All language subtitles for Around the World by Train 2of2 Ch5 720p EN SUB_Subtitles01.ENG

I'm setting off on the greatest
journey of my life.

Let's do this!

To travel around the globe by train.

No idea what platform we're
going from!

I'll be riding some of the most
spectacular rail routes on Earth.

On the fastest, steepest,

and most luxurious trains.

Passing through some of the world's
most famous places...

The Eiffel Tower.

Grand Central Station.

There it is. Mount Fuji.

..and beyond,

to parts of the planet I never knew
existed...

We're totally isolated.

..to immerse myself...

This isn't for anything, this is
just what people do on a Sunday.

..in the weird,

the wild...

Hah!

..and the wonderful.

This is unlike anything I've
ever done before.

After a marathon flight, I've made
it to the land down under,

Australia.

I'm in Sydney, the starting
point for the XPT long-distance

train which is going to take me
nearly 600 miles north.

And quite frankly, if you've got
a TV production company

paying for your railway ticket in a
country as big as Australia, you're

going to want to see something a bit
different, aren't you?

Which is why I'm going to
head off the beaten track

and meet real
Aussies on their own turf.

This really is an insanely big
country. So I'm not mucking about.

I'll blast up the east coast quickly
and efficiently,

then dart inland to the Aussie
bush before hurtling all the way

up to the reef in the far north.

So, I've got no time to
waste in Sydney

but before my epic journey,
there's a view I want you to see.

I lived
and worked in Sydney for a while

and it's always held a special
place in my heart.

It's only by air you can really
take in the complexity of its shape,

how the water
and the city constantly interact.

I know Sydney pretty well.

But the vast majority of Australia's
still a mystery to me

and to get to the remote places
I've always wanted to visit,

I've got to cover
a hell of a lot of miles quickly.

So I'm hitting the rails.

I'm getting on the XPT
which will take me

on the first
leg of the two-part 18 hour trip.

I want to go and check out
small town Australia.

So I'm heading north
from New South Wales to Queensland.

This Interstate route is
part of a network of 25,000 miles

of tracks, crisscrossing this
stonkingly huge country.

This north coast line was completed
in 1932 and ends up in Brisbane.

But I haven't come here to see
the big cities,

so I'm leaping across the platform
to change

trains for the second
leg of my journey out west.

I just so love
the design of these old trains.

Stainless steel and all these snazzy
colours.

Evening.

This little beauty will take me
four hours west,

or as it's known here, out Bush.

In the 19th century, it used to be
called the Western Mail

but now it's got a snazzy modern
name, the Westlander.

I'm retracing the steps of the
country's earliest pioneers.

And I've arrived at the small
town of Millmerrin at the edge

of the Outback.

This is the Camp Oven Festival.
It's a two-day event

dedicated to the celebration
of a cast-iron cooking pot.

This is a bit like 5,000 people
having a festival in Maidstone, Kent

to celebrate the frying pan.

Thousands come from all over the
country to pay homage to this rather

humble camping accessory and quite
frankly, I'm fascinated to know why.

Ned. Are these...? G'day!
G'day, Tony. G'day!

Are these camp ovens?

They're the genuine camp oven.

Ned Winter is a former drover
who used to herd

sheep across the Outback and cooked
with the camp oven on his long

and remote journeys.

He helped dream up the festival to
honour this piece of Aussie

rural heritage.
Tell me about them historically.

People in the 19th century,

they would come over here
from England, they would buy one

or two of these in the big town and
then head off into the Outback.

That's right.

So these were pretty important,
weren't they? They were important.

This was the only
way of cooking their food, you know.

What sort of things did people
used to cook in them?

Well, you could cook a beautiful
roast dinner, a curry, a stew,

your dampers. Practically
everything.

To experience bush life to the
full, Ned's getting me cooking.

And I'm starting with a traditional
Aussie bush bread called a damper.

The main thing is the correct
measurements.

You're just tipping it in, mate.
That's the right amount.

And the salt. Yeah.
Correct measurements.

Mix the flour in. Go on, I'll do
that! All in. Yeah, you do it.

Yeah. Now, I'm going to ask one of
these blokes here, why would

I use this hand to mix the damper?
Let's ask the sound guy.

Ed. Come here.

It's got nothing to do
with the hand

you use when you go to the toilet,
has it? No. No.

That says more about you than it
does about the question.

So what's the answer?

I'm right-handed. Oh!

To finish the damper, Ned adds water
and then it goes into the camp oven.

Lid goes on.

And in a TV 25
minutes later... Oh, look at that!

That's not bad, is it? Looks all
right to me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Not quite... Oh-ah-ah-ah!

That is the fair dinkum Aussie
damper.

With my damper so lovingly made,
is it time to eat it?

No, it's not.

This is the Outback.

For some reason,
which I don't quite understand,

when you've baked your damper here,
you throw it as far as you can.

CROWD GASPS

If I attempt to do it,
I'll be covered in humiliation.

The Aussie's love of sport
means they'll turn

practically anything into one.

All the way from London, England,
with skills completely

untried in this competition here,

how d'you think you're gonna go,
Tony? I think I'll probably win.

CROWD LAUGHS

I love your confidence.
Oh, come on!

Come on! That's it!

CROWD CHANT TONY'S NAME

Ladies and gentlemen, I regret to
tell you that the tin castles

will no longer be
functioning for the rest of the day.

That's it for the whole tournament.

People come from all over Australia
to this event.

It's run by locals and the profits
go to local organisations

and, of course, it's keeping local
traditions alive.

There's an integrity about it
that I really like.

I think one day I'll come back here.

Coming up...

My journey continues,
as I head to the back of beyond

where I try my luck as a farm
hand...

Oi, not so far - not so far!

..walk in the footsteps
of dinosaurs...

That's a massive footprint!

..and relax outback-style.

Oh...

Oh!

I'm on yet another train.

This time, the Spirit of
the Outback,

which will take me on a 24-hour
journey deep into the Aussie bush.

I thought this would be a really
rickety, old-fashioned train.

It's 37 years old, but they've done
it out really nicely.

I love this bed.

And look outside.

Isn't this nice?

The colours are beautiful.

This sort of dusty pink here,

and I suppose you'd call that
burgundy down there, wouldn't you?

But the point is it's all curves.

Normally, any train you go in,
you walk down the carriage

and it's dead straight.

But this makes it
feel like something special,

like I'm at the Savoy.

But unlike the Savoy, you don't
need a black suit

and tie to come in here.

This is the Shearers Rest.

But I don't think many of you
are shearers, are you?

Inland train routes like the
Central Western Line helped to

open up the inner reaches of
Australia in the 1800s.

In fact, this town of Longreach
I'm heading to didn't exist

until the decision was made
to extend the line to this point.

Oh, thank you!

Enjoy. Oh, look at this.

Better than a ham sandwich,
isn't it?

And before you destroy it,
I just need a quick little close-up.

The thing about crews is that
they're obsessed with the close-up.

A tiny bit lower down,
nearer the table - that's great.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present
to you a close-up of a scone.

OK?

Yeah, any time.

Inhospitable landscape,

total flipping luxury.

CAMERAMAN LAUGHS

A rather considerable time later,
I arrive at Longreach.

But I still need to head even
further out bush.

Way, way out.

Look at this earth.

Dry as a bone.

You'd think that farmers would
be crazy to farm here, wouldn't you?

But they've got one thing
going for them.

They've got a hell of a lot
of space!

At 15,000 acres, Shandonvale farm
definitely has space to spare.

And because a trip to the outback
wouldn't be complete without

experiencing farm life,
I'm here to get my hands dirty.

Next to me is Tim,
the farm's heli pilot.

The property's so vast it used to
take early settlers days to

locate and move animals around.

Now with helicopters,
the herds can be found in hours.

Camels were introduced to
Australia in the 1840s,

to help explore Australia's
red centre.

There are now over one million
running wild.

Well, ask an Aussie silly question,
I suppose.

The camels are used to
organically control weeds,

so the farm doesn't spray pesticide,

and every six weeks they need to be
moved to a different paddock,

which on a farm this size
is an epic task.

So we're joined by the farm owner,
Deon,

and with a bike, buggy and heli,
we get to work.

All right, let's see
if we can get around a bit.

