the continent. Gideon is a master bushman who quit a city career in life insurance for the dry and dusty desert.

Bill and Bob Stone are twin brothers aged 72 who fled their adrenaline-junkie pasts for a tough subsistence lifestyle hidden away in Americaʼs Wild West. In this unforgiving landscape, even with one of them recovering from a stroke, they carve out an existence and fight the challenges associated with growing old. Ben joins these canyon-dwelling renegades in their remote, isolated home, deep inside some of the worldʼs most striking and wild terrain.

Ben journeys to southeast Asia to live with 31-year-old former city financier Jon Watkinson in his hand-made bamboo hut on a hidden jungle island on the Mekong river in Laos.

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Ben Fogle meets a husband and wife who gave up the city rat race to live as safari guides in an unexplored Tanzanian national park.

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Ben meets Micky and Trina Cofer, who along with their four children, left behind the comforts of America to become missionaries in the freezing tundra of Outer Mongolia. In temperatures of below minus 20, Ben builds his own ger (yurt) to sleep in, uses a freezing outhouse, attempts ice-fishing, joins a wolf-hunt and learns how to wrestle.

Dina Zughyar and Mostafa Jabbour turned their back on the American Dream to start from scratch with a handful of rabbits and chickens on a small patch of barren land in the shadow of the Atlas Mountains. In their mud house in Morocco, the couple confess to Ben that it has been much harder than they thought...

Ben meets a couple who have made their home on a floating island they have built themselves which sits in the aptly named Freedom Cove on Canadas west coast.

Ben travels to an island off the New Zealand coast to meet a man who gave up a career in medicine to live off-grid.

Ben discovers why Mike Merrill, a former sound engineer from Texas, decided to build a backpackers hostel deep in the Guatemalan jungle. He also gets stuck into building projects, machete fishing and tubing a dangerous river to transport vital supplies, and sees how Mike interacts with the local Mayan people.

Ben travels to Cambodia to live with a fellow Brit who is raising his own castaway tribe on a tropical island. Ben sleeps in a hammock, drinks rainwater and experiences how fragile life is for this family on their tiny island.

Ben travels to New Zealands North Island, where he meets a young nomadic family led by Amber and Andy, who spend their life exploring the countrys wild landscapes. He hears how the familys lives changed forever after one fateful day, how they swapped the stress of the city for a life on the open road, the price they paid for chasing their dream and how the horrors of the past still haunt them today

Norway In the Arctic Circle, the explorer meets Randi, the first Norwegian woman to climb Everest ahead of his own bid to scale the worlds highest mountain. He embraces the tough and basic life on her 8.5 acre island by sleeping outdoors, and collecting raw building materials. Ben also experiences sea kayaking, and witnesses the northern lights.

Ben visits the vast wilderness of North West Canada to meet Jeff and Rose and their five daughters, a family of adventurous off-gridders who rely on hunting big-game animals to survive.

Ben meets a nomadic couple in Bulgarias Rhodope Mountains.

Judith rejected a modern way of life for one close to nature.

Scott and Casey spent their savings on a kite-surfing school.

Ben travels to highlands of Panama to meet a couple who turned their backs on a comfortable lifestyle in the US to try their hand at coffee producing. During the busy harvest season, Ben learns the finer details of how to craft his favourite drink.

Ben travels to the coastal forests of southern Sweden to meet 24-year-old single mother Annalisa, a native Italian who left everything in her home country behind when she was a teenager, and is now developing a forest hideaway on the fringes of society for her and her toddler. Ben helps her chop wood and make her home baby-proof, while Annalisa goes busking to make a small living. They also go dumpster-diving in search of rubbish that can be put to good use to counter the amount of waste thrown away.

Ben meets Jaimie, an inventor who has built a unique home for his family on a remote island off the coast of Panama. Ben gets a taste of the unconventional familys daily routine, which includes scrubbing boat hulls, getting some exercise in a pedalo, hacking through the islands vegetation, and home schooling for the children. He also discovers the unusual family dynamics in the household and takes a look at some of his hosts inventions, which include a computer game depicting his unusual life.

Ben meets a scientist in Siberia, who gave up his urban life to work in the Russian Arctic on finding ways to reduce the impact of climate change on the permafrost. His project makes use of steam machines and monster trucks, but away from his environmental work, he is working on the idea of bringing the woolly mammoth back from extinction.

