Production Diary
by Ross Goodlass
IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS TODAY...
What better way could you start a shoot about Noah's Ark than spending a day with a man who knows how to build it. Damian Goodburn is a world renowned naval archaeologist and we've travelled down to a forest in southern England to watch him build a boat using the same methods that were used thousands of years ago. It's cold, it's raining, but since Damian is wielding an axe and chopping down trees frantically, I think it best not to moan about the situation.
Despite historic boat building being a very complicated task, made even more so by the lack of modern day equipment available, Damien makes it look easy. The entire crew watches in amazement as he picks up recently felled trees and carries them around as if they were just matchsticks.
Step by step he takes us through the process of turning solid logs into sturdy planks using just a few wooden splits and a wooden hammer. It was impossible for me at first to imagine how a boat can be built without nails and any metal tools, but perhaps like Noah, Damien manages to do it.
What strikes me most about the entire boat building process is the length of time involved when using just traditional methods. Despite Damien's expert knowledge and craftsmanship, after 8 hours of work he has only been able to produce two planks. Now if Noah's Ark really was 450 feet long, he must have had a lot of time on his hands.
THE DRIVE FROM VAN... IN A VAN.
And so our epic trip around the globe in search of the truth behind Noah's Ark continues, this time taking us to the eastern mountains of Turkey and the ancient city of Van. Located thousands of miles away from the usual beaten tourist track of Turkey, the residents of Van are very surprised to see western faces lugging about huge piles of camera equipment on their backs.
At first I wasn't sure what our reception was going to be like, located in a largely Kurdish area of Turkey, I had read many stories in the press about the PKK terrorist group operating in the area. However, any initial fears I had were quickly extinguished as our Turkish guide welcomed us with a big smile, open arms, and gallons and gallons of Turkish Tea.
Our destination for this section of the shoot wasn't actually in Van itself, but instead high up in the mountains which towered to the east of the city. After spending a few moments filling ourselves to the brim with tea, we then sloshed our way into the guide's van and began the perilous journey up through the mountains to the remote town of Dogubayazit.
The journey was long and the roads were narrow, at some points so narrow that I feared our van would be forced off the road and down into the steep valley below. I was aware that the town we were heading to was right on the Turkish border with Iran, however what I wasn't prepared for was driving down roads which literally had Turkish border guards on one side, and Iranian border guards on the other.
We arrived in Dogubayazit in the dead of night and all that was visible was the ominous shadow of Mount Ararat soaring over the city, the entire crew was eager to see it in the daylight as we questioned whether the Ark could really be located on its summit.
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