The wild camel population has become
so large that Australia now

exports its camels to Saudi Arabia.

Oi, not so far - not so far!

Oi, come on, sunshine.

Come on.

Now, come on.

I don't like that one with
the frothy face!

CAMELS GROWL

Well, that was really exhilarating.

I actually felt that quite a lot
of the time I actually got

control of the herd.

And working with the helicopter
and the bike as well.

I liked that!

This place is...
It's a lot of property, isn't it?

Oh, there's enough room to move,
yeah.

Can't hear your neighbour pissing on
the tree next door. No.

So it's just you and your wife?

Yeah, just me and Lane, yeah.

Do you ever get lonely?

Ah, no. No, not nowadays.

Probably the first six or seven
years, yeah, I lived by myself,

and that was, you know,
it's not really good for you

when you're, you know, 17 or 18
and you're living by yourself.

You don't have too much interaction
with others.

So you're all solitary?

Yeah. A little bit crazy, yeah.

This famously dry country is
currently even drier,

as it experiences one of the worst
droughts in its history.

How long has this drought
been going on for?

Erm, we're in our seventh
or sixth year.

You seem very laid-back about
the fact that you're in the middle

of a six-year drought.

You've just got to learn to
live with it.

We de-stocked all our cattle and
then we went into sheep,

Dorper sheep, you know, adapted to
this climate.

So we're sort of just running
on the bare minimum, and...

And that's what you always do when
you get a drought -

you contract all your stock?

Yes, you need to try and
keep a core, so when it does rain

you can take advantage of it, yeah.

I'm riding out to feed
the farm's sheep,

with Deon and his wife Lane.

If there's a switch to be pulled,
I'll pull it.

Can you reach?

Shut up!
THEY LAUGH

So just turn that onto on.

OK.

The drought means the land can't
currently produce enough

grass, so the sheep need to
feed twice daily.

So you just walk along,
make sure no-one gets run over.

And it's not just around Longreach
that's feeling the drought.

Over 58% of the state of Queensland
is drought declared.

It's very, very dusty, but really
the most important thing is to

jog along by the side of the
little old truck, because some

of the sheep are so daft that they
would go under and get squashed.

But none of them did,
so job well done.

Oh, this is nice.

I can't tell you how far away
from everywhere else this place is.

I had to drive mile after mile after
mile down a dusty road.

But this is cute alert. Ready?

Come on.

Look at that!

Aren't you gorgeous?

Are you going to sit down for me?

Sit down for me.

There's a good girl.

This joey has lost its mother,
and is being hand-raised by

Deon and Lane.

I don't know if this will work,
but...

Hey, do you want to go back in?

Sweetheart?

Sweetheart, this way!

Come on, don't eat the sound man.

Don't eat the sound man.

Here you go. Come on.

This is your home.

Yeah.

All right, go on, put this leg away!

There you are.
I'll put you back now.

It was worth the travelling
round the world just to do that.

Say goodbye?

After a day experiencing working
farm life, Deon's arranged

for me to end my day in true Aussie
style - with a cold glass of beer.

Oh.

HE SIGHS

..and a view that
really can't be beaten.

Oh...

You don't get this at
the London Planetarium.

Because this whole area is
so unbelievably vast,

I'm cheating a bit.

I'm leaving the railway track,

and I'm getting onto this
dirt track and a 4x4.

I'm heading further north, above
the Tropic of Capricorn, to Winton.

This place is so bleak, so flat,
so uninspiring.

When you're driving through it,
it just does your head in.

You would never think that
in a place like this you'd find

something which could completely
turn our whole understanding of

prehistory Australia on its head.

But that's precisely
what happened to Dave.

Dave!

Farmer Dave Elliott's life changed
when he discovered

a rather special bone.

That's a heck of a bone, isn't it?

That is a heck of a bone.
It's your pride and joy, isn't it?

It's a toe.

It's just a little toe.

A little toe from a...?

Off a sauropod dinosaur, yeah.

Sauropod. Yeah, one of the small
toes on his back foot.

How did you know straight away that
that was a dinosaur bone?

Oh, driving along on the bike,
going pretty fast,

and went to dodge a pile of rocks,
and I just looked and said,

"I'll just duck back
and have a look at that,"

and I'd found lots of pieces of bits
of dinosaurs, you know,

but I'd never found one that was
a new species that was

a really significant dinosaur,
and in 2005 I found this.

Did you say that it's a new species?

It is. It was described in 2008.

It was named Savannasaurus
elliottorum.

Elliottorum - well done, mate!
Yeah, there you go.

Not many people have a dinosaur
named after them.

It's all right. It loosely
translates to "the Elliott family's

"lizard of the grasslands."

And Dave's bone isn't the only
evidence of sauropod activity

unearthed in the Winton area.

What, there?!

That's a massive footprint!
Like an enormous camel.

That's the front foot of a sauropod.

When they put their front foot down,
they drive it forward.

You see the big bowls?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look up ahead.

So this would've been
mud there, yeah.

During the Late Cretaceous period,
this whole area was rainforest.

And these trackways were formed
when sauropods -

huge plant eating dinosaurs -

walked through soft sediment leaving

an impression, which over millions
of years hardened into rock.

This is absolutely massive,
isn't it?

That's 900mm long.

And they're going in this direction?

Yeah, they're walking that way,
so you're looking at a 3.3m stride.

How big do you reckon these boys
would've been?

This bloke here would've been
18m long.

The earth would've shaken,
wouldn't it?

Voomph!

The sauropods roamed these lands
100 million years ago.

Just a minute, just a minute.

Are these here... Yep.

Are these little footprints too?

They're little chicken-sized
dinosaurs. Ah.

They're not little versions of
this one? They're a different sort?

Different sort, yeah.

How many different kinds of
dinosaur?

Three.

There's the little chicken-sized
coelurosaurs,

the little meat-eaters.

There are ornithopods,
which are a bit bigger,

so, like, smaller than an emu,
about the size of a plain turkey.

And then you've got
the size of the sauropods.

And is it usual to see all three
kinds of dinosaurs

going along together?

No, no, it's very, very rare,
actually, to see all three sorts of

tracks together
in the same trackway,

and we have got them on this site.

So you've found something
really unusual?

Well, it looks like we have.

Coming up...

I head to lush climes of the north,

and take the plunge in one
of the wonders of the world...

It's like something
out of Apocalypse Now down there.

..have a brief encounter with
a rather special lady...

Oh, Margaret, you don't
like that, do you?

..and I roll with the Far North's
answer to Crocodile Dundee...

Oh, my, look, I can see its...
It's a big 'un!

My goodness me!

I'm continuing on my journey
in Australia.

My train is now making its way north
up the coast of Queensland.

Over 85% of Australians live within
30 miles of the country's coastline.

The Spirit of Queensland
runs between Brisbane

and Cairns five times a week.

This tilt train was introduced
in 2013,

and already has over
1.5 million miles under its belt.

And after 31 hours, my train has
finally arrived into Cairns

in Far North Queensland.

Cairns is the biggest city in
the Far North,

and it's also the gateway to
the Great Barrier Reef.

Over there is Fitzroy Island.

It's a beautiful tropical paradise.

Turquoise water,
lush green forest.

Perfect.

Except below the surface
things aren't quite what they seem.

The Great Barrier Reef is the
largest reef system in the world.

Stretching for 1,600 miles,
it's larger than the entire UK,

and can be seen from space.

But rises in water temperatures are
causing damage, and instead of the

vibrant hues we're used to seeing,
now parts of it look like this.

That's horrible, that white coral,
isn't it?

It's like something out
of Apocalypse Now down there.

Oh, it's horrible.
It's just white stuff.

The corals were just melting
off the rocks.

Gary lives and dives here
with his son Kai,

and has seen first-hand the changes
to the reef over the years.

So explain to me what I was seeing.

So the piece of coral you had there,
that was a dead piece of coral.

That would've died in the 2017
bleaching event.

But what is a bleaching event?

There's a little microscopic algae
that lives inside the coral

that gives it its colour.

So during a bleaching event, when
the water gets too hot the coral

expels this algae,
and it goes a bleach-white.

Well, the chances are it will die.

Though some coral will regrow
naturally,

the reef hasn't had time to recover.

