Equator Filming Locations
Equator Filming Locations
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Zaire, or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country in Central Africa. By land area, the DRC is the second-largest country in Africa and the 11th-largest in the world.
Ecuador is a country straddling the equator on South America’s west coast. Its diverse landscape encompasses Amazon jungle, Andean highlands and the wildlife-rich Galápagos Islands. In the Andean foothills at an elevation of 2,850m, Quito, the capital, is known for its largely intact Spanish colonial center, with decorated 16th- and 17th-century palaces and religious sites, like the ornate Compañía de Jesús Church.
Gabon, a country along the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, has significant areas of protected parkland. The forested coastal terrain of its famed Loango National Park shelters a diversity of wildlife, from gorillas and hippos to whales. Lopé National Park consists of mostly rainforest. Akanda National Park is known for its mangroves and tidal beaches.
Kenya is a country in East Africa with coastline on the Indian Ocean. It encompasses savannah, lakelands, the dramatic Great Rift Valley and mountain highlands. It's also home to wildlife like lions, elephants and rhinos. From Nairobi, the capital, safaris visit the Maasai Mara Reserve, known for its annual wildebeest migrations, and Amboseli National Park, offering views of Tanzania's 5,895m Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa whose diverse landscape encompasses the snow-capped Rwenzori Mountains and immense Lake Victoria. Its abundant wildlife includes chimpanzees as well as rare birds. Remote Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a renowned mountain gorilla sanctuary. Murchison Falls National Park in the northwest is known for its 43m-tall waterfall and wildlife such as hippos.
Equator (2006)
For most people the equator is just an imaginary line running 25,000-miles around the globe. But the countries along the equator are among the most troubled on the planet. In this new series Simon takes a journey around the region with the greatest natural biodiversity and perhaps the greatest concentration of human suffering: the equator. In Equator Simon meets illegal loggers, father and son circumcisers, drunk villagers, and a young woman stuck in the baking desert. Simon and the Equator film-crew are protected by soldiers in a coca field, and UN 'peace-enforcers' in a gold mine. They are blackmailed and abandoned by drivers in one country, and travel through another that has just 300 miles of paved roads - despite being the size of Western Europe. Simon is drenched while white-water rafting, surrounded by a million flamingos and swallowed by a tidal wave. After being warned about the deadly virus Ebola, Simon vomits blood and develops a temperature of nearly 40C. Diagnosed with malaria, he's saved by medicine derived from the Vietnamese sweet wormwood. One remote tribe takes Simon to their sacred monument, while a father from another tribe of former head-hunters decides to make Simon part of the family. After presenting his 'father' with a fine pair of trousers, Simon is blessed with blood, presented with a short sword, and adopted. Simon discovers a matrilineal society where daughters are called 'iron butterflies', mass graves in the jungle, and islands where protesting fisherman have killed giant tortoises. He helps an orphaned orangutan into a tree, swims with sea-lions, fishes for piranha, climbs the equivalent of half-way up Everest, and discovers the city thought to be most at risk from volcanic eruptions. Simon's trip takes him through the nation suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere, and the African country that's endured the most violent conflict on the planet since the Second World War
