Original subtitles

At the northern end of Africa's Great Rift Valley lies an area unlike anywhere on Earth.

This is the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia, perhaps the most inhospitable place known to man.

Volcanoes and earthquakes continually rip the ground apart, spewing lava and noxious gases.

And this is officially the hottest place on the surface of the planet.

The idea that anyone would actually live here seems absurd.

And yet there are people living here, as they have for thousands of years -

a legendary nomadic warrior tribe called the Afar.

I am on an incredible journey with a team of scientists.

We hope to discover how people survive in this most extreme environment,

how their lives and even their bodies

have been shaped by the land around them.

Look at you. You make it look completely effortless.

You need to be on good form in this environment just to carry on.

If you're off, you will die. Nice and simple.

This is a community in the truest sense of the word, where survival depends on working together.

I love this place. You just feel part of the family already.

They called me sister today.

We also want to delve beneath the surface of this extraordinary land

to unlock the secrets of its tortured geology.

It's a journey that has taken us into the fabric of the Earth, broken apart by earthquakes.

Whoa! You are kidding me!

To think this happened overnight. This is the stuff of Hollywood.

The climax of our journey will take us into the raging volcanoes that are still shaping this land.

Oh, my goodness!

No wonder the Afar call this place "the gateway to hell".

Our intrepid team of scientists

and explorers has been in Ethiopia for two weeks, and we have endured

a punishing trek just to get to the Danakil Depression, the hottest place on Earth.

But we have been welcomed into the world of the incredible Afar people,

who call this place home.

SPEAKS IN AFAR That is very nice.

Now, in this final phase of the expedition,

we will be learning quite how tough and demanding

living in this remote corner can be.

The Afar can only live in this hostile environment because of their livestock.

This is not normal, OK? It has got very, very bad diarrhoea.

Obviously, if they get diarrhoea,

that means they are losing water,

and in an environment like that, that can be very, very serious.

Oh, my golly.

THEY TALK IN LOCAL LANGUAGE

This afternoon has brought home the brutal truth of it.

I have been in other parts of the world,

and I have held malnourished, dying children.

And it is a terrible, terrible thing.

Even the day-to-day business of living here

is proving harder than I expected, especially for the Afar women.

These women don't have a moment

to express themselves, to just get cross, to just throw something out.

Maybe we are really spoilt,

but we are allowed to shout and scream and rail against things.

And...

Oh, it makes me cross.

Meanwhile, earth scientist Dougal will explore the final piece

of the Danakil's incredible geological puzzle.

This part of Africa is literally tearing itself apart.

We have got steaming fissures,

active volcanoes and bubbling lava lakes.

Having mapped an earthquake fissure in 3D

to show how fast the Earth's crust here is breaking apart...

I am happy for you guys. This is good. This is good stuff.

Wow!

In one final climactic go-for-broke venture,

Dougal wants to record

how far that process has already gone...

by making a 3D record of the world's largest lava lake

from the inside.

I want to go face-to-face with those volcanoes using the latest 3D technology.

As we approach our final week at Kusru Wad,

we have become close enough to the Afar people to be included

in more and more of their unique culture.

And that includes the local equivalent

of a Sunday League kick about, the Afar's favourite ball game, Korso.

Chief Galissa has invited Steve to play,

but first, he is going to have to figure out the rules.

It doesn't have any rules except to play.

There's no rules. Right, OK.

The more Steve finds out, the more this seems like a bad idea.

So many people used to die when they played Korso, so they stopped playing it. OK!

OK, so people died playing Korso? Yes, kill each other.

Oh, right. OK, that's fine(!) They killed each other while playing the game? Yes.

That is a bit of a worry, isn't it? Is that the object of the game, to kill the opposition?

No, it is not. But some people who are playing, they play roughly, and so if one gets killed

they will kill you next time. By shooting at you. So you...

..Shooting at you?! There's guns involved?

No, guns are not involved, but if someone dies from you,

what will you do to that guy? You won't leave him. You will kill him.

The brothers... You could let them just score?

No, you cannot. This is a serious business, Steve.

But we're going to play gentle today?

Yes, today will be gentle. Good. But leave the gun at the sideline.

THEY SPEAK IN NATIVE TONGUE

Yes, he will leave the gun. That's good.

Maybe I'll get angry in the middle of the game.

Then we will see him being fierce! Yeah.

This is going to be quite a test, and not just for Steve.

It's also a chance for Mukul to see how Steve's body stands up

to running in the heat compared to the local Afar players.

