Globe Trekker

Deep South USA (6x3)

Date de diffusion: Jun 07, 2002

Ian Wright journeys through America's 'Bible Belt' - the Deep South, home to the civil rights movement, the American civil war, and blues, jazz and rock. His trip begins with a trek in the stunning Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee / North Carolina border. It's the most visited National Park in the country but there's still incredible remote wilderness and breathtaking vistas all the way to the top of Mount Le Cont. Driving south, Ian's first stop in North Carolina is Asheville. The town is best known for its home-grown entertainment and the lively mountain music festival in the summer. Back on the road he learns a little about the Cherokee Indians who lived in this region until the white man arrived, a whole tribe of Cherokees was to walk to Oklahoma. In Scottsboro, Alabama, Ian pays a visit the baggage reclaim superstore. Ian discovers there's thriving business to be made out of bargains and bizarre articles which never find their way back to their owners hands at airports all around the world. In the conservative, fundamentalist southern states of the 'Bible Belt' it is thought that the snake is the embodiment of the devil. Ian meets Reverend Carl Porter uses deadly snakes during his sermons, believing that if you can master a snake you can master the power of the devil. Not surprisingly, his five hour services have had a few casualties! Ian begins his day in Atlanta, gateway to the Deep South, with the ultimate southern breakfast of country fried steak and grits & gravy. Atlanta is the place where the world famous drink Coca-Cola was invented. The birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr, Atlanta's most famous son, is situated at the end of 'Freedom Walk'. The house is now a national monument. When he was shot dead in Memphis in 1968 his body was returned home and every year thousands of pilgrims inspired by dreams of interracial harmony pay their respects. From Atlanta Ian takes a greyhound bus to Tuskegee, Alabama, for the public reunion of Americ