British man walks entire length of Amazon River in 859 days

AFTER 859 days, thousands of miles and “50,000 mosquito bites,” Ed Stafford became the first man known to have walked the entire length of the Amazon river when the waves of the Atlantic Ocean lapped at his feet in northern Brazil yesterday.

“It’s unbelievable to be here,” Stafford told the AP the moment he entered the sea. “It proves you can do anything – even if people say you cannot.”!

A few hours earlier, Stafford had collapsed at the side of the road, just short of his destination.

But upon arrival at the Maruda beach – and his journey’s end – he looked like he had all the energy in the world, as if walking for two-and-a-half years were nothing as he jumped into the ocean and hugged anyone in sight.

While he says he is “no eco-warrior,” Stafford told the AP that he hoped his feat would raise awareness of destruction of the Amazon rain forest – but that at its heart, it was simply a grand expedition of endurance.

“The crux of it is, if this wasn’t a selfish, boy’s-own adventure, I don’t think it would have worked,” the 34-year-old former British army captain said as he sat under the Brazilian sun near the jungle city of Belem. “I am simply doing it because no one has done it before.”

There are at least six known expeditions along the course of the Amazon river, from its source high in the Peruvian Andes, across Colombia and into Brazil before its waters are dumped into the ocean 6,760 kilometres away. But those used boats to advance their travel.

Stafford and a British friend began the walk on April 2, 2008, on the southern coast of Peru. Within three months, his pal left and Stafford carried on, walking bits of the route with hundreds of locals he met along the way. Eventually, Peruvian forestry worker Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera, 31, decided to make the journey with Stafford to the Atlantic.

Stafford said his journey – which has cost $100,000 (€75,000) and is paid for by sponsoring companies and donations – has deepened his understanding of the Amazon, its role in protecting the globe against climate change and the complex forces that are leading to its destruction.

He lived off piranha fish he caught, rice and beans, and store-bought munitions found in local communities along the river.