ADVENTURES IN AMAZONIA.

John Harrison has made seven canoe expeditions to Amazonia since 1979. With no back-up or radio for emergencies he has explored some of the remotest tributaries – places where it’s still possible to travel for hundreds of miles and see no-one for months.

John’s journeys take him past fearsome rapids and waterfalls and up little creeks clogged with fallen trees, into areas far from the depredations of man. Told with much humour and anecdote, the lecture also considers many serious issues: the accelerating deforestation, the activities of gold prospectors, the fate of the native forest people and the hunting and trade of endangered species.

The expeditions described are risky adventures in the old style: just one companion, with simple equipment, no sponsorship, and no exaggerated hype. But lots of hardship and misshap, including 16 bouts of malaria, large worms burrowing in the flesh, getting lost, capsizing in rapids, and one misguided crossing, with canoe, of a range of hills from one river to another. Some idea of the difficulty can be gathered from the fact that it took him six weeks to cover just 15 miles.

He also describes encounters with piranha, huge herds of wild pigs, anacondas, electric eels, wasps and hornets.

Above all, John leaves the audience with a sense of awe at the majesty of virgin rainforest and the beauty of the teeming life that it supports. 

llustrated with quality slides.