Do you trust me? Do you trust me?
And we're off. Woohoo!
'Imagine starting your life all over again...'
Where is Ben? I'm needed?
Ben, you are needed.
'..leaving behind everything you know...'
Just a bicycle, suitcase, no money.
That's all I had.
'..for something completely different.'
Number nine, let me take this off.
Number nine. Number nine. Number nine.
'I'm Ben Fogle, and over the next few weeks,
'I'm going to live with the incredible people
'who've done just that...'
I'm a born fighter, and that's what I do get a kick out of.
For a long time, I thought I was stupid.
I'm a good salesperson, and I'm selling this mountain hard!
'..in some of the most remote places on Earth...'
There is no restaurants, there is no bars, there is no nothing.
You know, we didn't think that we were gonna come up here
and not see humans for three to four months at a time.
'..and what it takes to live a new life in the wild.'
Whoo!
That is a quick way to take down a tree.
'This week, I'm on the island of Tenerife
'with a young couple whose ambition to rescue a few horses
'has created a very different wild sanctuary.'
HE GOBBLES
BOY GOBBLES
The way we dress is from the bin, the way we eat is from the bin.
Everything we do is to try and save money.
We are human cockroaches. We clean around.
'Their dream quickly grew into a haven
'for more than just animals...'
Before, I was living my life blind.
I felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder,
and now I live life to the most.
'..forging something greater than themselves.'
Second life for animals, human, plants,
and building material, and it's beautiful.
THEY LAUGH
I'm travelling nearly 2,000 miles to Tenerife,
the largest of the volcanic Canary Islands,
a Spanish archipelago off the coast of Africa.
I haven't been here since I was a young boy,
but it's a very popular destination.
People flock from all over the world for the beaches,
for the year-round spring-like temperatures.
But I'm heading away from the tourist hot spots
to the least populated part of the island.
Now, I know that my hosts have an animal sanctuary,
but I'm really curious to see
what kind of wild life they've carved out here on holiday isle.
It's incredibly dry and arid here.
Almost desert-like. Not much food for any animals.
But lots of wind. Wind turbines everywhere.
I see animals - horses, donkeys, sheep.
I think this must be it.
Wow. Quite a place. It's sprawling.
Oh, a map.
"New Kitchen. Horsey Haven."
I think I'm going to head to Horsey Haven.
I do see quite a few people. Donkeys.
Hola! Morning. Morning! Hola.
Oh, YOU sound English. I am English.
Oh, you are English? I wasn't expecting that.
I'm looking for Emma and Edo.
Oh, yes. They're down there somewhere.
Thank you. See you.
CHUCKLES Rabbits.
Chickens. Hello, doggies.
Oh, my gosh, lots of people.
Morning! Hola! I'm looking for Emma and Edo.
Oh, I think they're down there. Down there somewhere?
Yeah. Thank you.
'There seem to be as many people as animals.
'I wonder if these people live here too.'
Emma? Hey!
Yeah, that's me. I found you.
Hello. So nice to...
I need to wipe my hands. Don't worry. How are you?
I'm good. Welcome. Hello.
Iggy. This is Iggy. Hello, Iggy.
Say hola. Hola.
What language does Iggy speak? IGGY BABBLES
His own. LAUGHING: His own!
At the moment. His own.
So many guinea pigs. Do you know how much I love guinea pigs?
How many have you got here? In here, we've got about 20.
We've got another ten in the girls', and another girls' over there.
And separated so that you don't suddenly have a hundred.
Yeah, we don't want too many guinea pigs.
You seem to be missing another half.
We're about to go find him. You can come if you want.
See if we find him. Absolutely.
He's dealing with some emergency somewhere.
Do you want to come see Dadu?
Are we going to manage to drag Iggy away?
I wouldn't want to leave. Yeah. OK, you tip it in.
IGGY BABBLES OK, good job.
Let's go find Dadu. Dadu!
Dadu, where is he?
32-year-old Emma grew up on Mersea Island in Essex,
an idyllic childhood often spent bringing home injured critters.
Her love of animals never faded,
but a variety of health issues led to challenges finding direction
as she got older.
In her twenties,
she found the strength to move to the Canary Islands,
where she met 34-year-old Edo, an Italian hotel entertainer.
She soon shared her dream to run an animal sanctuary.
And despite Edo never owning a pet before,
less than two years later,
in 2018, for just 23,000 euros,
they bought over 1.5 acres of empty, dusty, off-grid land.
Ah, there he is. Edo. There he is.
Can I come up? Of course.
Hey, so nice to meet you. So nice to meet you. Welcome.
And you look busy. Yes, just a bit.
A little water problem. A little water problem.
Do you want a hand while I'm here? Please. Why not?
Yeah. We have a leak here.
I just keep it, you tight it up. So, I'll come over here.
You're gonna hold it in place.
