What is your aim?
To create an adventure so exciting that it can be used to make people feel that they have a connection to the Amazon, its wonders and its problems, by being the first man ever to walk the entire length of the Amazon River.
Why are you doing this?
Walking the Amazon is not an eco-warrior campaign against deforestation or an activist project for indigenous peoples’ rights. It is a world-first expedition, first and foremost, and it is designed to draw attention to the complexities of the Amazon rainforest.
Ed is an expedition leader and writer by profession - he reports what he sees and what he is affected by. He is personally passionate about stopping deforestation but is of the opinion that to get people to listen, we need to enthuse and inspire them that the Amazon is worth worrying about, rather than forcing arguments down the throats of those that don’t care.
So the focus is on creating an adventure so exciting that it can suck people into the Amazon so that they can see it, touch it, smell it and know it. Essentially the more people that care about the Amazon the better.
What is the “Latest Issue” page about?
To Ed an expedition just for the adventure is futile. Ed was introduced to expeditions when he led for former charity Trekforce Expeditions and their slogan at the time was “adventure with a purpose“. Ed would like to carry this forward and use his adventure to help raise people’s awareness for the current issues involving the Amazon.
This page replaces the “Voice from the Amazon” page as the former project was deemed to have ran its course.
Is Ed walking on his own?
No. Ed started the expedition with a fellow expedition leader, Luke Collyer. Luke left the expedition after 3 months and, last heard, was working in the UK as a dustman. Ed has since walked with hundreds of local guides, one of them, Gadiel (Cho) Sanchez, has become a long-term guide and close friend to Ed and is committed as Ed to reach the mouth of the Amazon. Between April and June 2009 Ed was joined by his old school friend Sam Dyson.
Are you hoping to raise money for charity?
Absolutely. Ed supports five very worthy charities that can be read about on the charities page
How will what you are doing have any impact on deforestation?
The hope is that by using technology that was impossible only a few years ago, Ed can create an adventure so exciting to follow on the Internet that schools will be able to use the interest that this generates to explain the different pressures in the Amazon that surround the issue of deforestation, and on the wider scale, climate change.
What is the difference between “Climate Change” and “Global Warming”?
The Earth’s climate has always changed naturally over time.
For example, variability in our planet’s orbit alters its distance from the Sun, which has given rise to major Ice Ages and intervening warmer periods.
According to the last IPCC report, it is more than 90% probable that humankind is largely responsible for modern-day climate change.
The principal cause is burning fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas.
This produces carbon dioxide (CO2), which - added to the CO2 present naturally in the Earth’s atmosphere - acts as a kind of blanket, trapping more of the Sun’s energy and warming the Earth’s surface.
Deforestation and processes that release other greenhouse gases such as methane also contribute.
Although the initial impact is a rise in average temperatures around the world - “global warming” - this also produces changes in rainfall patterns, rising sea levels, changes to the difference in temperatures between night and day, and so on.
This more complex set of disturbances has acquired the label “climate change” - sometimes more accurately called “anthropogenic (human-made) climate change”.
See BBC article “A brief history of climate change“.
What can I personally do from my computer to stop deforestation?
Ed is a supporter of the Prince Rainforests Project and has recorded a message of support for them. He invites anyone who is inspired to physically to act to stop deforestation to go to the Prince’s website and add your name. The project will run up until the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference 2009.
Rainforest Concern is the charity that Ed chose to represent his concerns about the Amazon and he encourages people to donate to them. The charity is intrinsic to the essence of the journey and helps to protect threatened areas of land within the Amazon Basin. Rainforest Concern was established as a registered charity in 1993 to protect the world’s tropical rainforests.
Why are the Copenhagen talks happening?
The majority of the world’s governments believe that climate change poses a threat to human society and to the natural world.
Successive scientific reports, notably those from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), have come to ever firmer conclusions about humankind’s influence on the modern-day climate, and about the impacts of rising temperatures.
Two years ago, at the UN climate talks held in Bali, governments agreed to start work on a new global agreement.
The Copenhagen talks mark the end of that two-year period.
Governments hope to leave the Danish capital having completed the new deal.
The talks are technically known as the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - often abbreviated to COP15.
See BBC Article: “Q&A: The Copenhagen climate summit”
Where can I find more information on the Amazon and deforestation?
The following links can lead you to a wealth of knowledge on the current state of the Amazon:
The Prince’s Rainforests Project
What are the dangers you will face?
…..Oh, erm…
- Malnutrition if we don’t find enough food. This could in turn lead to diseases due a lowering of our immune systems…
- Illnesses: such as dengue, typhoid, malaria and even rabies from vampire bats…
- Injuries: sprains or breaks could cause immense problems with no where to go for help. Wounds, deep or not, could pose potentially lethal infection problems if not dealt with properly…
- Africanised killer bees: introduced by accident these bees are aggressive and have been known to attack people caught out in the open…
- Snake bites will also be a big threat to me - but not as high up the list as people think. I’m not carrying antivenom.
