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After thirty-seven days of straight jungle time, Cho and I have reached the halfway point of our 380-kilometre crossing from Amaturá to Tefé.
Juruá “City” is a humid, sweaty jungle town with shops built of wood that sits perched on a rare mound of high ground overlooking the low, green sprawl of the Amazon basin. If a man in a Stetson with low-slung six-shooters trotted into town on a horse named Silver he would fit in perfectly. As long as he spoke a bit of Portuguese.
The Juruá River itself is almost as big as the Amazon at this point and carves out an impressive gauge through the forest ripping palms and hardwoods out of the ground ruthlessly as it constantly alters it’s course.
The days prior to arrival were grim. Low, tangled rainforest no higher than six metres with gnarled, black branches blocking our path. Every soggy step gave way and sank our feet up to our thighs, every branch we clung to was covered in either spines or ants.
I won’t lie – that last part - I hated it.
But the contrast of stepping out of the famine of our expedition into the excess of civilisation is remarkable. I’ve spotted one local girl who is not overweight and the rest of the town seem like personifications of sloth and greed.
And we’ve indulged in both those sins since our arrival. My inbuilt regulator that should stop me eating has broken. I am riding a rollercoaster that is flipping me back and forth between hunger and sickening over-eating. I think our bodies want to build up some fat stores again.
I’ve managed to find a pair of trousers in my size to walk in. Luckily they came in a tasteful orangey-maroon.
“Can I help you Sir?”
“A snazzy pair of maroon trousers please.”
We expect to leave here tomorrow with another four straight weeks of jungle walking ahead of us before we reunite with the Solimoes (Amazon) River in the town of Tefé.
This journey is becoming incredible.
Maraua (our resupply target) did not exist from Walking the Amazon Videos on Vimeo.
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My thoughts are not in the Amazon at the moment but with Brenda and the family of my first ever Sergeant Major, Mark Hale, who has just been killed in Afghanistan.
When I doubt myself and need a role model to emulate as to how they would deal with a difficult situation I think of Mark - he was a great man. In August, a couple of weeks ago, he sent me this email:
Great to hear from you - I am totally envious.
How the heck did you get involved with the Amazon trip? It must be some experience and I look forward to seeing the end product on TV. I will be able to tell my kids that I know that legend!
And - definitely up for a beer on your return. Will have to try and get a few of the lads together.
May even get a rendition of singing in the rain - my body not really fit for the public anymore!
Life is genuinely good though and Afghan is the real deal - I just wish I was younger and still a Pl Sgt. I am normally based out in NI and I have my own house there now.
Stay safe and keep walking…
Speak soon
Mark
I can’t believe you’re dead Mark. It was an honour to know you.
Ed
great blog!!
Ed, I have just this very day stumbled upon you and your remarkable journey! You are indeed a inspiration and one helluva an explorer!! Good luck!! Julian
Gars Am Kamp, Austria
Ed.
Sé que estaba en régimen de incomunicación, pero todavía esperan las respuestas de pergutnas que te envié.
Me gustaría hablar con usted a fin de completar la historia de su aventura en el Amazonas.
Póngase en contacto con nosotros.
Eric Gamboa, jornalista
Relieved to know that you have had a chance to refuel, but so sorry to read about Mark Hale. If you look to him as a role model he must have been truly exceptional.
Ned - you look so skinny in your video that you made your sister cry!
I have tried to put this message up on the Voices website – it refers to the article you put up at the weekend about the 16 dams to be built. It raises such complicated issues;
After a lot of thought (and not having a proper knowledge about such things) I have decided that the only way I can form an opinion is first to evaluate the building of 16 dams in climate change terms. Will 16 dams be good for/bad for/substantially not effect climate change? I don’t think we have any right to think that these dams are wrong unless it is a bad way of going about bringing about progress. It is impossible to stop progress unless that progress has an overall destructive effect on the world.
I am normally all for hydro electricity as being the cleanest. And I think we have to have electricity – that is the way of modern life and we should not expect the Brazilians to have less in life than we do.
If the dams are to be in lieu of the extraction of oil and the vast destruction that seems to bring, and results in less deforestation then it is certainly not all bad.