These capsules will allow him

to track Steve's temperature, and cardiac monitors

will record his heart rate during the game,

with Galissa agreeing to be the local guinea pig.

Two weeks ago, Mukul did the same test on Steve

when he worked in the salt mines at Dallol.

Then, he wasn't sure if the Afar's better heat resistance

was inbred or simply the result of living here.

Now, he is going to get the chance

to see if Steve has become acclimatised,

assuming he survives long enough to get a reading!

I still have absolutely no idea

what the idea is. I have seen a ball of some sort bounced on the floor.

They seem to be splitting into two teams here, so...

I don't know.

I'll go with the flow to start off and we'll see where that takes me.

I have no idea. You think, rugby, the breakdown is difficult to referee. This looks impossible.

That's obviously why you don't have any rules. You don't need a ref.

What Steve is making up for in lack of skill, he is doing with size. He can just pick them all up

under his arm, can't he?

Galissa is well into this. He is obviously a past master of this game.

It's a valiant effort on Steve's part, but he soon develops a limp.

He is coming back. Come on, hop-along, what have you done?

Have you stood on something?

No, I've just lost the sole of my foot. That's raw.

I've just had to pull a flap off. Ow!

In terms of rules, I couldn't work it out.

Fortunately, his career-threatening injury

gives Mukul the chance to check his vital statistics.

Let's do your temperature.

A rise of just three degrees is life-threatening. Four is usually fatal.

Actually you're doing very well. This hasn't risen a huge amount. Cool. 37.9.

Steve's core temperature has gone up only half a degree.

Which is less than two weeks ago.

You guys have only really done 15 minutes worth and have risen a whole degree to 38 degrees.

It's clear Steve's body has got better at keeping his core temperature under control.

But how much more is he having to sweat to do it?

I'm going to step on the scales

and then I'll bathe my feet, I think.

Ooh... Ow.

That is a bit sore, actually. You've dropped almost a kilo and a half.

A kilo half, OK? A litre and a half in 20 minutes.

Three pints in 20 minutes.

That's amazing. That is pretty impressive. That needs replacing.

Despite his improvement, this rate of fluid loss could be

seriously damaging if Steve played the full hour of the Korso match.

So how much has Galissa lost?

You're coming in a featherweight 54 kilos.

We can see Galissa isn't sweating anywhere near as much as you. He's not losing the same amount of fluid.

And Steve's soft Western feet are no match for the locals either.

20 minutes and look at you! You're feet look like they've been flayed!

I know. I don't think

I could keep up with their calloused feet I'm afraid.

My little namby-pamby toes just weren't up to the grade, I'm afraid.

So does Galissa rate the 20 minute cameo performance?

He says, "I choose him before I see how he plays."

He has seen many heat and many suns so your feet is new to this area.

If you go bare foot, like this, your foot will be Afar foot.

Maybe tomorrow!

Thank you for everything this week. It has been fantastic.

Thank you, Galissa. Thank you for inviting us to your village

and for making us feel so welcome.

Let's get you home. Do you need to be carried?

Ready?

Oh my God!

While we take Steve away to be patched up,

Dougal has begun the final, climactic leg of his geological mission -

to map the volcano at Erte Ale.

Erta Ale is three days away by car, but Dougal's found a way to get a preview

of a phenomenon he's dreamed of exploring for years.

Well, we've been lucky enough to get hold of a fixed wing aircraft for a short period of time.

It will allow us to actually get up to assess

the current state of Erte Ale and check that the lava lake's bubbling away

and that the access will be good there.

The tiny plane is thrown around in the super-heated air

rising from the seemingly endless volcanic landscape.

We can really start to see some of the volcanic centres

coming through and that's about 40 or 50 kilometres south

of the Erte Ale massif.

Yeah, it's very, very big from up here.

The Danakil lies on the Great Rift Valley,

where the edges of two tectonic plates are slowly moving apart.

This causes the crust to stretch and thin,

allowing molten magma to force its way up to the surface.

Just approaching the top of Erte Ale now. The plane is jumping all over the place.

I can just about see...

I can just see the crater of Erte Ale right in front of me now.

Boy, is this good! The lava lake is bubbling away.

It's low enough. We should be able to get access to the lava lake.

Oh, wow. You can just see it steaming away there.

Oh, this is phenomenal. Really good.

How this lava lake is developing will help determine how thin the Earth's crust

has become. What Dougal describes

as a weeping wound in the broken skin of the Earth.

