Vindauga

Personally, I like Survivor Man better.

The guy from Man Versus Wild does much dumber stuff. Okay, so the idea of that show is to give you some idea of how to survive in the wild but in order to do that he has to put himself into situations that are just ridiculous considering that he doesn’t have to. For instance, one time, while walking across an African Savannah, he decided to show us how you could survive off of Elephant poo. Seriously, you can squeeze this stuff and get water out of it. Sure, there is a chance that it will bacteria but if you have the choice between no water and elephant poo water, which would you choose? The thing is, he didn’t need the water; he drank it just to show us that we could. Right now I am watching him try to escape from the Scottish Highlands (and I really don’t want to get caught in them now). He came across a bog and, even though he didn’t fall in, he decided to show us how to escape from a bog. He stripped down and jumped into the bog. When he got out he complained about how it was essentially an open sewer.

Survivor Man, on the other hand, even though he is in really crazy places, doesn’t ever purposely put himself into dangerous positions. He has one goal, stay alive for 7 days. And they always start in some plausible way (broken down snow mobile, busted bike). He finds shelter and water and if that works out, then he tries to hike out. He, unlike Man Versus Wild, is completely alone. Survivor Man carries all his own gear. Yes, he brings multiple cameras and all the batteries to tape himself for seven days. He even does absurd things like set the camera up in order to get shots of him climbing up or down mountains, which means he has to climb twice. Man Versus Wild has a camera crew. Also, Survivor Man makes it a point to leave places with as little trace of his passing as possible. A crew comes along and cleans up any of his major leavings (like the busted snow mobile and the remnants of the bike).

However, I think they are both insane. I once saw Man Versus Wild waltzing around about 100 yards from lions. And Survivor Man once slept out in Polar Bear territory with seal blubber in his pack only to find polar bear tracks within 20 paces of where he slept.

Watching these two, I want to always carry a flint and a knife. Additionally, it wouldn’t hurt to have some sort of jacket.

So, I don’t know which you favor. But I like Survivor Man better.