Last night I watched the first episode of Expedition Africa on the History Channel. If you have Comcast OnDemand then you can watch it now, but if not, it will be on TV on May 31st. The idea of this show is that it's a reality show produced by Mark Burnett on the History Channel showing how five modern explorers will try to complete the trek of
Henry Morton Stanley in search of the most famous English explorer
Dr. David Livingston.
After England believed that Livingston had died in Africa trying to map a route to the source of the Nile River, Stanley was commissioned to find him. He traveled from what is modern day Tanzania to Ujiji in 236 days. He lost a lot of men and almost died himself. The challenge to the History Channel Expidition crew is to do
the same trek in 30 days! What makes it more challenging is that Mark Burnett's camera crew will be following them!
When Stanley reached Ujiji, where a white man was rumored to have been seen, he found a skinny malnourished man leaning against a wall in the small village. He requested an introduction and promptly stated the infamous words, "Dr. Livingston I presume?"
The modern day explorers on the Expedition are made up of typically conflicting characters who will definitely cause the drama that Mark Burnett has made millions from with his Survivor series. The team is made up of a navigator, a doctor, a zoologist, a survival expert, and a reporter. When I looked at the map they are working with it looked like it was a map they give you at
Disneyland. But then again, Stanley didn't have a map either.
The lack of maps and the addition of camera guys everywhere should make this trip more challenging than what Stanley dealt with. Gotta admire the toughness of men like Henry Stanley and David Livingston though, who knew that they were going into a massively dangerous and unknown territory.
Check out
Expedition Africa on the History Channel.
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