We DID IT.

Somehow it was far more brutal than even we expected.

The “Great Amazon Raft Race” was absolutely brutal. 24.5 hours of paddling in 3 days. Contrasted by only 7.5 hours of sleep in 3 days. Physically it was obviously tough but mentally it was draining. The monotony - the endless wide vistas. A poorly built raft (by us) which either sunk at the front or the back! Having no option but to pee through our clothes and make sure we were hydrating in the stifling sun. The last slog ending 5 km up stream where all 4 of us were at our lowest having put all our energy into racing towards a finish line 3.5km before we realised that wasn’t even the end. 

But we did it. On a few occasions the police boat tried to tow us but we stubbornly refused and carried on. 

We are full of rashes and mosquitoe bites and blisters. 

But there were magical moments too. The unity in pushing ourselves far out our comfort zone together. The pink dolphins that kept joining us when we were at our very lowest as if they knew that we were struggling to pull through. The camping (even though not very effective for sleep).  The people of Peru are fabulous and welcomed us everywhere with beautiful dance and sunny smiles. They even waited hours after the boat in front of us finished to cheer us to the shore each day (there were only  5 entries this year. 3 were Peruvian teams. 1 was with 2 internationals and two locals and us- 4 non Spanish speaking internationals with absolutely zero Amazonian river navigation skills who hadn’t done enough endurance training but who pulled through with a whole lot of heart and a few crazy Aerosmith karaoke energy blasting moments! 😉 

We will NEVER ever do anything like this again.

There is a huge amount of footage that we will create something to hopefully share the magical madness of this challenge with you all.

Thanks for all of you who have sponsored us already. 

The race was described as:

• This Is Not A Race For The Faint Of Heart!
• Gruelling, tiresome, dysentery, pain, heat, humidity, dehydration, blisters,
• mud, bugs, storms... and piranhas.

Lead by Ski Sunday and 4 Time Winter Olympian Chemmy Alcott, the team want to use this challenge to highlight the need to support the top flight, history making British ski team who have recently been defunded by UK Sport.

They hope this challenge and its fundraising aim snowballs excitement for others to take on both personal challenges and also up and coming skiers to set their own possibly fundraising activities to help the likes of Dave, Charlie, Alex, Laurie, Billy and Charlie and all the other future talents in British skiing.