Original subtitles

the cape of good hope on africa's southerly tip here two great

seas meet one the warm indian ocean the other the chili atlantic

and as they mingle so they

create a billowing cloak that drapes the summit of table mountain

spectacular though this is the mountains cloudy covering is only a hint of the

profound influence that these two very different oceans have on the fortunes of

life here

and

not just here at the Cape but across the length and breadth of Southern Africa.

2,000 miles north from the Cape, beneath this sandy beach, new life

is stirring.

hundreds of baby green turtles emerge like a torrent from the safety of their

nest

each

one just seven centimeters long must make a hundred meter sprint down the

beach

from

the moment they hatch they're driven by an instinctive urge to run to the sea

Few creatures start life with the odds for success so heavily stacked against

them

Yellow

bill kites Hide

crows

but so many of these hatchlings appear together that predators can't catch them

all

last

out this baby might seem doomed

but

struggling out late could just give her a chance

the

crows seem insatiable

even

those that reach the sea aren't safe

This female has to make a dash for it

She's

still in danger and not just from above

a ghost crab may be smaller than the hatchling but it has the strength to

drag her into its lair

not

this time

At last, the sea.

She has to catch her breath if she's not to drown, but the pounding waves make it

desperately difficult.

Beyond the surf calmer water, but even here the hatchling is not out of danger

She

dives just in

time

Only one hatling in a thousand will survive to adulthood.

But if she does, she may live for 80 years.

For now, the ocean is there to be explored.

As the hatchling disappears into the deep blue, she swims into the waters of

one of the planet's most powerful currents, the Agulhas.

The Agulhas sweep south towards the Cape, transporting 100 billion gallons

of warm water every day.

These tropical seas are so warm they evaporate on an enormous scale.

Water vapor rises until at altitude it cools and condenses into clouds.

As the clouds drift inland, they bring rain to one of the least explored

corners of our planet, the mountains of Mozambique.

This is the wettest place in Southern Africa.

Decades of civil war have kept travelers away from this little-known land.

It was satellite mapping that revealed the full extent of the forest that grows

here. So now it's known to outsiders as the Google Rainforest.

It could also be called the Butterfly Forest.

After the rains, butterflies have emerged together in huge numbers.

As soon as their wings dry out, they will take to the air.

Their goal?

To find a mate.

But how?

There may be thousands close by but the foliage is so thick. It's difficult for

them to find each other

They have

a remarkable solution they follow rivers upstream and travel to higher ground

The journey can take hours of determined

flying

eventually they emerge into the only open space there is

the treeless peak

of Mount Marbu

up

here free from the confines of the forest they hold a

butterfly ball

Now the butterflies have all the space they need for their aerobatic courtship.

The male's strategy is simple. Fly higher and faster than the competition,

and just maybe you'll win a virgin female.

This spectacular gathering unseen by outsiders until now happens for just

half an hour each morning and for just a few weeks in the year

Once

mated the females descend back to the rainforest to lay their eggs

A forest that only exists because of moisture rising from the warm Agulhas

Current, hundreds of miles away in the Indian Ocean.

The rainwater now flows southwards from Mozambique's highest peaks to the

lowlands of the Eastern Cape.

And where the land flattens, rivers slow, creating a vast swamp 50

miles across.

This is Gorongosa.

Here all kinds of creatures come to catch fish.

This could catfish work as a team.

They take a gulp of air at the surface and then belch it out under water to

create a net of bubbles.

And that traps little fish.

There are fish for everyone.

And each species has its own technique for catching them.

It's all very well having a big beak, but you've still got to know how to use

it.

This young pelican has a lot to learn, and not long to do so.

Maybe like the catfish teamwork is the answer

It's

certainly working for the flock and this pelican seems to be getting the hang of

it

But surely it can't swallow that catfish.

Trying to was a mistake.

The rainwater, briefly held in Gorongosa's swamp, has now been enriched

with silt and sand.

All down this coast, sediment-laden rivers, the Zambezi, the Limpopo, the

Save, drain back to the sea.

And there they meet the Agula's current.

And what happens to all that sand?

Over the millennia, the Agulhas has worked it into a complex underwater

landscape.

This vast sand sculpture is the Bazaruto Archipelago.

The oldest of its kind in the world.

It may look like paradise, but living here is not easy.

For a hundred thousand years the agulhas current has battered these submerged

dunes with underwater sandstorms

But where the water is deep enough to escape these storms, nutrients carried

from Africa's interior fuel an explosion of life.

A rare oceanic hunter rules here.

Giant kingfish.

As big as a man, and weight for weight, one of the most powerful fish in the

sea.

Despite their size, they're extraordinarily agile when hunting.

Normally kingfish are solitary, but for just a few weeks each year they gather

at places like Bazaruto and prepare for an extraordinary journey.

One that will take them far inland.

The Mtentu River.

The king of kingfish leads them upstream.

