We're going on a bear hunt
In a new survival series, 12 celebs confront caimans, spiders and jumping ants while being hunted down by Bear Grylls — so what happened when RT's Benji Wilson was sent to Costa Rica to experience it too?
Netflix
- Benji Wilson
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Normally, when a bunch of celebrities are dropped into the jungle for television entertainment, the worst they have to put up with is a bowl of sheep’s testicles and a ribbing from Ant and Dec. Celebrity Bear Hunt is different. Granted, the celebrities are still dumped in the jungle, but this time the jungle is in Costa Rica – and their judges are not the voting public, but former SAS soldier and survival expert, Bear Grylls.
As Bear puts the celebrities – including Shirley Ballas, Mel B, Boris Becker and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen – through a series of survival challenges, those who fail to pass muster face the “Bear Pit” – a Hunger Games-style face-off set in four square kilometres of savannah, scrub and jungle, where they’re hunted down by Bear himself over 60 minutes and, if captured, eliminated from the show. Meanwhile, presenter Holly Willoughby, once a guest host of I’m a Celebrity… herself, looks on with concern.
But really, how scary is Bear Grylls? Billed by Netflix as “one of the world’s most fearsome predators”, from the comfort of my sofa I scoffed at the idea that the 50-year-old former Chief Scout might have some bite with his bark. I’ve watched him eat elephant poo to survive in the wild, but I’m not actually scared of him.
Or rather, I wasn’t until last year, when I was flown to the set of Celebrity Bear Hunt in Costa Rica and dumped in the “Bear Pit” myself. It turns out it is a genuine test of survival skills. The conditions are challenging in themselves – hot, humid and dehydrating. I’m warned about Lyme disease, told that my feet may get fungal infections and that there are face-eating spiders and bullhorn acacias (which harbour armies of ants that jump on you if you brush against them).
Bear Grylls and Holly Willoughby co-present Celebrity Bear Hunt. Netflix
Luckily, Grylls himself appears from nowhere to give me some tips. He starts by smearing mud on my face. “At least get you looking the part,” he says. “When you’re lying in the dirt motionless, a caking of dirt helps protect you from ants and mosquitoes.”
The most important thing when you’re being hunted, Grylls says, is obviously to avoid detection. “You’re trying to break up the very distinct shape and shine of the human head and shoulders and conceal your glistening, sweaty face.”
The art of concealment is all about the “S”s, he adds: “Shape, shine, shadow, smell, sudden movement and silhouette. Plan your route – if you’re walking across a ridgeline, drop down ten foot, then someone can’t see that skyline figure.”
Don't leave tracks... You're vulnerable if you stick to a path
Bear Grylls
I start planning my route. The aim of the Bear Pit is to get from one side to the other, to an exit gate, while somehow avoiding the expert survival guru. I was going to stick to the path but remember Grylls’s warning: “You don’t want to be leaving tracks and you don’t want to get ‘track happy’. You’re so vulnerable if you just stick to a path. It makes it easy for me.”
I head towards the “Razor Ravine” area of the Bear Pit, not far from the “Caiman Pool”, where I was told they had already seen an actual caiman – a sharp-toothed reptile related to an alligator – as well as some snakes. Various tools are left around the site, but they’re often near to trip wires. I’m not falling for that. I skirt round a rather obvious snare trap feeling quite pleased with myself. And then I have a brainwave.
The game is up for Radio Times's Benji Wilson Netflix
Recalling how Arnold Schwarzenegger had conquered the Predator, I stand stock still and wait. Quietly, I dig down into the leaf mould and make myself at one with nature. Six minutes later Bear Grylls taps me on the shoulder, cuffs me with ropes and puts his foot on my head. I still have no idea where he came from.
What had I done wrong? “You can stay still,” my survival sensei says, “but ultimately, it’s evasion and escape – not just evasion. You have to take some risks to win.”
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Benji Wilson
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