And what have you got there, Kai?

Oh, I've got a piece of coral.

Ah. What did it feel like the first
time that you were snorkelling

and you saw coral like this?

Very, very sad.

He sat on the edge of the water
there, crying,

and was very upset after seeing it.

So it kind of spurred me on more.

Gary's part of a group of local
volunteers who are working to

give the reef a helping hand to
recover and regrow.

They've been taking healthy coral,
cutting it into smaller pieces

and growing them in the nursery.

It's a technique similar to taking
a cutting from a plant to grow

a new one.

It's a delicate process,
and one that can only be done

with a permit from
the Marine Park Authority.

It's fascinating.

It looks like an apple tree
in an orchard that's been

half harvested, so there are some
branches with no apples on them

and others with huge apples on.

It's the same here except
that it's coral.

By using corals that have already
survived a bleaching event,

the new growths are more likely to
be resilient to future bleaching.

And keeping them closer to
the surface, where they get more

access to sunlight and nutrients,
helps them grow faster.

They grow maybe seven-eight times
quicker.

Because they're not fighting
off algae, pests, other corals,

all their energy goes into growing.

So when you've got one of these
little trees of coral,

and it looks like it's going to be
OK, what do you do with it?

After the six to nine months,
we plant them back to the reef.

Once the coral is taken to the reef,
it's attached to the bedrock

where it'll continue to keep
growing as it would naturally.

From one little piece
we'll put out thousands of corals,

from that one little piece.

That's what we've done with
a 10-tree nursery,

so you can imagine what
we can do with 100 trees.

The reef is resilient,
if it has the time.

But the thing now is that we don't
have the time -

we don't have 10 years till
another bleaching event.

They're talking about it maybe
bleaching again this year.

If it bleaches again this year
while it's in this state,

we're in an awful way, you know?

We need to get more of these out
there. What we're doing here,

this isn't going to save the
Great Barrier Reef.

But it's making a positive...
Contribution.

These coral trees, they started
apparently about that big.

Well, some of them
are zonking now.

And you can imagine that if the
whole of this area was full of these

trees, you'd be producing coral that
would make a significant difference.

And as night falls in Cairns,
we're confronted with

a very different sort of wildlife.

Come on in, lads.

So it's in here. Yeah.

And... So what happened - you just
came in to look at the boat?

Yeah, well, I'd been fishing
yesterday.

I hooked the battery up to charge.
Yeah.

And, yeah, there was... And what?!

There was a bloody big
snake sitting in it.

Local snake catcher Matt Hagan
has been called out by

Phil and Lisa to help with their
unwelcome house guest.

It might be helpful
if you can be my bagman, Tony.

The snake is going to go in here.

Under that front hatch, Matt...
Yeah.

Oh, my, look, I can see it.
I can see it. Can you...

Sam, can you see it?

There are 170 different kinds
of snake in Australia.

Its head isn't essing up
straight away,

so it's not really in
a strike position.

Matt handles any and all snakes,

and Australia has 17 of the 20
most venomous in the world.

SNAKE HISSES

Oh, it is... It's a really...
It's a big 'un!

My goodness me!

It's pretty, though.

It's not so pretty from here!

Oh...

Shouldn't you be worried more
about its head?

Yeah, I'm trying to be as...
Oh, God, he's coming towards me!

..kind to it as I can.

That's a pretty decent sized carpet
python to be living in your boat.

Luckily, this guy is a python,
so not venomous.

But it could still give Matt,
or me, a mighty big bite.

Whoa!

His tongue popped out again!

THEY LAUGH

It feels like I'm frying
a very heavy pancake.

Feeling down there, it may be
getting ready to lay some eggs.

Do you think that's why she might
have found this nice little

place to tuck away?

Very possibly. You could've had
little small snakes.

Yeah, a whole family. Yeah.

That would've been wonderful.
That'd be lovely.

It's a lovely garden.

After driving out of town,
Matt must now delicately try

and return the snake to the wild.

Oh, she's a heavy girl, isn't she?
There we go.

What do you do when you're not
catching snakes?

I spend the daytime farming
crocodiles.

So a nice, easy life?

That's right.

That'll do. Okey doke.

It's a tricky process because Matt
can't see where the snake's

positioned in the bag.

I'll step away from this a bit,
I think.

We've driven up a long, windy
road to the top of this hill.

You can probably see the lights of
Cairns over there,

but here is the beginning of
the tropical rainforest

so we're going to free her
in there...

Come on. Sorry to mess you about.

SNAKE HISSES

Oh!

She is so beautiful, isn't she?

She is.

So hopefully she can lay her
eggs in the rainforest

instead of the bow of the boat.

There.

Shall we go home?

Job done. Yeah.
Time for a beer!

Morning!

I'm carrying on my travels
by heading north

into the mountains on the
Kuranda Scenic Railway.

It might not have
the prettiest starting point,

but apparently where we're going
is something else.

I love the way this carriage is
made. It's about 80 years old.

And look at the way
the seats are configured.

It reminds me of
my mum's lounge at Christmas,

when all the chairs were brought in
for the uncles and aunties.

And the fabric is lovely!
Look at that.

The Kuranda railway line
was originally built

to transport supplies to the mines
in the Atherton Tablelands,

and the trains would return to
the ports in Cairns laden with tin.

Horseshoe Bend, this is called.
It's fairly obvious why.

And it was the building
of this transport link that led to

Cairns becoming the largest town
in the far north.

This railway was built at the end
of the 19th century.

It was a massive
engineering project -

37 bridges, 15 tunnels,

took five years to build.

When it was finished,
the freight line also began taking

passengers, and quickly gained
a reputation for its stunning views.

It's remained a tourist train
ever since.

Oh, wow, isn't this incredible?

My travels in Australia have brought
me to the far north of Queensland.

A bit of planting like this
at Birmingham New Street

wouldn't go amiss, would it?

Kuranda is in the heart
of rain forest country,

and I want to find out more
about these natural wonders,

so I'm heading to one of
the world's most spectacular.

I'm in the Daintree National Park.

Apparently,

there are more different species
in 100 square metres of this park

than there are in the whole
of North America.

That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

And I'm going to meet a man
who knows all about this forest.

Juan, hi, mate. Hey, Tony.

How are you today, mate? All right.

That's one heck of a tree,
isn't it?

Yeah, we call it "jarangal".
This is a special place.

The trees, they're home to spirits,
to ghosts. To ghosts?

To ghosts. So, yeah, people,
you know,

if their spiritual healers
were doing any spiritual work,

they'd come to the old people
and these big trees

and talk to the old people.

Juan lives in the rain forest
and is part of the Gugu-Yalanji mob,

the traditional custodians
of this area.

Why have you got all this bark here?

I'm going to give you a little
traditional welcome to country here.

And this is to clear any bad sort of
energy that's following you around.

All the city rubbish...
That's right.

..that I carry about inside me.
That's right.

I see you've got an ancient
indigenous cigarette lighter there.

That's it, mate. Yeah, this is the
way to go. It saves a lot of time.

The smoke is good to breathe in,
to clear any bad energy. Yeah.

JUAN SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

The welcome to country ceremony
gets performed when you enter

traditional land.

It's quite nice,
this sort of ceremony, isn't it?

It does make you feel that
it's a special thing to do.

Well, it is a special thing.
It's quite important, you know?

It's always a good thing to do,

just to, you know, be respectful
to the spirits of land.

The visitor vows to respect the land
and inhabitants

while the traditional custodians

honour and protect you
on your visit.

So the whole crew's got to do it,
too, right? Yeah.

Get the director in as well.

He needs quite a lot,
he's the biggest by far.

Juan wants other people to learn
about indigenous culture,

so he educates visitors about
the flora and fauna and history

of the region.

So, at the base of the tree,
down here, Tony,

if you have a look,
you'll see these little red bulbs.

If you give these little bulbs
a squeeze,

you'll get this gel coming out,

and that gel is really good
for mozzie bites.

It'll take the itching
and the swelling out.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, it really is
sticky, isn't it?

It's like something you'd squeeze
out of a tube. Yeah.

We're part of this country.

We don't own it, we don't believe
we are rulers of it.

We're part of it.
What's your tribe, or your mob?

