Walking the Amazon: 861 Days, an Impossible Task, an Incredible Journey [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

I have the UK hardback edition, but that is not listed here so I am posting this review to the Kindle edition as it would appear there anyway if I could post it to the hardback. There are some color pictures in the hardback version, but the story is what matters here so don't let that put you off if you love your Kindle.

Because the Leicester Mercury had featured an article about myself and my Amazon reviews in November 2007, I was asked to contribute a recommendation to a Christmas gifts feature in the run-up to Christmas 2008. I bought the paper to see who else was featured and recognized some genuine established celebrities as well as some people who I'd never heard of, among them Ed Stafford. I was amused to find that I was not the only Amazonian featured, but I could immediately see that his adventure was much tougher than anything I could ever have contemplated doing. Still, I was interested in his adventure and I knew then that there was likely to be a book at the end of it and that I wanted to read and review it.

It is clear from the book that while the author had done a fair bit of preparation for his adventure, and notwithstanding his previous outdoor work experiences including four years in service with the British army, he was ill-prepared in many ways for what lay in store. It seems like a miracle that he got through it.

Ed began his adventure on the coast of Peru, so he walked from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. This may seem odd, but if you look at a map, you'll see that the recognized source of the Amazon is relatively close to the Pacific. I say relatively, but it still took Ed and his companions nearly a month to reach the source. From there, the river runs downhill all the way, but Ed's walk involved plenty of uphill and downhill walking, as he eventually realized. He faced plenty of other problems too, but not always of the type he may have expected. The creatures he encounters can be fearsome, but most of them were not a problem. Mosquitoes were a problem, but he eventually got used to them. People, money and (eventually) boredom appear to have been his biggest problems.

Other reviewers have commented that the later stages of the adventure are covered in less depth, suspecting that these parts were skimmed a bit to meet a publication deadline. I'm not so sure. Certainly, the first year of the adventure occupies two-thirds of the book, while the remaining longer period only occupies one third, which may lead one to think that. However, some of what happened later was basically a repletion of what had happened earlier, while the later stages also seemed to be less interesting anyway as they walked through land that had been cleared by commercial operators (for want of a better phrase). Maybe there could have been more detail about the Brazilian phase of the adventure, but I'm not sure if it would have improved the book.

I found the book easy to read and entertaining. I was surprised to find that one of the most interesting aspects was the variety of people that formed part of the story. Aside from Ed, there were the people he walked with at various stages of the journey, the locals he met along the way (some hostile, some friendly), the officials and the media.

Apart from the creatures that Ed had to deal with directly, he did not say a lot about the animal and bird life to be found along the way. He admitted at one point in the book that he wasn't really able to enjoy what there was because of the need to keep going. Still, if you want a book about the creatures to be found in Amazonia, there are plenty out there. Having read both this book and Bruce Parry's Amazon, I'll be looking out for one. As for Ed, I get the impression that he wants to do another adventure, preferably another one that nobody has succeeded in doing before. I find it difficult to believe that it could be as challenging as his Amazon adventure.

Ed and I are about as different as two people could be, but apart from our association with the word Amazon, I noticed one character trait that we share. We both like things that challenge us and enjoy the difficult aspects, but sometimes find it harder to focus on the easier tasks.

Oh yes, and what did Ed recommend as a 2008 Christmas gift? A Hennessy Explorer Ultralite hammock. Never having had the need for a hammock of any kind, I'll bow to his judgement in such matters. In that same newspaper feature, I recommended Sarah Bright man's Winter symphony, but if I'm ever asked again, this book would definitely be one that I would consider nominating as a gift.