While we may all feel a little isolated under the current circumstances, some people really have got away from it all, setting up home in some of the most remote locations on earth. Ben Fogle returns to see how some of them have fared, starting with the Long family in New Zealand. You may remember they were two days’ walk from the nearest road, so it was very much a hunter-gatherer existence. “Bewitching, but horribly tough – like camping for ever” is how RT described it. So how have the children coped with such an isolated upbringing, and how have the parents maintained their relationship? SUMMARY Ben reunites with people he previously met in some of the most remote locations on Earth, discovering how life has changed for his hosts.

A life-threatening parachuting accident was the catalyst that persuaded Jim Alston to pursue his "Robinson Crusoe" dream, while his partner Kim Nguyen also had a near-death experience in a horrific car crash. In 2017 Ben Fogle went to visit the pair on the aptly named Wilderness Island off Australia’s north-western cape, where he got a lesson in the art of mud-crabbing and the necessity for fresh water (which the island was without). Ben now returns to find Kim and Jim have now built an eco-resort and gained an extended family. "This island has served as therapy for both of them," he concludes. SUMMARY Ben reunites with a couple living off the west coast of Australia, and discovers the logistical nightmares they have overcome to make a home for themselves on a desert island, as well as enduring the extremes of the Australian climate. While they have recently had cause to celebrate, their lives are becoming increasingly difficult, which may result in them moving on.

Ben Fogle is reunited with seafarer Rick, who has moved on to pastures new since their original encounter. When Rick last appeared on the series, he was living off the coast of French Polynesia, but he has since made a fresh start on the Pacific island of Fiji. In the intervening years, Rick has acquired a new boat and is now travelling alone - but remains as enthusiastic as ever about his unusual lifestyle and believes that anyone can follow in his wake and gain a newfound sense of freedom - if they have the right attitude.

Ben Fogle meets a former film-maker who has made a home in the highlands of eastern Iceland, and set up a wilderness centre exploring 200 years of local history. Ben takes part in an ancient tradition where thousands of sheep that have spent the summer in the mountains are sorted, as well as bathing in a hot waterfalls, riding horses on the plateau, and smokes trout with dung.

Ben Fogle meets an author in Co Galway on Irelands west coast who has turned his back on both money and technology, experimenting with living using only what he can source from the land. His frugal lifestyle involves collecting water, sparse winter foraging, fishing, sheep-wrangling and writing by candle-light.

Ben meets a family that has created a new home in the Devon countryside - but having had to fight to be allowed to build on the land, they now find peace hard to adjust to. Nevertheless, they continue in their drive to be as self-sufficient as possible. However, Ben spots a new development in their lives that could present them with their next big challenge.

Ben revisits Simon and Debbie in Exmoor National Park.

The presenter meets the Powell family who are living an off-grid existence in a hidden valley in the Black Mountains in Wales. Whilst in their company, Ben climbs into a ravine to maintain the familys hydro electrics, explores the forest with the spirited children, and helps plant the biggest new woodland in Wales for a generation.

Ben travels to a unique, tiny island in the Scottish Hebrides where he meets ex-social care worker Philip, who has embraced a new way of life in this small, alternative community. In his company, Ben spends the week cut off from the outside world, in an old lighthouse keepers cottage, where he experiences the unusual routines of the islands community.

Ben heads to Ireland to visit Georg and Bettina, a couple whove lived there for 40 years.

We join Ben on the cliffs of Cornwall, where he is staying with Davina and Todd.

Ben travels to get a crash course in felling trees and the art of charcoal making.

Ben finds former Stone Age host, Lynx, living on a different continent than last time.

The Watkinsons gave up their careers as vets to live greener on the Pembrokeshire coast.

Watch as Ben Fogle journeys to South America to visit Rhona, a British born actress who left the bright lights of Hollywood to live alone in a remote valley in Uruguay. Ben is instantly intrigued by the juxtaposition in lifestyle and learns that ill health, a difficult childhood and disillusionment with Tinseltown culture have all led to his hosts new life.

Ben journeys into the heart of Zambia to live with a British family who have built a safari lodge on the edge of a national park. Ben uncovers what prompted this intrepid couple to start a new business and a family in the unforgiving bush, and learns how they have had to overcome fire and flooding to keep their African dream alive.