As they travel further into freshwater, they seem to change from aggressive

hunters into dedicated pilgrims.

Now, many miles from their natural home, and in response to an unknown cue, they

stop and begin to circle.

Other marine fish that migrate upriver usually do so in order to breed, but

there's no evidence that these kingfish spawn up here.

Neither do they hunt.

So what are they doing?

In truth, the purpose of this strange behavior is still unknown.

Within a few weeks, they will retrace their journey back to the ocean.

The lives of kingfish, like those of turtles and butterflies and pelicans,

are influenced by the Agulhas current.

But that influence can only reach so far.

And this is why.

The Drakensberg Mountains.

Here local people say that the vultures soar so high they can see into the

future.

rising to over three thousand meters hold back the advancing rain clouds and

as a result the land beyond them is starved of water

this

is the greatest expanse of sand in the world a seemingly endless desert that is

the vast parched center of southern africa

thousands

of miles to the west where this desert meets the atlantic ocean another current

prevails but the benguela

current Surging up the west side of Africa has a very different character

It's

extremely cold full of nutrients and it's thronged with life

A

great white shark

They can raise their body temperature to 10 degrees above that of the surrounding

sea.

But doing so requires an enormous amount of high-grade fuel.

So this is a great bonanza for them.

The body of a dead whale.

The carcass will draw in every great white for miles around.

And here off Cape Town that means a lot of sharks.

Instead of feeding in a frenzy, these sharks have rather refined table

manners.

They swim side by side to get the measure of each other

Then each takes its turn

This

female is the biggest so she eats first

The next only feeds when she gives way.

The waters of the Benguela are so rich they support more great white sharks

than any other seas on the planet

And

they are so cold they

attract some surprising creatures to these African shores

Penguins.

African penguins.

This female is returning to relieve her partner.

Of course there's no ice here, but these rocks can be almost as slippery.

But there are more serious obstacles than the slippery rocks awaiting them.

It's his turn to feed, so he leaves her to look after their eggs.

Now, she must tackle a problem faced by no other kind of penguin.

For the next ten days, she must protect her eggs from the African sun.

A dense coat of feathers that keeps her warm in cold seas now stifles her.

On these exposed rocks, she must shade her eggs instead of keeping them warm.

Everything here seems the wrong way round.

For some, The soaring temperature is too much

A

neighbor deserts his nest His egg

will not survive

He's not the only one to give up some years not a single chick is

reared

Penguins

are adapted to withstand temperatures of 40 degrees below zero not 40 degrees

above

Now at the hottest part of the day the very worst time her chicks are hatching

Just

when they need her most she's reaching the limit of her endurance

after ten days of intensive fishing the chick's father comes back to take his

turn at the nest but will he be too late

He greets his young for the very first time.

The coolness of the Benguela current

brought the penguins here.

But that very coolness is a great disadvantage because it generates little

rain.

It can, however, produce moisture in a different form.

A thick blanket of fog rolls in from the sea and condenses on this

thirsty land.

And each year, the desert bursts into life.

with a dazzling display

water

is so scarce that this show will not last long so plants compete to attract

their pollinators with color

Here in Namaqua land, a 600-mile strip of coastal desert becomes carpeted with

blooms.

The morning sun opens a Namaqua daisy and reveals a male monkey beetle,

asleep. inside.

Nights here are so cold that monkey beetles shelter within the closed up

petals of the daisies.

The habit brings benefits to both sides.

The beetle is kept warm and the flower gets pollinated.

But now the beetle has urgent business he must find a mate

As

he searches he hops from bloom to bloom pollinating each in turn

At last he spots

a potential mate

A golden princess

But

here comes trouble A rival

There's

no time for introductions

But he's been too slow.

The rivals immediately begin to brawl.

The female will only mate inside the daisy, so they wrestle for possession.

They're so engrossed in fighting they've pushed her off

The

Challenger is ejected

The winner wastes no time before getting back to business

At

last!

Now, there will be a new generation of monkey beetles to pollinate these

Namakhmalan flowers.

For most of the year, this land is desperately dry, but just occasionally,

brief, violent storms sweep in from the cold ocean.

springbok have been roaming this desert for many months searching for one of

these rare and highly localized downpours

The grass is sprouting.

And that is worth celebrating.

If you're a springbok, that means pronking.

We still don't know exactly why they do this The simplest answer

is that they're dancing for joy

Africa's most southerly tip.

This is where the two great ocean currents, the warm Agulhas and the Gold

Banguela, crash into one another.

And this collision, in itself, draws in life in abundance.

a super pod of hunting dolphins 5 000 strong

and

shadowing them africa's biggest

predator

a brooder's whale.

This female is 15 meters long and weighs more than a whole family of elephants.

The dolphins are in pursuit of sardines, millions of them.

But these cold-water fish are heading towards an impenetrable barrier of warm

water that they will not cross.