That is Erte Ale volcano, the oldest known lava lake on the planet just there.

All Dougal has to do now is get him,

his team and the 3D mapping kit into that live crater.

Back in the village, the day-to-day survival

of the Afar people rests on their livestock

and Steve's found a way to say thank you to the Afar for their hospitality.

They have little or no veterinary care for their precious animals,

so he's offered to run a camel clinic.

Another day, another camel.

Here we go.

His first patient is a camel with a sore hump.

Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

It looks like there's teeth marks here and there, basically.

Yeah, it was bitten by a camel. Males have to compete for females. They often will bite each other.

Big sharp canines as well. Built for fighting.

And their mouths are not the cleanest of places.

What we need to do is we need to clean this up and have a look at it and see.

But something tells me the camel's not going to like this.

We've got it muzzled. It can probably still head-butt me.

But, em, they've tied its back legs, they've tied its front legs

and we'll just take it nice and slowly.

I think we've found the sore spot.

For this infection to heal, the camel needs a shot of antibiotics and plenty of rest.

One of the things they want to do is get this animal back to performing quickly.

This is not a pet, this is an animal that has a job to do.

Injuries are serious for working animals,

but the major threat to these invaluable creatures is disease and bacteria.

Where's our other camel?

No, it's not normal.

This is not normal? OK.

He's obviously got very, very bad diarrhoea. Obviously, if they get diarrhoea,

that means they're losing water and in an environment like that, that can be very, very serious.

But treating animals in these conditions is no easy task for Steve.

I had no idea what to expect.

It was a bit of a leap into the deep end. Unfamiliar species.

Then the lack of laboratory equipment and everything else.

I don't know what bacteria are here.

I can't do any blood cultures. I can't do anything here.

So I've really realised that I'm reduced to the state of a layman almost.

I can get little bits of information.

The Afar here have never had access to Western medicine

so have developed their own methods of traditional healing for their animals.

Steve, this is Abdul, he is an Afar traditional healer.

He is an elder around here. OK.

So what would you treat this camel with?

THEY TALK IN NATIVE TONGUE

There's a tree, he says. I will milk a camel, mix it together and I'll put it in his mouth.

The bad things will go.

But as well as plants, the traditional healer uses some stranger treatments,

including cutting their ears.

He says, if I see him crazy running round,

they cut a small amount of the ear. And what does that do?

He becomes a little bit quiet

and knows that something is with him.

Ah! OK. OK, that's interesting.

That's an interesting way forward. It doesn't surprise me that there are traditional treatments.

What's interesting is it seems to be a combination of some things that could prove to be very useful

like the plants and seed remedies. But coupled with that, you do get these strange...

You know, the cutting of the ear and this sort of thing - don't have

any therapeutic benefit at all, but it's not for me to judge that here.

But it's not just animals that are treated with traditional methods like cutting.

Team doctor Mukul and I have found they're also used on people.

Will you show me Aisha's leg? Show me what's the matter with it.

We've been joined by Australian nurse Valerie Browning,

who's lived and worked with the Afar people

for 20 years and conducts regular clinics of her own.

Big scars. What...?

She said she had a huge infection here

and this is burning and that helped to get all the pus out.

By burning or cutting the skin,

some Afar believe they destroy what they think

is the bad blood that causes illness. Though not everyone here is convinced.

Did any of these help, do you think?

THEY TALK IN NATIVE TONGUE

He said, "What help is this?" He said, "No, it didn't help her at all." He's quite angry.

He said that this is nonsense. Just total nonsense. It can only make her sicker.

As well as dealing with these ancient traditions,

Valerie and her health workers have an uphill battle

to diagnose and treat patients like Aisha.

I mean, is there anything obvious that you would know about that these symptoms would match?

The only thing I've come across, I remember reading about, a condition called brucellosis.

And it's linked to unpasteurised milk.

Brucellosis is a disease that can infect the central nervous system

and is caught from bacteria in animal's milk.

It's rife in this region

and Steve has found several cases of it in the goats in Kusru Wad.

Brucellosis would be considered a very serious disease.

We are told about a lot of this stuff in the UK because it is of historical importance.

But out here, it's still going on on a day-to-day basis.

And you know, some of these diseases could have a real impact on people's lives.

The Afars' precarious existence relies entirely on the milk and meat they get from their animals.

Yet these same animals are passing life-threatening diseases back to them.

You need to be on good form in this environment just to carry on.

If you're off,

you can't walk, you can't collect water, you can't herd you animals.

You will die. Nice and simple.