Ben joins Chris, a former paratrooper, in the beautiful county of Dorset on the south coast of England. Ben spends a week with Chris who, despite losing nearly everything, has spent the last five years walking the UKs coastline. Ben discovers what has motivated Chris and how he has turned his life around, found love and raised thousands for charity. Ben join Chris and his faithful dog companion, Jet, 27,000 miles into their walk where theyve now hit the Jurassic Coast. And theyre no longer alone – Chris met his partner, fellow hiker Kate and now they are parents to baby Magnus. Ben learns what Chris calls "the art" of living wild on the road, once as a solo experience, but now with a young family. He learns how to desalinate sea water and forage the nature around him, embraces river washing and charming local fisherman for food, while beginning to understand what its like to "wild parent" and where this intrepid family are heading next.

Ben heads back to Sweden to revisit Annalisa, a single mother who was developing a forest hideaway on the fringes of society for her and her young son. Now three years later, Annalisa has a new partner and an enviable homestead, and Ben learns of the extraordinary journey the trio took during the pandemic and how they sustain their thrifty life with such passion and ambition.

Adventurer Ben visits musician Vanessa Forero, and finds out what took her from her native Yorkshire to life on a remote South American mountainside.

Ben travels to an island on Norways coastline to meet his host Elena, a former Middle East peacekeeper, and experience the hardships of living in the environment. Ben joins Elena and her partner on a mountain climb, before helping them finish their guest house, cleaning a beach, kayaking on frozen waters and gardening in the harsh landscape.

Ben heads to northern England to stay with a man who traded in his house for a life on the road, travelling the UK and joining a community of full-time nomads who survive off the grid. Ben meets Paul in Lincolnshire on board his 30-year-old converted military truck. They travel to the coastline to stay overnight on the beach, go on a road trip and meet up with Pauls nomadic community. Along the way, Ben is intrigued how such a lifestyle is possible in the UK, with its strict camping laws

Ben visits the wilds of central Portugal to meet Luke and Sarah, who gave up their careers to put down roots on a deserted sheep farm. As Ben helps them clear their land, forage acorns for the pet pigs and garden, he learns about the financial and physical troubles they have faced and their wider travelling adventures.

Ben reconnects with his old British friend Paul Ferber and his family in Thailand. He learns why they left their Cambodian island home since he last saw them, where Paul was raising his own castaway tribe and defending sea-life from the illegal trawler trade. Now, they discuss how his tribe feel about their new jungle home, and whether their long-standing battle with pirates has continued.

Ben Fogle heads back to the jewel of the Indian Ocean to catch up with British vet Janey, who set up a rescue centre for Sri Lanka’s street-dogs. Five years on, Janey’s centre looks even more impressive. The vet speaks about her new struggles, such as being left alone during the pandemic, and Ben witnesses the impact her charity is having.

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Ben makes an unprecedented third visit to see his old friends Bill and Bob, elderly twins living in the canyons of Utah. During his previous stays, Ben quickly learned that nothing was quite as it seemed with his eccentric hosts. His home for the week was a cave. He discovered that the brothers were preppers, with several years’ worth of supplies hidden in their caves. He also learned that Bob had suffered a stroke and on this visit is saddened to see that his condition has not improved with age. Ben also observes that their paranoia about the outside world has grown. He reassures them that life away from their caves might not be as they perceive.

Ben returns to the enchanting Suffolk countryside and a hidden woodland to reunite with the extraordinary Will Lord, a true British caveman. In their last encounter, Ben fully immersed himself in Wills Stone Age lifestyle, helping to build a primitive home and learning survival skills like fire-starting and coracle boating. He also spent quality time with Will and his father, renowned flint-knappers. Now, nearly three years later, Ben is back to explore how Wills prehistoric dream has evolved and how his family and friends have embraced this unique passion for ancient living.

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Ben heads into the forests of northern New South Wales to meet Jimmy, an American photographer living alone. Jimmy shares his story of coming out to family and friends, and how meeting his late husband Richard inspired them to start a new life together in the wild. Ben learns that Jimmy has faced multiple tragedies since leaving urban America for rural Australia. Bereavement and unprecedented natural disasters have taken a significant toll on him, prompting Ben to wonder why Jimmy has chosen to remain in the wild alone.

Ben embarks on an epic journey to meet one of the most remote families hes encountered, uncovering what drove academics and married couple Bec and Reece to leave civilisation for complete isolation.

Ben ventures to the desolate beauty of Utahs Canyonlands, where he meets Scott, who has built his off-grid home, and witnesses Scotts remarkable resilience.

Ben meets 50-year-old free spirit Nara, who has spent most of his adult life without mod cons. Ben learns how Naras unconventional childhood shaped his outlook.

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