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Ed's Frog MessageBlog Archive5th August 2010 - The End in Sight 15th July 2010 - An Unpleasant Afternoon 1st July 2010 - Football Crazy Brazilian Towns... 17th June 2010 - Ricky Gervais and the Bible... 20th May 2010 - Caught with our pants down 15th April 2010 - How dangerous are jaguars really? 18th March 2010 - A Hungry Anaconda? 4th March 2010 - Ed's Rotten Arm 18th February 2010 - Paddling across the 'Meeting of the Waters' 4th February 2010 - Damming the Amazon 21st January 2010 - Dedication 7th January 2010 - Swamp Donkey 17th December 2009 - A Little Bit Scared 3rd December 2009 - Scratched and Confused 19th November 2009 - Oil Under the Jungle 29th October 2009 - Watch out for the CAIMAN! 15th October 2009 - On our own in the jungle 1st October 2009 - Trench Warfare 17th September 2009 - The Island of Food 3rd September 2009 - Food Dreams 27th August 2009 - Heavy packs and the search for fish
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Last Entry11th September 2010 - Reflections: One Month OnIt's now just over a month ago that Cho and I caught our first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean, shrugged off our packs, and sprinted towards the water. As we swam and splashed about in the water, the realisation hit us that 28 months of walking had come to an end. The pure happiness we felt is difficult to convey. We were exhausted, elated and deep down proud of what we'd achieved. Incredibly, it was also the first time Cho had ever seen the sea.
Sitting in the garden at my family's house in rural Leicestershire I can now look back at the expedition as a whole. The naive early days climbing up and through the Andes with far too much kit and out-of-date maps. The stressful, soul-searching times when Luke and Oswaldo left me and I had to find Indian guides to get me through the drugs trafficking area of Peru. Meeting Cho and the gradual strengthening of that relationship over many months. Surviving the weeks with very little food in Brazil and feeling us both grow in experience and confidence every day. The final two months were frustrating. The end was in sight and yet still required a huge amount to complete whilst the rainforest was destroyed - logging continuing unchecked and the remaining forest was tangled secondary jungle. I'm a firm believer that everyone educating themselves and each other about environmental issues will cause policies and the behaviour of the Amazonian governments to change. Despite the continuing deforestation in Brazil there is optimism shining through in the voices of the children and the public in general. I have experienced first hand that the majority of Brazilians are proud of their rainforest and want to conserve it for future generations. People need to continue to care and be seen to care for policies to change and for new laws to be enforced.
Thanks to everyone who has followed this blog. My next expedition will join forces with Digital Explorer to have downloadable resources, materials and lesson plans to help bring the expedition, and the location, alive in the classroom. Where is it? That, I'm afraid, is still top secret. :-) To keep up with Ed's news, visit www.edstafford.org. |
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Ed
Stafford is an explorer. Like Captain Scott of the Antarctic and Sir
Ranulph Fiennes before him, he has a passion for discovering and
learning about the vast planet that we all live on. Today, so many of
the great expeditions have already been done by explorers of the past.
There are no longer many things that people can do and say, "I was the
first person in the world to do that!" 
Cho's visa application is taking a little while but he's still planning to come to England and all going well, that should be in October this year.