By Dani Rabaiotti

We got up this morning to discover that the boat was not moving as expected. The start had been delayed (punctuality is not a high Peruvian priority!). As I walked out into the light of the rising sun I saw Great Egrets flying overhead and heard the blow of a pod of river dolphins passing by. It’s so noisy here, but it’s at night the jungle really comes alive – with the sound of hundreds of frogs and insects calling incessantly.

It has rained and rained today, but then I guess that’s why they call it the rainforest Once it got really heavy we left off our preparations for the forthcoming wild camp, stripped down to our swimwear and showered in the rain. We all had a great time messing about with the people on the other boat and getting totally soaked. It was nice to actually feel cold for the first time. Even those in their waterproofs got soaked! The rest of the day has mainly been taken up by kit prep and packing for tomorrow – our journey into the jungle by canoe.

As I write this I see a pod of pink river dolphins out my window! I’m so excited! Best get packing, Dani x

By Jack Pitts

Woke up at 5.30am (really!) for a shower. Bejesus it was cold! The ordeal was over in 10 minutes – too long for some! “you take ages in the shower!” I heard from a distant corner of the boat. Noticed that my clothes wash bag is getting a tad full – hopefully there’ll be a chance to do some washing later?!

9.25am
Just returned from an hour long jungle trek, which included a handy exercise in compass reading and pacing. My pacing of 15 paces over 25 metres seemed to suit my pretty lengthy legs! The exercise involved using our pacings to walk 25m along a bearing and attaching a marker to the nearest tree (not difficult in the jungle!). A second party would then use their pacings to find the marker. The biggest ants I have ever seen, along with macaws, insects of numerous varieties and the dense jungle foliage/vegetation were particular highlights.

12.15pm
Just had a science briefing. Had a chat with ‘Outdoors Andy’ who was enthusiastic to hear about my plan to map our expedition rate as part of my small project.

12.30pm
The Lobo arrived (our other boat - it’s been catching us up since we were speedboated out to our boat yesterday)! With the Lobo came the group kit and the members of Wild and Caiman fires. A quick tour of each others’ boats later and the Lobo was all set to push us up river (as our boat has no engine!) to our final location. A small matter of 2 days travel.

4-5pm
Just had a comms talk, which included the use of a Garmin eTrex GPS - an old uni friend! Later on we went through UHF radio and VHF radio, walkie talkies and the EPIRB emergency beacon.

7-10pm
PARTY! Britney and Aaron played guitar, everyone sang and WE HAD HOT CHOCOLATE! Nice :)

Expedition return date - 22 August 06:45

There has been a bit of confusion with the return dates. To confirm:

Amazon expedition main party will be returning on Saturday 22nd August at 06:45

Main party depart tomorrow

The main party will be departing from Heathrow T4 at 08.40
Everyone must be at the airport by 05.40 to ensure check in goes smoothly and group kit can be distributed.

Make sure you set those alarm clocks!!

The expedition will be returning on 22nd August at 06.45.