Book info

• Title Walking the Amazon
• Author Ed Stafford
• Year 2011
• Genre Non-Fiction

In April 2008, Ed Stafford began his attempt to become the first man ever to walk the entire length of the River Amazon. Nearly two and a half years later, he had crossed the whole of South America to reach the mouth of the colossal river. With danger a constant companion - outwitting alligators, jaguars, pit vipers and electric eels, not to mention overcoming the hurdles of injuries and relentless tropical storms - Ed's journey demanded extreme physical and mental strength. Often warned by natives that he would die, Ed even found himself pursued by machete-wielding tribesmen and detained for murder. However, Ed's journey was an adventure with a purpose: to help raise people's awareness of environmental issues. Ed had unprecedented access to indigenous communities and witnessed the devastating effects of the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest first-hand. His story of disappearing tribes and loss of habitats concerns us all. Ultimately though, Walking the Amazon is an account of a world-first expedition that takes readers on the most daring journey along the world's greatest river and through the most bio-diverse habitat on earth.

Thoughts

This is such a good book, following Ed Stafford’s journey from one end of the famous river to the other through miles of challenging territory: jungles, locals, wildlife and just endless dangers. The story is well told, a good focus on the challenges whilst also remembering the good times, being open about the mental health side of it and honest about the author’s own mistakes and downfalls. It gets, perhaps, a little repetitive in the final third, which is probably quite representative of the walk itself, and of course it ends very abruptly as the river does, so also a very fair book. A good adventure read, and quite eye-opening about an area of the world I don’t know very much about.

Rating: 4 / 5