A Wild Amazon Adventure with a Cause

24 year old Davey du Plessis set off to South America a few days ago to begin his solo adventure across the Amazon. The Amazon project is directed at addressing issues faced by the natural world and working with a notable conservation organization to promote and raise funds towards conservation of the earth and her inhabitants.

The project consists of three stages that will see Davey completing the Amazon River from source to mouth. An initial hike to the 18 000ft Mt Mismi source in the Andean Mountains, an estimated 1 000km cycle along the main Apurimac tributary, through the Andean mountains, and the final 5 700km paddle decent down the Amazon river. If completed, Davey will be the youngest and second solo adventurer to travel the Amazon River from source to mouth, after Mike Horn.

Davey has had previous experience of completing a charitable cycle from Egypt to South Africa, addressing the housing issues faced by rural Africa, working with Habitat for Humanity. The journey took 4 months and covered just under 10 000km, and resulted in the completion of a house built for a family in Tanzania.

Davey will also be collecting research data during the Amazon Source to Sea project for the Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation Organization. The project Davey will be collecting data for is the South American Wild lands and Biodiversity project. Much of the Western parts of the Amazon are largely unexplored and lack current data. Davey’s observations, photos, interactions and descriptions of the local environment, species and people will be used in instrumenting clearer knowledge of the areas he travels through.

We’ll catch up with Davey in the coming weeks to fill us in on his travels

Follow Davey’s adventure on worldwonderer.co.za and on twitter