Mike Horn

Whilst flicking through a glossy magazine in the late 1990s, I found an amazing article about a guy called Mike Horn. It told the amazing story of his swim down the Amazon. It wasn't just a wee swim in the jungle. It was "the crossing of the South American continent, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, on foot, with paraglider and hydrospeed. For six months, from August 10, 1997 until January 28, 1998, Mike experienced an incredible adventure. Initially he trekked 600 km through the Peruvian Andes to find the source of the Amazon River, situated on top of Mt Mismi, 5'800m above sea level. A voyage of 6 700 kms followed, as Mike descended the Amazon River on hydrospeed until he reached the mouth of the river in the Atlantic Ocean - solo and unassisted. Travelling the entire length of the mighty Amazon solo must be one of the greatest challenges on Earth." (If you have never seen a hydrospeed, you can get an idea by going to the activity column on the left of the screen and click "hydrospeeding the tay". There you will see my small adventure on a hydrospeed.) Photo courtesy of www.mikehorn.com Mike's trip was later turned into a documentary called "Swimming the Amazon" and is occasionally featured on the Adventure One channel, under the main heading of "Adventure Challenge" Here you'll find that this trip was far from a gentle swim. He swam over rapids, that even a seasoned white water rafter would think twice about. He was also captured by some hostile locals, who believed him to be the river devil who was responsible for drowning their children. There is much more to tell about this awesome trip, but for this you should go to Mike's website - www.mikehorn.com Since reading the article and watching "Swimming the Amazon", we found Mike's website. Little did we realise Mike's adventures didn't stop there. His next big adventure was even more incredible!! Photo courtesy of www.mikehorn.com Entitled "Latitude Zero", Mike Horn circumnavigated the world along the equator using only his own resources, i.e. non motorised transport. This amazing feat took Mike 17 months and 28 days. Mike has had many other adventures and they can all be found on his website. www.mikehorn.com Many thanks to Cathy & Mike Horn for their kind permission to use text and images featured on this page. For more related sites check out the Extreme Dreams Links Page