Happy Holidays

National Geographic Adventurer of the Year celebration in Washington, DC. We had the opporunity to meet explorer legends Will Steger (left) and Piotr Chmielinski (second from the right) and his son Max (right).

We hope winter is treating all of you well. Here on the west coast of Canada the snow is dumping down, with recent accumulations of almost two feet. It might be a little while before Julie and I are towing our rowboats down to the river for practice.

Although we haven’t been doing much rowing lately, we’re happy to announce the launch of our new website detailing our upcoming expedition – www.rowedtrip.com. We invite you to browse our site to learn about the expedition, our amphibious rowboats, and the school program. When the journey commences in March, 2008 we will post weekly updates along with photographs and video.

Also this month, Julie and I were privileged to be a part of this year’s National Geographic Adventurer of the Year celebration in Washington, D.C. We felt honored to hand this year’s Adventurer of the Year award to Andrew Skurka, for his epic seven-month, 11,062-kilometre hike through the American West to call attention to its magnificent landscape and the environmental and ecological threats affecting it. At the event Will Steger and Richard Branson were given lifetime achievement awards for their efforts in combating climate change through their adventurous lifestyles. Tim Cope, my friend and co-adventurer from the Yenisey River expedition was also being honored for completing his three-year equestrian crossing of the Steppe from Mongolia to Hungary. Check it all out in this month’s issue of National Geographic Adventure. Also present at the event was Piotr Chmielinski, the first to navigate the Amazon River from source to sea – a great inspiration behind our own Amazon expedition.

We would like to thank all of you who have been shopping at our online store for stocking stuffers. It is through the sales of our books and videos that we are able to fund our upcoming expedition and the corresponding school program. For those of you inquiring about Julie’s book, Rowboat in a Hurricane, she has recently handed in her draft to the folks at Greystone Books, and it will be out in fall 2008. Doubleday will be releasing the paperback version of Beyond the Horizon in February, 2008.

As I look beyond my monitor to blowing snow outside, my mind returns fondly to our Amazon expedition in 1999. Our featured expedition this month is Expedition Amazonas, a small group currently attempting to navigate the world’s largest river.

Colin Angus

Our December Explorers in Featured Expeditions
Expedition Amazonas

Rafting the Apurimac (Courtesy of www.expeditionamazonas.com)

A team hailing from Australia, South Africa and Britain is currently attempting to voyage the Amazon River from source to sea. This seven-thousand km journey spans most of the South American continent and will take the team through geography ranging from the high alto-plano in Peru's Andes to the lush Amazon basin. The greatest dangers on this trip are the extreme whitewater of Amazon's upper tributaries and rebel activity in the cloud forests adjacent to the mountains.

Read more about this adventure and our other Featured Expeditions.

Missed an earlier newsletter? Read updates from previous months.

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