Kate Humble: Living With Nomads
When she was a child, former Top Gear and Springwatch host Kate Humble wanted to be a nomad. Living in some of the world's most remote wildernesses, cheek by jowl with nature, seemed like such a wildly romantic existence.
Episode 1: Nepal
In this first episode, Kate travels to south west Nepal in search of the country's last community of nomads, the Raute people. Almost all of the Raute population has already settled in Nepal and India - just one group of 140 people remain living as nomads. These hunter-gatherers still move camp every few weeks through the steeply wooded hills and mountains in one of the poorest countries on the planet. Life for this last Raute group is increasingly tough, as they face pressure to settle from Nepal's government and hostility from the farmers on whose land they camp.
The Raute are famously private, and it proves a difficult task for Kate to get to know them. At the beginning they are wary, only engaging with her to ask for money. With perseverance and a rather unlikely rendition of Old MacDonald, Kate is slowly accepted into this tightly knit and proud community. But it's a demanding and emotional journey as she witnesses them move ever further from their ancient traditions and encounters first hand the hostility that the Raute face from mainstream Nepali society. As she helps them move camp twice, bearing heavy loads up punishingly steep hills, she comes face to face - and almost fist to fist - with the conflicts and contradictions facing Nepal's last nomads.
Watch it here: BBC iPlayer - Kate Humble: Living with Nomads - 1. Nepal
Episode 2: Siberia
Kate Humble journeys to the far north of Siberia in the teeth of the Arctic winter to travel with the Nenets. These reindeer herders spend their lives migrating with the seasons up and down the Yamal Peninsula, following their herds from pasture to pasture. But it's a tough and precarious existence, living in temperatures that can drop to -54C. And the extremes soon take a toll on Kate - a lover of warm weather - and her crew, when on the way to meet their Nenet family their vehicle breaks down and they're forced to abandon their plans.
With the chance to regroup at one of the tundra's slaughterhouses, Kate heads out to join a new family, who are migrating to their winter pasture. She finds a small group of Nenets, sharing a herd of over 300 reindeer, surviving in their reindeer-skinned chums (tents), living a harsh yet happy existence. Kate travels with them, sharing their chum by night, and learns about what it means to be a nomad in such an extreme environment.
The Nenets have managed to survive out here for centuries, living symbiotically with their animals. But now they are facing new and seemingly insurmountable threats: changing weather patterns, linked to climate change, are decimating their herds; and the global gas industry is mining the tundra, damaging pasture and blocking the Nenets' migration routes.
Watch it here: BBC iPlayer - Kate Humble: Living with Nomads - 2. Siberia
When she was a child, former Top Gear and Springwatch host Kate Humble wanted to be a nomad. Living in some of the world's most remote wildernesses, cheek by jowl with nature, seemed like such a wildly romantic existence.
Episode 1: Nepal
In this first episode, Kate travels to south west Nepal in search of the country's last community of nomads, the Raute people. Almost all of the Raute population has already settled in Nepal and India - just one group of 140 people remain living as nomads. These hunter-gatherers still move camp every few weeks through the steeply wooded hills and mountains in one of the poorest countries on the planet. Life for this last Raute group is increasingly tough, as they face pressure to settle from Nepal's government and hostility from the farmers on whose land they camp.
The Raute are famously private, and it proves a difficult task for Kate to get to know them. At the beginning they are wary, only engaging with her to ask for money. With perseverance and a rather unlikely rendition of Old MacDonald, Kate is slowly accepted into this tightly knit and proud community. But it's a demanding and emotional journey as she witnesses them move ever further from their ancient traditions and encounters first hand the hostility that the Raute face from mainstream Nepali society. As she helps them move camp twice, bearing heavy loads up punishingly steep hills, she comes face to face - and almost fist to fist - with the conflicts and contradictions facing Nepal's last nomads.
Watch it here: BBC iPlayer - Kate Humble: Living with Nomads - 1. Nepal
Episode 2: Siberia
Kate Humble journeys to the far north of Siberia in the teeth of the Arctic winter to travel with the Nenets. These reindeer herders spend their lives migrating with the seasons up and down the Yamal Peninsula, following their herds from pasture to pasture. But it's a tough and precarious existence, living in temperatures that can drop to -54C. And the extremes soon take a toll on Kate - a lover of warm weather - and her crew, when on the way to meet their Nenet family their vehicle breaks down and they're forced to abandon their plans.
With the chance to regroup at one of the tundra's slaughterhouses, Kate heads out to join a new family, who are migrating to their winter pasture. She finds a small group of Nenets, sharing a herd of over 300 reindeer, surviving in their reindeer-skinned chums (tents), living a harsh yet happy existence. Kate travels with them, sharing their chum by night, and learns about what it means to be a nomad in such an extreme environment.
The Nenets have managed to survive out here for centuries, living symbiotically with their animals. But now they are facing new and seemingly insurmountable threats: changing weather patterns, linked to climate change, are decimating their herds; and the global gas industry is mining the tundra, damaging pasture and blocking the Nenets' migration routes.
Watch it here: BBC iPlayer - Kate Humble: Living with Nomads - 2. Siberia
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