Journey to the Edge of the World

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[edit] General Information

History, Nature Documentary hosted by Billy Connolly, published by ITV in 2010 - English narration

[edit] Cover

[edit] Information

Billy Connolly's 'Journey to the Edge of the World' Billy Connolly is a comedian, musician, presenter and actor – and 'citizen of the world’ This series sees comedian Billy Connolly turn explorer, as he embarks on a rare and remote journey - attempted and failed by hundreds before him - through the treacherous Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In Billy Connolly: Journey to the Edge of the World, Billy negotiates the much coveted passage inside the Arctic Circle which is choked with impenetrable ice for most of the year. The fabled passage through the Arctic Ocean was sought after for five centuries as a commercial sea route and claimed hundreds of lives of those trying to discover a navigable way through, but now global warming means that for a few weeks in the summer the ice melts and gives Billy a chance to make an extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime journey. Includes all 4 episodes + Bonus Behind The scenes footage.

[edit] Nova Scotia

The first part of Billy’s epic ten-week journey sees him arriving in Nova Scotia then heading north to Newfoundland. His journey by boat, motorbike, aeroplane and car takes him to the towns where European immigrants first settled, the graveyard where victims of the Titanic disaster are buried and to meet the man who earns a living making scarecrows. He also meets the hospitable townspeople who took in airline passengers stranded by the 9/11 tragedy and goes in search of whales and icebergs.

[edit] Baffin Island

In the second part of his journey Billy moves into bleaker and tougher terrain as he heads north to Baffin Island. He meets the Inuit communities that live there to find out what it’s like to live on the edge of the world. He samples their food, gets a seal-skin suit made and learns about the local trades and hobbies. He takes in jaw-dropping scenery as he flies by helicopter into a national park in the Arctic Circle and he goes on a stomach-churning seal hunt with an Inuit family. His first stop is Iqaluit, an old whaling town which is one of a handful of towns on Baffin Island only accessible by boat and air as none have roads leading to them. There he meets Nicole Pauze a local taxi driver who shows him The Road to Nowhere and teaches him how to give a traditional ‘Eskimo Kiss’.

[edit] Northwest Passage

On the third leg of his adventure, Billy goes onboard a cruise ship to make the eight day journey through the Northwest Passage and he meets the people who live in this remote, isolated part of the world which spends nine months of the year surrounded by frozen sea. He learns about the explorers whose footsteps he is following in and visits the sites where they lived and died. He then moves south and hitches a lift with an ice-trucker before panning for gold at the site of a great gold rush. He stops off at Beechey Island, a popular spot with polar bears, where the first explorer to look for the Northwest Passage, Sir John Franklin, became stranded for two years due to the harsh weather conditions.

[edit] Vancouver Island

As Billy nears the end of his 10,000 mile journey he heads even further south towards Vancouver Island through the isolated White Pass Mountains which are below freezing for most of the year. He learns how literally to stake a claim on a piece of the Yukon, goes hunting for a moose, sees a bear in the wild, takes part in a Native American sweat lodge ceremony, hangs out with some real cowboys and fulfils an ambition to fall a tree. Billy starts the final leg of his journey meeting mineral prospector, Shawn Ryder, who studies geological data to predict where lucrative mineral deposits might be. He then stakes a claim on these pieces of land for mining Shawn shows Billy how to do this by making a post from a tree before signing and dating it and putting it in the ground. This can be sold to the highest bidder if minerals are subsequently found.

[edit] Bonus Feature Billys Travelogue

Billy Connolly's latest travelogue was compelling viewing for anyone with an interest in the wild and remote places of the world. In his usual inimitable style Billy explored the vast Arctic region, from Nova Scotia in Canada's northeast across the fabled Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean.