Earth's Natural Wonders - Episode Guide

Across our planet, there are a handful of places that truly astonish, like Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls. These wonders seem to have little in common other than - literally - taking yourbreath away. But they share one other thing: they pose extraordinary challenges for their inhabitants.

Across our planet, there are a handful of places that truly astonish, like Mount Everest, the Grand Canyon and Victoria Falls. These wonders seem to have little in common other than - literally - taking your breath away. But they share one other thing: they pose extraordinary challenges for their inhabitants.

In the high Himalaya, yak-herder Thokmay Lowa and his small group steer his herd through one of the region's extreme mountain passes. In the Canadian Arctic, traditional Inuit communities still forage for much of their food. In the Mato Grosso, as a result of deforestation, the region's microclimate has changed. In the blistering Australian Outback, cattle ranching requires a lot of space. The only way to efficiently round up the herds on these vast farms is through the use of helicopter cowboys. Deep in the Siberian interior, survival is tough. But climate change is opening up a new niche for the human inhabitants of this region.

In many of the Earth's Natural wonders it's the wildlife that holds the key to survival. Animals can be a very real threat to the people who live there, or they can provide a means of survival, but often at a high price.

In the coastal salt marshes of Northern Australia's Arnhem Land, Aboriginal Peoples still go hunting for the eggs of one of the world's most aggressive predators: the saltwater crocodile. Despite their ancient hunting skills, this remains a dangerous job for the Aboriginal Peoples involved - a croc could always be lurking nearby, protecting its nest.

In some of the world's most spectacular natural wonders, people push themselves to the limit in order to survive. For the people who call these extraordinary places home, survival requires skill, ingenuity and bravery. In Ethiopia, belief in a higher power leads villagers in the Tigray region to climb a huge, vertiginous mountainside to reach their church. They believe it's vital and beneficial for their children to be baptised here, despite the obvious dangers. Laos is one of the most fertile places on earth. Despite this, life is dangerous for the rice farmers in this beautiful country. During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped an estimated 270 million bombs on this small country and approximately 80 million of them failed to explode, remaining in the ground to this day. In the North Atlantic lie the Faroe Islands. Once a year, islanders on one island, Sk·voy, scale the sheer-sided cliffs to obtain a traditional delicacy, fulmar eggs.