Human Planet

Only one creature has carved a life for itself in every habitat on Earth.

That creature is us.

All over the world we still use our ingenuity

to survive in the wild places,

far from the city lights, face to face with raw nature.

This is the Human Planet.

Deserts are the hottest and driest places on Earth.

They cover one third of the land's surface.

Some never see rain.

We can survive two months without food...

...yet only a few days without water.

As babies, we spend nine months surrounded by fluid in our mother's womb.

But birth pushes us out of this luxurious water world.

From this point on,

life for every child of the desert is defined by the quest for water.

Yet, somehow, in this brutal land,

an incredible 300 million people survive.

These are their remarkable stories.

The Sahara is the biggest desert on the globe.

It is the size of the United States,

and its arid interior can unleash the mightiest sandstorms on the planet.

Ferocious winds whip up billions of tiny sand grains,

into massive walls...

...reaching more than 5,000 metres into the air,

ten times the height of the Empire State Building,

covering areas the size of Britain.

Battling through this sandstorm in Mali is 1 6-year-old Mamadou.

He's a cattle herder who left home three days ago

on a mission to find water for his cows.

It's a huge responsibility on his teenage shoulders.

He must endure the fury of the desert alone,

but there's an even bigger challenge ahead.

He's in a race against the biggest land animal on Earth -

African elephants.

This desert herd is also desperate for water

because Mali is gripped by drought.

It's 40 degrees Celsius.

Most of the water holes are already dry.

Only one place for 80 kilometres will still have water...

...Lake Banzena.

And this is where both the elephants and Mamadou are heading.

If Mamadou keeps up a fast pace, he'll reach the lake by morning.

But only 50 kilometres behind him are the greatest nomads of the desert.

Elephant matriarchs guide the herd,

following an incredible mental map of all the water holes

to be found in an area of tens of thousands of square kilometres.

Acacia trees give them just enough fuel to keep walking

but they can't rest, day or night.

But, for Mamadou, nightfall means he has no choice but to stop.

Meeting elephants in the dark could be fatal.

A hurried breakfast is the little precious milk

Mamadou can get from his cows.

It keeps him one step away from dehydration.

But he's got to get going.

The elephant herd have walked through the night, making up ground.

- (BIRDSONG) - (ELEPHANT TRUMPETS)

Finally the end is in sight for Mamadou.

But he walks straight into trouble.

Not only have the massive elephant herd beaten him to the lake,

but they're also blocking his access to the water.

Mamadou knows the elephants could charge,

so he is careful not to get too close.

It's an uneasy truce while he works out how to break through.

Suddenly an elephant charges his cows.

Mamadou fights back, but armed only with sticks,

it's a battle of David and Goliath.

Mamadou's courage has managed to shift over 50 elephants.

Luckily, conflicts like this are very rare.

Finally Mamadou drives his cattle towards the life-giving water.

The elephants move off and find their own part of the lake.

At last, they too have an opportunity to drink...

...and even play.

It will be two months before there's any chance

of rain replenishing the water holes,

so Mamadou's struggles will go on.

But in one part of the desert,

a shrinking water supply leads to a surprising opportunity.

Hundreds of kilometres away, along the Bandiagara escarpment,

the sapping 40-degree heat has sucked the life

out of the rivers of Dogon country,

leaving only isolated pools

stuffed with stranded fish.

The Dogon choose this moment for a desert fishing festival.

Thousands of competitors are drawn to Lake Antogo,

including Dialo, who's been coming here for 30 years.

It's a matter of pride for him to catch a fish.

On any other day, fishing is strictly forbidden in this sacred water.

In this way, the elders protect an important food reserve

well into the dry season.

But today the community have a chance to catch a symbolic last supper.

The banks are filling up quickly.

The atmosphere is tense.

Dialo has found a good spot.

But now he must wait since Antogo has its own unwritten rules.

The ceremonial chief chants a prayer to chase away evil spirits.

