Plot

Hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May journey through Madagascar in search of buried treasure.

Following their perilous watery escapades in the Mekong, the intrepid trio find themselves back on four wheels for their latest adventure on the exotic islands of Reunion and Madagascar. Armed with three sports cars, Richard, James and Jeremy believe they are in for a cushy road trip and fun escapades as they arrive in Reunion and race on the world's most expensive piece of tarmac, a jaw dropping ring road built out in the sea. But a bizarre challenge from Mr Wilman propels them across the ocean to Madagascar, where they must tackle the toughest road in the world, in some of the most extremely modded cars they have ever built, in order to complete one of their toughest quests to date. The whole gruelling adventure ends in an explosive climax.

The Trio visit a tiny volcanic Island in the Indian Ocean called Reunion. It is part of the French territory and 5,700 miles from the South of France. The flight from Paris to Reunion is the longest domestic flight in the world.

Jeremy has brought a V8 Bentley Continental. Hammond brings the Ford Focus RS. 350 BHP, 4-cylinder turbo-charged engine. 1500 kilos weight. It has torque vectoring and can send 70% of the total power to the rear axle, and 100% of that to 1 wheel. May brings a Caterham 310R. It was designed by Colin Chapman in the 50s as a self-assembled weekend racing car. 152 BHP.

The coastal road on the island has a lot of rockfalls. So, to avoid those, the French have built a ring road in the sea, which cost 112 million pounds per kilometer to build. It is designed to cope with 30-foot waves. It is 12 Kms long, the most expensive road in the world. The trio do a drag race on the ring road. The Bentley wins by deploying its turbo charger.

Mr Wilman asks the trio to report to a cemetery in the town of Saint-Paul. In 1730 a pirate named La Buse was hanged there. Before being executed he threw a piece of paper into the crowd which had instructions to his buried treasure. Today, the treasure would be worth BP 100 million. The trio is tasked with finding the treasure, which included the Fiery Cross of Goa, a golden cross studded with rubies. The trio are given a copy of La Buse's message.

May is given the task to translate the message. After 3 days he gets "After a 3 headed dog, take honey". Hammond says that Le Buse was arrested in Madagascar, so the treasure is probably there. Madagascar has the worst roads in the world. So the trio have to modify their cars. They arrive in the port of Tamatave 2 days later. May has added bigger wheels on his Caterham. Jeremy has mounted a winch on a steel platform, armor plated steel running from the front to the back on the underside, headlamps, snorkels, big chunky tires, bigger brakes, new suspension and so on. Hammond has tracks instead of wheels, full external roll cage, girders upfront, raised suspension by 19 inches, 23.5 inches ground clearance,

Hammond says that La Buse was arrested in a pirate commune called Libertalia. It is 100 miles from Tamatave. The roads are fine to begin with and the trio feel that it was wasted effort to modify their cars. But just outside the city, the roads suddenly got rougher. Hammonds little wheels inside the tracks keep coming off. Meanwhile the Caterham had no suspension and the ride for May is brutal. Hammond decides to build a cooling system for his tracks. He suspends 2 large water containers at the front and runs pipes to the tracks to deliver water to them. They cross a river on a ferry as there are no bridges

After the river, the road turns to mush. Hammond and Jeremy still manage to plod along, but May is soaked in the mud, as the Caterham has no protection from the elements. As Hammond hits rocks hidden under the water, his tracks fall apart. They decide to switch to the beach that runs parallel to the road. On the beach the tracks fall apart again, this time completely off the car.

Hammond does the track repairs in 3 hours and they switch back to the road. They take another ferry to cross another river. There is more mud after the ferry for May. Then the road got worse, with only large craters and puddles made of soft sand. The Caterham continues to move along due to its light weight. They are 40 miles from Libertalia and Hammond's tracks break down every few miles.

They reach the next ferry crossing, whose engine is broken. So they load the cars, and have to pull the ferry across the river with ropes. They rest at a hotel for the night. The next morning, Hammond discovers that the rear tracks are almost shot and will fall apart at any moment. But the roads in the morning are much better. They arrive at a much bigger ferry to carry them up along the coast. At the next beach, Hammond cooks a fish by building an oven with rocks in the sand and Jeremy goes to look for water. Jeremy makes a banana daiquiri with bananas, coconut milk and rum.

May decodes La Buse's message and figures out that the treasure is buried in a place called Saranambe. The next morning, the ferry deposits them in Libertalia and Saranambe is 15 miles ahead. But the road is disastrous. There is nothing but craters and puddles and huge rocks. Hammond's tracks don't last for more than a few hundred yards. Even the Bentley, which had sailed through everything so far, breaks down. Hammond removes the tracks and puts the wheels back on. Only the Caterham continues to move along without issues. With the wheels Hammond's ground clearance is next to nothing and he is in for a bumpy ride.

Meanwhile this road is a national highway, and the frequent breakdowns are blocking the traffic. In places, the road is narrow to a single lane and May's car is winched up to a nearby tree to allow the oncoming traffic to pass. Still 9 miles to go. They could not make 15 miles in a single day as the sun sets. May and Jeremy decide to make camp. Hammond was further behind and in the dark, he broke his clutch.

Hammond decides to walk the remaining way. The next morning, Jeremy's Bentley overheats. May reaches Saranambe. May figures from La Buse's paper, some instructions to walk certain steps from a certain spot marked with an "X". He figures the X to be a badly drawn cross and starts at the village church. May finds the location as indicated in the letter when Hammond arrives. They dig together. Jeremy is finally able to repair the Bentley and drives in to Saranambe. They don't find any treasure.

But then Hammond says that the island next to Saranambe is called Pirate Island. Likely the treasure is buried there. The trio take another ferry to reach Pirate Island. Only the Bentley and Caterham make it across. The island is more developed than anything they have encountered so far. They check into a hotel to figure out the rest of the clues. May figures out the La Buse talks about a Turkish Dog, which means a dog with no hair. The whole island looks like a dog with no hair and one bit of the Island looks like its ear. May is convinced that's where the treasure is buried. The trio hit the beach in the target section of the island with metal detector. Jeremy decides to build a bar instead. Hammond and May insist that Jeremy helps in finding the treasure. He agrees and plants dynamite over the entire beach. Jeremy sets off the dynamite that create huge craters, but still no treasure. Hammond gets a beep on his metal detector and digs. He finds a metal cup, which he thinks is the holy grail.