The Great Human Race

Survival expert Cat Bigney and Archaeologist Bill Schindler live as primitive people did 2.6 million years ago without any weapons or fire. But they soon find that living like our ancestors is harder than they expected.

Archaeologist Bill Schindler and survival instructor Cat Bigney journey into the jungles of Uganda to follow in the footsteps of one our earliest ancestors — Homo erectus. This is the species that changed our evolution forever, by their ability to control fire. An unfortunate mistake leaves Schindler and Bigney stranded in the jungle with the sun going down and no protection against predators.

Archaeologist Bill Schindler and survival instructor Cat Bigney journey to where Homo sapiens first walked the Earth, the mountains of Ethiopia. This is where humans became the dominant species, by going from hunted to hunter. After little success hunting in the lowland prairie, they move into the higher elevations, where the thin air and thick fog present unforeseen challenges.

Cat and Bill follow in the footsteps of early Homo sapiens as they make their way through the Arabian Desert. Their mission is to locate dried riverbeds and follow them to the seasonal monsoon area along the coast. But to do so, they must endure blistering heat and desolate sands. Food is nearly impossible to find and their water supplies quickly run low.

Bill and Cat build a reed boat to cross the Mediterranean Sea as our ancestors did 45,000 years ago.

Bill and Cat attempt to find shelter along the Caucasus Mountains, a journey some of our ancestors made to escape the bone-chilling temperatures of the Ice Age 40,000 years ago.