As our last week progresses, I'm slowly building up a picture of the Afar's existence.

It's the women I feel closest to, yet I still don't feel like I am really able to talk to them.

It's made more difficult by the fact that our translators are all male.

But now we have Valerie with us, I'm hoping that may change.

Hi. Let's go.. OK.

It's such a pleasure to be here with somebody like you who, you know...

you're a perfect bridge between the two sides - me and them.

Married to an Afar elder, Valerie has dedicated herself

to helping the people get access to health and education.

And now she's able to get me closer to the heart of this very alien culture.

Our idea of kind of privacy and personal space just goes completely out of the window.

In Afar society, there is no private space. I mean, I don't even have my own bed.

I don't even have my own comb.

Really? Not possible.

One of the women in the village is expecting a baby

and Valerie is going to help me find out just how they cope with pregnancy and childbirth.

A lot of women are very excited at this time. Is she excited about it?

Is this something that she's really looking forward to?

She said, "Yes, I'm happy." I asked her did she want a boy or a girl.

She said, "Well,

"the girls are good, the boys are good." Will she be getting nervous?

Is there that sort of concept of fear?

She says, "No, I don't have any fear."

She's incredibly calm, but I can't help wondering how she'll cope with little to no medical back-up.

With the delivery, are there any cultural practices particular to the Afar that go on?

In terms of delivery, there are.

They believe that the bladder and the uterus is joining, so the mother in labour shouldn't have

any food or drink. Traditionally, they don't breast feed for 72 hours.

My initial feeling is completely polarised. You know,

on the one hand, there is this extraordinary feeling of warmth and support, and I can't imagine

a kind of lovelier way to bring a child into the world.

But, equally, that woman that we were sitting there with, she could be dead next week.

These women don't know any different.

This is what generations of women have gone through

when they're expecting a child, so they have just got to

bite onto that cloth and grin and bear it.

Southeast of us, on the road to the Erte Ale volcano,

the science team have stayed their first night

on the shores of one of Ethiopia's great salt lakes -

Afdera.

This was once part of a massive inland sea,

now it's a highly saline lake, 170 metres below sea level

and still sinking.

The water feeding into the lake is super-heated

and shows how close they're getting to the volcanic magma

beneath the Earth's surface.

But there's no time to stop and explore

and the team is soon on the road again.

The increasingly rough terrain

means it will take them another two days

of hard driving to get to the base of the crater.

Back in Kusru Wad, I'm getting a sense of how demanding life for a woman here can be.

I want to know what they think about how they're treated in this very male-dominated society.

So far, they've been reluctant to speak openly.

Now, with the men out of sight, Galissa's wife Myram has agreed to talk to me. But we haven't got long.

I know that you have talked about

sometimes women getting very stressed and worried about marriage,

because they go into it with so little knowledge.

Did Myram's mother explain

anything to her about...

about what it was like to be a wife and the prospect of having sex for the first time?

THEY SPEAK IN NATIVE TONGUE

She said, "It's the same for everybody in the world." She said,

"The man's body is the thing that makes you scared." Yeah.

Yeah. She said, "You're very frightened, you can't be anything else."

Talking about sex is a taboo here and, within a matter of minutes,

the men have got wind of our conversation.

It would be great if these men weren't here.

They're standing here quite deliberately.

Yeah.

I'm so close to finding out how these women really feel, but the men are going nowhere.

Shall we go inside, would that be better?

They say these men will try and listen to every word.

I know.

I know. And it's going to completely compromise her.

I don't want to do that.

The tension can be cut with a knife and I have no choice but to give up,

for fear of compromising Myram's position within the community.

But this deliberate intimidation has really got under my skin.

There's men everywhere just listening in... "Don't you dare.

"Don't you dare give away our secrets."

These women don't have a moment

to express themselves, to just get cross, to just throw something out.

Maybe we're really spoilt but, you know, we're allowed to shout

and scream and rail against things, and...

and...

Oh, it makes me cross.

Just incredible women, and it would have been really nice

to be able to leave here

feeling that we'd been able to properly represent them.

It's so frustrating.

As a Western woman, I'm finding it very hard to accept

how little control Afar women have over their daily lives.

I'd like to do more to at least give them a voice,

but my concerns are suddenly overshadowed by events

elsewhere in the village.

CHILDREN CRY

News that Mukul is conducting

daily health clinics has spread far and fast.

And while he struggles to cope with the sudden demand,

a family arrives, having walked more than five hours in the heat,

hoping that he will be able save their malnourished child.