OK. OK, we close it off.
We think that's good? Have I passed my volunteer test?
Is that the test you do for all the volunteers that come here?
Well, luckily, not everybody arrive right on an emergency.
But, yeah, this is quite often.
The water that we have is just for irrigation.
So for plants, animals, plates, ourself, our clothes.
And as you can see, that our we are in a "desertic" side of the island.
The water here is practically gold. Mm-hm.
Because we are on an account, so we have a quantity per month,
and if we pass that,
they are gonna just close our valve.
They turn it off? They literally turn it off.
That would be disaster for you guys, with all the animals.
And it's happened many times. There is no waste water.
No waste water? No.
The waste water, we use it.
We clean it first, then we use it for the plants.
Hello, Igs. Look, Amo and Pop-Pop's here.
Oh, more people. Hello. Oh, hello.
Percy, who's that? Sorry, I'm at a different level.
Very nice to meet you. You are? Sue, Emma's mum.
Oh, Emma's mum! And I'm Steve, the daddy.
Oh, my goodness. So three generations here?
Certainly is.
Time to go to kindergarten. Si!
Who do you want, Amo or Pop-Pop?
Amo! OK.
Everyone needs this in their lives,
a grandma and grandpa who can help with childcare.
That is amazing. Yeah, well, we're only up the road.
That is so nice. Can I catch up with you later?
We'll catch you later, yeah. So nice to see you. Bye, Iggy.
IGGY:Bye-bye. Bye-bye.
See you later. See you later!
Do you like having your in-laws here?
Of course. You have to say that.
THEY LAUGH
No, actually, also, my father lives here with us.
How amazing is that for Iggy? Absolutely.
'This is fascinating, and a new one for me -
'multi-generational wild lives.
'I'll be curious to see how it works.'
So many different buildings and things.
We call it the Old Kitchen area,
because this was the first bit of the land.
It was the original bit before we exploded with volunteers, basically.
I think when we were here, there was about 20 of us.
And then we just kept getting bigger and bigger,
so we're just getting more and more, squeezing them in wherever we could.
And is this all accommodation? The caravan, the green van?Yeah.
Basically, anything that can be made into accommodation
to put a person in, we make.
So, if this area was when you had 20 volunteers, but you've expanded,
how many have you got now?
About 60. Constantly changing. Wow, that's a lot of people.
We had so much more work that needed to be done,
so we just kept needing more volunteers,
and then we need more place to put the volunteers.
We have two different programmes,
a short-term programme and a long-term.
And the long-term is for the people that sort of live here
that do the work,
and then the short-term are the ones that come for volunteer experiences.
But they actually donate to be here.
'This maze of improvised, recycled buildings and rooms
'feels both practical and creative.'
So, volunteer accommodation,
but everywhere else seems to be dedicated to animals.
Are these...? Squeeze them in anywhere we can.
These are all different birds that you've rescued?
Yeah, we've got budgies and cockatiels.
Got a bit of everything everywhere.
Over there, we've got the rabbits, more guinea pigs,
ferrets, dogs, cats.
Have you any idea how many animals in total you have here?
I think around 400 to 500, if you include all the little animals.
Wowzers. That is a lot of mouths to feed.Yeah, really a lot.
'And with so many animals, every precious drop of water
'from the showers, sinks, and even the toilets -
'after it's been separated -
'is recycled through Edo's ingenious natural filter system.'
We are literally walking on top of the pipe that is bringing the water
from the poo farm where we were standing...
I love the way you call it a poo farm.
It's where all the bacteria from the poo have to grow,
so it's a farm. Mm-hm.
The first pond that you see is just stone and gravel.
This is like in the nature,
when the rocks filter the water and keep all the heavy metal.
In the second pond, kind of plants like peperomia.
The roots are doing a really good job as filtering.
How on earth did you learn all of this?
I didn't have any experience of that when we started,
and I did Saturday as a school.
Nothing else than just copying and taking knowledge from other people
and put it in practice.
'Drinking water for volunteers is brought in,
'and power comes from solar panels.'
And that leads you to your room. The Cupcake House?
Cutely named The Cupcake House, yeah.
OK, so...
This is amazing. It's cool, right?
I love what you've done in here. It's so clever.
We made it early on, before we really knew what we was doing.
We were learning how to do it
with materials from the bin and from the ground.
This was after a party night.
Probably from the volunteers, I reckon.
The wall is just made out of rocks from this land
but the secret ingredient to make it at the end so smooth
is donkey poo.
Donkey poo specifically? Very specific.
The fibre is more thinner and little than horse poo.
Mm-hm. What I'm really proud of this,
is that the cost of this room is less than 200 euros.
Most of the money probably went on screws.
I love it. Thank you so much. This is a...
This is a very comfortable room to be staying in.
Well, we'll leave you to settle in. See you later!
