Episode 2: The Journey Begins
At the beginning of episode 2, we see the animals assembling at the Great Beech at midnight. There is already some bickering among the animals because Mole, (a rather slow moving animal) is late, so Badger has to go back for him and once he finds him, needs to persuade him to go on the journey.
Once outside the wood, the animals have to pass through a grim looking building site before moving on to the housing estate. All of the animals are very thirsty due to the drought and the loss of their watering holes in the wood. The newts in particular, are the hardest hit because they are more dependent on water for survival than the other animals, including Toad because they are amphibians. Their baby in particular, is very ill. Fox sends Owl to find water.
Owl finds water in the form of a swimming pool in one of the occupied houses of the housing estate and the animals are able to drink their fill before they are forced to move on. The animals travel through the night and at dawn, they reach a road which they must cross despite the fact that they are exhausted - the smaller and slower animals being worse off than the larger ones like Fox and Badger as their only cover, a gorse thicket, is on the other side.
