Survivor history - a lesson for us?

Hein rewrites Survivor history ??

Perhaps of interest to some, this guy manages to make fire in an ancient way in the SA TV series "Survivor" - I doubt if this was rigged. According to this article here News 24 link "This has not yet happened in any of the 14 American Survivor series, which are also screened on South African television."

Take care! ''


Another link with Video

That's crazy. I never thought of that... you always saw fires and torches going on Survivor but never think of how they were lit. I guess they were either given matches/lighters, or all of their fires were started by the production crew.

The only problem with bow drills is finding something durable enough to be used for the string... I've done it with string/rope/shoe laces but never 100% natural. I don't think simply using vines or any other natural material by itself would work, they would just snap. Can anyone provide a link/info on creating cordage from nature and what materials are ideal? Maybe we need an entire "Create your own rope" thread for the survival forum if it hasn't been done yet, as rope has many other very useful survival implications. Also do you need softwood and hardwood or do you think you could make a fire with both the spindle and base being softwood? Never tried it...

There needs to be a true "Survivor" where people actually are just stranded somewhere with literally nothing, not the Hollywood version. I guess that's too much of a liability, but they could always pull anyone out who was unsuccessful before they starved. The closest I've seen was a Ted Nugent reality show that was briefly on, where people had to catch, kill, prepare, and cook their own chicken, and similar 'stunts.'

On an unrelated note... has there really been 14 series of Survivor and people are still watching? I only watched the first one, and portions of the Australian one which I believe was second... that's like people still watching episodes of "Who Wants To Be A Millionare." (Yes I know it's still on the air, but I can't figure out how.)

[edit on 9/6/2007 by Yarcofin]