Ed Stafford

The Amazon Adventure

Nearly three years of Ed Stafford's life was used to 'Walk The Amazon', it was the first that this route had ever been walked and the longest jungle expedition ever.  He navigated the entire length of the 4000 mile river from its source in Peru  to the mouth of the river on the shores of Brazil on foot with his assistant Cho.  On the 9th August 2010 Ed Stafford and Cho ran into the sea on Maruda Beach surrounded by the worlds media as their expedition attracted worldwide attention.  Ed Stafford demonstrating what all great explorers demonstrate - a mission to inspire everyone around them to succeed against all odds through bravery, hardship and true grit.

Along the way Ed encountered venomous snakes, severe floods, electric eels, jaguars and hostile local tribes, one of whom held him for questioning about the murder of one of their tribesman. The route is known for drug trafficking and terrorist activity and white people are often feared and rarely seen in the area.  Ed had to remain focused, strong and positive. He had to use his natural cunning, sense of humour and his innate ability to understand how to communicate with all the people he met along the way in order to both survive and to continue on his walk.

Blogging, filming and narrating his journey through the Amazon, Ed Stafford also discovered he had a natural ability to enthrall his audiences with his stories, his laid back manner meant that his audiences felt they were on the journey with him as he regaled his adventures to the listening world.  This ability to survive in the world's remote locations while overcoming perceived insurmountable obstacles and communicating in difficult circumstances lends itself for Ed to inspire and motivate audiences to achieve their dreams thorugh his inspirational speaking.

The Biography of Ed Stafford

Ed Stafford's story really began when he left full time education and passed selection to win a position on the prestigious commissioning course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned as a British Army Officer in July 1999  Ed went on to command platoons in the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment, gaining his Northern Ireland medal in 2000 for his tour of Crossmaglen, South Armagh. Ed's  happiest military years were spent as an instructor at RTC Lichfield where he oversaw several hundred Army recruits through their basic training. Ed left the military in 2002 as a captain. 

Ed's first experiences as as an expedition leader began with the former charity Trekforce. He led groups of volunteers on community and conservation expeditions into the jungles of Belize, Guatemala and Borneo, and was eventually promoted to Country Director of Trekforce in Belize, overseeing all in-country operations.

Ed then saw an opportunity to widen his experience when the United States invaded Afghanistan after 9/11. Ed took a position as a UN contractor advising UN electoral workers on planning, logistics and security matters during the first ever presidential elections. Ed managed a team of similar contractors from Herat, in the western region of Afghanistan. During his time in Herat, Ed had his election counting centre rocketed by terrorists, his airport camp was mortared by improvised explosive devices that narrowly missed his un-armoured office, and the compound that he was stationed in burned to the ground by angry rioting locals when the warlord Ishmael Kahn was removed from office.

Expeditions and Adventures

Returning to expeditions, Ed took a new challenge presented to him of setting up extreme cold weather expeditions in Patagonian Argentina for the expedition company GVI. Ed was Director of Programmes in Argentina and ran the Argentinian branch of GVI carrying out scientific research projects and Northern Ice Cap traverses in Chile. More recently in 2007 Ed was offered work with the BBC's Natural History Unit. Ed was contracted to fly into Guyana and manage the construction of a filming base camp in the heart of the Guyanese rainforest. Ed managed 35 Amerindians over this construction period and then became the camp's logistics manager when the film crew arrived, nine weeks later, to start filming. "Lost Land of the Jaguar", in which Ed appears briefly giving a safety brief to the presenters in the opening programme, was first shown on the BBC and Discovery in summer 2008.

For further information or to book Ed Stafford, please contact us on info@speakerscorner.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)20 7607 7070