The Agula's current.

They're trapped.

And that gives the whale her chance.

But the sardines are so speedy that the whale only catches a few with each pass

More

and more hunters arrive

The

whale

needs the other hunters to push the fish upwards Forcing them against the surface

Now

they have nowhere to escape

With each lumbering turn, she loses precious time. Time that favors the more

nimble.

The Brutus Whale probably knows that this opportunity will last less than

five minutes.

And with the last few lunches, she finally cashes in.

The forces that triggered this great event have also shaped the fortunes of

life far beyond this particular battleground.

Without these currents, Southern Africa would be a desert.

But combined, the very different powers of the Agulhas and the Benguela have

transformed the Cape into a land where life can flourish.

The Komoro Islands, off Africa's east coast, are a haven for green turtles.

Every year, a million turtles hatch on these beaches.

But the chances of any one of them surviving is tiny.

The Africa team came here to try and

capture... the dramatic first few minutes in the lives of these baby

turtles it was to be both a technical and surprisingly emotional challenge

it's

only when you get down on the eye level of the baby turtle you realize what an

enormous journey it's going to make down over the beach and it really is quite

epic

Lovely. It's using all of these complicated heavy bits of equipment

which hopefully will enable us to get into the world of a turtle which is just

a few inches long.

As they break

out of all the soft sand they hit the hard sand and that's where the real

sprint takes place.

they must be desperate to hit that water because you can see the seas just over

the horizon we're following them all the way down and you do kind of get involved

with them and cheering them on okay slow down a bit slow down

and suddenly all these crows come flocking in and stop picking them

off and you just think that's just so unfair lots more coming and just loads

coming in now

and you gotta fill from them you know it's pretty quite upsetting and

particularly when you look through the camera and i'm just filling frame with a

turtle running down the beach then suddenly from nowhere the beak comes in

and bush and that's it that circle's no more

the turtles

that escape the perils of the beach still have to face pounding surf

But at last, they're in their element.

More than can be said for the crew.

They're faster than you, aren't they? Yep.

It's been embarrassing.

Beaten by something that's a day old.

When we saw hatchlings get off the beach and see them go in the white water,

you'd think they'd just get obliterated.

They just punch through the water. They do get flung around, but then they just

right themselves, keep on swimming, and they're ahead of you coming out the back

of the way.

It's amazing.

You're seeing all these baby turtles getting picked off left, right, and

center, but they just keep going.

They are just so resilient.

And that made what happened next.

so distressing a particularly high spring tide flooded

the beach any baby turtles still in their nest would be lucky to survive

keep bubbling out as well yeah well i

mean basically anything below that line is going to be gone let's hope and pray

it's not but as you say we don't know explain c

All across the world, turtles are in decline.

Their eggs are stolen, the adults are hunted for their flesh, and they drown

in fishing nets.

But here in the Comoros, they have friends.

It's amazing hearing it, Samir. It's just a really heartening story of how

the local people are doing everything they can to protect what they think of

as their turtles.

And some of the baby turtles have survived the flood tide.

The whole village comes to help the hatchlings.

But the most important effort is to protect the adults from outsiders who

would hunt them for their meat.

They've taken it upon themselves to really police the beaches around here

and make sure that poaching is kept to a minimum.

The selfless protection these people provide means that this is one of the

few places in the world where turtle numbers are actually increasing.

And remarkably, here in Itsamiya, the population has in fact doubled in the

last decade.

As the shoot was coming to the end, Cameraman Kevin Flay noticed that some

of the turtles that made it through the surf faced one last danger.

I'm getting shots of a kite which is flying down and taking turtles off the

water surface.

That was a part of the story we had to tell.

The aim is for us to be underwater, looking straight up as this happens,

and that's actually really quite hard.

Okay, three, two, one.

Undeterred, the crew got into position.

There we go, the kite's up.

You can't see where you're going because my head's glued to this viewfinder, so

I'm banging into rocks and things like that.

I'm really just trying to keep the turtle in shot.

Something came in then. She came in and swooped down over the water's surface.

And you could see the kite from underwater. I could see it. I could see

the shape.

In frame and you were running. Yeah.

Didn't take the turtle.

Didn't take the turtle.

That's the best of both worlds. We got our lovely underwater shot of a kite.

And the turtle gets away.

This lucky hatchling isn't the only one.

With the help of the village of Itsamia, thousands more have a chance to make it

to the open ocean.

There's only really local populations that can actually support and sustain

this conservation work. If it comes from the roots upwards, then it's got a

chance of success.

You know, I think it's amazing. I really do. The fact that they do this and, you

know, I wish you'd see it more often around the world.

It's hard not to admire these extraordinary little creatures.

as they battle against such odds.

This baby turtle won't touch land again until she returns to the very same

island to lay her own eggs.

With luck, she'll find the beaches still protected by the people of Itzamir.