Probably a little hard core for most, but if you fancy an adventure holiday, (and I do stress the word adventure) and you don’t like the use of public transport, then take a leaf out of Ed Stafford’s book. The former British Army Captain, yesterday became the first person ever, to walk the entire length of the Amazon River. The 34 year old stated that, ‘He’s no eco-warrior’ but hoped his accomplishment would help raise awareness of the destruction of the Amazon rain forest. He said he was simply doing it “as no one has ever done this before”. He lived off piranha fish he caught along the way, as well as rice and beans and an assortment of other goodies he could find in local communities. His adventure had him encounter many dangers along the way, including crocodiles, enormous anaconda’s, illness and food shortages, as well as almost drowning at one point. His only luxury was being able to download and watch the odd episode of the TV series, ‘The Office’ via his Internet enabled satellite phone.
His journey started in Peru on the 2nd of April 2008 and lasted 859 days. After arriving at the shores of the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, he told reporters,
“It’s unbelievable to be here, It proves you can do anything — even if people say you cannot. I’ve proved that if you want something enough, you can do anything!”
Stafford began the journey with a friend who pulled out after 3 months. Eventually, Peruvian forestry worker Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera, 31, decided to make the remainder of the journey with Stafford, all the way to the Atlantic. At one point they were captured by a local Indian tribe who refused them the right to cross their land, but after being taken back to front the village elders, the two men pleaded their case and were allowed to continue their crossing, as long as they hired local guides from the village.
Stafford plans another monumental expedition some time in 2011, but it remains in a shroud of secrecy as he is afraid someone will steal his idea. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime Ed has a great blog called ‘Walking the Amazon‘, and is well worth a look.
