Alone in Zambia: Scorching Sun, Out of Water

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0:56It's October 2016. on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. On a vast shelf of land overlooking the mighty Zambezi River, a desolate expanse of bone-dry savannah bakes in the searing heat. It is 50 degrees Celsius, over 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and rising. The sun climbs higher in the sky. Animal tracks baked into the cracked earth encircle desiccated watering holes. The elephants lions, warthogs, and wildebeest long gone in search of shade. Locals call this time of year suicide month, because anybody who steps outside in this heat must surely have a death wish.

1:45And yet, there is someone out here. 38-year-old Chaz Powell is stumbling on the arid earth, fully exposed to the unbearable scorching sun. It's 50 degrees plus heat. I've got no water. I just started drinking my own urine out of desperation because I just was so desperate to get some fluid in my body.

2:11Chas staggers aimlessly through the coarse vegetation. The brush is so dense and unyielding, it takes him minutes to travel just a few feet. Thorns tear at his clothes and bite into his blistered skin. The air, dusty and windless, catches in his throat and vibrates with the incessant trill of cicadas. Inside his backpack, his water bottle sits empty. He drained it moments ago, certain that the river was just ahead. But there is no river. Chaz stops, checks the map again. A thin blue line snakes from north to south, a tributary that should lie just a few kilometers away. He shields his eyes and squints towards the horizon.

3:02The terrain ripples in the heat, undulating folds of scrubland that swim in the shimmering haze. A wave of dizziness sweeps over him.

3:16I was completely lost and completely out of my comfort zone, out of my depth with the situation I was about to face. Basically got to a point where I thought to myself, you know, this is stupid. Chaz looks back in the direction he's just come. There is at least one river in the vicinity whose existence he can be certain of. The Zambezi. He was there earlier today, walking along its banks. Now he needs to get back to it. But how? Retracing his steps would take too long. In these temperatures, he wouldn't last the hour. There is, however, a shorter alternative. Chaz turns his gaze to the south, towards a rocky cliff edge that plunges down into a deep, spectacular gorge.

4:05Far below, the Zambezi carries its life-bringing water through this parched landscape. Chas runs his tongue over his cracked, peeling lips. He needs to hydrate. And if the only way to do that is by climbing down that cliff, then so be it. I honestly thought at the time, you know, this is it. If I don't get back down there, I'm gone. And that was probably the only time in my life I thought that. If I don't get myself out of the situation, I'm done for.

4:46Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives. In this episode, we meet Chaz Powell. In 2016, the survival instructor embarks on an epic quest. To walk the full length of the Zambezi River, from source to mouth. A staggering 2 ,000 mile long trek through harsh terrain and even harsher weather. By October, Chaz is two months in and making good headway.

5:30Until his progress grinds to a sudden halt. But what I didn't realize was how difficult it was walking in the gorge. I'm only walking one or two miles a day at this point. I was getting really frustrated at the lack of progress. Before long, Chas will find himself exposed on the wide open savannah, with no shade, no water, and temperatures soaring to unimaginable heights. Somehow, with grim irony, a journey along one of Africa's largest sources of fresh water will transform into a desperate battle against dehydration. And, as his body is baked in the eviscerating sun, an awful possibility presents itself.

6:13Slowly dying of thirst. If I don't get up now and move, I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm going to get weaker and weaker. It's going to get more and more desperate. At the time, I thought to myself that I'm fading here. I'm John Hopkins, from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is Real Survival Stories.

7:00It's August 2016 in the remote foothills of Northwest Zambia. 38-year-old Chaz Powell stands in a forest clearing, gazing at a burbling freshwater spring. It might not look much, but this pool of water, partially concealed among a tangle of tree roots, is the source of one of the longest and most important rivers in Africa, the Zambezi. For Chaz, this place holds extra significance. This unassuming puddle is the starting point of his quest to hike the length of the Zambezi, from its source here in the forest all the way to the Indian Ocean, a distance of over 2 ,000 miles. It's already been quite the journey just to get here.

7:47For the last two years, he has been poring over maps, analyzing weather and terrain, gathering gear and securing travel permits, all while pushing himself through intense physical and mental training. This is not the sort of trip you undertake lightly. And Chaz isn't doing it alone. He's joined by a friend, a Zambian local, who's agreed to take on the journey as his expert guide. And now, finally, the day has arrived. The planning phase is over. Time to put some miles in their boots.

8:26But before they even set off walking Chaz notices something isn't quite right with his companion We got to the source of the river And my friend who was normally really vibrant And really sort of cheery and sort of out there-ish He'd done really quiet So I said to him, you know, is everything okay? And then he said to me, I can't do it And I was like, what do you mean? I was a bit taken aback but he said, I can't do it. And I was like, well, I guess I was speechless. It seems a bit late for Coldfeet. What was the point in all that training and preparation if he's just going to back out now? His friend glances anxiously down at the river's headwaters, trickling through the fallen leaves.