It is dreadful to think of the effect upon the lives of these tribesmen but often progress has brought the sort of consequence that are feared. The article says nothing about plans to properly accommodate the tribes whose way of life will be destroyed – and it would be interesting to know whether there are plans. If none then that is a scandal. But perhaps that has been thought out?
What is alarming, in climate change terms, is the statement that the power will help the agricultural revolution that is sweeping Brazil’s mid west. That surely will have a devastating effect on deforestation? It is that that should be stopped because it will adversely affect the whole world. And perhaps, if it were stopped, that would bring about the need for less dams.
Muv
If I had no other commitments, and wasn’t scared of hideous amounts of mosquitoes, I would walk with you.
Keep it up.
Hi Ed and Cho,
Again, as I read your blog, I cannot describe the admiration I have for your courage and determination. Since I have stayed for short periods at Amazon Lodges (I know… can’t compare but I have an idea)…it especially amazes me.
I wonder about how, where you sleep…what you eat…what about insects, snakes, and such. What about water?
Hopefully, you have contacts to make this into a documentary or book? I am sorry for your loss of your friend, Mark Hale. Not knowing him, of course, he would be proud of you. Sending all my best thoughts and support to you.
Sandra Kennedy
barlund56@aol.com
Hi Ed,
Glad to see you got your humour back, a full belly can do that! On the other hand, so sorry to hear about Mark Hale. Obviously, it’s the influence of people like him that has eventually driven you to take on this herculean task, so the best thing we can do for all our casualties is to remember them.
Keep up the good work,
Marco
Ned,
Great to hear your progress, very sorry to hear of Mark, just keep going and I read your blog on a weekly basis. Look after yourself and walk with my blessing.
Best Uncle Roger
Awesome effort.No running OK?The rafts are a great idea. Kia kaha Kia Toa[which translated in Maori means be brave be strong].
Omg Ed!
you both are really skinny.
Please buy lots of things that will keep you full of energy and healthy, we are all pushing for you guys
wishing you the best and waiting for the final steps at the wonderful mouth … where the Amazon river reaches the Atlantic Ocean…
I am really sorry to hear the sad news about Mark, now you will have his company on this walk,and the rest of us of course.
Take care of your feet, they are the most valuable thing you have while walking, and of course your mind… Say hi to Cho for me xxxx lots of hugs!
I just want to say, I think you’re amazing. I like to think I can live vicariously through you. I’m sure your efforts will pay off, 10 fold.
Best wishes…
Lovely Ed
I have just caught up on the videos and have really enjoyed being transported back to the jungle. Hearing bird song of birds I recognise and frogs too, really nice.
So pleased to hear you and Cho have had the chance to fill your empty bellies, and restore some lost vitality. Thought I was gonna have to magic you some buttery p’nut M&M filled flapjacks to you. Somehow?! Your Ma n sis are right you have lost a lot of weight! So I hope the fat reserves are back up, and despite the loss of a dear friend, your moral too.
I’m content that you are really experincing all the extremes of your adventure. It’s what you signed up for, and in your own words…..so you know that your alive.
Stay safe, may your heart be full and your smile broad, so that all you meet along your path know what a wonder you are.
Big Love xxx
You are truly amazing Ed! The willpower to keep going and the conditions you push yourself through is just incredible.
Ed,Cho,
Your doing an absolutely outstanding feat of human endurance …..i would say equal to that of any great historical explorer and with added purpose.
I recon if it was the year 1909 you would be headline news!
EVERY STEP you take is probabaly saving thousands of trees in the future and many-many young & old minds are becoming conscious of the importance of the amazing Amazon rainforest.
May a deluge of positive energy fill ya boots mate!
I hear expedition funds are very low at the moment so anybody with a few quid or bucks and 5 minutes to spare help Ed and Cho get to the Atlantic….to donate…..
http://www.walkingtheamazon.com/donate/
Ed, I cant believe your still going on mate, stay focused and strong like you are.
RIP Capt. Mark Hale. A fellow Janner and hardcore soldier.
Wow! What an amazing journey!!!! Best of luck!!!
Hi Ed/Cho
doing ok keep on