Archive for January, 2008
Scorching into Santarem!
29 Jan 7:56 am by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
We arrived in beautiful little Santarem just on 3 hours ago – 7.00am Brazilian time. We are happy with our progress after what began as a very challenging first 2 days after leaving Manaus. Let me explain…
We actually departed Manaus early evening on Friday the 18 Jan. We were very keen to get away earlier but it was not to be. There were a few delays in obtaining our maps from Captain Pires at the Brazilian Navy office. But eventually we walked out of his office with the all important charting information for the Amazon Delta area. From there we ventured back to Hostal Manaus where we said our goodbyes to Alex & thanked him for all his help. We lugged all our gear, including fully assembled oars into a taxi, then a boat, & then finally we arrived at Skop Gat, our trusty raft. (more…)
On the road again!
20 Jan 7:27 am by Mark Kalch Category: The Expedition
Well, it is with some joy that I write this post. We have been in Manaus now since early Sunday morning. That’s when our ordeal began (no…hang on…that started September 1 when we arrived in Lima!). This is another long one and not overly exciting but the detail explains what we have endured over the last week.
Our stop in Manaus was to be a quick overnighter. Enough time to have a full night’s sleep and source a new set of navigation charts for our final leg to Manaus. It took Nathe just a couple of hours to find the equivalent maps in Tabatinga for that leg. How much easier it was going to be in a city approaching a population of 2 million? Answer: a lot harder!
Surprise Surprise!
15 Jan 2:46 pm by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
Well it is with much excitement that we report having just arrived in Manaus, Brazil. We have exceeded even our own expectations, arriving here some 16 days after leaving Iquitos in Peru.
We are absolutely knackered after paddling around the clock, 24 hrs a day, 6 hour individual shifts for almost 15 days straight. We have paddled just over 2000km in this period & we reckon we must be pretty bloody close to a world record for time/distance travelled in a whitewater raft on flat water!
With our bodies crying out for some rest & a few more equipment dramas that arose on our last stretch we will stop here in Manaus for the next few days or so.
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