Our mob, yeah. We call ourselves
the Gugu-Yalanji.

And how many of you live
around here?

Around...200 to 300 people.

Presumably, you got hammered by us
lot when we arrived. Yeah.

Yeah, before European arrival,
the local area here,

you would have been
close to 1,000 people.

And when settlers came,
they wanted the resources.

And we tried to resist, but
we didn't stand a chance with guns.

So many of our people were massacred
in different areas in the area.

Aboriginals have been around
for 70,000 years or more.

When did you get the right to vote?
1967.

It's mad, isn't it?

And, yeah, Europeans,
they tried wiping us out,

but they didn't do
a good enough job.

I'm very glad!

While I am here in the rain forest,
I want to know more about the

different aspects of
traditional life in the Daintree.

Lincoln is Juan's brother,

and he's agreed to show me
another part of life here.

Lincoln!

How are you doing, mate?
How are you? I'm fine.

So, what is it
we're going to have to do?

All right, well,
we're going to take you out

and show you how to, hopefully,
catch something here.

Lincoln and I are spear fishing
for dinner.

I'll get you out,
we'll start working.

Poke anything you're not sure of.

Sage advice I plan on following...

But, at the moment,
I can't see anything at all.

..if I ever get the chance.

Argh!

I thought I saw
the flash of something there.

Have you got anything yet, mate?

Nothing yet.

I'm glad we're not running
a fish and chip shop.

LINCOLN LAUGHS
The queue would be out there.

The trouble is, I've got
this great camera crew...

..right in front of me,
stirring up all the mud.

The waters around the Daintree are
filled with 1,500 types of fish.

Allegedly.

There's probably no other bit
of water on the entire planet

that has less fish in it.

Here we go, crab!
Oh, there he goes, he's on the run.

Yay!

Oh, you got something for the day.
Right!

Well, I wouldn't say
it was a total victory.

I think we've probably been out
about an hour and a half,

haven't we? Yeah, about that.
But I've got one swimmer crab.

Something to eat, yeah,
share with the family, so...

I hope there's a large salad!

Crocodiles will be here soon,
so we'd better head back.

You're not winding me up, there are
really crocs? No.

No, they come fishing at night now.
Shall we go? I'll take you back.

That has changed colour already,
hasn't it? Yeah.

We don't muck around.

Oh, great, thank you, mate.

One ready for you. That's lovely.

Oh, I like this bit,
that's my favourite.

Oh, that's great!

The great thing about
this country being so big

is that you've got the reef,
and the rain forest,

and the rivers, and the mountains,
and the outback,

but for me it's all held together
by the Australians.

This straight-talking, practical,

very funny, very ironic,

very matey people.

Good on you, Australia.

Coming up, I continue
my railway adventure in Japan,

home of the famous bullet train.

That's so cool!

From Tokyo's neon nightlife...

It's Godzilla!

..I get submerged
in Japanese culture...

The only thing I'm nervous about

is sometimes I really want
to scratch my face.

..and have a stab... Ha!

..at being a samurai.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, ooph!

This time, my journey
takes me across Japan.

This place is famous
for the bullet train.

But I'll be venturing off
the mainland too,

to explore this fantastic country.

I'm starting my trip on Kyushu,
Japan's most southerly major island,

before speeding on to Kyoto
and Tokyo at 200mph.

I'll finish up 1,200 miles later

in Hakodate, in the far north.

It's autumn here,

and the countryside
is a blaze of gorgeous colour.

This is my first visit to Japan,

and absolutely everything
feels completely new to me.

First things first,

this is not a costume.

I got into my hotel last night,

and the hotel manager insisted
that I wear this kimono-y thing

all the while I'm at the hotel.

And then the shoe thing started.

See these plastic ones?

I'm only allowed to wear them
outside here, on the decking.

And then, when I get into here,
I wear bare feet

until I come to the front door,

where I have to put these on.

Have a look. Look, there's
a little gap... See that there?

..between my big toe
and the other ones

in order to contain that thing.

But then,
and this is quite extraordinary...

..when I go to the toilet,

I have special toilet slippers.

Japan has done my head in,

and I haven't even got my shoes
on yet!

To make matters worse,
when I was a kid,

the Japanese were the enemy.

It was just after
the Second World War,

and everyone's mum and dad
told terrible stories

of the cruelty
in Japanese prisoner of war camps.

It wasn't until the 1960s
that anyone round my way even

bought a Japanese car.

Those days are behind us now,

and I'm looking forward to seeing

how a new generation
has shaped modern Japan.

Ever since the first railway line
was built from Tokyo in the 1800s,

the country has been obsessed
by trains.

17,000 miles of track now cover
the length and breadth of Japan,

which has the third busiest network
in the world.

My first stop is Beppu, famous
because of its unique geology.

It's built on top of thousands
of hot springs,

and as a result, you can see steam
escaping out of the ground

all over the city.

The whole town looks like
it's leaking steam,

and no-one is noticing.

Yeah, once we had somebody calling
the fire brigade by mistake,

thinking there's a big fire
going on, and he was, of course,

a tourist that didn't know
about this venting steam.

My guide, Ye Omi, is giving me

a flavour of life in a town
that's literally built on steam.

As well as providing a tourist
attraction, the hot water is

used by the town's residents
for their everyday activities.

It's piped into homes
to provide heating

and used in restaurants
to make the local cuisine.

These are Beppu's ominously named
Eight Hells,

where the water gushes out off the
ground at almost boiling point.

No! Oh, no!
God, I pressed the wrong thing!

No, no, you did it right,
you did it right.

So, here, you can cook a whole meal
in steam from the Earth...

Off we go, plunk in,
and put the lid back on.

BEEPING
The alarm is going!

..in less than 20 minutes.

This is really, really gorgeous.

HE LAUGHS

That really is the dog's whatsits,
isn't it?

There are lots of clever ways
to use this stuff.

It's the first time
I've ever steamed my feet.

Some more immersive than others.

My feet is coming out.

You tuck them back in.

It is a bit like being wrapped up

in a big duvet,
and getting warmer and warmer.

This is Beppu's
hot spring-infused sand.

The treatment is designed
to create a subterranean sauna,

opening the pores
and relieving the stress.

The only thing I'm nervous about

is sometimes I really want to
scratch my face.

I was thinking
exactly that right now!

Could you ask if maybe
she could scratch my nose,

just the left-hand side of my nose?

SHE SPEAKS JAPANESE

Oh, oh!

Oh, that is so good.

Thank you,
lady who is burying me alive!

Oh, that is top.

Anywhere in the world
you've got hot springs,

you have nice hot bathing pools.

In Japan, they are called onsen.

In Britain, they say that
this kind of bathing began

with the Georgians, don't they?
Or the Romans.

And round here, they say
it was started by the samurai.

And I'm sure that there is
a lot of truth in it,

but I reckon that there is
a bigger truth, too, and that is

that as long as there have been
people pacing the Earth,

they have loved
getting into warm water

and listening
to the trickle of water.

I reckon even in Stone Age times,
they used to take the weekend off

and bring the kids here and just
sit down and have a nice time.

It's actually boiling hot in here.

Would you mind shifting the camera

so I can get out without
showing everyone my chopstick?

I've got 1,200 miles to cover.

But I'm not taking
just any old train.

This is the Seven Stars, one
of the most exclusive in the world.

Trips cost up to £10,000.

Even so, demand is so high,

the perspective passengers

sometimes have to enter
a lottery for tickets.

MUSIC: Madama Butterfly
by Giacomo Puccini

Oh, my goodness.

Look at this.

Lovely, elegant bar...

Can you hear the singing?

It's just gorgeous.

HE SIGHS

How wonderful is this?!

This is Japan's answer
to the Orient Express.

And every last detail
has been made as opulent

and luxurious as possible.

At the back, there's even
a huge panoramic window, so

when the train is moving, passengers
are given a spectacular view.

Your own bar.

Oh, look at this.

This is even more exclusive than the
rest of the exclusive carriage.

Imagine 26 millionaires,

and you're the one billionaire.
"Go away."

This is probably the most luxurious
train in the world.

Only 30 passengers a time have
the privilege of travelling in it.

So, as I'm heading north
on my journey around the world,

why don't I do it in absolute style,

on this magnificent train?

