Discovery Channel's WALKING THE AMAZON to Premiere 11/19

Ex-soldier and explorer Ed Stafford and his friend Luke Collyer took on a monumental challenge: trace on foot the entire length of the Amazon, from its source in Southern Peru to its mouth on the Brazilian coast. And they would film the entire journey themselves - without a camera crew. They believed it would take them one year and would involve walking 4,000 miles. In the end, two and a half years and 6,000 miles later, only Stafford would make it to journey's end. Viewers can join Ed for his journey on a two-hour special titled WALKING THE AMAZON, premiering on Discovery Channel Saturday, November 19th at 8PM E/P.

Along the way, Stafford climbed an 18,000-foot mountain, filmed never-before-seen tribal ceremonies and was mistaken for a man buying humanorgans. He also met a remarkable local guide named Cho who, after Luke's departure, accompanied Ed on his mammoth trek. As well as filming all his own footage and demonstrating the skills needed for survival (often on little or no food), this is a vivid portrait of a man driven to The Edge of his own sanity to join the ranks of the greatest explorers of all time.

The Facts:

After 860 days of walking, Ed Stafford became the first person in history to walk the entire length of the 4,000 mile Amazon River - from its source in Peru to the Atlantic shores of Brazil. He arrived with his walking companion Cho Rivera at Maruda Beach, their epic journey's end on Monday, August 9, 2010.

On the longest jungle expedition ever undertaken, Ed Stafford walked through three countries: Peru, Colombia and Brazil.

Ed had to walk and hack his way through dense jungle, passing through illegal cocaine processing plants, staying with indigenous tribes and crisscrossing logging roads.

Ed began his epic walk in Camana, Peru on April 2, 2008. He was joined four months later by Gadiel 'Cho' Sanchez Rivera in August 2008. Cho intended to guide Ed for five days through the dangerous 'Red Zone' area around Satipo, Peru, but stayed to the end of the expedition.

Ed's expedition took a year to plan and took close to two and a half years to complete.

Ed used his expedition to raise awareness of deforestation via his video blogs uploaded from his hammock once a week. School children around the world followed Stafford as he relayed tales of his hammock being eaten by ants, fishing for piranha, meeting loggers and being chased by tribespeople with bows, arrows and shotguns.Ed walked a total of 6,000 miles.

He was stung by thousands of wasps and bees, two scorpions and a Bullet Ant.

He picked hundreds of ticks from his body; the most he picked off in one sitting was 42.

Ed went through three pairs of boots, four pairs of Crocs and two pairs of boots (wellies).

Ed ate almost four and a half pounds of rice and just over two pounds of beans a week.

His pack weighed almost 90 pounds.

He lost 15 pounds over the course of his journey.

 

 

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