Water... falling on a city...
The sound of nature all around us.
Listen to what the rain has to say.
Follow it, up to the clouds that sweep across the turning Earth.
Far, far away...
To find a land where water shapes all life.
Where Nature still holds sway...
Africa.
Realms of fire and ice...
Water and wind...
Heat and dust.
Worlds within worlds.
Where we can be swept back in to Nature!
The rainforest...
the very heart of this vast continent...
The wettest place in Africa.
What lies hidden beneath this dense canopy of green?
The mysterious forest.
With so much sun and rain, it grows relentlessly...
and all around the tangled forest is the noise of numberless creatures.
More animals live here than in any other realm.
But they're hard to find.
Hardly any light gets through, and down here, on the forest floor,
a leaderless army of blind ants is on the move.
Driver ants.
A swarm... five million strong.
You don't want to get in their way.
They eat everything in their path.
These tiny ants can overcome creatures thousands of times bigger than them.
It's war...
animal devouring animal in the darkness...
while plants struggle desperately with each other to reach the light.
Life here can be a constant struggle.
But it's only a short walk to paradise.
In a glade in the forest, a family rests in the sun.
Gorillas...
some of our closest relatives.
Just like us, they live in families...
mothers and children, uncles and aunts.
The big silverback's in charge.
He keeps an eye on everyone.
For this family the forest is really the garden of Eden.
All the food they need is within easy reach.
They play, they talk,
they quarrel, they learn...
and make friends for life.
It's an idyllic place to grow up.
This is their world.
They are really comfortable here.
And if anything threatens the peace,
the silverback is ready to protect his family.
Rain and sun made this rich forest.
But in the world beyond, another very different realm is being forged...
by a far more brutal clash of the elements...
The Underworld.
The heart of a volcano...
a fiery furnace...
where rocks melt before your eyes at temperatures of a thousand degrees.
You're seeing the Earth stretch open.
When our planet was first formed, the whole world was like this.
Underground the furnace stills burns, making new land every day.
A world built from sulphur and salt, belched from below.
Like an alien planet.
Acid pools and choking gases.
You can't even breathe the air.
Almost nothing can live here,
but sometimes in the realm of the volcanoes the fires breed life...
out of poisoned water.
Lake Bogoria...
where boiling springs from the underworld spill into a vast lake.
These waters are far saltier than the sea,
yet they draw life from hundreds of miles away.
Flamingos!
Flame birds...
Occasionally, when the water conditions are just right,
the lake blooms with masses of tiny algae...
a delicacy for the flamingos.
Their food contains a red pigment, so the more they sip the pinker they glow,
as if they're blushing.
Now the more they blush the more desirable they become.
And when they're all looking beautiful,
they start to dance.
Inflamed by the waters of this volcanic lake, they seek out partners in the crowd.
Who will choose who in this great gathering?
Somewhere out there is the perfect match.
Out of the fires comes love.
Flamingos mate for life.
They are leaving the bubbling lake to find a place to nest.
Soon they'll all be gone the lake empty for another year.
But there are worlds in Africa so dry they seem permanently empty.
The Namib desert.
It's been here for over fifty million years.
One of the oldest, hottest, driest places on Earth.
A great sea of sand,
as restless as the ocean.
How can anything survive in this wasteland?
But some do.
Millions of years have taught them the necessary tricks.
A desert viper...
sidewinding... to get a grip on the loose sand.
Food's hard to find, so the viper hides,
and waits for it come to him.
If you are going to hunt for a meal...
it helps if you have eyes in the back of your head.
Meet the Namaqua chameleon.
He's set his sights on an armoured ground cricket.
His eyes are bigger than his stomach.
Better try again...
for a lighter lunch.
Delicious!
In the middle of the day the sand's so hot most creatures can't stand it.
This little lizard's no bigger than your little finger,
and to stop his feet burning, he's got to dance.
The shovel snouted lizard can handle the heat,
but all that dancing works up an appetite.
He better be careful though.
Not everything here is what it seems.
Tempting...
but is it safe?
That was too close.
Time for a vanishing act.
With so little moisture in the dunes there's only a sprinkling of life,
and all of it small.
But if there is rain, even a little,
the water can change the whole character of a place.
East of the Namib lies the realm of the scorched plains.
Water occasionally softens the earth,
but now the land is bone dry.
It's a desperate time for elephants.
They have to drink more than any other animal on Earth.
To find enough water at this time of year,
the family must trek huge distances.
The smallest just have to keep up.
This is a family of females with their young.
One mother is in charge.
She has an incredible memory.
She can remember the few places where there might still be water.
They can't afford to rest until they find a drink.
They must push on through the night.
It's a dangerous time.
There are hunters about.
Leopards... hyenas... lions.
To keep their babies safe, the family needs to stick together.
Another family nearby have not been so careful.
This youngster has strayed too far.
Our family has survived.
The mothers were wise, and kept their babies close.
Together... their search continues.
Water at last!
The mother's led them to a special place where there's water underground.
To reach it, the elephants have dug wells with bare feet and tusks.
Some of them are pretty deep, so the longer your trunk the better.
