It featured pop star, actress, and all-around fashion designer Rita Ora Running with Bear Grylls: The Challenge on Sunday, and now it’s safe to say she can officially add “Survivor” to her talent list.
Armed with throat spray (the singer’s tip), lip balm and an admitted lack of experience in extreme survival, Ora met up with host Bear Grylls at Nevada Valley of Fire State Park for a two-day adventure. But before they could get to the good stuff — like eating fake pigeons — they had to get to their starting point by skydiving from a plane. And for Ora, it didn’t disappoint.
“It was unbelievable,” she said. “I mean, what a ride. Awesome.”
After a safe landing, the pair proceed to trek the rough terrain, and Grylls teaches Ora how to look for water in the desert, which of course leads to finding a wet patch of mud, wiping the wet stuff up with an old sock. Squeeze the water into a bottle to drink later.
Grylls also showed Ora her rock-climbing methods, which she knew “got real” when she wore a helmet and rope harness.
She said, “I can’t lie and say I’m not afraid.”
She sure made it up well and got Grylls’ approval.
He said, “Break it.”
But going up a big boulder usually means you have to go down at some point too, naturally. So Ora later tried her hand at bungee rappelling, which she was “petrified” from doing. But eventually she talked herself into heading down and made it safely to the ground. And it was pumped.
“I did it myself,” Ora said. “I just got repelled from a mountaintop and I’m not… I can’t believe it. I mean, it’s unreal.”
Grylls’ reaction: “Smash that.”
Not only was she able to land, but Aura also managed to pick up a dead pigeon from the edge of a small cave in the process, as one does, and stash it for a gourmet dinner later, Bear Grylls-style.
Turns out, petroleum-based lip balm is good for making a nice fire — good thing she brought along — it’s time for Aura to help Grylls chop and chop meat from the bathhouse for an impromptu barbecue. Aura was an amazing game
“It was really delicious. “It tastes like chicken,” she said. “I did. It tastes like dry chicken. Sandy, dry chicken.”
After dinner, the couple found themselves a small cave for a good night’s rest, but not before singing Ura Grylls on the spot in authentic a cappella fashion. The beautiful song that was sung was something like this:
“Look, Bear almost took me out. He almost ruined my life. But then I noticed that little rattlesnake scurrying away. Here we are face to face. Never too far. Oh, you won’t save me today. Only here in our cave. Me and a bear.”
The next day involved Aura spending time on her own and putting a lot of the skills she had just learned to the test, like finding water and climbing and descending. I made it safely to the extraction point, where I took a quick moment to reflect on the camera.
“I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to see and understand what it takes both physically and mentally to survive,” Ora said. “And more than anything, I’m going to take this back and know I can conquer anything now.”
But at that point, another death-defying maneuver still awaited her: dangling from a helicopter with a rope. Once again she jumped in – or up – with both feet and treated her like a true survivor.
Running wild with Bear Grylls! It airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on National Geographic.
