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I was asked by a close friend before departure why exactly we were making this journey and the more I thought about a sincere response, the blanker my mind went. Not so good when you are putting your life plus every penny you own behind something.
We weren’t doing this to raise money for charitable causes and so didn’t want to place this falsely at the top of our agenda. I love Brazil passionately and have done since I first arrived there nearly 10 years ago. But why exactly? People asked, and again…
I couldn’t give a deeper explanation. What had driven us to make such a commitment, and what continued to drive us both so strongly through the tired, low and lonely moments? The biggest journey is indeed ‘within’ and it seemed that only with time would we begin to unravel the truth.
Our jungle shirts and high-tech quick drying trousers are now stained with green splotches of tropical mould that seem to be slowly morphing from light polka dots into giant blobs. Shirts are split at the shoulders from 2300km of paddling. Last week we paddled into the Amazonian city of Santarém, 125 days into our voyage. But as the mould and rips grow, so does our little line across the map of Brazil.
So much time planning, dreaming and pondering over maps has actually translated to something real and here we are today in the thick of everything we planned and prepared for, not for a moment wanting our lives to be any different. As we plot our daily position, we have shaky waves of amazement at how far we still have to go to get down to the border with Uruguay – another year at least.
There have been moments when things could have crumbled from under our feet and left us reflecting for years to come on our failure, but we have managed to overcome the challenges and paddle on.
We are spending abnormal amounts of time in each other’s company and decisions are made several times a day that effect both our immediate safety and the future of the expedition. Two people make for a tricky democracy and with no time to argue, one of us must retreat and try their best not to judge the other in hindsight.
An ‘I told you so’ situation in a tense moment would be enough to pull the rug from under us. ‘Paper, scissors, rock’ unfortunately cannot be relied on for decisions of any significance, but it has helped resolve minor squabbles, such as who gets the crap hammock spot – although Aaron remains invincible at this game and I’m increasingly reluctant to play.
https://www.sidetracked.com/125-days-in-amazonia/