- Anacondas: Over 20 foot boa constrictors are in theory capable of taking a person although only incidents of child deaths have been reported…
- Piranha: partucular care to be taken when retrieving from the fishing net!
- Caiman: (Amazonian species of crocodilians) a bigger threat when crossing tributaries and washing late at night by the river. Can grow up to 16 feet long…
- Jaguar could do me some serious harm if it wanted to but I would be very lucky even to see one…
- Drowning in raging torrents as I’m crossing rivers in the Alpaka rafts that I’m using. We are currently using two men to one raft. (Not that advisable…)
- Upsetting the locals. This continues to be the biggest threat of all. Indigenous peoples can be violent and aggressive when surprised and its not always possible to pass a message in advance of the expedition…
Surely someone has walked this route before?
No. Surprisingly, only a handful of people have ever traveled the entire journey from the source of the Amazon to the massive mouth and maze-like delta. This is partly because up until the second half of the twentieth century, no one was certain where the source actually was.
Before aerial mapping in the 1950s, the Marañón River system in northern Peru was considered the source of the Amazon. Recent topographical maps created by Peru’s Instituto Geográfico Militar, however, show that the Apurimac River system is now the longest Amazon tributary.
Now that the true source has been found, walking from the source to the sea is one of the last great feats of exploration.
What will be your route?
Ed is attempting to cross the whole of South America from Camana (on the Pacific coast of Peru) to the mouth of the Amazon River (on the Atlantic coast of Brazil) via the course of the longest source of the Amazon River. Ed walked up the Colca Canyon to get himself to the recognised furthest source of the Amazon on Nevado Mismi. From there, the rivers to follow are the Apurimac, Ene, Tambo, Ucayali, Peruvian and Colombian Amazonas, Solimões, and the Brazilian Amazonas.
Are you following the river exactly?
The expedition will follow the general course of the rivers mentioned above from source to sea. Much of the river adjacent to the main channel is flooded (Varzea) forest for large parts of the year. Ed will seek high ground in order to continue walking and it is acknowledged that this could take the team over 100 kilometres from the main river channel.
Ed will not leave the three countries of Peru, Colombia and Brazil during the attempt unless there is a medical situation that threatens loss of life, limb or sense; OR there is a legal requirement for him to leave.
What does “walk” really mean?
Just that. No form of transport of any kind may be used to assist with Ed’s advance on land – he has to walk, stumble or crawl every inch of the journey. [Rules for crossing water are outlined below.]
How will you cross tributaries, flooded areas of forest, and large lakes?
Whether its ox-bow lakes, tributaries (some over ten miles wide), flooded forest over head height, or the main channel of the river itself, there are many water obstacles that have to be crossed.
If the distance is short Ed can swim. All kit is 100% waterproof and, as at March 2009, the team is swimming across about five rivers a day and regularly wading through flooded forest.
If the water obstacle is too wide or too fast flowing to swim, Ed can use dug-out canoes, the inflatable pack-rafts that the team are carrying, or any other hand-paddled craft to cross areas where the water makes it impossible to go forward on foot. All man-powered - no sails or engines.
Couldn’t you just use your rafts to float down the river?
Sometimes we’ve needed to cross the main channel. To avoid accusations that Ed is navigating any part of the river by boat, if the main channel of the river is crossed in a hand-paddled craft, Ed has to return to the point perpendicular to the point where he entered the water on the other side, and continue walking from there. This rule is designed to stop any use of the river’s flow to advance Ed in a craft.
How do you buy food and fix your equipment from the jungle?
As the expedition has no external support team in country it has to conduct its own resupplies and organise its own logistics.
If Ed needs to conduct a side trip to a settlement or town for any reason he may do so by motorised vehicle (boat, plane or wheeled vehicle) as long as he returns to the exact location where he finished walking to resume the advance on foot. This transportation is classed as external to the expedition as it does not physically advance Ed towards the Atlantic.
The team may use any means to send equipment or supplies from any one location to any other.
What other Amazon expeditions have there been?
Since 1970 there have been five expeditions that have successfully navigated the Amazon from source to sea using a combination of rafts, kayaks and boats:
- The first was British explorer John Ridgway’s journey in 1970. This expedition used cargo boats and other vessels to complete the latter portion of the river.
- The first expedition to run the Amazon in kayaks was completed by Piotr Chmielinski (Poland) and Joe Kane (USA) in 1985/6.
- The first unsupported and solo attempt was successfully navigated on a hydro-speed by South African Mike Horn in 1997/8.
- In 1999 Scott Angus (Canada), Ben Kozel (Australia) and Scott Borthwick (South Africa) became the first to raft the entire river.
- In 2007 Slovenian marathon swimmer Martin Strel set a new record swim by being the first person to swim a large proportion of the Amazon.
- In March 2008 Mark Kalch and Nath Welche trekked and paddled the entire route. They are the fourth team in history to complete the entire journey manpowered. (Martin Strel didn’t start at the source)
As much as the above expeditions are inspirational and motivating, they have highlighted that the Amazon basin still has one final expedition that has yet to be achieved. No-one has ever walked from source to sea.