Ten grand a ticket, that's why! Bye!

One of Japan's national symbols
is the samurai,

the legendary
sword-wielding warriors.

I'm crossing the island of Kyushu
to visit Kumamoto,

where the samurai made
their last stand

against the Imperial Army
150 years ago.

The area is still home to one of the
last remaining master swordsmiths.

Matsunaga Genrokuro has been making
this famous weapon for 40 years.

Some swords can fetch up to £10,000.

But I'm being given the chance
to use one

and getting a lesson
in the ancient art of swordsmanship.

THEY SPEAK JAPANESE

I'm not quite sure what's happening
at the moment.

As soon as I walked in here,

two people kind of mugged me

and took my shoes off
and put me on here.

Thank you very much.

In the past,
the samurai knights would've

tested their swords on human flesh,

but that might be a bit messy,

so today we are using
rolled up bamboo mats.

Oh!

Fantastic.

Although the samurai
lost their power in the 1800s,

the strict code of honour
that they lived by

still shapes Japanese culture,

emphasising courage,
loyalty and self-denial.

It seems there's
a similarly tough set of rules

for me to follow today.

HE SPEAKS JAPANESE

If only I could understand them.

WHISPERS: I've no idea
what he's saying!

It's just somebody talking
in a foreign language

while I hold a deadly weapon!

The question is,
can I cut it as a samurai?

Ha!

Well, it died.

Yeah.

HE SPEAKS JAPANESE

Look, let's go again,
and let's do it properly this time!

Ah, it fell! It fell!

Get in, my son.

Finally, I'm on a roll.

Ha! Ha!

Yeah, all right if I do this one
in slow-motion?

OK.

Ha!

Obi-wan Kenobi, ooph!

It's time for the Shinkansen.

Or, to you and me, the bullet train.

Just look at it.

This is a thoroughbred.

Well, won't you look at this?

Don't you just want to give it
a handful of grass or something?

It's so ridiculous.

The bullet train is
so ultra sophisticated,

kind of sexy and animalistic
on the outside.

Inside, it's just a train!
Just another train.

A bit disappointing, really.

But it is a train that goes up to
200mph.

The Shinkansen was the world's first
high-speed commercial rail line,

opening over 50 years ago, in 1964,

as the fastest train on the planet.

Now, the network covers the length
and breadth of Japan,

with over 1,000 scheduled journeys
per day.

So, far from being
something special,

for the Japanese commuters,
it has become just ordinary.

The bullet train is taking me on
to Kyoto,

covering 400 miles
in less than three hours.

That's the same distance
as London to Edinburgh

but nearly twice as fast.

From Kyoto, I'm making a detour

and stopping off in Wakayama.

All over the world, remote railway
lines struggle to stay in business.

But the Wakayama electric railway
came up with a uniquely

Japanese way
to save their local train.

The railway is now a huge success,
and it is all thanks to cats.

Thank you very much.

Good Lord.

Is this cat stuffed?

Oh, it's moved! It's alive.

I thought you were showing
me a dead cat!

Why is she here?

TRANSLATION FROM JAPANESE

Working as a stationmaster?

Can we have a closer look at it?

Let's go. Let's ride!

These cute cats have become
big business.

They're believed to have contributed
nearly £6 million

to Wakayama's economy.

A stray cat called Tama
was first made an honorary

stationmaster in 2007.

The idea quickly captured
the public's imagination, and the

arrival of new passengers helped
bring the line back into profit.

Tama's successor, Nitama,
is still drawing in the crowds.

Are you a tourist? Yes.
Yep, from Texas.

And you came all the way
to meet the cat? Yes.

Well, we came to Japan, but I did
make a special trip out here

while I was in Japan
to come out here, yeah.

Did you know about this cat already?
Yes. I really liked Tama.

I painted Tama. Yeah. And so then
I wanted to come and meet Nitama.

You're a little bit obsessed,
aren't you?

I love cats, so, yeah.

Tell me what you know about Tama.

I know that, when she passed away,
she was enshrined as a goddess,

and...

She was... What did you just say?

She was elevated
to a goddess status.

This has gone far beyond
a successful PR stunt.

The cats have taken on
a big significance

for the people of Wakayama.

When the first Tama died in 2015,

3,000 people came to her funeral.

There's two stories going on here,
aren't there?

One is you had this failing railway
line losing loads of money,

they got rid of all the staff
in their stations,

someone had this crazy idea
of getting a stray cat to become

the stationmaster, it went viral,
turned the company's

fortunes round,
and there was a happy ending.

But there is a second story, too.

This is a Shinto shrine.

Before I do anything here,
I have to bow twice, clap,

bow again, then pray
or ring the bell.

The shrine is dedicated to that cat.

These two representations here
are of the cat,

who's become a deity,
a god now, within the shrine.

It says something
about the relationship

between the Japanese and animals
that I don't quite understand.

So it appears that, in Shintoism,
Japan's traditional religion,

this cat can become a goddess
simply because she brought

such good fortune to the railway.

Coming up, Tokyo.

Oh, look at this!

From neon nightlife...

Hardly anybody's looking at him.
It's Godzilla!

..to street-style makeovers.

This is quite liberating, actually.
It's like being in drag.

I'm halfway through
my rail journey across Japan.

It's 300 miles
to my next stop, Tokyo.

By bullet train,
it takes just 2.5 hours,

through some of Japan's
most famous scenery.

I asked the woman who was collecting
the tickets

if we would see Mount Fuji,

and she said, "Yes, at 10.56."

Well, it is 10.56 now...

..and there it is.

It's incredibly symmetrical,
isn't it?

In Japan, even nature
is neat and precise.

The railways in Japan are famous
for their punctuality.

The average delay for these
bullet trains is just 54 seconds.

And this is one of the busiest lines
in the world.

During peak times,
a train arrives every five minutes,

meaning the Shinkansen's service
to Tokyo can be more frequent

than some lines
on the London Underground.

But now this is going to be
a real gear change.

I'm heading for Tokyo -

the bright lights, the big city,

cartoons,

all those people going like that
for their selfies.

I'm not quite sure what to expect.

In my mind's eye, it's a bit like

a kind of hyped-up version
of Blade Runner,

but whatever it's going to
be like, I'm really excited.

The capital handles 13 billion
passenger rail trips every year.

Not so surprising, given Tokyo
is the world's most

populated city,
home to 37 million people.

The hyper developed city I expected
is easy to find.

You can get a hot cuppa in a can.

Cafe au lait sounds all right,
doesn't it?

And it comes straight away,
and it is piping hot.

For businessmen working long hours,
there is the capsule hotel.

Even the taxis are hi-tech.

These doors close on their own,
watch.

But to really get a feel for Tokyo,
it's best to experience it at night.

I'm heading to Shinjuku,
an area famous for its nightlife.

As the sun goes down,
the city lights up anew.

What's going on here?

To try and make sense
of the madness,

I'm meeting up with Yumi
for a whistle-stop tour.

She is Tokyo born and bred and is
an expert on life in the capital.

Did you see Godzilla up there? Oh,
yeah. Look, look, look, look!

I love the fact that hardly anybody
is looking at him. Yeah.

It's Godzilla!

Ooh. Oh, look at this.

I've been to some of the biggest
cities in the world,

but Tokyo at night
is something else.

You don't have to do anything?

No, this is just a photo booth.

With blinding lights
and wall-to-wall noise everywhere,

it's an overwhelming assault
on the senses.

Some people are, like, super pro.
Like this.

The Japanese do cute
like no other culture I know.

Yeah, we take it
to a whole other level.

Look at that, that is so cute
it makes me want to vomit.

And, of course, anime.

You cannot forget the anime culture
of Tokyo. Yeah.

This is the stress relief.

You just, like, flip the table over.

Oh, really? They can measure
how annoyed you are, you know,

how stressed you are.

You tap it.

That's going to increase the anger.

And flip it.

Oh, it went! There you go!
I got you!

In a city this crowded,
space is at a premium,

and old neighbourhoods are right up
against new ones.

This is so pretty.

Yes, this street
is called Omoide Yokocho.

In English, it is Memory Lane.

It is brilliant, isn't it?
It's really evocative.

