Aboard three pedal boats and solar energy, the expedition “Amazon River: from ice to sea” plans to leave next April from the Peruvian Andes to reach the Atlantic Ocean six months later, after crossing Colombia. and Brazil.
“The main objective is to map the river and document its biodiversity” for scientific purposes, Brazilian explorer Yuri Sanada, project coordinator, told AFP, also referring to the production of a documentary.
So far, only a dozen people have ventured kayaking from one end of the Amazon to the other, but no one has ever done so with such objectives, underlines the one who also heads the production company. audiovisual Aventuras Produções with his wife Vera Sanada.
In the heart of the largest rainforest in the world, the Amazon has long been recognized as the most powerful river in the world with a flow far greater than that of the Nile, Yangtze and Mississippi combined.
But there is a decades-old dispute over which of the Nile and South American rivers is longer, due in part to the lack of consensus on where the Nile begins and ends. Amazon.
The Guinness World Records award first place to the Nile. But “the question of which is longer is more a matter of definition than simple measurement,” the site adds in a note.
According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the South American river is about 6,400 km long, from its source attributed to the Apurimac River in southern Peru, compared to 6,650 km for the Nile.
Anacondas, caimans and jaguars on the Amazon route
However, in 2014, the American neuroscientist and explorer James Contos developed a theory, according to which the Amazon could go back to the sources of another river, the Mantaro, located further north. If the expedition takes into account this point and a “more southern mouth” of the delta, this could “translate into a greater length of the Amazon”, he told AFP.
The expedition will cover both rivers simultaneously: one group – led by James Contos – will descend the Mantaro by rafting, while another will travel the banks of the Apurimac on horseback, accompanied by the French explorer Céline Cousteau, granddaughter of legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.
At the junction of the two waterways, Yuri Sanada and two other explorers will begin the longest leg of the journey, aboard individual bioresin canoes equipped with sensors to make “much more precise measurements”, explains the Brazilian.
The expedition, which has the support of international organizations such as The Explorers Club or the Harvard Digital Library, will be accompanied on certain sections by a support boat, which will serve as a base for audiovisual and scientific work.
Anacondas, caimans, jaguars… none of the animals on the course scare Yuri Sanada. “What scares me the most are the traffickers and the illegal miners,” he admits, explaining that the canoes will be equipped with bulletproof cabins. In addition, the expedition is negotiating with the authorities the possibility of an armed escort on the most dangerous sections.
If successful, the experiment could be reproduced on the Nile, assures Yuri Sanada, aware however that the controversy may never be resolved. The interest aroused by this “race” makes it possible to draw attention to the natural riches of Brazil and to the preservation of the planet, he pleads.
“The Amazon is (partly) located in Brazil, but the consequences of its destruction and the duty to preserve it belong to everyone,” says the project coordinator.