Doggies, are you coming with us?
'It's amazing what they've created here in just seven or eight years.
'They have turned some barren land
'into what they call a finca, which means farm in Spanish.
'But it's so much more than a farm.'
They obviously love animals.
I love animals as well, but there's a difference between loving animals
and taking in 200 homeless animals or rescue animals.
I've got so many questions. What brought them here?
How did they meet? How much does it cost to run?
How do they make money?
EPIC MUSIC
'It's my first evening on Tenerife...'
Who's this little one here? Who's this one, Iggy? Diddy.
Diddy! Diddy. That's his dog.
'..where my hosts opened an animal sanctuary from scratch
'just seven years ago.
'So I'm keen to know how an Italian and a Brit met
'and ended up with hundreds of animals
'on this wild and rocky patch of the Canary Islands.'
I was living in Fuerteventura first, and I had some friends there,
and one of those had just gone through a horrible divorce,
and they were making a special girls' night out.
And then it became a part of the topic
that Emma doesn't go out on nights like that and meet guys,
and they took it like a comedy thing to try and get me to meet someone.
IGGY LAUGHS Yeah, exactly. Don't listen.
And then... in came you.
I was in the island, working in the south.
I was working as an entertainer, so in a hotel.
Dancing, acting like a cabaret, la-la, sketch.
For me, it was quite a normal night out.
Me not... not at all.
But yeah, I was a pole dance teacher at the time,
and I didn't live where we met,
and I had the keys for my pole studio.
So we slept there for the night. So you slept in a pole dance studio?
Very professional (!) We didn't really slept.
LAUGHTER Don't listen, Iggy.
This really is the full story!
Hoped I would never see him again, cos I was so embarrassed.
At what point did you start kind of discussing your dreams and hopes
and what you might like to do in the future?
In that first week,
I remember sitting outside on those sunbeds, talking...
I said that I wanted to do something like this,
and you said, "I wanted to retire with a farm."
And I said, "Why do you want to retire with a farm?
"Let's just do it now."
That conversation you have when you get to know people,
ours got very heavy very quickly.
I always liked the nature, but I never had animals in my life.
I always lived in a city.
And then in that experience that I was living with her,
it make my eyes open where the animals need real help.
They don't have a voice, so they need someone to be there for them.
And were there a lot of animals that you recognised needed help?
Yeah. Yeah. So many.
We saw there was even more in Tenerife than in Fuerteventura.
Did you have a budget?
Yeah. We had 10,000 euros. That was it. Nothing.
And the first bit of the land was 23,000.
We were so lucky that the man said
we could have a year to pay it all off.
We jumped in the deep end, we were like,
"Let's see what happens."
We were just floating about from Airbnb to anywhere
and dragging with us all of our belongings from Fuerteventura.
I think we had... We had a rabbit, we had some guinea pigs.
How many dogs? A couple of cats. Two dogs.
We had my old Iggy, who was... Iggy?Iggy.
So your son is named after the original dog?
I rescued him when I was 18,
and he, like, paved my entire life onto rescuing animals.
None of us would be here if it wasn't for Iggy.
He was the most amazing dog.
Edo wanted to, at some stage in his life, have a farm.
But I doubt he anticipated anything on this scale.
So I wonder what it's like for him,
building and creating such a massive place
to sort of realise Emma's hopes and dreams and ambitions.
'I can already tell there's so much to do,
'so I'm braced for a busy morning.'
Morning, Emma. Morning! Can I give you a hand?
Please do. Grab a scoop and come in. Yeah.
So, where's Iggy this morning? He's at kindergarten.
We have a little kindergarten here with him and some of his friends.
Actually here on-site, on your finca, on your farm?Yeah.
That is amazing. It's perfect.
So, where's all this going to? To the compost heap?
Normally, yes. But today, no. We've got a different task.
We need to refill our shower poo heater.
Your shower poo heater? Yes.
Your showers are gonna be heated with this?That's really a thing.
Just go round here, right next to the showers.
Ah, yes. So, how does this work, then?
These are the pipes, and it's in, like, a coil. Yeah.
And the natural reaction of the poop,
if you keep it wet, it stays hot.
Have you put your hands in, like, compost piles?
You know how hot they stay. Genius. OK. So...
Right, shall I get another one? Absolutely. We need a few more.
OK, I'll go get another barrow.
Whew!
Next one. OK.
Thank you for your help with this. It's my pleasure.
I'm a volunteer here.
Presumably, you rely on everyone getting stuck in.
Yeah, although we've got so many volunteers,
there's, as you see, so much work, so everyone helps.
Yeah.
There we go.
'Seeing Emma so at home in this environment,
'I'm wondering if this was a natural step on from her childhood.'
I used to just go out, and I'd find a snail that was crushed shell
or a rabbit that was poorly, and I used to bring it home.
