Briton Ed Stafford has become the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River taking 859 days and 50,000 mosquito bites to cover 6700km. He finished at Crispim beach in northern Brazil and celebrated as he walked into the Atlantic Ocean, where the River meets the sea. Mr Stafford said he hoped he had raised awareness of destruction of the rainforest. It was only towards the end of the last century that the source of the Amazon was agreed to lie at the top of its tributary, the Apurimac, which rises from Mount Mismi in Peru. 

At least six expeditions using boats have attempted from its source in the Peruvian Andes across Colombia and into Brazil. He has lived off piranhas, rice, beans and provisions bought in communities along the river. He encountered 5.5m-long caimans, enormous anacondas and hostile humans. Mr Stafford navigated using Google Earth, GPS and imprecise maps and carried a laptop and a satellite phone to post blog updates.  Mr Stafford left the British army in 2002 after a tour of Afghanistan and began the walk with a British friend on April 2, 2008, in southern Peru. Three months later his friend left and Peruvian Gadiel Sanchez Rivera, 31 joined him on the trip.

Ed Stafford
"It's unbelievable to be here. It proves you can do anything. If this wasn't a selfish, boy's-own adventure, I don't think it would have worked. I am simply doing it because no one has done it before. To wake up the morning after and know that we've done it will be a big change. I think we'll get used to it, though.”