Running the Amazon Book

A friend who knew that I had spent a month on the Amazon in a dugout canoe gave me Joe Kane's book, 'Running the Amazon'. It's the story of the first expedition to travel from the source of the great river ' 17,000 feet up in the Andes ' to its mouth 4,200 miles away in Brazil. I began reading it with a huge dollop of skepticism. After all, I knew it wasn't as romantic as it seemed. I had spent much of my time on the river swatting no-see-ums during the day, being devoured by mosquitoes at night, sometimes paddling for a full day in the blazing heat without seeing another human being, the river so wide at times you can barely see the other side. But I also knew that when you have a group of people bound together under difficult conditions, especially people with outsized egos, sparks can fly.

The conditions for Kane and the nine others in the expedition he joined as its chronicler were difficult beyond imagination, far beyond my limited sea-level knowledge of the river. They had to battle oxygen deprivation at the top, rapids that roared through immense canyons on the way down, Peruvian revolutionaries who threatened to kill them, drug traffickers, unimaginable fatigue, the vagaries of nature, and most of all, their own emotions and those of each person on the expedition. The result: one of the most thrilling true adventure tales you can imagine.

Joe Kane is a wonderful writer, and he had a unique cast of characters to write about. Imagine ten people with egos big enough to take a journey that no human being had ever taken before, one that would be dangerous at best and deadly at worst. This is the cast of characters that make 'Running the Amazon' such a magnificent tale. Kane, the only North American, is a newspaper reporter from San Francisco. Francois Odendaal, the South African expedition leader, is a man with grandiose plans and more than a few character flaws. Piotr Chmielinski, the Polish co-leader, proves to be a pillar of strength for a group that is torn by dissension before a third of the journey is completed. British doctor Kate Durrant, the only woman, provides medical support for the group. The others ' Tim Biggs, Zbyszek Bzdak, Jack Jourgensen, Jerome Truran, Sergio Leon and Pierre Van Heerden ' all have skills that should have made the expedition stronger. But egos clash and personal agendas get in the way. Only a handful would be around at the end of the six month journey. But they give us one helluva ride along the way.