So when this lad does any running around, does he get very short of breath?

He said, "If he goes from here to the door, he'll fall over. He can't do it."

He's got a very loud heart murmur..

Has he? Oh, my golly.

It's not Syed's diet that's the problem. It's his heart.

His heart is not working as efficiently as it might to pump the blood around.

And he's working hard all the time, it's like jogging all the time.

Mukul is distraught that with only his limited field kit, there's no way he's able to treat Syed.

This afternoon has brought home the brutal truth of it.

What must that be like for a parent

to see your child dying and not be able to do anything about it?

It's a terrible, terrible thing.

The normal reality of life in the Danakil is that death is often not very far away.

Except for Syed this week is different.

Because Valerie is here and has transport,

she will be able to take him to the nearest specialist hospital, more than 500 kilometres away.

And there's even room for Ayisha.

She's taking with her Ayisha the little girl who has the infection

in her hip and Syed the toddler with the hole in the heart.

For the very first time they're going to be leaving the village, with their families,

to get the treatment that hopefully will save their lives.

We're going to go and pick them up.

'This is an incredible opportunity for these children, one never usually available to the Afar.'

But while Ayisha and her family are excited, the parents of Syed,

the boy with heart problem, are having second thoughts.

Syed's parents have never left their village and are so

afraid of the outside world that they're not sure they can go.

A decision that could cost their son his life.

But in Afar culture there is a strict social structure, where the elders make the decisions.

She was humming and ha-ing and he turned to her and said, I'm ordering you to go.

Right. This is the way they do it in Afar culture. Right.

So does this mean now that she and the child will come with you today?

Yeah.

In a way, it's the thing that we have so completely lost in the West which is that absolute respect

for the elder members of the community, whether you're directly related to them or not.

If that elder of the village speaks, you have to do what they say

unquestioningly and that's what happened.

With the decision made, the parents have just a couple of minutes

to gather their belongings and say their goodbyes.

OK, let's go, we've got to fly. We've got to reach this loggia.

For Syed and his parents it's a journey into the unknown

but hopefully one that will save his life.

I'll see you. Goodbye.

'This has really highlighted the dilemma of our contact with the Afar.

'How far should we get involved?

'Many of the traditions I've witnessed look unfair

'and hard on the women especially,

'but the strict social order has a proven value.

'It helps them to survive.'

That little boy would certainly die if they hadn't made that decision and sent him away from the village.

Bye-bye, Fatima.

Having said my goodbyes to Valerie and the kids, it's time for all of us to take our leave of Kusru Wad.

Because we're heading off to join Dougal for the last great stage of

his science mission at the Erte Ale volcano...

..where we will help him create the first-ever 3D model

of the inside of the crater,

so that scientists the world over

understand how the Earth's crust here is breaking apart.

The next morning, we're off at first light.

We're aiming to meet up with the science team

who've spent two days driving up from the salt lake at Afdera.

And after hours squashed into hot sweaty 4x4s, the whole team is together again at last.

But our fun doesn't last long.

Erte Ale base camp is still a long way off.

Will we miss the dust, the sandstorms and the whirlwinds?

I doubt it. We're heading that way to the base of Erte Ale.

There we'll be camping on lava, a very different thing.

It's the final leg of our adventure.

Rumbling along at ten kilometres an hour over the unrelenting lava

fields, it takes two bone-shaking hours to reach base camp.

We're now at the base camp for Erte Ale and the whole team are back together.

You can see them in the background all catching up. "What have you been up to?

And just over there is our goal.

There is Erte Ale, smoking away and tomorrow morning,

we're going to leave before the sun comes up, walk through the grass.

Grass! There's a novelty! Past the trees, my goodness, all these things we haven't seen for ten days.

And across the lava flow, up to the summit where we will spend a couple

of nights, but for the moment it's just really nice being down here, no dust and a wonderful view.

This is great, I love lava, me!

I've just got so sick of the dust and the dirt down in the river bed, just a change of scene.

I'm sure I'll grow to hate it just as much

over the next few days, because it's a bit unsteady underfoot and my feet still need a bit of time to recover.

'For Dougal, waiting until tomorrow to start the ascent is almost more than he can bear.'

I'm raring to go. I'm off on the camel, I'm just going to get off on one about midnight,

I'll sneak around, make sure everyone's asleep and I'll see you guys up there.

If Dougal can be restrained, tomorrow should be a big day for all of us.

