Archive for the ‘ The Expedition ’ Category
Testing Times – Part 2
14 Dec 1:18 pm by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
OK time to grab another beer or top up that coffee. Let’s finish what we started….
Phil Update: Phil has experienced the return of headaches & joint pain in the knees. The Big Fella has spent most of the week visiting hospital testing labs. The result of all those blood tests & urine samples… NADA. The tests have provided no conclusive evidence of anything – no Malaria, no Dengue, no Yellow Fever, nothing. We are all a little shocked by this outcome & as you can imagine Phil is in disbelief, finding it hard to accept that he has been so ill & there is apparently no cause. One of our greatest concerns now is that we get back on river & Phil experiences another outbreak of whatever he has in his system. If it was to happen again, not only would it be a huge burden on Phil’s system but medical facilities from here to our next major checkpoint (Tabitinga) are just not of the same standard as that here in Iquitos. (more…)
Testing Times – Part 1
11 Dec 9:20 am by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
Eish! What a 3 weeks it’s been since departing Atalaya. Anyways we are currently in Iquitos – so many stories, challenges & experiences to share so lets get into it. Grab a beer or a cup of coffee (if its a bit early in your neck of the woods), strap yourself in & enjoy the ride…
The journey from Pucallpa to Iquitos took us a smidgen over 9 days (about 9 days & 1 hr) seeing us arrive here just after 12.00 midnight on 6 December. It’s a pretty significant milestone for us considering we traveled over 1100km in that time & were put under the pump. The mighty river has again tested us. Different types of challenges to that we experienced in the whitewater but challenges none the less.
A bit of housekeeping.
11 Dec 9:01 am by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
Again we would like to acknowledge all the support & comments from not only family & friends but the growing mass of public support such as Dr Mark Edwards an American emergency physician from Santa Fe, New Mexico who offered us his expertise & opinions of his specialist colleagues on Phil’s current illness.
Then there is Borut Strel who was part of the support team for Martin Strel (who amazingly swam the Amazon from Atalaya to Belen: http://www.amazonswim.com Borut has also kindly offered us general knowledge & assistance.
Reflecting Back
11 Dec 8:37 am by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
We departed Atalaya early on the 20 November with a revamped raft set up, Nath discharging from both ends & unable to move. It seems as if Naths tummy acts up in a pretty regular pattern these days or then again, perhaps it’s just a way to ‘take a sicky’! Marko & Phil did all the hard yards on that first day & it wasn’t until late the next day that Nath made his first appearance back on the oars. As fate would have it he jumped back into business just as the river (now the Ucayali) again decided to remind us that she “always wins”. Nath took over shift from Phil with the river flowing at a reasonable rate – within 15 minutes he had a feeling that something just wasn’t right.
Atalaya Ahoy
19 Nov 1:08 pm by Nathan Welch Category: The Expedition
We arrived in Atalaya early yesterday morning with a little bit of a surprise – a good surprise! We had anticipated the bowels of the Red Zone (from San Francisco to Atalaya) would take us somewhere in the vicinity of 10 days. We ended up doing it in a smidgen over 5 days.
Our logistics guru & good friend Petronio (Destination Peru) met us in San Francisco on Saturday (10th?) with our last support drop off for the expedition. I was not in a good way – again this mysterious swelling of the feet & ankles had hit me – this time spreading to my knees, aches in all my joints & to top it off I spent the night before & that morning emptying my insides from both ends! Unfortunately as the oar frame set up was my design & project – I was the only one who knew how to put together this intricate little baby. So it turned out to be a long long day for us all. We ended up camping up in the boat that night at around 12.00 – totally knackered!
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