It is just amazing, like,
how tiny every shops are. Yeah.

It's just so tiny.

And they're all so full,
that's the other thing. Yes.

It's just like... Like old Japan.
Yes!

In one of the world's busiest
cities, many people wear face masks,

and I'd always assumed
it was for hygiene reasons.

And while that may be true
for a lot of people,

it seems for some, there's
another more subtle reason.

Japanese people, we are

concerned about what others
think about ourselves. Yeah.

So we always, you know,
try to keep our reputation

as the best as we could,
and that's why we cover the face.

The face! Yeah.

Because if you're wearing a mask,

actually nobody can see what you
look like or how you feel. Yeah.

So they can't think bad things
about you. Exactly!

Oh, that's so sweet.

I want to go up to somebody
with a mask and say,

"It's all right, lighten up.

"We haven't even noticed you.

"We're not worried
about who you are."

So we don't want to stand out from,
you know, like, the same community,

so there is a harmony, you know,
in the whole culture. Yeah.

Like, in Japanese culture.
And we respect that harmony.

Like, maybe too much.

I find that really fascinating,
cos for me,

as an old hippie,
harmony is something beautiful,

something to be worked for,
something to be attained. Right.

What you're saying is
harmony actually can mean,

"Don't rock the boat."
Yeah, exactly.

Because it's so important
to fit in to Japanese society,

many people work hard to conform
to what's expected of them.

Perhaps the most famous example
of this are the suited salary men -

the white-collar employees
who sacrifice

everything in service
of their companies.

And Tokyo is the centre of this
demanding work culture.

But not everyone here wants
to wear a suit.

Oh, I like that! Yeah.

You like that? Yeah, I love it.
Oh, yeah?

Oh, great!
THEY LAUGH

This is Harajuku,

a Tokyo neighbourhood known
for its unusual street fashion.

Let's try a few different jackets.
I'm really fond of this one. Yeah.

Wow!
THEY LAUGH

I think that might be
a little much, though.

Junyan, a designer, and Emily,
originally from America,

are giving me a makeover in the cute
and colourful Harajuku style.

And the monster. And the monster,
yeah. Definitely need a monster.

That suits you, Tony!
Thank you very much!

I'm being heckled by an Englishman.

If you feel like it doesn't match,
you're doing it right.

Do you feel appropriately
Harajukued?

THEY LAUGH

It is quite liberating, actually.
It's like being in drag.

Suddenly, it's a completely
different you. Hee-hee!

Shall we hit town? Yeah!
Let's take it on a test-run.

The Harajuku theme is taken to a new
level at the local Monster Cafe.

Absolutely everything is
decorated in the Kawaii style -

the Japanese word for cute.

Harajuku is home to one of Japan's
many inventive subcultures.

Popular with young people
who want to go against the grain.

Adulthood in Japan
has very specific tenets.

You get married, you have children,
you work for 40 years, you retire.

And for a lot of people,
especially during the '80s and '90s,

immediately after the economy,
like, the bubble burst? Mm-hm.

They were disillusioned.

And that life is still something
a lot of young people just

don't either want, or can't achieve.

And so, kind of a kickback
from that, like, very deliberate,

elegant, keep-things-to-yourself
kind of adulthood,

you get stuff like this. You get
this explosion of childhood fantasy.

So, this is the absolute alternative
of the multinational company

that you go into when you're 18,

you serve it 16 hours a day
until you're 65? Yeah.

Most of Japan's subcultures

are really kicking back
against that, like, daily grind.

Which is what punk was doing
in the '70s in England. Exactly.

It's a very similar motivation.

Actually, a lot of subcultures
here in Harajuku

were born from late teens,
early 20-year-olds going,

"I don't want to be
a corporate person.

"I don't want to work
only for the rest of my life.

"I want to enjoy something else."

There were people who felt much more
comfortable dressing up

and, like, feeling that security
from being childish.

From enjoying the times when you
didn't have the responsibilities...

I get it! Yeah.
..of, like, working for everything.

I've just realised that it is simply

another aspect of being Japanese,
isn't it?

In a funny sort of way, it's really
retreating, it's gentle. Yeah.

I understand now why some of
Tokyo's young people want to look

as different as possible
from the suited salary men.

Just like the hippies and the punks,
they're refusing to conform.

It's just that they're doing it
with colourful clothes

and childish characters.

But Harajuku style is just one part
of Japan's huge pop culture scene,

which is now world-famous.

From anime cartoons, to J-pop music,
to video games,

something about
Japan's cute and quirky inventions

has captured imaginations
far beyond Tokyo.

That was just
the most extraordinary morning.

An incredible confrontation
with a new pop culture

that I knew absolutely nothing
about.

I suppose one of the really
good things about pop culture

is it's young people
looking at the previous generation

and doing something
completely opposite.

So there's been this incredibly
oppressive, international,

capitalist series of organisations

that have dominated Japan
since the 1970s.

And the sons and daughters of people
who worked in them are saying,

"Whoa! We don't want to do that!"

I'm rejoining the rails
and leaving Tokyo.

I've just noticed that the train
which has come in

and is now going to go back out
again,

they've swivelled the seats,
all of them,

around 180 degrees so everyone's
going to be facing the right way.

That's so cool!

From the capital, I'm travelling 200
miles to the coastal town of Sendai.

I'm on the Tohoku Shinkansen,

the bullet-train line running to the
top of Japan's main island, Honshu.

We're heading north, but we've
stopped off for a moment
at Sendai station.

Can you hear those birds?

They're not actually birds,
it's just an electronic recording.

BIRDSONG
It's Japan!

This recorded birdsong is apparently
designed

to guide blind people to the exits.

Another example of that Japanese
attention to detail.

45 minutes from Sendai station
is Matsushima Bay,

one of Japan's most scenic places.

And you get such a sense here
of Japan as an island,

or rather, as islands.

There's about 8,000 altogether.

270-odd in this bay alone.

These little islands are so pretty,
aren't they?

They're like something
out of a Japanese painting.

Because Japan's got so many islands,

it wasn't always easy to connect up
the country by rail.

In 1988, there was an important
breakthrough when the Seikan Tunnel

opened, connecting the main island
of Honshu with Hokkaido.

An engineering masterpiece.

Today,
it remains the world's longest

and deepest undersea rail tunnel.

My journey ends at Hakodate,

the northern terminal
of the bullet train.

I don't think I'd ever realised
just how long Japan actually is.

It's 1,800 miles from top
to bottom.

Remember, a week ago,

I was sunning myself in
the black sand right down south.

And today,
welcome to northern Japan.

This region is the seafood
capital of Japan,

known for its huge variety
of local fish.

Ken Hasegawa, a sushi chef
with 20 years in the business,

is making me lunch.

And I'm being joined Kay,
a Hakodate local.

Now, I'm the world's worst person
with chopsticks.

Is this the right thing to do?
You're laughing at me!

If you want. If you want?
That was just politeness.

Another thing about the Japanese is
that, um...they're not only

polite, but a lot of the time,
they're very humble.

We think it's a kind of virtue to be
sort of humble, to be reserved.

We say in the Japanese society,
a tall tree catches much wind.

A tall tree catches much wind!
Yeah, I like that.

Also, we are trying to live
in harmony with each other. Yeah.

To be in harmony with nature,

to be in harmony with
the people around you,

is very, very important.

So in that case, if you just
insist your own opinion,

it might offend other people.

That might
be a little bit coward, in a way,

but we prefer to be a reserved
attitude, like this. Yeah.

This is my favourite so far.

KAY AND KEN SPEAK JAPANESE
Mm. Mm.

Japan has felt very foreign to me,

and there's still parts of the
culture I can't get my head around.

I don't know if I'll ever quite
understand the dressing up

and love of all things cute.

But talking to Japanese people,
I've learned how hard this

society works to be harmonious
in everything, and I admire that.

I love their attention to detail.

The way that every little garden
needs to be so well-kept

and the food on a plate has to be
so neat and well-ordered.

And even when you're being given
the bill by the man in the hotel,

the way he does it is so polite
and just exquisite.

And I've learnt how to smile
and nod and bow, just about,

and know when you're supposed
to take your shoes off

and when you're supposed to put them
back on again.

