British adventurer first person to walk length of Amazon
Suffered an estimated 50,000 mosquito bites
A British adventurer became the first person to walk the entire length of the Amazon yesterday after a gruelling 4,000-mile trek lasting nearly two-and-a-half years.
Former Army officer Ed Stafford, 34, reached the mouth of the river in Brazil 859 days after setting off from its source high in the mountains of Peru.
Along the way he encountered venomous snakes, electric eels and piranhas, as well as being wrongly accused of murder and chased by tribesmen armed with machetes, shotguns and bows and arrows.
The final leg of the expedition proved one of the most challenging, with Mr Stafford collapsing at the side of the road a few hours before reaching his final destination.
But he made it to the Maruda beach on Brazil’s northern coast, accompanied by Peruvian forestry worker Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera, 31, who joined him five months into his journey.
The ex-soldier wrote on Twitter: “Job done. 28 months and Cho and I have finished walking the Amazon. I always knew it was possible.”
Mr Stafford, from Mowsley, Leicestershire, started his jungle quest at the summit of Mount Mismi in Peru on April 2, 2008.
He suffered an estimated 50,000 mosquito bites and hundreds of wasp stings before completing his trek yesterday.
The adventurer used the trip to raise money for charity and to educate schoolchildren from around the globe about the Amazon. Mr Stafford’s original travelling companion, fellow Briton Luke Collyer, left three months into the expedition after the pair fell out.
But soon afterwards he met Mr Sanchez Rivera, who at first agreed to accompany him for a few days but eventually decided to join him for the rest of the journey.
The pair lived off piranha, rice and beans as they walked along the banks of the river.
Mr Sanchez Rivera said: “I started walking with Ed at first because I felt a responsibility to try and help this crazy man through a very dangerous area with drugs traffickers and hostile tribes. But as the days went on I really enjoyed the simple life and Ed and I became good friends. It was not long before I knew that I wanted to complete the whole trip and walk with Ed right to the finish.”