A few mouthfuls can make all the difference...
especially when you're small.
Thirsty bulls... barging in for a drink.
Fortunately the family's drunk enough,
and the mother knows somewhere nearby where they can all relax.
Too dirty to drink...
but a perfect for mud bath.
A quick cool off... a splash of muddy sunscreen...
and it's time to move on again...
to find food and more fresh water.
Someone needs a bit of help.
Generations of elephants have gone on journeys like this and survived,
passing on their knowledge, and their courage.
They'll keep on travelling always on the move,
always thirsty...
until the rains arrive.
Fresh water is what brings the dry kingdoms of Africa to life.
These fingers of mist don't promise healing showers...
but they beckon us towards another magical realm,
just beyond these sands.
The sea!
An eternal, restless Empire, at the boundaries of what we know-
battering the shoreline of Africa from all points of the compass.
Barracuda...
cruising in a shoal...
They seem to sense the path to take.
The traffic of the deep.
Ocean travelers,
moving as one towards a wonderful creation of the sea...
The most vibrant of all Africa's realms...
A coral reef!
Reefs can only grow at the perfect temperature, at the perfect depth,
and with plenty of sunshine, so they're rare.
But when it all comes together you get this...
a crowded city under the sea.
A hawksbill turtle... looking for food.
Like any human city, there are lots of different places to live...
And being so crowded, it pays to get on with the neighbours.
A quarter of all life in the sea lives on coral reefs.
It may be beautiful, but don't let the bright colors dazzle you...
Like most cities, the reef has its darker side.
When you leave the light behind, you never know quite what you'll find.
These sweeper fish like to shelter in caves.
But they seem pretty spooked.
A gang of Iionfish... on the prowl.
Beautiful, but deadly.
Their spines are highly poisonous...
and the stripes warn others not to mess with them.
Lionfish use their outstretched fins to corner their prey against the walls.
Sunbeams pierce the depths...
direct from the heavens.
Ride them to a kingdom in the sky...
among a sea of clouds...
to reach the top of the world.
A realm of ice and snow, right on the equator.
Mount Kenya, towering over three miles high.
Hidden among these snow-capped peaks is a secret world of strange plants.
Life up here beats to a magical rhythm.
As night falls, temperatures plunge...
and this whole place becomes a crystal kingdom.
To avoid freezing, the plants wrap themselves in a blanket of leaves.
Like snuggling under a duvet.
As they sleep, everything around them turns to ice.
It's winter, every night.
Each morning the sun brings the mountains back to life.
It's summer, every day.
Across the highlands, everyone's waking up.
Geladas.
They live only up here, in the mountains of Ethiopia.
Woken by a touch of the sun...
as has been the way for millions of years.
Their luxuriant fur has kept them warm at night.
But needs a lot of attention to keep it clean.
Pwah...
Life up here is all about simple routine.
Easy days beneath the eternal sky.
As the day heats up, everyone heads off to find food.
Families join up, in their hundreds, searching for the best grass.
With so many monkeys together...
things sometimes get a bit out of hand.
Most of the time no-one comes to any harm.
It's just the males showing off.
More part of the daily routine.
As the day ends it's time to find somewhere to sleep and huddle from the cold...
the same as every night they can ever remember.
Winter then summer.
Summer then winter.
Like a whole year in a day.
On and on... forever.
From a land where each day and each night are the same as those before,
comes a world of constant change.
This is how rivers are born...
Drop follows drip, follows drop.
A trickle that becomes a flow and then a stream...
and then it goes on and on...
always downhill...
always looking for the lowest level.
Africa's rivers create a mercurial realm of great highways...
Legends like the Nile... Congo... Zambezi.
Victoria Falls...
The smoke that thunders...
Even the wildest rivers calm down... eventually.
This place might look peaceful, but don't be fooled.
Wildebeest... always on the move, looking for fresh grass,
but they have to stop to drink.
This is the closest thing to a dragon you'll ever see.
The biggest crocodiles in Africa.
Some weigh over a ton.
Monsters like these have been around since the time of dinosaurs.
They have the most powerful jaws of any animal on Earth!
It's been almost a year since these crocs last ate...
and there's no guarantee the herds will come back.
Even if they do, they might drink elsewhere.
It's a long and winding river.
But if there's one thing crocodiles are good at,
it's being patient.
The wildebeest have to drink, eventually...
Even the biggest crocs in Africa can't stop them all.
They have to keep moving... to find a place where there's fresh grass.
That means chasing the rain.
It's hard to predict when rain will come to the savannah,
but the animals seem to know.
They follow the clouds.
And they come into a world being created anew...
A world at the tipping point.
The sun... and the rain...
the light... and the water...
have come with a miracle...
a transformation.
Rain brings the world into flower...
and every living thing blossoms too.
Something extraordinary is about to happen.
Africa...
bursting into life again.
A happy ending after so many difficult journeys.
A long search for water is over and there is joy in the world once more...
endless delight in being alive.
We can be swept back into Nature...
and feel the joy of it...
if we let the world show us the way.
The natural world is so powerful,
so enchanting that even here, even in the city,
we can be swept back in to nature.
It's all around us...
and in every one of us.