In fact, if I've learnt anything
at all from this Japanese trip,

it's that back home,
I really am a bit of a slob.

Coming up - I'm in the United
States, where I continue

my adventure on some of
the world's greatest train routes.

From California and Colorado

to America's deep south,
New Orleans.

And the Big Apple,
where I explore behind the scenes

of the largest railway station
in the world.

It's extraordinary!

So finally,
I've made it to the United States.

It's the beginning of
a great journey

that's going to take me from
the Wild West to the iconic east,

across California to Colorado,

Louisiana, and finally, New York.

But the line starts here,
in San Francisco, California.

Home to around 40 million people,

it's the most popular
state in the US.

And it's also the starting
point for one of the world's most

classic railway journeys,
called the California Zephyr.

It's a legendary train.

Opened in 1949 to go from
San Francisco to Chicago,

and it was the first
transcontinental train ever

to sacrifice speed for scenery.

Since the beginning, the Zephyr was
known for its trademark carriages,

with glass domes that
allowed a 360-degree view.

In the early days,
this scenic route was a success.

But by the '60s, increases in air
and road travel

were bringing passenger numbers down

and the famous train was
discontinued for over 10 years.

But before I make it to Denver,

there's one place
I've always wanted to see.

I love it when you get off a train
and you're immediately confronted

with the completely unexpected.

I only have to walk half a dozen
steps and immediately,

I'm in Sacramento
as it would've been

in the middle of the 19th century,

when it was a rich, powerful,
confident city.

Like so many places in California,

Sacramento was founded
during the California Gold Rush -

one of the greatest events
of 19th-century America.

Thousands of prospective miners
travelled here

in the hope of making a fortune.

So it was an incredibly prosperous
gold town.

Banks, barbers, brothels,
everybody making money.

Then, in 1861-1862,
there was a gargantuan flood.

Suddenly, there was a lake
300 miles long by 20 miles wide,

where there'd been no lake before.

And it decimated this town.
So, what did the city fathers do?

Did they decide to junk it
and start again? No.

Their plan was to raise
the whole town up

between 14 and 10 feet
in order to protect it in future.

And that's what they did.

Thanks to this ingenuity,
Sacramento's importance grew.

And now it's the state capital
of California,

which I didn't know until today.

But I've got to keep moving.

Denver's still a thousand miles
down the line

and I want to relax
and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

But my film crew
keep interrupting me.

Great, Tony. I want to do the same
thing, but with your hand down.

Oh, for goodness' sake!

My epic journey across the
United States has brought me

to the exquisite Rocky Mountains.

They're America's
longest mountain range.

Crossing the continent from Canada
all the way south, to New Mexico.

And with the arrival of the railways
in the 19th century,

they suddenly became
accessible to everyone.

My next stop is Colorado,
in the Wild West.

Because to me, a journey
across America wouldn't be complete

without one thing - cowboys.

This is ranching country
and this is a ranch. What's a ranch?

Well, by definition,
it's a workplace, isn't it?

Just like a factory floor
or a building site.

I'm heading to a place
called a dude ranch.

That means a working ranch
that's also a luxury resort.

People will pay thousands of pounds
a week to come here

and dress up like one of
the workers.

But why? What's the attraction?

Tony. Hi, mate.
The man who runs it is David Craig.

This kind of ranch has been going on
for more than a century, hasn't it?

Well, this ranch itself has been
here for 99 years. As a dude ranch?

That's right.
In fact, the first slogan was,

"All you can eat steak and apple pie
and bear hunting".

100 years ago, the word "dude"
had a different meaning to today.

It's what western cattle ranchers
called the city slickers

who came here on holiday.

These are traditional
western chaps.

I'm going to walk on this side.
Yeah.

Good.

I'm not being fresh here.

Do you feel kind of cool, like
you're a bit of a bad ass? I do.

I feel very much of a bad ass.
All right!

This is what dude ranching
is all about -

a 5' 5" little bloke
puts on this stuff

and feels like he's Clint Eastwood.

Shall we pick out your horse?
No, I want to look at the camera
like this,

just for a little bit longer.

That's better. Let's go.
All right. Right this way.

The chaps are falling off!

They're practically
around my ankles already!

As soon as I started to walk, I
felt that long slither down my leg.

How's that feel? A bit better?
That's a bit better. Thank you.

That's beautiful.

A true cowboy needs a horse.
Give me your darkest stallion.

We we're off into the real
American wilderness.

You can see, like,
mountains for days.

That's the best part of Colorado
cos it's so expansive, you feel like

all around us is just mountains
and mountains and mountains.

Yeah. It's so awesome.

This takes me right back to the
Hollywood westerns I grew up with.

Where stars like John Wayne
glamorised this iconic way of life.

I love the fact that you're paid
to do this. Me, too. It's a dream.

And people have been paid for well
over 100 years just to take idiots

like me out into the countryside,
pretending to be a cowboy.

I'm continuing my whistle-stop
journey through the United States

and I'm now heading for New Orleans.

Some of the stations here are
so small that all the passengers

get off and on at the one door.

In a culture obsessed with cars,

the railway network is
surprisingly comprehensive.

With regular intercity
and cross-country services.

Although I've never really
understood why the US doesn't have

a high-speed railway network,
like the ones in Japan or Germany.

New Orleans.

What I hadn't expected was that
as soon as I got out of the train,

it would feel so different
from any other city in the US

that I've been to so far.

The light's different, it smells
different and it's so muggy,

it feels as though the whole city's
sticking to me already.

BAND STRIKES UP

This is called a second-line parade.

This isn't for anything, this is
just what people do on a Sunday.

The tradition of second-line parades

goes back to 19th-century
funeral marches,

which were a celebration
in honour of life lost.

And really, apart from
the fact there's no coffins
or dead persons being carried,

this is pretty much how
the funeral marches would've been.

And they reckon that this strutting
style that they do

and this whole idea of marching
comes from their African roots.

And this is an echo of what people
used to do way back in time.

This is what we... Yeah, that's
right, yeah. There you go.

No, it's the feet. Yeah, it's
all about the feet. There you go.

THEY LAUGH

# Na-na-na-na-na-na

# Ba-da-da-da-da-da. #

When they do those different songs
and stuff,

they make you catch that beat.

This comes out of the parades
they used to have in funerals.

Do you still have parades
when people die?

Yes. They just had a parade
for Aretha Franklin.

Oh, my God! The second-line
they had for Prince was amazing!

They had the purple casket,
the purple cars.

People were dressed in purple.

So it's different second-lines
that they have,

and that's when you have
different brass bands come out,

different social clubs come out,
different people celebrating

New Orleans and how much
they love the place.

And they celebrate
the African culture...

Yeah, yeah. ..of New Orleans.

THUNDERCLAP

Shall we stop now? Run for cover.

Flash storms like this are typical
in this part of America.

And in 2005, Hurricane Katrina
was an extreme example

of the power these rains can have.

Local musician Winston Turner
was here.

I took it for granted,
just living here, growing up in it,

that the culture would never leave,

but after Hurricane Katrina,
we were actually

able to look at the city underwater.

That's when we realised,

"Man! This is a possibility
that it may not come back."

Oh, you really felt that? Yeah.

Hurricane Katrina left over
a million people homeless.

As the population
of New Orleans fled,

the city's very existence
was called into question.

Everyone that you knew was
just displaced.

It took me maybe, um...three to four
weeks to find my own mum.

Your own mum? Yeah.

Because we thought we're just going
to leave and we'll be back.

We were really displaced.

So when I find out
I'm in South Dakota

and there's a New Orleans band
performing,

I would do whatever
I had to do to get there,

because it was somewhere
you could go

and be with people
that expressed the same hurt,

the same feeling, the same
love of something that you felt.

The city's 90% recovered
and its spirit is as strong as ever.

It's time for me to continue
my journey to my final destination.

There's a direct train that runs
daily from New Orleans to New York.

It takes 30 hours
and it's called the Crescent.

It arrives in Penn station,
but a quick subway ride

brings you to what's maybe the most
impressive station in the US.

If you're going to
go around the world on trains,

you've got to come to this place,
haven't you?

Grand Central Station, the biggest
railway station in the whole world.

Every day, three quarters
of a million people come through
these doors.

That is the entire population
of Nottingham.