I didn't have many human friends as much.
I was such an awkward... awkward kid.
I actually had a lot of mental health issues.
You wouldn't believe it now,
cos you've met me and seen me surrounded by animals
and animal poop,
but I used to have a really, really severe fear of vomiting.
It's called emetophobia. Emetophobia?
It sort of affected everything.
I was scared of what I ate, I was scared who I socialised,
I was scared of going out, I was scared of getting dirty.
For about 15 years, I'd say,
it controlled almost every aspect of my life.
And that's why I struggled with friends.
People laughed at you. They didn't understand it.
Even your friends sort of made jokes about it.
It was really tough for my parents as well,
because they didn't know how to help me,
and they saw their kid was sort of shutting down, and they...
I couldn't get involved in normal kid activities, really,
through fear of getting sick.
And presumably, the impact was more than just your social life.
What about jobs?
I couldn't... I couldn't hold down a job
because if someone felt they were ill, you know,
I had to make an excuse to leave, and I became so unreliable
that nobody wanted to employ me, understandably so.
Presumably, travel was something that you couldn't do
in the thick of it? Definitely not, no.
I never went abroad before my 20s.
I really almost never did anything.
You have to... I mean, you're a mother.
I mean, vomit is part of motherhood, really.
Yes. Yes, it is. So how on earth...?
How have you got from that to this to here today?
It was a long process.
Erm...
I never thought I was gonna be a mum.
I didn't think I could do it.
I was convinced, because I was so scared of it.
I went through, like, a training programme.
Instead of therapy, as such, it was more about teaching me
why my brain did what it was, and why I thought what I did.
And it was a long process, but it did work.
And then, step by step, it brought me to where I am now.
You cannot compare me. I'm not the same person.
I don't know, I felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder,
and now I live life to the most.
How incredible that she has been able to work through that herself
and then pursue the things she really wanted in life -
to travel, to become a mother, and to rescue animals.
I'm no psychologist,
but I'm sure she's trying to make up for all those lost years
by living the complete opposite life
with as many people, being as social as she possibly can.
That is in such wild contrast to living a life of complete fear.
But when this all started, it was just my hosts and a few others.
This operation is now something else altogether,
as is the process of feeding everyone.
EDO:Welcome to the food sorting.
This is amazing. Where is all this from?
This is actually from supermarket.
Daily, we go with our van, we collect the waste,
and instead of dump it in the bin, they dump it in our van.
OK. Let me actually help, like everyone else is doing.
This section is for human. This section is for animals.
These look pretty good, all these apples here.
There are many things that are perfect. It's just...
This is because it fell off in the supermarket,
from the shelf to the floor,
and then it's considered not human "eatable". Yeah.
'This so-called waste feeds the whole community
'and 90% of the animals, with just hay and straw brought in.'
Every day, this food that we select,
we have qualified people in the kitchen team
that prepare the food every day for all of us.
We propose all this food to every volunteers. Yeah.
They have to choose yes or no.
Yeah. We don't obligate anybody.
'And they give the best they can to the animals.'
The mushrooms, is that gonna pass? No.
No. So that goes into the compost.
I've only been here a short time, so I don't know what is...
Helena, I'm wondering how long you've been here for.
I came once last year, like, for a week,
and then I came for two weeks, and then I came for three weeks.
And then, like, I quit my job and I came to... to live here.
There must be something...
Something about this place? Yes, there's something.
The animals are gonna have quite a feast with all of this.
They have really good food.
That's one of the things that brought me back, you know,
for the second time and the third time.
How this place feeds us, feeds the animal,
how everything is sustainable.
And, like, how circular we are in everything,
you know, from compost to gardening.
Where does this go? Compost. Compost.
I'm taking this to the bin. Box to burn.
The sorting is done. That was pretty efficient.
Now, the cars that we have in front,
we have a compost car, small animal car.
Is that the compost car? That's brilliant.Yes!
Open back for aeration.
Shall I take this over? Where's the compost go now?
You practically do the turn...
Me? I'm taking it, am I?
Why not? Yeah, OK.
It's a new adventure. That is quite a car.
How do I start her? There is a sophisticated button.
Turn the key. OK.
And then this. ENGINE STARTS
Good luck! THEY LAUGH
'After I've served the residents...'
Daisy, Maisie!
'..I get to enjoy a late breakfast.'
So, this is all the food I helped sort out.
Shall take some tomato salad, I think.
A little bit of bread. Look at that. Delicious!
'And it's my chance to find out more about my hosts' ethos
'and what draws other volunteers here.'
We call our diet, like, "freegan".
Yeah, someone told us that. Freegan? That's brilliant.
This is really our secret weapon.
Without the possibility to have free food every day,
three times a day, probably we couldn't really keep up with the...
with the centre, with the 60 people, because they are needed.
We take everything that they give us.
