Guardians Of The Forest

The crossing Walking (& swimming) from Nauta to Requena had been playing on my mind for months. I just could not see a way across, and even at low water the route seemed impossible. I met Jorge, an out of work maths teacher, when I was in Nauta standing on the bank of the Marañón river … Read more »


Order and Progress

We must have looked a sight as we stumbled out of the jungle with our huge packs, our torn and filthy clothes hanging loosely from our emaciated forms. Everyone stared at us as we walked through the city in the afternoon heat to find accommodation, and it was no surprise to me when the police … Read more »


Bridge Over Troubled Waters

By the time you read this blog we should be on our way to Rio Jutaí – the last of the major tributaries of the Brazilian Amazon basin. Before we left Juruá, I sent photos for this blog to Clive Maguire in Manaus. I then managed to write some of the blog via a batch … Read more »


The Emerald City

After leaving Tefe (the city where the famous naturalist Henry Walter Bates based himself for several years) and following an exhausting 7.5K swim across Lago Tefé, my current guide Everaldo and I set off for the long slog to Juruá. Armed with Everaldo’s vast knowledge of the rainforest and my own very modest experience, we … Read more »


The lay of the land

It would have been much quicker walking along the exposed banks of the Solimões (Amazon) river, but the risk of encountering river pirates was very high –  so for this latest section, Coari to Tefé, we would just have to grit our teeth, sharpen our machetes, and cut our own path through the longer and … Read more »