Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild - Season 16

First aired: 1/4/2022 11 episodes

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Episodes

1. Portugal

Aired: 1/4/2022

Ben Fogle travels to the remote mountains of central Portugal to meet Alex, a British man who left a successful retail career to live completely off-grid. During his stay, Ben helps Alex maintain his simple mountainside home and learns how he survives without heating, electricity, or running water. Through their conversations, Ben discovers the personal reasons that drove Alex to choose solitude and a life closer to nature.

2. Ireland

Aired: 1/11/2022

Ben visits Georg and Bettina, an Austrian-German couple who have lived in the Irish wilderness for nearly 40 years. He explores the hand-built home and land they’ve cultivated from barren bog into a sustainable retreat. Ben gains insight into their long-standing commitment to simplicity, nature, and a peaceful life away from modern society.

3. Greek Island of Andros

Aired: 1/18/2022

Ben ventures to the lesser-known Greek island of Andros to visit Sandy, founder of a remote animal shelter perched on the slopes of the island's highest peak. He embraces sharing a home with 25 dogs, eight donkeys, a horse, a mule and more than 20 cats. Surrounded by stunning natural beauty, he also helps to feed, groom, walk and clean up after the multitude of animals that roam free around the land and a 300-year-old house.

4. Cornwall

Aired: 1/25/2022

Ben travels to the rugged cliffs of Cornwall, where he stays with Davina and Todd and their family, who left their city lives behind to follow their dreams to become farmers. Ben finds out how the couple turned their seven-acre empty plot into an off-grid farm, and embraces the family's energy and hectic daily routine - from juggling kids and raising livestock, to digging a duck pond and harvesting vegetables.

5. Shetland

Aired: 2/8/2022

Ben journeys to one of Britain's furthest outposts, the Shetland Islands, to meet Helen and Jason, a couple just a few years into their new life on the edge of the weather-beaten island of Yell. He discovers why they needed to escape the demands of urban life, and witnesses the obstacles they now face as they pursue their wildest dreams on this beautiful, historical and remote island.

6. Northumberland

Aired: 2/15/2022

Ben travels to England's most northerly coastline, Northumberland, to stay with 43-year-old Kezz and 40-year-old Nathalie, a couple who gave up a rock'n'roll lifestyle to become caretakers of a secluded wood. Ben helps the couple with their straw-bale house, gets a crash course in felling trees and learns the traditional art of charcoal-making.

7. Oxfordshire

Aired: 2/22/2022

Ben spends time with a multi-generational family in Oxfordshire who have left their conventional life behind and relocated to an empty plot of land which they have transformed. Ben learns about the obstacles the family has overcome and how its members have spent two decades honing their skills and living off the land.

8. Arizona Desert

Aired: 3/1/2022

Ben travels to the deserts of Arizona to meet Dee, a modern-day nomad travelling across the United States in a former military transport vehicle which she has turned into a cosy mobile home. Ben experiences first-hand how challenging it is to live out of a small vehicle in the arid surroundings of the inhospitable desert, travelling side-by-side with his host in his own tiny car.

9. Norway, Lynx

Aired: 3/15/2022

Adventurer Ben Fogle returns to meet previous contributors who turned their back on the rat race and set up home in some of the most remote locations on Earth. In this episode, he finds his unique former "Stone Age" host Lynx living on a different continent than on his last visit, as she has now set up home deep in the Norwegian forest.

10. Morocco

Aired: 3/22/2022

Ben heads back to the Saharan landscape of Morocco, where he first met Karen, an extraordinary artist who had turned her back on urban life to live in the middle of the desert. Ben uncovers how the local community has been a source of strength to her, learns of the constant battle she faces with the elements, and discovers the looming threat that could change Karen's entire way of life.

11. Pembrokeshire Coast

Aired: 3/29/2022

Ben as he revisits the Watkinson family, who gave up their careers as vets to live a greener existence on a rugged mountainside on the Pembrokeshire coast. Ben learns how the Watkinsons have used their academic backgrounds to come up with ingenious ways to make this life work, and he witnesses the relationship their children are forging with the living world around them.