Tag Archive for 'jessica watson'

Adventure Inspiration

mathew published on December 14, 2010 in celebrity, technology, transportation and zeitgeist. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Hey SuperForest!

I was drawn to National Geographic today, and found the Adventures of the Year 2010! Are you in need of inspiration? Then head over to National Geographic and read up on these stories. Our good friend David de Rothschild, creator of the Plastiki, is on the list as well! So, be sure to check his story out, and all of the others’ stories, including SuperForest favourite Jessica Watson. I will include my favourite story below to whet your appetite. I should also mention that each story also has an interview with each of the candidates. Go get inspired!

The Explorer

By walking the Amazon from source to sea, Ed Stafford completed one of the last epic, undone adventures.

A river greater in length and volume than any in the world, and no one had hiked along its entirety. A jungle the size of a continent, and no one had managed to cross all of it on foot. When Ed Stafford found out (after some Googling) that the Amazon had never been walked, he decided he was the one to do it. And he did. Stafford trekked more than 4,000 miles through the Amazon—surviving hostile locals, venomous snakes, and huge distances without food resupplies—for nearly two and a half years (860 days). The latter part of the expedition was with a Peruvian forestry worker, Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera, who accompanied Stafford from his home town in Peru all the way the Atlantic Ocean, arriving on August 9, 2010. It was the first time Cho had ever seen the ocean. It was the first time anyone had walked the entire length of the Amazon River.
—By Ryan Bradley

IN MY OWN WORDS

By Ed Stafford

A Partnership Forms
I was going through an area of Peru called the Red Zone, which is notorious for drug trafficking and terrorism. Cho was a forestry worker, and he’d been out of work for a few weeks. He knew that area and told me: “I’ll walk with you through there.” It wasn’t just dangerous—it was bloody terrifying. Everyone we met said we were going to get killed—even the Peruvian police force can’t enter this lawless zone. But Cho really enjoyed those five days and said, “Well, I’ll walk with you to the next town if you like, Ed.” And at the next town he told me, “Well, if you can get me a passport, I’ll come with you through the southern tip of Colombia and into Brazil.” Cho, in fact, never went home and ended up accompanying me for the remaining two years.

Staying Connected
My main sponsor was hit by the financial crisis and couldn’t continue funding me after a year and a half. It was only through an online plea for funds we were able to keep going. An individual from Hong Kong gave nearly $10,000; some school kids in America even donated their pocket money. It was quite humbling. The mobile Internet unit I carried enabled me to broadcast the expedition live, uploading videos and blogs. The Internet created this expedition, and it also ended up saving it.


Pointed Encounters
Some of the Amerindian communities in Peru are quite closed off, and there are a lot of myths about outsiders. They believe in this pela cara [“face peeler”] that comes in and kills villagers and takes their body parts. Unfortunately, this pela cara looks a lot like a gringo, and convincing people I wasn’t a human body part trafficker was quite tricky and draining. A few times we got held at gunpoint and arrow-point. As a result of the atrocities inflicted in the ’80s and ’90s, a lot of people were angry or scared when they saw us. Many indigenous communities live in a permanent state of defensive alertness.


Broke but Happy
We ran out of food quite a few times, our GPS broke, and as we had no money, our insurance lapsed. I think this section when we were really remote and everything was going wrong for us ended up being the highlight of the trip. It was just Cho and me in the jungle having to use our wits and experience to survive. We were so remote and far from the river that if anything had gone wrong that needed immediate medical attention. we would have died. That was the bottom line. As the Brazilians would not let us use their detailed military maps, and the GPS had broken, we ended up navigating using a compass and a 1:4 million map of the entire Amazon Basin!


Smoked Tortoise
We fished each night, often the easiest fish to catch were piranhas. Once, when we ran our of wire “leaders”, we had to daisy-chain sewing needles together to stop the piranhas biting the hook off the line. On another occasion when we were completely out of food, we found a red footed tortoise and we were so starving that we killed it, then salted and smoked it over the fire. This was our only food for the next few days. Cho justified it as a gift from God.


The Good Life
In the middle of the rain forest we slept in very comfortable hammock systems with big mosquito nets. Sure, we were going through swamps and flooded forests with mosquitoes and biting ants, but we loved our time in the jungle. There were no stresses like in the towns. It was a simple life. People pick up on the fact that I had a bot fly living in my head or the skin disease leishmaniasis, but these were trivial really; the jungle’s not as bad as everyone makes out. It was an almost idyllic life at times.