He wears a fish trap, believed to protect the words as they are spoken.

This is Dialo's once-a-year chance.

- (GUNSHOT) - (SHOUTING)

The free-for-all quickly becomes a fishing frenzy.

They thrust their baskets down to trap the fish.

Dialo has caught one, but there's no time for politeness.

Afterjust 1 5 minutes, there's nothing left,

and the chaos subsides.

Dialo is successful but exhausted.

Back at home, his proud catch of fish becomes a final feast for his family

so they can survive the last days of the dry season.

Far to the east of the Bandiagara,

it takes immense navigational skill just to find water.

These Tubu women must venture across the vast sand seas of the Sahara,

in search of a miniature well just one metre square.

It will mean the difference between life and death.

They call this place the Tenere - the land of nothing.

It is featureless, scorching and unreliable.

Foni is a Tubu woman who can find her way to water without a map or a compass.

She's brought her daughter, Shede, only ten years old.

The well they seek is still three days' walk away.

This is the toughest journey they'll ever face together.

They undertake this perilous journey for food.

They must cross 240 kilometres just to get to market,

to trade camels for supplies that will last them six months.

This caravan is only women and children,

since, for the Tubu, it's the women who are the great navigators.

To the untrained eye, a dune is just a dune.

But Foni can tell which ones to trust, in a place where nothing stands still.

Smaller dunes shape-shift, moving with the wind,

making them unreliable.

But larger dunes, towering over 60 metres, are more stable,

revealing signs of a much bigger picture.

Over thousands of years,

prevailing desert winds have blown dunes into long parallel ridges,

the only landmarks for the travellers.

The Tubu look to the sun and the ridge line to work out which direction to go.

Then they count each ridge to know how far they've gone.

They've been walking for ten hours in the blazing sun.

They must rest.

They make their camp out of a single sheet, and ration their water.

The camels'share is mixed with oats, while the women drink sweet tea.

They rise early, before the sun gets too hot.

They only carry enough water to get to the well,

so the pace they travel is key.

This specialist understanding of the desert is fast disappearing.

Today only a few hundred Tubu women possess the knowledge.

Foni believes that, by teaching Shede,

she can keep it alive for another generation.

When darkness falls,

Foni also teaches Shede how to read the night sky.

For now, at least, they know they're on the right path.

It's day three.

Today they must find the well.

While packing up, Foni decides Shede is ready to take charge.

But the well is so hidden

that even if she's only a few hundred metres away, she could miss it.

She sets them off in the right direction,

aligning herself between the ridges ahead and the sunrise to the east.

For some children Shede's age, just ten years old,

finding their way to school is challenge enough.

But Shede has to find her way 20 miles across the bleakest landscape on Earth.

But with her mother's guiding words echoing in her head,

she strides forward.

After a gruelling 1 2-hours'riding, the tenth ridge is finally in sight.

The lonely bush in the dip of the dune marks the valley of the well.

Shede has found the only well for 80 kilometres around.

She's made her mum proud.

Finally, Shede can water the camels.

With their thirst quenched, she washes off three days of dust.

Now they've got water, they'll make it to market,

but they're still weeks away from finishing theirjourney.

Not all deserts are swelteringly hot.

The Gobi in Mongolia is a desert of extremes.

Lying far north of the equator,

here scorching summer highs plunge to freezing Arctic lows.

It's February, minus 20 degrees Celsius,

and the few wells people have are frozen over.

But, amazingly, water appears here as snow.

The snow doesn't fall here.

It's blown over 3,000 kilometres from Siberia.

And these bitter winds means it never settles for long.

So, Ganbold and his twin-humped Bactrian camels

must chase the snow towards the mountains where it lingers.

This rare snow is a lifeline.

It's so important,

he and his family have set up their winter camp in the foothills.

But he's taking a risk.

His herd, including pregnant females,

are now in the hunting grounds of a voracious desert predator,