It's a pre-dawn start again, as we are anxious to complete

the 18-kilometre trek before the scorching midday sun takes its toll.

The sun's just come up over the lava here

and we're starting to get our first proper views

of this astonishing landscape.

It's absolutely beautiful and lovely to be walking again.

As we approach the summit, we find ourselves surrounded by

clearer and clearer evidence of the volcanic turmoil beneath our feet.

You think you've got spot problems,

but all away along the top of this lava skin,

you can see these big, rippled-up spot-like features.

You've got broken crusts of the skin of the lava,

these are literally the zits of the lava world.

All away along this top surface, you've got these little pock-marks pushing their way through.

This is over-pressured lava, pushing up through the skin,

just like a spot on the top on the skin surface of the lava.

And it erupts and pours a little bit of lava out and that's your spot gone.

Here we've found a big, solid block that's actually broken through the crust of this lava.

There's an even bigger one behind me there.

These are volcanic bombs.

That means there's been an explosive eruption on the volcano.

So occasionally, when the volcanic system gets bunged up, it's almost

like your nose is getting bunged up, your sinuses.

And eventually it breaks through, you erupt and you blow stuff out the top of the volcano.

These things will have been ejected high up into the sky

and will have fallen down to the ground with a bang.

At last we find ourselves on the home straight to the summit of Erte Ale.

After weeks of illness, hardship and strain, baking under the Ethiopian sun,

we've finally reached the climax of our science mission.

It's huge. I feel like I've just come to another planet.

It's like a total moonscape.

You can almost imagine a T-rex hoving into view,

or a pteradactyl swooping down.

This is the land that time forgot.

Wow. This whole rim round the side must be the outer rim of the volcano.

Right. And this stuff in the middle has sort of collapsed down.

When the volcano built up and erupted for the first time, the centre bit would have collapsed.

There are two pits inside the great outer crater.

The north pit is constantly belching clouds of poisonous gas and is what gives this place its name.

Erte Ale means smoking mountain.

But we're heading for the south crater.

It has an even deeper central crater, with a more sinister reputation.

The Afar people believe it to be the gateway to hell.

Isn't it madness to be going up to a live volcano?

Surely this is the thing that people flee from?

Yeah. In some cases, we are a little bit crazy going to them,

but this is the type of volcano that you can actually get some access to.

Crazy or not, it is possible to reach the inner rim,

the perfect location to scan the whole of the inside of the crater.

We just have to cross a sea of cooled lava to get there.

The key is to be organised and to plan ahead and to make sure

that everything that happens is predetermined

and that things are not happening quickly and out of control.

Mack and Andy have made this route safe.

They've fixed the rope down to the bottom.

Now they have to prospect a route across the lava, because it's quite soft on the surface.

Finding the right route is the key to making this safe.

This isn't solid rock.

Beneath our feet lava flows have left giant hollow caverns lined with jagged rocks.

We're about to walk across the fragile roofs of these lava tubes, but with a route marked out,

we tentatively make our way down to the inner rim.

As we step gingerly on to the lava, I'm constantly reminded

of how fragile this surface is by the sound of crunching feet.

But soon all I can hear is what sounds like waves on a beach. There's the lower ledge.

Oh, my God, look at that.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my goodness.

'What sounds like the roar of an ocean is in fact liquid rock.'

Fantastic. Listen to that noise. There's a bubble! Look at that!

That's liquid rock.

That's what I'm really struggling to get my head round. That is liquid rock.

It's exactly the same as what we're standing on. Now it's quite hard,

but there it's molten rock. Yeah. You can see how people have mythologies around volcanoes.

That is just not of this world.

That is insane. Oh my word. Oh! Ooh!

That's hot.

And the stink of it as well.

Is anyone else... Is it me just imagining it, or do your feet feel really hot?

Yeah, yeah.

You can feel the glow on your face.

How do you know this isn't going to blow? Well, I don't actually.

I can't believe how active it is.

Funnily enough it started bubbling just as we walked up, almost as

though it could sense us coming. It's a bit like a pressure release.

you open the top slightly on a fizzy pop bottle and the gas

starts to come out and that's what's happening here, down in the crater.

'It's not very often you see something

'that literally takes your breath away.

'But I'm completely overcome by the might of this natural wonder.'

I think probably all of us

understood why the Afar think that this is the gateway to hell.

Because that's the only imagery that I can think of that's

anything like this, those sort of storybook pictures of hell.

That is wicked. That is absolutely brilliant.

I'm going home and painting my bedroom black and orange.

