Journeys to the Ends of the Earth

Episode 2

The People of the Flame (Iran)

Iran is one of the earth’s final frontiers. It’s a country little visited by western travelers in recent years, yet it has been at the center of world affairs for millennia. I wanted to take a peek “behind the veil” of modern-day Iran. What I discovered was a complex, incredibly hospitable people living in a much-misunderstood country at the heart of a troubled region. My journey takes me from the bustle of Tehran, via the Valley of the Assassins to ancient cities unchanged since Marco Polo first entered them eight centuries ago. But this isn’t just a journey through an ancient landscape. It’s a journey in search of one of the world’s least known religious sects ... the ancient Fire Worshippers Of Yazd.

Episode 3

The Road to Shangri-La (Pakistan)

Legend tells of a utopian kingdom hidden among the towering mountains of inner Asia. A paradise on Earth, yet a place apart. A place of spiritual contentment and eternal life. A place that’s become known to the West as Shangri-La. For century’s romantics, adventurers and the devout risked their lives searching for this heaven on Earth. Many perished in the quest. Those who returned told of a journey through hostile lands, of crossing treacherous mountain passes & desert gorges in their search for a valley where people live for hundreds of years. To this day its whereabouts remains a mystery... David Adams goes in search of Shangri-La in the icy valleys of the Himalaya and Karakoram Mountains in Far North Pakistan.

Episode 4

The Forbidden Zone (Kamchatka)

In the far-flung reaches of Siberian Russia there’s a place unlike any other on earth. A place nine times zones from Moscow. A place so far east it’s almost west. A place called Kamchatka, the snowbound Eden. One hundred thousand lakes; 300 geysers; 414 glaciers; 100 volcanoes all crammed into a peninsula the size of California. But it’s also a nuclear no-go zone. Off-limits to the world for most of the 20th century. In fact, more Americans have been into outer space than have crossed Kamchatka in the last hundred years. It’s into this unforgiving icebox cold corner of the world that David Adams goes in search of the last of the Itelman, the semi-legendary wild men of Siberia’s Far East.