The British tradition of explorers dates back centuries,
when intrepid men set off across the ocean to discover new
londs. The public hove always looked up 10 these explorers
os heroes. even if they were unsuccessful. These days, most
5 places in the world have already been discovered, but there
are still plenty of remote regions where it's challenging - and
01 limes dangerous - 10 get about Ed Stafford, a former
British Army captain, has continued the British trad ition of
exploration. In 2010, he completed a record-breaking journey
10 when he became the first person 10 trek the entire length of
The Amozon River. He started ol lhe source of the river, which
is in the mountains of Peru, and finished 859 days and about
7,000 km later on the Atlantic coast of Brazil.
One of the biggest challenges was dealing with wildlife.
15 Stafford and his partner came across electric eels, lethal
vipers and giant anacondas. As if that wosn't enough,
Stafford suffered on estimated 50,000 mosquito bites and 0
tropical fly laid its eggs in the skin of Stafford's head. Three
months into their gruelling journey, Stafford's partner gave up
20 and went home.
But some of the humons he encountered were even more
threatening than the wildlife. Stafford had been warned
10 slay QlNay from certain notorious villages, but on one
occasion he was chased by five or six boots full of angry
2S locals. They were armed with guns and bows and arrows.
Stafford thought they were going to kilt him. Bul, in fact, the
village chief accompanied Stafford for 47 days of Ihe walk
and th~y ended up becoming good friends.