Source: The Australian
Ed Stafford celebrates with his companion Gadiel Cho Sanchez Rivera at Crispim beach in northern Brazil. Picture: AFP Source: The Australian After 859 days, 6700km and "50,000 mosquito bites", Ed Stafford has become the first man known to have walked the length of the Amazon River.
"It's unbelievable to be here," the former British infantry captain said as he entered the Atlantic Ocean in Brazil yesterday. "It proves you can do anything."
A few hours earlier, Mr Stafford, 34, had collapsed at the side of the road. But at the Crispim beach he jumped into the ocean and hugged anyone in sight.
While he says he is "no eco-warrior", Mr Stafford said he hoped he had raised awareness of destruction of the rainforest.
"If this wasn't a selfish, boy's-own adventure, I don't think it would have worked," he said. "I am simply doing it because no one has done it before." Few have travelled the length of the river, in part because it was only towards the end of the last century that its source was agreed to lie at the top of its tributary, the Apurimac, which rises from Mount Mismi in Peru.
At least six expeditions -- using boats -- have been attempted along the river, from its source in the Peruvian Andes across Colombia and into Brazil before its waters are dumped into the ocean 6760km away.
Mr Stafford, from Leicestershire, carried a laptop and a satellite phone to post blog updates and download episodes of The Office. He navigated using Google Earth, GPS and imprecise maps.
Mr Stafford -- who left the British army in 2002 after a tour of Afghanistan -- began the walk with a British friend on April 2, 2008, in southern Peru. Within three months, his pal left. Peruvian Gadiel Sanchez Rivera, 31, joined Mr Stafford.
He has lived off piranhas, rice, beans and provisions bought in communities along the river.
He encountered 5.5m-long caimans, enormous anacondas and hostile humans.
"To wake up the morning after and know that we've done it will be a big change. I think we'll get used to it, though."