A Partnership, Continued
The level of trust built up between Cho and me was absolutely undisputed. He’s just been granted his English visa, and he’s planning to visit the UK to learn English and play rugby. I owe him a huge amount and it’ll be lovely to have him here, pay him back, broaden his horizons a bit.

An Honest Agenda
Having schools follow the journey and learn about the rainforest was a fantastic bonus but I have to admit, deep down, the primal drive that kept me going was really the desire to be the first person to walk the river. World firsts are quite hard to come by these days.

(Via.)

Found Poetry Friday: Sailing…

jordan published on May 21, 2010 in art. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

The subject of sailing seems to be in  the air for me this week.  One of my kindergarten friends launched his year long expedition to sail the Pacific from Hawaii-Tahiti-to New Zealand and beyond.

And yesterday I was so moved to read/watch the story of Jessica Watson in Aaron’s Inspiration Information Post — I thought I’d find a poem about sailing.

Of course the first thing that came to mind was Tennyson’s “Ulysses”… but I’ve already posted that before.  I found several great ones by Walt Whitman.  But then I remembered William Butler Yeats “Sailing to Byzantium” — which may not be so much about literal sailing after all.  But what a treat to hear him read his poem:

I
That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees
–Those dying generations–at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unaging intellect.

II
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

III
O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

IV
Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Thursday’s Inspiration Information — Jessica Watson

aaron published on May 19, 2010 in celebrity and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , .

“I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m an ordinary girl who believed in a dream.  You don’t have to be someone special, or anything special to achieve something amazing… you just got to have a dream, believe in it and work hard.” –Jessica Watson

This past Saturday, May 15 2010 — Australian teenager Jessica Watson sailed into Sydney Harbor after 210 days at sea.  It was her first time setting foot on land, let alone seeing another human for the last 7 months.  What Jessica had just accomplished was a complete solo-cicumvanigation of the globe, spanning over 21,000 nautical miles… all completely unassisted.  She had no escort boats for safety support.  No stops for food or equipment repairs.  Just one girl on a 34 ft yacht named The Pink Lady, all alone of the wide dangerous sea.

And the most incredible fact of all, Jessica Watson did all this at the tender age of sixteen — making her the youngest person (male or female) to sail solo around the world.

Jessica’s route around the world

She left Oct 18, 2009 crossing the South Pacific and battling severe storms in the treacherous waters of Cape Horn and Hope.  She was knocked down 7 times,  nearly capsizing.  She had to fight gale force winds, severe cold, extreme boredom and loneliness that have caused many older and experienced sailors to break down under the pressures of drifting alone on the vast unknown.

Many people said she’d never make it.  Many more criticized her parents for letting their young daughter embark on such a clear suicide mission.  They said she was too young and inexperienced to sail all on her own.  They said she wasn’t psychologically mature enough to handle the crippling solitude, the lack of sleep, the overwhelming responsibility.  They looked at her freckles, her earnest smile, her little girl voice… and they doubted.

But thousands more chose to believe.  And as Jessica sailed further and further, weathering every storm, her fan base grew.  Jessica cut through the swirling controversy with the ease and resolve of an expert navigator.  And by the time she made it back to home, the whole country of Australia and yes the world was swept in a wake of  inspiration.  She proved what she knew she was capable of all along.  That she could accomplish greatness no matter her age or gender.  In spite of expectations.

And this is Jessica Watson’s ultimate message of empowerment: that no horizon is too great, no destination too far to reach if you just believe in your ability to get there.

Take a minute to watch the incredible homecoming footage of Jessica sailing into Sydney Harbor.  Tens of thousands of people crowded the docks outside the famous Opera House, all inspired by this young teenager’s courage and accomplishment.  And to watch that tiny pink boat surrounded  by a fleet of hundreds of bigger ships all sailing her home… simply astounding.  I have never seen such a homecoming in my life.

Cheers to Jessica for her incredible journey, for her resiliency of spirit and humility.  For reminding us that it’s never too earlier to set sail for the dreams we desire most… and never too late to make those dreams a living, breathing reality.

Keep dreaming big Superforesters!

love,

aaron