9:12It's as if the full scale of the undertaking hadn't dawned until the very last second. It's hardly the vote of confidence Chaz needed. He can be under no illusions that this expedition is going to be easy. But then, doing things the easy way has never really been his style.

9:37From an early age, growing up in England's West Midlands, it was clear that Chaz was never going to follow a straight and narrow path through life. At school, he struggled to sit still, always preferring the freedom of the outdoors to the constraints of the classroom. And as a teenager, this restlessness brought him into direct conflict with the authorities. I ended up getting into quite a bit of trouble with the police when I was younger. And when I was 19, I ended up in a young offenders institution, which was the end of that row for me. I looked back at it and it was all minor offenses, but it wasn't something I'm proud of at all.

10:14And something ever since then, I've sort of been on a path to redeem myself.

10:23This redemption lay in exploration, in pushing himself beyond his comfort zone and striving to emulate the achievements of his boyhood heroes. Figures like David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer known for charting vast swathes of the African continent. After a couple of years working and saving, Chas went off to travel the world. He backpacked around Southeast Asia, road tripped across Australia, and worked odd jobs in New Zealand. He developed his passion for nature and the outdoors, throwing himself into new challenges in some of the world's wildest environments. Eight years later, he returned to Britain, where he decided to put his newfound experience to good use.

11:10When I came back to the UK, I started teaching bushcraft and survival. I started working with young people and teenagers and taking them on life-changing adventures, which obviously made me, I guess, balance that side of things out a little bit, obviously in trying to inspire people to live a more adventurous life. It felt good to give back, to share his passion with young people. It felt even better to build a career out of something he loved. But as the years passed, Chas started to feel the same restlessness he used to feel as a kid in the classroom. Maybe it's genetic, maybe it's just something that's in me that needs to be outside and needs to be exploring.

11:53But even if I haven't been walking for several weeks or months, I get irritable. And I feel like I need to be out doing a trek and I need to be out on a sort of journey. And I think that's just something that's always been there. I guess pinpointing the exact reason why, I guess it's just something within me.

12:15And so, two years ago, he decided it was time for another grand expedition.

12:24In the course of his travels, there's one part of the world that has stuck with him like nowhere else. The continent of Africa is Tuchaz, one of the last remaining places on Earth where true adventure can still be found. I feel like Africa's still got that edge to it, you know. There's still an element of real wildness where people don't want to go there. You know, they're not sure what is happening in some of these wild places. And, you know, learning from these people like David Attenborough and David Livingston that you can go to these places and they are fascinating.

13:02One day, while studying a map of the continent and discussing potential expedition routes with his mate Ian, Chaz's gaze settled on the winding path of the Zambezi River. As he traced its course from the heart of Africa to the coast of Mozambique, an idea formed. So I said to my friend Ian that I was looking at the Zambezi and I wanted to walk the length of the Zambezi and he's like, no, that's too much. That's a step too far. And I thought, well, the more people I've asked, obviously the more interested I've become in it. But the more people I've asked, the more I realized it was probably not safe.

13:41A lot of people have told me, you'll die. You're going to die on this river. The 3 ,500 kilometers Zambezi is one of the most formidable rivers in the world. It's not just the crocodiles, the thundering rapids, and the precipitous waterfalls. It's also the extremity of the environments through which it flows, ranging from mountainous jungle to swampland to sprawling savannas that bake in the summer heat. It's little wonder that only one person is known to have ever walked the length of it. But the more Chaz learned about the Zambezi, the more his scheme solidified. If anything, the immense difficulty of the challenge was all part of the appeal.

14:25I want to get out of my comfort zone here. I want to go on a long trek and I want to be in the wild. I want to be embracing that wild place. I don't want to just know I'm quite comfortable. I want to maybe live as previous explorers did and explore places that are little known about. And I think there is obviously the Zambies. He ticked them boxes for me and that was the main reason.

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16:52It's August 2016 in Northwest Zambia. Two years since Chaz first decided to walk the length of the Zambezi. But now he watches dismayed as his friend and guide turns around and walks back down the forest trail, having just bailed on the expedition at the last second. It's a shock to the system, suddenly facing this daunting task, Sola. I started tracing the source of the river along this little stream, probably for about 100 meters, until I eventually just sat down, my head in my hands, sort of like confused and angry and a bit upset. What the hell just happened? And am I going to be able to continue this walk now on my own?