80% is fruit and veg.
Remember that we have animals that are carnivore,
like cats, dogs, ferrets. Ferrets, mainly.
Cos with all the fresh meat... You have to feed them fresh meat.
We really rely on that, because they can't eat anything else.
I've just spotted the stethoscope around...
Are you about to take my vitals? THEY LAUGH
Presumably, you're working with the animals?
Yes. So, I'm the veterinary nurse on-site here,
which can be quite a lot, with 500 animals.
That is a lot of work on your hands.
How long have you been helping out here?
Nine months now. I just fell in love with the place.
I have a little daughter as well, so the community and the people
and Emma and Iggy and things, and how everyone lives here,
and the same sort of goals and mindsets.
But of course, like, for me, with the animals,
I'm for giving the land back to them and natural behaviours,
and this here is the only place I've found, really,
that really focuses on that.
Is your daughter able to use the little nursery here?
She goes to the kindergarten. Is she one of Iggy's friends?
Iggy's best friend. She's like Iggy's sister, really.
Running around the finca holding hands together, they're so cute.
It's a testament to what Emma and Edo have done here.
They've really created an environment
that keeps drawing people back time and time again,
really dedicated volunteers.
Here, not just for the animals, but for the bigger picture.
'They've obviously created something truly unique,
'but I'm interested to know more about how they balance this
'with being new parents.'
Looking good, guys. Heya!
The boss is here. You've got Iggy's drill!Move over.
He says, "Move over, I'll show you how it's done."
IGGY BABBLES This is kind of great, isn't it?
You've got an enclosure for Iggy here.
I actually come here when I need a bit of a break,
so I can just sit down, and he's, like, contained.
And just... He loves turkeys. And what about the volunteers?
Because presumably, you're gonna vet everyone that comes here?
I think, actually, it hasn't necessarily changed
since being a mum, because we always had to vet everyone to come here.
And we send them a video of what it's like,
cos we like to be very clear,
cos this is not for everyone, clearly.
As you can imagine, putting 60 people in one place,
they share a few bathrooms, they share the kitchen.
Lots of love, and lots of conflict as well.
Sometimes, that is a full-time job on its own.
Do you feel like more than just a mum to Iggy?
Yes, we tell people before they come,
"We do not include a mum. You have to clean up after yourself."
What an idyllic place to be bringing up your child.
You know, surrounded by animals,
lots of interesting people from all around the world,
and you get to be hands-on.
But that comes at a cost.
Effectively, Emma and Edo are parents
to 60 other volunteers who come through here.
They're constantly busy, always on call,
and basically in charge of a small village,
responsible for hundreds of animals.
It makes me wonder what other kind of pressures they're under.
Testing, testing, testing. Testing.
Pretend to be a turkey. HE GOBBLES
Yeah, yeah. It works.
My son surely is better than me. I see where Iggy gets it.
He's taught you everything he knows.
EPIC MUSIC TRAIN HORN
'I'm on Tenerife,
'where my hosts built their animal sanctuary from the ground up,
'and it's obvious their success relies on their strong partnership.
'While Emma handles the animal care and office,
'Edo ensures their anti-consumer values extend
'to everything they create.
'Just like the food,
'their building materials are saved from the bin, too.'
This looks like a potential shop.
Yes, it is. Time for action. Yep.
A bit of everything.
Edo, you're looking quite excited now.
Does this get you pretty motivated? This is where I train my brain.
For everything, you can always find an alternative use.
We can make some dog really comfortable and really happy.
Dog bed. I love that. What about some pallet wood?
Pallet wood is always useful.
Most of all of our buildings made by wood is out of pallet wood.
Does this depress you in any way,
when you see how much waste there is?
Before, I was dumping so much rubbish that was not rubbish.
It's just that with the finca, that in the last eight years,
we did a different path of life.
We see how much is wrong to always go for new material, new wood,
when you can refurbish and use old without any problem.
What's interesting for me is when I look at the foods that you reclaim,
the materials you reclaim,
you're still relying on society using those products.
Because we are trying to be out of the society,
but in the same time, we depend of the rubbish of the society.
And for the society point of view,
we are a natural cleaner of the society.
We are kind of... Here, we have a lot of cucaracha.
Cockroaches. Cockroaches.
And we are the same, but human cockroaches.
We clean around what anybody consider it... shit.
That's a luxury dog bed there.
Without this recycle, probably we couldn't be
where we are at the moment with the centre.
Second life for animals, human, plants, and building material.
'Edo is clearly now passionate about recycling.
'But I want to know more about his second life here
'and how an entertainer made this lifestyle leap.'
I had quite a normal-ish life.
Normal-ish. Because at 17, I already moved out, and...
At 17? Yes.
I've been lucky, because I was already playing football for money.
You were playing...? Whoa, whoa, whoa.
So you were really good at football, then?
