Les Routes de l'impossible Episode Rating Graph

Zanskar is a region of India located in the highest populated valley of the Himalayas, at more than 4,000 meters above sea level. To reach the small village of Ralakum, Nima and her son begin a long journey with their 4x4. Once the long car journey is over, the worst begins as there are two days of walking in the cold and ice. Tashi and Thinle also take risks to reach isolated villages in order to sell their fruits and vegetables. Cars sinking into ice and lack of oxygen seem almost insignificant compared to the recent floods which have devastated certain areas.

In Thailand, the Karen people are isolated in the mountains and make a modest living from growing rice and corn. Anuwat, one of them, has to travel to his field along mountain roads that have been ravaged by storms. In his 4x4, he has to take all the risks but can count on the solidarity of the locals. In Laos, Ham, like all the other farmers, has been badly affected by the ban on poppy cultivation. His old military truck could implode at any moment under the weight of the goods and passengers in its trailer.

In Chad, even the desert is experiencing flooding on an unprecedented scale. More than a million people are affected by rising waters. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of fields have disappeared, a tragedy in a country where a third of the population is food insecure. In the south, although rich in oil, each trip is an epic for the local populations who do not benefit from the benefits of black gold. Norbert and Souleymane exhaust themselves every week on a broken track to supply the surrounding markets. In the Salamat region, transporting people is a daily challenge. The raging waters have washed away parts of the road, and in places, the track is submerged for hundreds of meters.

Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world. To travel in this territory of 60 million inhabitants lacking reliable infrastructure, some workers are forced to resort to archaic means. So, Masinis cobbled together his own motor wagon to use the old railway line. The pitiful state of the rails forces him to take great risks. But without it, farmers, villagers and gold prospectors would find themselves very destitute. For his part, Rudi must also face many dangers at the wheel of his minibus.