Ranking the Final Three ‘Alone’ Africa Participants

Perhaps its the dry air. Maybe it’s the thorny bushes and rocky terrain. Perhaps its the skittish nature of the warthogs, kudu, wildebeest, and other delicious animals roaming the plain.

For whatever reason, Alone Africa has had an attrition rate like no other season in the show’s history. And after 19 days, just three survivalists remain.

And of the three, one appears to be teetering on the edge.

(Spoiler Alert) Nobody tapped out during Alone Africa’s eighth episode, which aired on Thursday, August 7. But all three remaining participants—Katie, Kelsey, and Nathan—faced major setbacks.

Kelsey endured another fruitless hunt, and watched as her warthog jerky—she shot and killed a wild pig back on day 1—dwindled to just ten remaining pieces.

Katie also ventured into the backcountry to kill game, and tracked two wild boars across the bush-covered hills. But they escaped and she came back empty-handed, instead opting to once again eat seeds, berries, and roots that she foraged from the Karoo. To add insult to injury, Katie also was robbed by baboons.

Nathan suffered the worst calamity. For the last few days he’s been building a massive house out of sand and rocks, and on day 22 one of the walls collapsed, rendering the structure useless. Then, while fishing, Nathan’s two baited hooks became snagged at the bottom of a lake. He had to dive to the bottom of the frigid water and was only able to salvage one of the two hooks.

In each obstacle, the three survivalists revealed elements of their personalities and mindsets that, in my mind, are good predictors for how they will fare in the final two episodes. And while I don’t always like fixating on Alone’s eventual winner—the show is about more than just who stays out there the longest—I do believe it’s worthwhile to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the three survivors.

A Capable Hunter

Kelsey got out to an early lead in Alone Africa by stalking and killing a wild boar on the first day in the bush. Since then, she’s survived by eating the pig meat, which after three weeks is somehow still there.

The kill showed us just how talented Kelsey is with a recurve bow, and how accomplished she is at cleaning and processing a carcass amid an extreme environment. And huge kudos to her for her innovative water storage system, which has allowed her to venture into the backcountry without having to boil potable water all of the time.

But Kelsey’s major weakness appears to be the mindset that has crept in during the last few episodes. She doesn’t deal with setbacks very well, and has a hard time rebounding from calamity. It’s totally understandable, especially with hunger and malnutrition becoming a daily obstacle.

We saw this back in episode 3 when Kelsey’s shelter was flooded during a downpour. It was obviously a very traumatic and terrifying ordeal—one that other participants navigated as well. But since then, setbacks have really gotten to her.

Kelsey has sought positive energy from the animals she’s seen in the bush. But these bursts of happiness seem to be fleeting.

She’s also tripping into the pitfall that Woniya Thibeault wrote about in her most recent Alone column, which is thinking about her friends, pets, and life back home. As Woniya explained—[colon (:) When] when the mind wanders to normal everyday life, it’s a sign that the survivalist no longer enjoys living in the backcountry.

The All-Star Forager 

Katie, meanwhile, seems entirely focused on her life in the Great Karoo desert. Like the others, she’s faced multiple setbacks: flooding, bad days of fishing, and a monkey stealing her warm hat. But after each challenge, Katie has responded with an extremely pragmatic and positive attitude.

Of the three, Katie seems like the one who has most embraced life in the Karoo. It feels like it’s her permanent home, and not just the site of a very challenging camping trip. And Katie has, for the most part, focused on her life out here and not on the one she temporarily left back home in Australia.

She’s turned her attention to other tasks, like building a windscreen for her shelter. And she’s also displayed highly advanced foraging skills that are far beyond that of any other participant on Alone Africa. She’s stayed alive for three weeks primarily by eating the native flora: acacia seeds, mint, prickly pear cactus, and roots.

In episode 8 we saw her forage native garlic and allium vineale, a wild onion, for a soup. She also ground grass seeds into a porridge, which she soaked and ate for breakfast. It was an impressive meal considering it lacked any fish or red meat.

But Katie’s weakness is the lack of protein in her diet. She caught a fish back on day 1, but since then has only eaten plants. And all of the foraging skills and the world’s most positive mindset, alas, won’t be able to overcome food insecurity of that level.

The Problem Solver

Of the three, Nathan is in the strongest position to win. He semi-regularly hauls in massive catfish from the lake near his camp. He has a temporary and a budding permanent shelter. And he has a problem-solving attitude that’s helped him navigate several setbacks.

Nathan can credit this mindset with his advantage in food. Earlier in the season he struggled to catch fish—the meaty catfish in his lake were biting through the fishing line. Nathan innovated. He doubled up the fishing line twice, then braided it together, essentially creating a super-duper mega-strong line that was capable of holding the big creatures. Since then, he’s hauled in at least four giant catfish, which can feed him for several days.

Nathan’s biggest setback came in episode 8, when the rock house he was constructing fell over. I worried that the calamity would send him into a mental spiral. After all, he’s expended considerable energy building the structure, which now appears to be ruined. But Nathan simply sat with the problem, worked it over, and found a way to continue. He also brought this energy to his stuck fish hooks. Despite losing one, he rebounded.

The access to fish, plus the positive mindset, make Nathan a heavy favorite. Sure, Nathan may get sick, suffer an injury, or simply get outlasted by Katie or Kelsey. If I were able to place a bet on Alone at a Las Vegas casino, I’d put $100 on him.

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