The Flying Dragons
Our journey following Natasha’s grandfather, Dr Bengt Berg, brings us to the Himalayas to search for flying dragons – Lammergeier birds or bearded vultures. Almost 100 years ago, Bengt made the journey to the Himalayas with his wife – a journey that took many months on foot – to be the first to make discoveries about the mythical Lammergeier that lived in glowing caves, and dragon-like with their nine foot wingspan could lift small children or lambs off to the netherworld. Bengt was the first to photograph the Lammergeier at close range, hoisting a hot air balloon basket on wire cables down a Himalayan cliff face to dangle in front of the nesting Lammergeier. Almost a century later, Natasha traces her grandfather’s footsteps back through the Himalaya’s to the boarder of Tibet, to see how close she can get to the Lammergeier in the wild. With less time, but longer lenses, it proves to be a difficult challenge. Stopping in at monasteries we asked for help from the Lamas along the way. Tibetan culture reveres the bird, believing they are connected to angels. Stationing ourselves in the last “forbidden kingdom” of Tibetan culture, the walled mid evil kingdom of Lo-Manthang – 13 kilometres from the Tibetan border – only opened to foreigners in 1992, we spotted a pair of Lammergeier’s soaring overhead like airplanes. Every day, they appeared out of the canyons to follow similar flight paths. Day after day, we chased and waited for them; on cliff sides, canyon floors, and in caves…but the only time one came close… well that is a story to be revealed in the film! We travelled with a delightful support team who never gave up on our mission to find the Gourral (the local name of the vulture) and were as excited and willing as we were to go to great lengths to meet a dragon at close range. Natasha and Kire are now on to putting together two years of Skypaths footage taken around the world; from Sweden, to Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nepal and finally India.
Team iTravel managed the complete production part for this episode which was shot in various parts of the Upper Mustang Valley in Nepal . Including Permissions, Travel, Accommodation, Equipments, Local Crew, Research Work.
Skypaths Series
Kire Godal (Wildlife FilmMaker) presents a journey across the world with Natasha Illum Berg, a Swedish writer, conservationist, and naturalist hunter who retraces the footsteps of her grandfather, Bengt Berg, the pioneering wildlife photographer, writer, explorer and filmmaker – a visionary who took great risks for animals a century ago – a grandfather she never met. From remote Africa, to India and the Himalayas, Natasha repeats his most groundbreaking film expeditions 100 years after he did the same. Through Bengt Berg’s original writings, wildlife footage and photos – a lens into the past is opened and together a parallel adventure story takes place – between grandfather and granddaughter – a century apart. Told from Natasha’s, and her grandfather Bengt Berg’s, unique, provocative and informed perspectives – each episode’s theme asks a thought provoking question about man’s place in nature today.
PS: All excerpts have been taken from the Series Website. To read about the entire series, CLICK HERE