17:45For all his experience, he was counting on local expertise to help him navigate the unfamiliar terrain. He looks at the stream trickling downhill, doggedly wending its way through this dense jungle. Suddenly, a look of determination crosses his face. He is well prepared, a professional, and so much has already been sunk into this plan. I said to myself at that point, you know, I'm going to do today. I'm going to see how I feel. I'm going to do tomorrow, see how I feel. and that's what it became. It became a step-by-step, day-by-day, you know, let's see how I get on. And on, and on, and on. From its source, the Upper Zambezi cuts through the forests and flooded swamps of eastern Angola.

18:37It then flows back into Zambia, meandering through a wide, shallow valley of verdant grassland. Periodically, villages appear along its banks, scatterings of squat earthen huts. Chaz is greeted warmly by the locals, who offer him food and a place to pitch his tent. He walks all day, every day, enduring blisters, mosquito bites, and the inescapable ever-present humidity. He passes herds of grazing antelope and buffalo. He descends steep rapids and navigates tricky alluvial plains, where the river splinters into complex systems of channels and marshes. And he doesn't slow down. He can't afford to.

19:25Chaz is in a race against the weather. By now it's early October. In November, the rains will come, and a whole section of the upper Zambezi, the sprawling Barotzi floodplains, will be submerged and completely impossible. One of the reasons I walked when I did was it was the hottest time of year, and it was my only chance to walk through the Barotzi floodplains, which are underwater for about 90 % of the year. So I calculated that when I got to the Barotzi floodplains, the water would be as low as it could be and I'd be walking on accessible paths.

20:08After months of rising temperatures and no rain, the water has receded enough for Chas to plot a course through the plains. But of course there's a trade-off. October is the hottest month in this part of Africa. So hot, in fact, the locals have a name for it. The local people call it suicide month because it's so hot, you can't really go outside. This is for local people. Temperatures are in the 50, you know, 50 degrees plus temperatures at this point. So the Baratheon floodplains, I knew it was going to be hot, but I knew that it was my only chance of getting through that area. While locals keep cool indoors, Chas forges on across the plains.

20:54Conditions are sweltering. Most days, it's well over 40 degrees Celsius, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit. But with the river flowing alongside him, he is never short of drinking water.

21:10After a few weeks, Chaz reaches a significant waypoint. The place where the Zambezi plunges sharply off a giant cleft in the earth, crashing into the gorge below in a constant rolling explosion of mist and noise. It was named Victoria Falls by David Livingstone, the first European to lay eyes on it. But to local people, it's Mosi-O-A-Tunia, the smoke that thunders.

21:41As he drinks in the breathtaking sight, Chaz's spirits are high. He's passed the Barozi floodplains, the most challenging stretch of his journey. Next, it's the gorges, the deep basalt canyons through which the Zambezi flows for the next 150 miles. Navigating the gorges won't be easy, but the success of the past two months is cause for optimism. Though out here, overconfidence can be a very dangerous thing. This walk's going well. I've done half the walk in two months and my confidence was high. and I was maybe not, I guess to use the word cocky, I don't know, but confident that I could get through really difficult times and I think I overstepped that mark a little bit with my confidence and I think I sort of miscalculated things and that was one of the reasons I think I got myself into trouble.

22:48It's mid-October. Chaz has left Victoria Falls behind him and now awkwardly picks his way along the bottom of the gorge. To one side, the river tumbles down a series of dramatic whitewater rapids. Towering basalt cliffs loom overhead. Chaz scans the ground beneath his feet. Though ground is a generous word for these sporadic boulders that provide the only walkable pathway inside the gorge. There are points where the rocks disappear completely, forcing Chas to wade through waist-deep water. And this has slowed him down considerably.

23:34I'm only walking one or two miles a day at this point. And if I've got 150 miles of doing this, I'm in quite a bit of trouble because I'm not going to have enough food. I hadn't calculated the right food rations. I hadn't realized how difficult it was. I was getting frustrated. I was getting really frustrated at the lack of progress. Exasperation building. Chas stops to reassess. He can't go on like this. He's falling too far behind schedule. He's already slipped and hurt his leg, which prompted him to make a social media post, alerting friends to the increasingly precarious position he's in. His injuries aren't serious, just a small strain, and he doesn't expect anyone to come looking for him.

24:19But there's some comfort in the fact that, at the very least, his rough location is out there.

24:30Chaz pulls out his map and scans the flat ground above the gorge. He'd originally planned to avoid walking along the clifftop. In this heat, being separated from the water seemed like a bad idea. But then he spots something promising on the map. Another river, a tributary of the Zambezi, just 20 kilometers downstream. With a confirmed water source ahead, a new plan emerges. Maybe he can afford to stay high and follow the clifftop route, rather than remaining down here in the gorge. Chaz turns to the cliff. Luckily, he's in a spot where climbing out of the gorge is possible, via a series of slopes and ledges.