The 12-year-boy in me comes out.

I want to stick things in it and see if it burns.

We've planned a two-stage assault on the active part of the lava lake.

First the climbing team will rig a steel cable over the pit...

Mark, do you read?

..150 metres across.

This will then be used to lower the heavy test equipment

on to the cooled crater floor.

Meanwhile Dougal will abseil down on to the lower shelf

where hopefully he'll be able to get a decent scan.

But we're overlooking how long all this is going to take.

In all the excitement of getting here, we neglected to make camp

and now, with the sun high in the sky, the welfare of the team must take priority over the science.

We should have nailed this early-doors, but everyone was, "Ooh," excited about the volcano.

So temperatures are slightly rising along with the ambient temperature.

But I think we're getting there now. I'll go and chill out in the shade.

It was quite a logistical feat, getting all our camera

equipment which is here, and then all our sort of personal stuff,

which is scattered around because we haven't had time to sort it out

up here, 45 camels' worth of kit, we've got,

all had to be brought up, unloaded.

And of course the camels can't stay up here because there isn't a thing for them to eat or drink.

'But the camels brought us what we need to make camp here for a couple

'of days, long enough to do the job thoroughly and above all safely.

'And it also gives us the chance to take a good look at the volcano

'at the best possible time...

'In the dark.'

Mesmerising! It's much more active now, isn't it?

I think a lot of it is that you can't see the incandescent glow when it's daylight.

It's day two down here at the volcano, and after a frantic day yesterday

of rigging and recce-ing, the real business can start today.

Dougal and Steve are going to be scanning the volcano to try and

build up an amazing 3D map of it,

something that's never been done before.

We've got a big day ahead of us.

'To create a detailed 3D image, geologist Steve has been placing reflectors around the rim.

'The scanner uses these reference points

'to piece together the 3D model from the high definition imagery.'

How are you getting on, Steve?

We're getting on OK at the moment actually.

We've got ten reflectors to put out in total and we've managed to get

three of them right up to the edge so far, so we're just slowly working

our way around and in half an hour or so, we should be done.

As the last reflectors are put in place, Dougal is getting the camera

ready to scan this first part of the 3D model,

the outside edge of the crater.

It's secure.

This is going to be absolutely amazing if we pull this off.

To make the full 3D model, however, he'll need to repeat the scan from the bottom of the crater.

So, while he sets the scanning camera running,

Mark, the head of the climbing team,

is already roped up and hanging over the edge of the pit.

Mark wants to establish a secure foothold in the lava wall so that

all Dougal's scanning gear can be lowered into the pit tomorrow.

When our final job will be to get Dougal into the heart of Erte Ale's deepest, live crater.

As night falls, everyone gathers to look at the results of the rim scan.

This is one of the preliminary scans we've done.

Oh, my God! There you go.

'They're better than we had dared hope, but this is just a beginning.

'Without descending right into the crater, we can't fill in the missing parts of the model.'

There's lots of space missing, and we really need to get into

into...that crater to get the rest of that scan.

Is that the A-frame? LAUGHTER

'The ultimate success, or failure of this venture, will be decided on our last day.'

It's the final day at the volcano, and Dougal's only chance to complete his scan of the crater at Erte Ale.

If we can help him achieve that, he will be able to produce

the first ever 3D model of the inside of an active volcano.

And that will help reveal the state of the Earth's crust here

in the process of breaking apart.

Well, this may be Dougal's final challenge, but it's also a final challenge for our technical team,

because somehow, someone has got to film what Dougal's doing down there at the crater edge.

We've got our camera teams perched all the way around the rim edge, so we should be able to get

views of every angle, as Dougal takes one big step for mankind right to the edge of the crater.

'Everyone is aware that even with the best preparations,

'live volcanoes are unpredictable, sometimes with fatal results.

'Dougal is taking his life into his hands. Though you'd never know it.'

Well, see you, guys...

Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.

Crumbling lava is never the best anchor for a harness.

And all Dougal can do is hope that it doesn't give way as he descends.

Once he's down, 80kg of state-of-the-art scientific equipment will have to follow.

Ah, wow! Clearly a fresh surface here.

Roughly 50m of cooled lava will separate Dougal's feet from the magna chamber

which feeds this volcano -

just 50m between him and 1,000 degrees Centigrade.

The lava lake must go up and down like a piston as it gets re-filled

with magmas periodically and then emptied.

And when it fills to the top of the lower crater,

it will spill over and form these lovely brand new lava flows.