I had a possible football life,
but then I had some accident when I was 16
that brought me to a wheelchair.
Hang on. So, what actually happened?
In the night, I was driving my motorbike without light,
and a car just crossed my path because they didn't saw me,
and I've been lucky to be alive.
Then I was laying on the floor with the metal coming out,
and I was literally crying, but not of pain,
because I had, like, the back, I had a hole in my foot,
I had a shoulder... Dislocated.
..dislocated behind.
But I was crying because I destroyed the moto
and because I was going to football training.
And football was everything to you, presumably?
It was my life, my dream.
Since I was five, that I was playing football with my father,
I always thought that my life was just playing football.
I understood that my dream had to change,
my life was not any more a football life.
And my best friend actually came back from holiday,
and he asked me if I never thought to be a hotel entertainer.
Luckily, I had abilities of dancing, to be on stage.
And that was literally a bomb of emotion.
Was just happiness.
Really, you found something you loved doing?
To be entertainer, your job, you are paid to enjoy the life
with the person that come on holiday.
I just had the willing of enjoying my life.
I didn't have any responsibility of my life.
I honestly lived for nine years in a bubble.
Until Emma came along?
Until me and Emma start this life.
Before, I was living my life blind.
Yeah. I'm a person that I always say,
if I could, I will live my life again without any change,
because I honestly enjoy my life, and I learned my mistake,
and now I'm trying to create a better place for my son.
I really love people who are deeply philosophical,
like he is, about the chronology of life.
And he had all those years of being a hedonistic holiday entertainer,
but he wasn't leaving anything behind, he was just taking.
And then through animals, here he is,
trying to kind of change the world.
'We're giving our salvaged pallets a second life,
'ready for the next enclosure.
'Because, sadly, I'm seeing just how many animals are in need here.'
Hello. Hello.
What have you got? New rescue. No way!
Two little cats. They've literally just arrived now.
We're on the way to the vet clinic to assess them,
so if you want to come and see... I'd love to.
Do you want me to give you a hand here?Put you to work.
Is that OK, Edo, to abandon you with the wood?
No problem at all. Quick escape.
So, where are we actually heading now?
To this little, clinical-looking box hidden in the chaos.
This is actually our little vet clinic.
Is it? Yeah, it is. I mean, it's new.
We're in the process of building it now.
We just struggle on the island.
There's basically no horse vets on the island.
Yeah. There's only three.
And we managed to find a horse vet,
but she didn't have a clinic or anywhere to do anything. Mm-hm.
Because we have Tash as well, we thought, right... Thanks, Tash.
..let's campaign and fundraise to get our own clinic.
It's been here a week, and now we have to campaign to get equipment.
Black and a white cat.
That's as far as I can help you, really.That's all we know so far.
Well, actually, no, we do know a little bit more, which is quite sad.
We know that they've got leukaemia. Oh, right.
Extremely common on the island, isn't it? Is it?
One in three. It is a death sentence for cats that are out in the wild,
and it's a long, painful one as well.
Can I get you to pop there so I can take a heart rate?
We're gonna have a little look.
Emma, these guys, you said, were dropped off.
I think as we got bigger, people just know about us.
And we get calls all the time to take animals so often.
Now, honestly, we don't have the finances to take them all.
That is probably the very, very worst thing about the job,
is you have to make a decision and look at an animal
and be like, "You're not quite bad enough that we can rescue you."
Which is the worst thing, cos they all need our help.
OK, so, he's got a small infection in the eye.
We can give him some non-prescripted drugs today,
and then we will speak to our vets
to come out and prescribe medication for the eyes.
But his face, apart from that, is pretty good.
His lung sounds and heart are great.
If you need further veterinary help, for example,
and you need to call a vet in, or for the horses,
how does that impact you?
You have to pay the bills? Badly.
Yeah. It's very expensive.
It's resources. We've had horses that needed to be put to sleep,
but there was no vets to do it,
so we've had to just sit with them suffering,
because there's days and days where you can't get hold of a vet.
You feel the weight of the world
when there's this horse in front of you.
So why do you do it, Tash?
Because I care. CHUCKLES
Maybe it's cos I'm crazy. I don't know.
I've just always had a soft spot for animals,
and what Emma and Edo do here is amazing.
It's a relentless, heart-breaking job.
Also the best, because we'll see him in a week or so,
he'll be coming out of his shell and happy
and cuddling the volunteers and stuff.
We just wish we could help more of them.
Obviously, the black cat's a little bit more... Feisty.
This young girl is very healthy and ready to go back in her carrier.
Cutie pies.
The weight of the world kind of on the shoulders
of the Tashes and the Emmas of this world, and Emma in particular,
cos not only does she have the burden of responsibility
when it comes to the animals,
but she also has the burden of responsibility,
for the Tashes and all the other volunteers here.
