Two men and a car

Picture the scene:  you’re driving through the jungle when your car burps, sputters and dies. You rummage through the glove compartment and discover you have nothing … except your wife’s handbag. Can you survive just by using the stuff in a woman handbag?
“Yes,” says Gary Humphrey, one of the two stars of Discovery Channel’s “Car vs Wild” series. “You can always count on a lady handbag’s when your life is hanging by a thread.
“My ex wife used to carry around all sorts of junk in her bag,” continues Humphrey, who looks a little like actor Daniel Craig, as he digs out something from the bag he’s clutching. “A condom. S**t, a whole lot of them. Why she needs them I have no idea. It’s not as if we’ve been having sex recently.”
The tote also reveals some water, a small quantity of whiskey, an umbrella, chewing gum and a hotel sewing kit. “Now I’m going to show you how my ex-wife’s bag could save my life if I were stuck in the desert or the jungle,” he says.
The first season of “Car vs Wild” won the hearts of armchair adventurers all around the world, as Humphrey, a former British Special Forces soldier and Bill Wu, a California-based car fanatic and problem-solver, drove “Ruby”, a 12-year-old red Jeep, though the deserts of North Africa and Central Asia.
Each adventure was a high-octane mix of incredible challenges, ingenious survival skills and bush car fixes, as they battled to conquer some of the most extreme landscapes and attempt motoring milestones never before achieved.
The pair is now back on the small screen for a second series and recently stopped off in Malaysia and Singapore to lead a convoy through some rough and tough terrain before sharing survival and driving tips with Asian fans.
Humphrey finds hope in his “ex-wife” handbag. He sets up a fire for cooking by pouring gasoline into a bucket of sand. This technique works pretty well when you don’t have a single piece of firewood. Then, he shows us how to tell the North from the South by floating a needle on still water.
“Now the condom, the extra-large size, that my ex-wife probably left me for,” he says, blowing into the condom and turning it into a balloon. “It’s worth a lot more than just ensuring safe sex. It can hold a lot of water, which makes it an ideal water container.”
“But how can chewing gum save your life?” asks one Singaporean woman.
“Fish love chewing gum. You can use it as bait for catching fish,” Humphrey responds.
In the new series of “Car vs Wild”. Humphrey and Wu are tackling the terrain of Mexico in locations no car has ever been before. This time, they are reversing the route - starting from civilisation and journeying to their final destination in the wilderness. From the volcanic belt and craters in Veracruz to the suffocating, dense bush of Orizaba, they are confronting natural obstacles that become increasingly treacherous along the way. The guys must balance both speed and strategy in order to overcome each obstacle, testing the elements and their very own limits.
In the first episode, which premieres tonight, the dynamic duo attempt to take Ruby from San Felipe to the beach the hard way– across 100km of the harshest desert in Mexico. Temperatures can soar to more than 40 degrees and it gets so hot, Ruby catches fire. Only Humphrey’s quick thinking saves her from a fiery death. After sleeping in hammocks strung from the largest cacti on the |planet, the guys’ problems become worse as Ruby's brakes fail. Although Wu has a fix, they face a dangerous night drive to make up time. Finally, the toughest challenge of all, a 70-metre-deep canyon. They must suspend Ruby on the end of a climber’s rope to reach the beach.

Tune in tonight
The new series promises fans of “Car vs Wild” a large dose of fun and entertainment
“We know each other better than in the previous series. We’re a team now,” says Humphrey.