You can just see it really is virgin lava flow.

If Erte Ale suddenly decides that today is the day for an eruption,

there would be no time to escape.

But there's a more immediate danger.

Everywhere along this is riddled with holes and hollows

that our feet can just fall through at a moment's notice.

Wisely, Dougal has brought a thermal imaging camera to help him navigate a route.

It's quite hard to see in this sunlight, but there's a nice image.

You can see the lines of the cracks

and if we just focus our spot height on them,

you can see some of those spot heights

are in excess of 100 degrees Centigrade.

The hottest zones signify the thinnest part of the surface.

And Dougal slowly, carefully gives them as wide a berth as possible.

No-one has ever been able to map an active volcano

from right inside the crater.

But now everything is in place

to capture Erte Ale in three dimensions.

A snapshot in time for all eternity.

OK, I'll go and get the...

You'll have to level again and I'll just check.

The level. Just double check that.

Then, I'll grab the camera for you.

It's the level.

With the scanner safely running, Dougal wants one

last critical piece of information which could show that the lava lake is becoming more active.

The temperature of the lava.

But to get a reading, he must be physically close enough

to the lava lake to throw a temperature probe into its molten heart.

I'm getting a lot closer now.

This guy really, really wants to know how hot magma is, doesn't he? He does.

'He's walking on the least stable part of the crust,

'where it's most likely to collapse under his weight.'

There goes the helmet!

You can see the lava lake now.

He's getting right close to the edge.

I wonder what he can see now.

I can go about another metre...

then I'm on the edge.

Looking over the lava lake.

I don't know if he's going to be able to throw that far enough. I'm not sure.

Everybody ready?

Going to go for it.

I'm going to throw this over...

into the lava lake.

One...two...three!

Yay!

The temperature's starting to go up.

I can't see where it's got to.

'It looks like a good throw, but there's a problem.'

With the cable we've got, stuck on the rocks,

OK, that's the story of my life.

Well, there's not a great deal I can do now.

It appears that the lava lake has defeated us.

It's so difficult to measure the temperature of such a phenomenon.

We can't get our thermometer in because the crust is too far,

and my throw is rubbish so I'm going to have to abandon that expedition

and get back to a safe area...

and go from there.

For today, Dougal will have to be satisfied with one remarkable

scientific first, a groundbreaking three-dimensional scan.

Well, it was a valiant effort.

It was definitely a valiant effort. LAUGHTER

It was a bit of a crap throw, it has to be said.

But at least he's got the scan and that's the main thing.

So at the end of this, we will see the most perfect 3D image

of this crater ever produced, which is fantastic.

And, you know, the magma will just have to remain a mystery.

Yeah, I think it's not the biggest disappointment.

It gives him something to come back to and try later. Absolutely.

Come back, Dougal! All is forgiven!

Well done! That was amazing.

The scan, we nailed it, so the scan's in the bag. That's pretty good.

Hats off to the volcano and, er...

Cheers, mate! Whoo!

Getting the scanner equipment out here has been a major goals.

We've traipsed it over the whole of the Afar triangle,

with camels, with 4x4s, with stuck 4x4s, with camels on strike.

And to come away now knowing that we've pretty much nailed

the first ever scan of Erte Ale in high resolution 3D,

that we'll be able to view, it's going to be superb.

The momentous events of today

mark the climax of our journey to this unforgettable land.

This has been most extraordinary journey, culminating here

at the crater and, you know, our final challenge was,

"Could Dougal get down and do that last scan that was going to build up the perfect 3D picture?"

And he's done it. It's brilliant.

And this is it. The first ever 3D model of the inside of an active volcano.

A unique snapshot in the life of this - the world's oldest lava lake.

For the world's science community it offers much more.

It captures an apocalyptic, geological process that has never been observed in action before.

The gradual fragmenting of the Earth's crust,

which will lead ultimately to the birth of a new ocean.

It's a drama that will play out over millions of years,

forming the backdrop to the lives of the people here in the Rift Valley

as it has since the dawn of mankind.

With our science mission accomplished, we return to our Afar hosts for one last thank you.

It's all kicking off already. THEY CLAP

And, as special guests at a village wedding, we find ourselves honoured beyond words.

I haven't got a stick.

It's a fitting end to this journey of a lifetime

to the hottest place on Earth.

What an amazing country!

You know, the ups and downs of this whole trip.

Some of the things we tried to achieve that we didn't do, some that went really well,

but the people, the landscape and everything.

Hard as nails, absolutely fantastic.