Ray Mears' Bushcraft Episode Rating Graph

As far as Mears is concerned the birch bark canoe is the best vessel man has ever created. He has always wanted to construct one and in this programme he works with Algonquin canoe maker Pinock Smith, one of the few people left who know how to craft them using traditional methods.

Mears fulfils a childhood dream by experiencing a true safari, Maasai-style. He teams up with a Maasai warrior in Tanzania and embarks on a walking safari. As they travel through a valley inhabited by wild animals, he spots a variety of useful plants and ends the day sleeping under the stars.

In Mears' view, the canoe is the most natural way to travel and to get close to wild places. To demonstrate this, he paddles down the Missinaibi River, a river as unspoilt today as it was three hundred years ago when it was the essential route for the fur trade canoes.

How did hunter-gatherers survive in Stone Age Britain? From flint-napping and bow-making to fire-lighting and cooking venison, Mears uses replicas of tools from that era to demonstrate - and celebrate - our lost bushcraft skills as he encourages us to view our land in a new light.

One country where the ancient skills of bushcraft are alive and well and in daily use is Sweden. Mears sees how pine tar is made and used on traditional skis before spending time with the Sami people in the north where he takes a dog sled journey into the snowy wastes.

Mears sets up a jungle camp in the Amazon rainforest close to a native village, and sees how the Yekuana live in harmony with their environment. He encounters poison dart frogs and climbs into the forest canopy to gain a different perspective on the surroundings. He also offers an insight into the people who inhabit the dense tropical environment.