''Beyond Boundaries'' is a

reality TV Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series produced by Diverse Bristol for

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. Each series follows a team of adventurers with disabilities as they take on some of the toughest expeditions on the planet under the guidance of ex- SAS Major Ken Hames.

Series One – ''Beyond Boundaries Nicaragua''

The first series of ''Beyond Boundaries

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

'' follows a group of eleven men and women, each of whom have a physical disability, as they trek across the rainforests, deserts, rivers and mountains of

. The arduous route takes the participants from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. They start on the treacherous

Mosquito Coast The Mosquito Coast, also known as the Mosquitia or Mosquito Shore, historically included the area along the eastern coast of present-day Nicaragua and Honduras. It formed part of the Western Caribbean Zone. It was named after the local Miskit ...

, escorted by armed soldiers to protect them from bandits and drug traffickers. They then make their way through a jungle and crocodile infested rivers, and climb a live

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

to make it to their finish line – the

Pacific Coast Pacific coast may be used to reference any coastline that borders the Pacific Ocean. Geography Americas Countries on the western side of the Americas have a Pacific coast as their western or southwestern border, except for Panama, where the Pac ...

. They have twenty-eight days to cross two hundred and twenty miles. The team included

Ade Adepitan Adedoyin Olayiwola "Ade" Adepitan (born 27 March 1973) is a Nigerian-born British television presenter and wheelchair basketball player. As a presenter, he has hosted a range of travel documentaries and sports programmes for BBC television. Ade ...

, Jane Atkinson,

Amar Latif Amar Latif (born December 1974) is a Scottish entrepreneur, television personality and professional traveller. His blindness is due to the incurable eye condition retinitis pigmentosa. By his late teens he had 95 per cent sight loss. Educatio ...

Sophie Morgan Sophie Morgan (born 1985) is a disabled British television presenter and disability advocate who is a paraplegic. She became a presenter after appearing on reality television. In 2021, she was a lead presenter for Channel 4's TV coverage of th ...

, Daryl Beeton, Warren Wolstencroft, Karl Sacks, Glenn Kirk, Lorraine Pooley, Charlie Fennel and Toby Farrar – two in wheelchairs, one deaf, one blind, one double foot amputee, two arm amputees, one with

spina bifida Spina bifida (Latin for 'split spine'; SB) is a birth defect in which there is incomplete closing of the spine and the membranes around the spinal cord during early development in pregnancy. There are three main types: spina bifida occulta, me ...

and the other three were single leg amputees. Only seven participants finished the expedition. This series was first transmitted on BBC Two in October 2005.

Series Two – ''Beyond Boundaries: The African Challenge''

Beyond Boundaries: The African Challenge follows a group of adventurers with disabilities on a 2,000 mile journey across continental

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. They have to work together as a group to cross the two oldest deserts in the world, avoid lions and rhinos, and ride the world's most dangerous rapids at

Victoria Falls Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and animal ...

before reaching their destination on the

Skeleton Coast The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic coast of Namibia and south of Angola from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River, although the name is sometimes used to describe the entire Namib Desert coast. The indigenous San p ...

. This series was first transmitted on BBC Two in October 2006.

Series Three – ''Across the Andes: Beyond Boundaries''

10 teenagers with physical disabilities cross the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, one of the highest mountain ranges in the world. Over a period of four weeks and 400 km, these young people will have to fight their way from the edge of the

Amazon Basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

, climb to over 5000m to reach the snowline on

Cotopaxi Cotopaxi () is an active stratovolcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about south of Quito, and northeast of the city of Latacunga, Ecuador. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a ...

, the highest active volcano in the world, and then descend to sea level, wading through miles of swamp before reaching the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

.They are led by ex-SAS commando Ken Hames. This series was first transmitted on BBC Two in May 2008.

References

External links

Across the Andes: Beyond Boundaries

Beyond Boundaries: Where Are They Now?

Diverse Bristol

Beyond Boundaries on IMDb
{Dead link, date=October 2019 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes 2005 British television series debuts 2008 British television series endings British reality television series Television series by Banijay Television shows about disability