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For most people the equator is just an imaginary line running 25,000-miles around the globe. But the countries along the equator are among the most troubled on the planet. In this new series Simon takes a journey around the region with the greatest natural biodiversity and perhaps the greatest concentration of human suffering: the equator. In Equator Simon meets illegal loggers, father and son circumcisers, drunk villagers, and a young woman stuck in the baking desert. Simon and the Equator film-crew are protected by soldiers in a coca field, and UN 'peace-enforcers' in a gold mine. They are blackmailed and abandoned by drivers in one country, and travel through another that has just 300 miles of paved roads - despite being the size of Western Europe. Simon is drenched while white-water rafting, surrounded by a million flamingos and swallowed by a tidal wave. After being warned about the deadly virus Ebola, Simon vomits blood and develops a temperature of nearly 40C. Diagnosed with malaria, he's saved by medicine derived from the Vietnamese sweet wormwood. One remote tribe takes Simon to their sacred monument, while a father from another tribe of former head-hunters decides to make Simon part of the family. After presenting his 'father' with a fine pair of trousers, Simon is blessed with blood, presented with a short sword, and adopted. Simon discovers a matrilineal society where daughters are called 'iron butterflies', mass graves in the jungle, and islands where protesting fisherman have killed giant tortoises. He helps an orphaned orangutan into a tree, swims with sea-lions, fishes for piranha, climbs the equivalent of half-way up Everest, and discovers the city thought to be most at risk from volcanic eruptions. Simon's trip takes him through the nation suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western hemisphere, and the African country that's endured the most violent conflict on the planet since the Second World War

The former Soviet state of Georgia has a particular problem with breakaway states. After independence from Moscow three parts of the country - South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Adjaria, broke away from Georgia. Conflicts broke out, thousands were killed, and the whole region has suffered ever since. The new President of Georgia, who Simon meets in a lift, is trying to re-unify the country, but he faces a difficult task. Simon travels across the frontline to visit South Ossetia - a self-declared country which has had its own flag, army and government for 12 years. The Ossetian people speak a different language to Georgians, and their government has vowed to fight to the death rather than rejoin the Georgian fold. Simon persuades a tough Ossetian Foreign Ministry official to let him have a look around. Tensions are high between Georgia and South Ossetia, and the Ossetians are suspicious of foreigners, particularly when a government guide tells locals in the market that Simon's from London, America. After his nationality is explained people become friendlier, although locals are tense because everyone has someone they love on the dangerous Georgian frontline and war is imminent. Everywhere Simon goes he's followed by state security. Back in Georgia proper Simon realizes war is close when he finds a troop train packed with soldiers and tanks. He's chased away by armed guards. Heading west to the former breakaway region of Adjaria, Simon visits the palatial home of the former dictator. His son used to race a Lambourghini along the main street of the region, much to the anger of locals earning an average £15 a month. Elsewhere in Georgia, Simon and his BBC crew are the first film unit ever allowed inside a major former Soviet military base. In a chilling scene, they find thousands of tonnes of explosives unguarded and huge working missiles, any of which could be stolen by criminals or terrorists, and which are capable of destroying skyscrapers.

A Capricorn adventure - Programme Three The Tropic of Capricorn runs around the southern hemisphere for about 22,000 miles, crossing some of the most remote and unexplored regions of the world. Australia In the third programme presenter Simon Reeve follows the Tropic of Capricorn as it cuts through three regions of Australia (Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and Queensland) and the vast wilderness of the Outback. This is not the Australia of Neighbours and Home and Away. It is the heart of Australia, a remote and spectacular place populated by extraordinary people and wildlife - and the scene of some intractable and unexpected social problems. Simon witnesses the unforgettable sight of female whales nursing their calves before the long trip south to Antarctica, but their pristine sanctuary may be under threat from plans to build a vast salt pan nearby. Western Australia is rich in natural resources, but this has not always been a blessing. Heading east to beautiful Karijini National Park, nearby Wittenoom Gorge is a region with a sinister history and was the location of Australia's biggest asbestos mine. Thousands have died after working at the mine, and the authorities, believing it is the worst asbestos-contaminated site in the world, are demolishing the nearby town. But a few stalwarts have refused to leave, including a tough Outback couple determined to stay in the ghost town. Next, Simon hops aboard a three-car road-train which powers its way across the Outback to Newman, the site of the world's largest open-cut mine, which sends millions of tons of ore to fuel China's booming economy. Newman is attracting workers from across Australia, drawn by huge salaries. This is the last town before the unpopulated deserts of central Australia. Simon's next stop is Alice Springs, a remote town in the Northern Territory, but also the world centre of Aboriginal art. Many Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory are in a desperate state, in societies troubled by violence, child abuse and poverty. Simon arrives at a crucial moment: a powerful government taskforce has been established to retake control of communities. In the shadow Uluru (Ayers Rock) an Aboriginal community lives in Third World conditions. In Queensland, Simon arrives in cattle-country and stays with a couple whose 183,000 acres have not seen significant rain for seven years - they live in a dustbowl of biblical proportions. Some experts say this is the first time climate change has had a serious impact on a developed country. He heads east along Capricorn to stunning Heron Island, home to one of the world's pre-eminent marine research centres. The island is at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, where climate change threatens to wipe out the coral and the rich wildlife which thrives on it.

A Capricorn adventure - Programme One The Tropic of Capricorn runs around the southern hemisphere for about 22,000 miles, crossing some of the most remote and unexplored regions of the world. Simon Reeve has embarked on an epic new adventure. In the first leg of Simon's journey across the Tropic of Capricorn he starts in Namibia, on a remote beach in the Namib-Nauklaft National Park. The spectacular desert scenery makes this area, like much of this huge country, a huge draw for adventure tourists. Simon's first stop is Swakopmund, Namibia's second largest city, and a place with strong German connections, where Mein Kampf and photos of Hitler are still on sale in the local curio shop. Namibia used to be a German colony and the country has a dark past - German colonisers killed tens of thousands of locals in a forgotten genocide, which Simon learns about from a local historian whose relatives suffered in German "concentration camps" in Namibia. Following an amazing encounter with a pack of hungry cheetahs and a French conservationist nicknamed "Catman", Simon arrives in the capital Windhoek, where he meets prostitutes infected with HIV (Namibia has one of the highest infection rates in the world) and witnesses at first hand the growing influence of China in Africa. Traveling across the vast interior of the country, he meets members of the Herero tribe, goes out on horseback to round-up cattle, and witnesses the Herero Holy Fire ceremony. Botswana confounds many of the stereotypes of poor Africa. Well-run, with cattle-patrols that keep stray cows off the roads, Botswana is making a fortune from tourism and a natural resource that never seems to lose its luster. The world's largest diamond mine, just south of the Tropic of Capricorn, produces millions of dollars worth of stones every week, funding universal education and extensive health care. The mining firm has forked out on anti-AIDS drugs to keep its workforce functioning in a country where HIV rates have rocketed up to 40%. Not all Botswanans are benefiting from the national prosperity, many of the legendary Bushmen of the Kalahari (or San people) have been moved out of the desert into depressing resettlement camps by a government that says it wants them to be part of the modern world. The government has provided basic huts and schools for them, who are among the poorest people in southern Africa, but many of the San are having difficulty adapting to the modern world. In a spectacular journey into the heart of the Kalahari Desert, Simon seeks out the remaining San who are still living in the desert alongside their lion "cousins". Some San have won a legal battle, and plan to return to live in their Kalahari homeland - but as Simon finds out, life can be tough in this beautiful, brutal environment.