Walking the Amazon: The blog of a journey from source to sea

Fields of razor grass

Ed Stafford — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:26:28 +0000

Imagine a field thick with tall goose grass, so dense you have to cut your way through… Then imagine that the plant not only sticks to you, but gives you paper cuts… Then imagine that the paper has been dipped in…

Collapse of ancient Peruvian civilisation linked to forest loss

Ed Stafford — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:59:55 +0000

Photo of Nazca Line spider

Here is an extract from an article that appeared in The Times newspaper, by Mark Henderson, Science Editor:

The fate of an ancient and enigmatic South American civilisation which carved a strange network of ritual lines and drawings…

Jungle Breakdown

Ed Stafford — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:00:10 +0000

A guest blog that I wrote a week or so ago for budding adventurer, Kev Shannon, has just been published on his site. It’s about electrical expedition wizardry and how I am in awe of the modern day possibilities of communication…

Bacon Sarnie Guilt

Ed Stafford — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 14:59:49 +0000

Between 1961 and 2002, meat consumption has seen a large increase virtually worldwide and a corresponding jump in its environmental impact.

Links between meat consumption and climate change have been widely known for many years, partly due to deforestation in the Amazon…

A slight scare from Cho

Ed Stafford — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:00:31 +0000

Further dried up riverbeds have had Cho and I pathetically waiting under the puniest of jungle vines for a few drops of life-giving liquid. We’ve prospected for water like oil companies trying to savage the Amazon of its fossil fuels:…

British PM warns of climate “catastrophe”

Ed Stafford — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:59:07 +0000

“During his term as chancellor, environmental groups often accused Gordon Brown of not paying enough attention to climate change, and the Treasury of blocking “green” policies. He was sometimes compared unfavourably to Tony Blair.

However, Mr Brown promoted the inclusion…

Blog Action Day and support from Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Ed Stafford — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:51:45 +0000

Blog Action Day this year is bringing people together to talk about climate change. They require a blog post on 15th October hence the second post of the day. Check out http://www.blogactionday.org

As I´ve told my news for the week I…

Caiman Went

Ed Stafford — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:00:30 +0000

I’ve led expeditions to across the world but, in terms of days to get out to civilisation, none of them were as remote as this.

Now that our GPS (satellite navigation) is broken this is testing my navigation skills thoroughly.

We…

David Attenborough adds his voice to the Prince’s Rainforests Project

Ed Stafford — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:59:48 +0000

The Prince’s Rainforest Project, the charity set up by HRH The Prince of Wales two years ago to halt the destruction of the world’s rainforests, has launched a new campaign called Rainforest SOS to encourage as many people as possible around…

Tropical Dryforest

Ed Stafford — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Where are the rivers?

On Monday we left a small puddle that we’d camped at and set out with our muddy two litres of sodium hydroxide-treated water. But the bizarre trench forest was now seemingly hurricane damaged and every large tree…