Not to forget the financial implication that it has.
'Emma and Edo clearly poured their heart and soul into this place,
'so I'm keen to hear what Emma's parents think
'about the scale of responsibility and just how big it's all become.'
Hello. Ah! Hello.
You're in here. Emma told me that you'd both be in here.
How are you? I'm very well.
So nice to see you both. I'm here to help. What can I do?
Fold anything. Hoik all that lot out.
Emma and I had charity shops in the UK as well,
and once we started this, we thought,
"Let's go back to what we know." Again, it was for a horse rescue...
Was it? ..believe it or not, in the UK.
That came on from Emma not really being well enough
to work for other people, so we created our own business.
She's told me a little bit about this.Yeah.
The emeto... Emetophobia, yeah.
Yeah, she really was poorly for a long time.
That has to be heart-breaking, as a parent.
Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that your daughter Emma
could ever live this lifestyle? Never. Never, never, never.
Are you proud of where she's come? Oh, incredibly.
Sue and I thought they'd probably have a couple of horses
and just have weekends up here.
There was only us four to start with. Yeah.
Building places for chickens and bits and pieces.
You must have really got to know the volunteers?
They've all come from different walks of life.
And we've had some really sad, depressed, lonely people
that have really grown through being part of a team,
and the animals have helped. With the animals.
So many people come and say, "I never want to leave."
It's not just an animal sanctuary, it's a human being sanctuary.
Human sanctuary as well, which is wonderful,
to help so many people. We have helped a lot of people.
The scale's obviously changed a lot now. There's 60 volunteers.
Do you ever worry now that maybe the scale's gone too big?
Steve does more than I do,
cos I'm sort of in the office and sort of there, trying to help.
What worries you, Steve?
It's the stress on Emma and Edo.
Every day is a constant battle for money.
The stress that they have as a family, it is exhausting.
So, yeah, we do worry about that sometimes.
They love it, though. They wouldn't change it.
I really get a sense of where Emma has come from,
what they have endured.
And they obviously have their worries, you know,
about the size and scale of this.
But they're still being supportive parents,
getting stuck in and helping with childcare,
which is the dream, isn't it?
'Spending time in nature with my grandparents
'is one of my fondest memories
'and something I now do with my children.
'So Edo and Emma have created something very special here.
'But despite the help,
'there are still things my hosts must spend money on,
'like horse feed and vet bills,
'even with their commitment to recycling and using waste.
'So I'm keen to know how they afford it with no apparent income.'
We, at the moment, are around 20,000 euros every month,
and even with the freegan living
and recycling water and the solar.
Mainly, the horses are, obviously, the most expensive.
But legalities, paperwork, insurances,
you know, building, and it adds up really, really a lot.
So how on earth do you make ends meet?
CHUCKLES We rely on hope and donations.
We built it up over social media, mainly.
As we got bigger and bigger, obviously,
we needed more and more money,
and we couldn't rely on social media alone.
Obviously, the community is volunteers,
we brought in a short-term programme,
which is where they actually donate to come and stay,
and it's more like a learning experience.
And that brings in a lot of our donations, fortunately.
How worried do you get by the finances
and ensuring that you always have enough?
Well, yeah, that is a... I mean, that comes with being a charity,
is the constant fear of making enough money,
cos when you're relying on the public and donations, it's hard.
You also feel guilty. I'm constantly begging people to help us.
But it's probably not our biggest worry, actually.
It's legalities.
The paperwork, the red tape, is unbelievable,
and it just gets harder and harder and harder.
And that's honestly the point where we've questioned
whether we can keep doing it.
Because sometimes, we don't even fit in categories that don't exist.
You know, there isn't...
Paperwork for a sanctuary doesn't exist.
That's a lot of worries.
You've got finances, you've got bureaucracy.
Does it ever get too much? The simple answer is yes.
There has been times when we thought we just can't do it.
I mean, every aspect of what we do in our life.
Like, the way we live...
I mean, even the way we dress is from the bin,
the way we eat is from the bin.
Everything we do is to try and save money so we can help them.
Yeah, I've cried myself to sleep so many times, thinking,
"I just can't do this any more."
But then you sort of see what you're doing
and how much they need us.
Cos imagine we weren't here, you know?
All of these 400 animals would have nothing.
So that makes us continue.
The fact that Emma has cried herself to sleep,
she's thought about giving up,
is testament to the toll that those pressures take on both of them.
They're prisoners to these guys.
How can you abandon beautiful horses and dogs
and every other animal that they have here?
EPIC MUSIC
'It's my last day in Tenerife,
'and there's one final task for the youngest generation,
'and a glimpse into the future, taking shape here.'
As we're getting more kids, we need a bit more space,
especially as they're getting a bit older.
Looks like you've started something over here.An amazing donation.
This is a proper slide. Great. Wowzers.
Want me to hold the bottom bit?
