Travel Documentary hosted by Zay Harding and Laura Guiauchain and Holly Morris, published by Pilot Productions in 2018 - English narration
Information
------------------------------
In this mini series we explore some of the most unique and hard-core truck journeys on the planet. Destinations in the six part series are Iceland, Guatemala, Turkey, Morocco, Ethiopia and Russia.
The "Tough Trucks" series takes you on roads where a small car can't manage. Sometimes we get stuck in mud in the rainforest or meander to the top of a glacier. However, the goal is not to ramble on the terrain, but to see sights and culture, such as the Guatemalan horse race, for which the contestants prepare by getting drunk.
The series takes you to exotic places, where roads don't even always have names. Some names, on the other hand, are deeply etched in history. Zay Harding travels in Siberia on the "Road of Bones", whose sinister name includes Stalin's prison camps and prisoners who died during road construction.
In the company of American Holly Morris, we will travel one and a half thousand kilometers in Turkey on the ancient Silk Road on the way of truck drivers. Goods still travel on the road, just as they did a thousand years ago - and you still get involved in political twists and turns on the winding roads.
Ancient trade routes are also in Morocco. The French Laura Guiauchain introduces the viewers to Ouarzazate, where the landscapes depicted are familiar from many Hollywood films. Game of Thrones fans may also see familiar-looking landscapes in the city, as well as the lava-covered landscapes in the episode introducing Iceland.
Our hosts take a series of truck journeys across these lands exploring the many fascinating cultural, natural and historical sites along the way, including unique geological locations in Iceland, ancient Mayan sites in Guatemala and rarely visited Silk Road destinations in Eastern Turkey.
Produced & Directed by Chris Ledger ; Pilot Film & TV Productions for PBS/American Public Television and Travel Channel International
5) Siberia
In this episode Zay Harding travels by truck across the frozen ice roads of north-eastern Siberia, en route to the Arctic Circle. Located in east Asia, 5000 miles east of Moscow, the province of Yakutia where he's travelling is the coldest inhabited place on earth, where midwinter temperatures can drop to well below minus 60 degrees Centigrade.
Starting his journey in the world's coldest city, the provincial capital Yakutsk, Zay firstly heads north to join fuel trucks travelling Yakutia's most dangerous ice road in order to supply heating fuel to the remote mountain village of Sebyan-Kyuyol.
Returning to Yakutsk in a historic Soviet Army truck now used as a taxi, Zay continues his journey along the infamous 'Road of Bones', built at the cost of huge loss of life by prisoners of Stalin's Gulag. En route Zay stops at the village of Tyoply Klyuch to hear how its remote airfield played an important role during World War Two, and then diverts to the very isolated village of Topolinoe, in order to catch a spectacular reindeer-racing festival.
Finally, Zay ends his spectacular Siberian journey travelling north on a tough goods truck navigating a once totally frozen river, which is melting all too fast in the spring thaw, threatening his ability to reach his ultimate goal - the Arctic Circle.
