Fat bloke swims Amazon

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Martin Strel from Slovenia lived to tell — and drink.

Mate, you're 54 and caned the world's most hardcore river in 66 days – knocking back a couple of bottles of plonk a day. What was the scariest thing you saw?
The Amazon is the most dangerous part of the world. There's tropical diseases and dangerous animals like piranhas, anacondas, bull sharks, crocodiles, snakes and stingrays. There are many indigenous tribes – some dangerous, some friendly. It's difficult to be in the water because it's muddy and impossible to see anything. Every stroke was a risk. You can't even see your hand.

Did you have any "When animals attack" moments?
There was a piranha attack. It's no pain – just like a fire in my back. They have very sharp teeth and there were thousands of them around. We used a blood bucket to misdirect them. You must use old blood, maybe three weeks old, and it has a terrible smell. There were often alligators on the banks but they weren’t aggressive. A lot of snakes were on our boat – always a lot on the engine in the morning.

Were you afraid of anything?
The women are very aggressive. And there’s a lot of them in the jungle. Much more than men. In some places, up to 10 or 20 times more. They wanted to marry me. There's also lots of pirates. They want to take your money, food and equipment and they followed us up the river.

Tell us more about the aggressive chicks.
In the jungle, you have a lot of women and they want you to stay with them. My security was six people, 24 hours a day. They had guns and knives and they protected me from the women, tribes, pirates. There is a lot of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and money in the Amazon countries. You have to pass it on the boat. Don’t touch these people.

What's the most dangerous waters you have swam? Leave your comment below.