Well, not literally the...
You know what I mean.

Grand Central Station opened in 1913

and the building
was an immediate hit.

I love it because it's the beating
heart of the city, I feel.

Concetta Bencivenga
from the New York Transit Museum

is showing me around.

It is the epitome of New York
in 1913.

It's high camp, isn't it?

It's saying, "Oh, look at me! I'm
so elegant, I'm so sophisticated!"

This is like a bridge over
the canal in Venice.

They really wanted you to have
a sense of grandeur, of scale,

of arriving, of being in New York.

The building may be
an architectural masterpiece,

but in the '60s and '70s,
it fell into disrepair.

Tony, can you see that square, that
dark square...? Oh, right up there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When they
started to save the building,

this entire ceiling was hidden
by layers and layers of black gunk.

That colour? Yes. Wow! It must have
been so oppressive. It was, it was.

So that's just a little reminder
to everybody that's how bad it got
before it was saved.

Restoring Grand Central Station
to its original splendour

took 20 years.

To really appreciate it, Concetta is
giving me some very special access.

These were originally constructed,

they were meant to be
open for cross-ventilation.

Oh, with these wonderful cranky
chains here to wind them up

and down. That's why these were
known as the lungs of the building.

And they give you...

A really good bird's-eye view.
..just a wonderful picture.

It's like a Where's Wally drawing.
It's extraordinary!

Look! Look, Sam,
look at that guy over there.

I thought he was having a pee!
CONCETTA LAUGHS

It does look like it. No, I was
having a whisper. Oh, yeah?

That's not a euphemism?
It's roughly the same thing.

And this is where...
You whisper into here?

Hello, Tony, can you hear me?

Oh, wow! Yes, I can hear you. Yes!
My goodness!

So the sound travels all the way up,
all along the tiles

and down to you over there. Yep.

And so it's one of the sort
of engineering happy accidents

that happened
because of the lay of the arches,

it created these lovely
whispering walls.

You sound like you're one of those
recorded guides in a museum.

THEY LAUGH

Coming up - I visit New York's
largest borough...

Come this side. We drive on the
other side here. Of course you do!

..I make a new friend...

Tony's already making me
take off my clothes!

..and I do as the locals do
on a strange tour of Manhattan.

Rubbing the cojones is good luck,
Tony.

My travels across the United States
have brought me

to the East Coast, to the Big Apple.

Some of this country's
earliest railway lines were here.

Today, it's got the biggest subway
system in the world,

with 472 stations.

Nearly all of them
open 24 hours a day.

I want to find out
more about the real New York.

So I'm heading to a part of the city
I've always wanted to visit,

but tourists don't usually go to.

The 7 train links Manhattan
with New York's largest borough.

If someone says the words "New York"
to you, what do you think of?

Greenwich Village, Broadway,
Uptown, Downtown.

I bet what you don't think
of is Queens. And yet it's huge!

So, what's the problem?

When the number 7 train opened
in Queens over 100 years ago,

it sparked a real-estate boom
that transformed a rural area

into a lively neighbourhood.

New York Fire Department.
Yeah. They're heroes.

HORN BLASTS

Tony! Hey! Welcome to Queens!
Thank you.

The most-diverse borough
in the world. Is it? Yeah.

You see,
I had always assumed that it was

the epitome of the white
working-class borough.

Well, we speak about 170 languages,

about 50% of our residents were
born in another country.

Queens' native Rob MacKay
has offered to show me around.

It's really interesting.
Come this side.

We drive on the other side here.
Of course you do!

TONY LAUGHS
Whoops! Huh!

We're following the tracks of the 7
train that runs elevated above us.

The line's nickname is
the International Express.

Right here, we get to what they
call Little Manila.

That's a Filipino place.

H-Hey! And you see over there,
Chinese Peruvian food.

Do you have much of a problem
with all these different

ethnicities all mixed up
and coming so recently?

So the thing I'm most proud of
is how well we all get along.

That's Nepalese. The
United Sherpa Association of America

has its headquarters over there.

So that's Ecuadorian. Remember,
in Ecuador, in the mountains,

they eat cuy, you know, guinea pigs.

They will tell you that
it's the best meat

because the guinea pigs
eat nothing but alfalfa.

Will you stop
talking about the guinea pigs?!

Well, if you had one, you'd be...
I've had them, in little cages.

Oh, you've had them.
OK. I've loved them. OK.

I hope Cinnamon
and Nutmeg aren't watching.

It is extraordinary.

I've spent months going
around the world in trains,

seeing all these different
kinds of faces.

I might as well have saved myself
the trouble.

If I'd stayed in Queens...

There you go! ..I'd have seen
exactly the same variety of people.

There's another thing Queens
is famous for.

It's the birthplace
of the current President.

These days, he's got a place
in the middle of Manhattan.

This is the Trump Tower,
owned, of course, by Donald Trump.

Now, this isn't
a political programme,

so I just want to
talk about the architecture.

I think that is the foulest
building in the whole of Manhattan.

I think it's absolutely obscene.

I think it should be demolished
brick by brick.

Those bricks should be
ground to dust.

That dust should be flushed down
the drain and eaten by rats.

But that's the architecture.

About the President, I've got
nothing to say, really. Seems fine.

The Trump Tower is just one
of thousands of tall buildings here.

Manhattan's skyscrapers
are rising even higher as we speak.

This skyline is absolutely unique,
isn't it? It is.

Awe-inspiring, always.

Luke Miller is a third-generation
New Yorker.

Pull up your whatsit.

Oh, man! Tony's already making me
take off my clothes!

Look at that.
Isn't that extraordinary!

You are going to so regret that
in 30 years' time,

and I'm telling you
that as a father.

THEY LAUGH

Anyway, what's happening here?
This is crazy.

This is literally
the largest development project

in our country's history.

These skyscrapers are being built

on top of some of New York's
old rail yards.

The apartments, restaurants

and public spaces will form
a city within a city.

How much do you reckon
that's going to cost?

$25 billion is where they're at.
25...?! $25 billion.

It reminds us that
we can reach for the sky.

If you've got enough money.
If you have enough money!

What's this crowd doing up here?

So this 7,000lb bronze bull was
sculpted by an Italian artist named

Arturo Di Modica as a gift
to New York,

and represents a bull market,
a strong market.

And everybody does this? Yes.

Rubbing the cojones is good luck,
Tony. And I do this now? Yeah.

You'll see all the brokers doing it
on the way to work every morning.

I can feel the magic happening.

THEY LAUGH

It's clearly worked for some people.

After all, New York has got more
billionaires than any other city
in the world.

Presumably, this is
the beginning of Times Square? Yeah.

Whether it is Monday night
or Saturday night,

these crowds are here.

This is the original
New York Times building.

So Times Square gets its name
from the New York Times.

And you lived around here
when you were a kid? Yeah.

So I am one of five boys - Ricky,
Nicky, Timmy, Lukey and Alize,

the whole lot of us. We grew up
with a single mum raising us.

And what was
the area like around here?

I mean, this area was rundown,
crime-infested, drug-infested.

I mean, 42nd Street was lined with
drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes.

I mean,
when I walk through here today,

it's just mind-blowing
how this has changed.

And that's the thing about New York.
This is a city of aspiration.

People have always come here
hoping for a better life.

Can you imagine, Tony,
seeing this symbol?

Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning
to breathe free.

And you still
believe in that stuff?

LUKE LAUGHS
Well, you do.

I mean, part of you does,
doesn't it? Yeah.

There is part of you that is still
passionate

about what that statue represents.

Well, of course.
I mean, my whole life,

I've grown up in a place that
represents diversity.

That embraces diversity.

It's the thing I'm most proud of
as a New Yorker.

And I believe we hold that near
and dear to our hearts.

I've reached the end of my journey,
and what an adventure it's been.

Ha-ha!

I've travelled
tens of thousands of miles...

Inhospitable landscape,

total flipping luxury.

..and been on some of the world's
greatest railways.

From bullet trains in Japan

to the scenic routes in India.

I've seen incredible landscapes
and met some wonderful people.

And everywhere,
I've been greeted with warmth,

kindness and hospitality.

One thing I know for sure,

if I was asked to do it all again,

I'd jump at the chance.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media