Ed Stafford

Ed Stafford walked into the history books when he became the first man to walk the length of the Amazon River. He faced numerous challenges, including snakes, severe floods, electric eels, jaguars, and the hostility of local tribes confronted with a tall foreign man in their midst. By filming and blogging his expedition directly from the Amazon, Ed Stafford caught the attention of followers all over the world.

When news broke that Ed Stafford had completed his journey, the story immediately caught the attention of the world press. The story was brought in more than 900 articles and on news channels worldwide. Ed Stafford’s own footage was subsequently made into a Discovery Channel documentary which was sold to more than 100 countries. His book about the journey, Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. One Day at a Time (2011), has been translated into Mandarin, Ukrainian, Polish, and Spanish, and was also sold to the United States.

Ed Stafford was awarded European Adventurer of the Year 2011. Guinness World Records has formally recognized Ed Stafford’s achievement and Ed also received an award for outstanding bravery from Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the Transglobe Expedition Trust. His achievement also brought with it new challenges and opportunities. He was invited to make the series “Naked and Marooned with Ed Stafford” for Discovery Channel, in which he filmed himself surviving for 60 days on an uninhabited island. He continues to work on acclaimed television projects: His subsequent survival series ‘Marooned’ was shown worldwide on Discovery in 2014 and 2015.  In remote and extreme environments, he filmed himself alone for ten days learning to survive, and attempting to thrive, in different remote, extreme environments. He intends to use his adventures to inspire adults and kids alike to stretch their horizons and believe that they can achieve all that they set their minds to.

Ed Stafford’s story has powerful lessons about seemingly impossible challenges, resilience, risk, working with others, respect for other cultures and the natural environment, and of course, motivation and staying positive when things are relentlessly tough. As a speaker, Ed’s style of delivery ensures that messages about success in the face of adversity, the determination to achieve targets, and riding out tough times are delivered in a very entertaining way with a large dollop of self-deprecating humour.