Walking the Amazon

Ex-army captain halfway in jungle river trek

An ex-army captain bidding to become the first man to walk the length of the Amazon from source to the Atlantic Ocean is approaching Sao Paolo after walking for more than a year through the jungle.

33 year-old Englishman Ed Stafford began the incredible 4000-mile expedition in Peru at the river’s source high-up in the Andes on April 2nd last year with his friend Luke Collyer.

Collyer left the expedition after just three months, but Stafford decided to continue the journey alone and subsequently met up with his current expedition partner Cho Sanchez, a 28 year-old Peruvian ex-logger.

“Cho’s got balls of steel, and he’s as keen as I am to complete this expedition. To find someone like that has been a real thing. You just can’t do something like this alone,” said Stafford of his partner.

Stafford has walked over 2000 miles through mosquito-infested, snake-filled jungle in the fourteen months since the start of the expedition and has had some close encounters in that time.  He has been attacked by killer wasps, confronted an electric eel and faced the ordeal of being taken at gun point by a Peruvian tribe to meet their leader where he “thought he was going to die.”

Despite the “harder half” of the expedition being yet to come, Stafford hopes to reach the mouth of Amazon in May 2010.  To keep up-to-date with his progress and information on some of the motivations behind his incredible journey go to his website