Shall me and you swap? I'm very short. Yeah.
Shall I do this? Go this way, to my right.
Spin to the right. Spin this around a bit.
Half an inch, I think. Like that?Maybe too far again.
I can't see what we're looking at. This is relatively heavy.
You do that. Let me hold... Yeah, I've got that.
So what's the general vision, then, for the kindergarten?
I mean, we always wanted to have our kids
in a more Montessori, free, outside, you know,
like a forest school-type thing.
We want to get more families involved in the community
because, well, it's amazing not just for us and Iggy,
but we also believe that kids are the future,
and it's lovely watching them learn how to interact with animals.
So, in this case, build the slide and they will come.
Absolutely. I mean, who wouldn't? This is amazing. Next bit!
OK, inside, we are. OK, Edo, it needs pushing up.
There we go. Now, if you come.
WHIRRING Two done, two to go.
Do you guys find yourselves torn a little bit
between wanting to grow this place
but with your own need to have a bit more time
for yourselves as a family?
In my opinion, I think we've passed the point of no return on that.
When we started, it was just me and you,
couple of people, a few animals, and that's what we expected.
And let's be honest,
that was so much easier for us, so much less stressful.
So, for selfish reasons, we should have stopped there.
CHUCKLES
But we created some system that worked so well,
and the demand of animals that needed rescuing,
it just was unethical for us not to grow, you know?
We just keep rolling, keep growing.
There's an endless waiting list of animals,
and that's what we're here for.
I never turn off for the animals.
When they've got a problem in the middle of the night, we're there.
But I know to turn off my head for the legalities,
the paperwork, the computer work.
I'm a little bit more worried about you. Yeah.
Do you know how to switch off?
My moral is if there is a need, if it's not me...
We created this place. This place is bigger than Edo and Emma.
Exactly, so you can't break. They need you. They need us.
Right, shall we get the final green one?
Yeah. Got it.
OK. OK, there's that one.
Well done, guys. Had no idea it was quite this big.
But that's cool. Even better. We can go in it.
I think we need some sort of ramp to get up to it.Perfect.
We can prepare some climbing wall. You guys do that.
I've got to get Iggy, cos kindergarten's finishing.
Have fun with that. We will.
'It's incredible what my hosts have built here.
'The sanctuary has grown, and so have they.
'And the same is true for their extended family,
'more than I initially thought -
'from Iggy's grandparents to Emma's sister and brother-in-law.'
How many have we got?
IGGY BABBLES Ooh!
CHEERING Well done!
High five!
Amazing to have your dad here as well.
What does he make of your life out here?
IN SPANISH:
Yeah, we are quite, dad and father, similar.
You have similar sentiments. EDO LAUGHS
Most people who I visit who have gone to live a new life
and have settled in a far-away place,
the thing they miss is family.
But the beautiful thing for me is you kind of came with this vision
to help animals, you're helping volunteers,
and you've also kind of reunited your family.
Unplanned, but, yeah, very happy about that.
I'll take that. Good job!
Don't leave me hanging over there. LAUGHTER
The things that try us and test us and challenge us
can sometimes be the making of us,
and if you take Edo and Emma
and the challenges that they've faced throughout their lives,
look at where it's led them both.
They've been able to create their own little utopia.
And they're such a selfless couple
that I don't doubt they'll continue to grow,
and those challenges will continue to grow.
But they have decided to embrace those
for the principles by which they want to live.
And there aren't very many of us that do that.
We've got a surprise with Dadu. Iggy, look!
Wow!
Look at this, Iggy. There's ropes to climb up.
There's a little climbing wall. Oh, he's straight in!
He's straight in. Go for it, Iggy.
Wow!
THEY LAUGH Straight in!
IGGY LAUGHS Wow!
Wow, Iggy. Was that so good?
Hey, Iggy! Here comes Dadu as well.
Ah!
What do you think, Dad? A success? You can see.
There is a queue already.
Guys, thank you for the most amazing week.
What you have done here, what you are doing here,
is so inspiring.
Thank you. Thank you. Gonna give you a hug.
Really, it's been amazing. You're welcome back any time.
Edo, listen, thank you. Thank you so much.
Bye, Iggy! Bye. Bye!
Gracias. Gracias.
Gracias, Iggy.
I'll be back here when he's the jefe.
Yeah, when he's the boss here.
One day. Won't be that long, I think.
15, 20 years. Bye, everyone. Bye, Iggy. Bye, Emma.
Bye! Bye!
Bye, Edo. Bye!
'Next time, I'm in the USA, living with a nomad...'
A modern-day pioneer, I'd say.
'..whose unique way of life is both inspiring...'
This is how I give myself a freedom away from debt
and the crazy world that everybody's living in.
'..and terrifying.'
My heart is racing, but this is what Randilyn does.
HORN BLARES