http://www.meassociation.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1366
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Ed was pushing himself so hard to the finish line that he collapsed and had to rest - missing the planned link up with GMTV. But he did manage to speak to BBC1 Breakfast at about 7.16 this morning. We'll put a link up to that interview as soon as it is available. He's now blogged with an account of what happened to him this morning. Read this blog
GMTV cameras will be capturing the moment on Monday morning when Ed Stafford and his Peruviuan walking companion Cho jump into the sea at the end of their epic Amazon walk - which has taken well over over two and a half years.
Ed - one of whose good causes is the ME Association's Biobank Appeal - will have walked from the source of the Amazon in Peru to the mouth of this greatriver in Brazil. Originally, it was going to be a 4,000-mile hike.
But flood waters which needed avoiding, poor mapping of the river basin and failures in the GPS device turned it into a grinding trudge over of 7,000 miles initially across desert then through mile upon mile upon mile of rainforest.
On the way, they've had to negotiate their safe passage with bandits, been locked up suspected of murder (they didn't do it!), and even had to dig a botfly out of Ed's skull. And, in the very early days, Ed even had a falling out with his original walking partner over who should have control of the iPod.
Ba Stafford, Ed's mum and an MEA trustee, will be in the studio in London expressing her delight, and hopefully plugging the biobank appeal.
Sorry, we don't at this moment know when this item will fit into the GMTV schedules on Monday morning (you may have to watch the whole show to catch it!). But we will put up the playback facility on our website as soon as possible afterwards.
Once Ed and Cho have caught their breath, and had a few well-deserved beers, they will fly home to Britain.
They're expected to arrive at Heathrow to a double hero's welcome sometime on Wednesday (11 August).
And, on November 11, Ed is due to appear at the Royal Geographical Society in London to share a lecture platform with Sir Ranulph Fiennes, leader of the Transglobe Expedition. It will be a real Phineas Fogg moment, but so much better!
CNN are already running day by day stories on Ed and Cho, travel photographer Keith Duchatel is completing the last few miles with them and 'The Sun" carried a double-page spread about them a few days ago. There's also the prospect of a TV film about the whole expedition.
Their blog is at walkingtheamazon.com
And, if you've two or three pounds to spare, you will be most welcome to put it into Ed's ME biobank account.
Welcome back, boys!