AMAZON

Ed Stafford is the 21st-century embodiment of an adventure hero. He holds the Guinness World Record for being the first human to walk the entire length (4,225 miles) of the Amazon River, a journey that saw him held up at arrow point and mistakenly arrested for murder. The former soldier also spent two months alone on the Pacific island of Olorua for the Discovery Channel UK's Naked and Marooned.

To raise social awareness, he lived with travelling communities for Channel 4's 60 Days with the Gypsies and experienced first-hand the hardships faced by residents on some of the UK's most troubled housing estates for Channel 4's 60 Days on the Estates.

Tell us about your time as a cadet

I went to Uppingham School in Rutland, and Cadets was one of the areas in which it excelled. Joining harnessed my energy that was being misplaced by being naughty and disruptive (I got into trouble for chopping down a tree the Queen had planted!). I was in the Royal Marine Cadets and made the rank of Sergeant. It enabled me to channel my passion for being outdoors into something practical, learning new skills such as weapon handling.

The whole camp experience had a real impact on me and made me want to join the military. I never wanted to sit behind a desk.

In 2010 you walked the length of the Amazon – why?

I’d always had it in the back of my mind. The idea of going downriver, being the first to navigate it from source to sea, and interacting with indigenous communities appealed to me. I thought about how much more visually stimulating and incredible it would be to do it on foot, looking into the whites of the eyes of a tribal chief. It would draw upon soft skills – like humility – that enable people to trust you. I'd be using these skills to stay alive, rather than dodging arrows from a plastic kayak in the middle of the river.

I disagreed with those who said it would be impossible – it's walking from A to B, albeit 4,225 miles. But I didn’t realise how hard it would be, especially when my 20-strong team wound up being just two: me and my guide Cho.

What part of the adventure was most challenging?

I was naive and didn’t understand how indigenous people might think. My piece of paper with permission to be there meant nothing to them: they couldn’t read, and not many spoke Spanish.

I was held at gunpoint and arrow point; I lost count of the number of times I was told we would die. It made me nervous at first, but then I realised being scared used up all my energy. I just had to listen, smile and think: 'I’m doing this now. If we die, we die.' Luckily, Cho would do all the talking – he was quick to laugh and disarm them.

Which moments stand out?

I was wrongly arrested for murder, having turned up the day after a man had gone missing. I was detained overnight, with four people standing round the house with guns, until a police officer turned up the next morning and let me go. On another occasion, a tribal chief was furious that my passport wasn’t signed personally by the Queen.

How did you cope in difficult times?

I set myself little goals. If I met them, I would be able to sleep in my hammock. My daily objectives were very functional for a few months: 'Have you moved forward? Have you eaten?' A goal might have been just washing all the jungle grime away at the end of the day.

If I did such an expedition again, it would be with more maturity and as a more relaxed, socially engaging experience but, back then, I was at the edge of my capabilities.

How did you cope spending two months on the deserted island of Olorua?

It was about devising strategies. You need a toolkit of things to keep yourself in a good frame of mind. The same was true in the pandemic when many people struggled with isolation. Managing your mental health is a responsibility in life.

What was it like filming 60 Days with the Gypsies and 60 Days on the Estates?

It’s a challenge to win a community's trust so they will let you into their world, enabling you to tell their stories and open viewers' eyes to something they don’t normally see. It’s similar to the nuances of getting a tribal chief onside when he’s got every desire to stick an arrow in your head – although on the estate, it was actually a gun down a dark alley. It’s about being nice and being human. It was a privilege and a rewarding experience.

What inspired your love of the great outdoors?

Growing up in the Leicestershire countryside in the 1970s, I’d roam the fields with a posse of mates from my village. I’d say goodbye to my mum in the morning and come back as it was getting dark. We’d play football, build bivouacs, dam streams, run around with guns made out of sticks and go on manhunts which could last multiple days, despite having to go home for tea each evening. I was always shy in my social interactions with adults and didn’t have a huge amount of confidence. The outdoors was the opposite of that; I felt more comfortable in myself.

What did you like about being in the Army?

I went to Sandhurst in 1998, made the rank of captain and was assigned to the Army Training Regiment in Lichfield to train Stage 1 recruits. I think it was the relationships I formed with the men I commanded that I enjoyed most. Sometimes they have more life experience than you, so you can’t go in and start bossing them around – they'll tell you where to go. It’s all about “soft” skills: managing people to get them to want to do things for you. Also, we were pushed really hard – some of the exercises were tougher than the Amazon. It’s good to know you can push your limits.

You now live in Costa Rica. What's that like?

It’s great! There are pumas, ocelots and snakes, but I’m not worried. It’s so healthy for our children to grow up here.

Before our move my wife asked: 'Am I going to be cleaning this kitchen for the next 40 years of my life?' We had fallen into the daily grind of school runs and play dates. Our son Ran is nearly six, our twin daughters are three, and it struck us that we had a window of opportunity for an amazing family adventure. I’m lucky that I can do what I do from anywhere. Costa Rica is a safe country with a great environmental ethos, having had success in reforestation over the last 30 years. Everyone we told said: 'I wish I could do that.' Guess what? You can!

What do you owe to having been in the Cadets?

A lot. It’s all part and parcel of what’s made me who I am. It helped prepare me for the military world, with all its challenges and rewards. It’s easy to be lazy and do the least work possible, but the more you put into life, the more you get out. Being in the Cadets gave me the kind of education you can’t get in a classroom.