the times | Thursday November 25 2021 3
News
When a young British explorer and her
team began a trailblazing trek through
250 miles of uncharted Amazon rain-
forest, they did not get off to the most
auspicious of starts.
Lucy Shepherd, 29, from Henham in
Suffolk, was plunged into the rapids of
the Essequibo River and left clinging to
her rucksack to stay afloat when her
raft capsized shortly after setting off.
“The expedition was nearly over
before it began,” she said. “Lots of es-
sential equipment and us went out of
the boat and we were taken down the
river quite far. Thankfully we had
another boat that also had kit and they
picked us up on a rock in the middle of
the river. It was amazing, remarkable
luck or fate. It shook us up.”
After the early shock, Shepherd and
her team became the first people to
complete the never before attempted
route through Guyana’s Kanuku
mountains after fending off jaguars,
swarms of wasps and deadly snakes.
The rainforest is thought to be one of
the last remaining unexplored wilder-
nesses on earth. But Shepherd, who has
make sure the guys know that I should
be treated as an equal from day one,
because otherwise when I’m going to
the toilet I would have to go far away
and that’s not safe.”
Despite the group spending the first
three weeks questioning whether they
were going to reach the end, they fin-
ished the trek together on November- They emerged after 50 days at sun-
rise from deep rainforest at the top of a
mountain to the sight of savannah
plains and civilisation on the border
with Brazil. Shepherd said: “It was a
sombre moment. The men had never
been in the forest for that long. They
were worried about civilisation, and
worried about not being in a routine.
Everyone was a little bit hesitant about
wanting to leave the jungle.”
She is returning home to Hornsey in
north London on Saturday and will be
met by her boyfriend.
To prepare for the trek she undertook
mental visualisation training and wore
rucksacks weighing more than 30kg
during British heatwaves with no water
to mimic the Guyanese climate. The
trip was partly funded by the Scientific
Exploration Society, of which Shepherd
is their youngest council member. She
was made a fellow at the Royal Geo-
graphical Society six years ago.
She called for more women to take up
adventuring and blamed the lack of
female role models for the disparity. “I
think it is changing. I hope to help with
that change,” Shepherd said. She said
locations visited by Bear Grylls inspired
her, as well as The Jungle Book and Tar-
zan at an early age.
Shepherd is already eyeing her next
adventure. “There are definitely places
on this earth that are untouched, with
no record of people going there.”50 milesLethemEndStartKing
William
FallsKanuku
MountainsGUYANAEssequibo
RiverBRAZILtrees to escape 500-strong herds of ag-
gressive boars. “Even the snakes dis-
appear when they come,” she said. Her
group went on to face a run-in with the
largest species of venomous snake in
South America and giant spiders.
Daily life in the jungle brought the
group to breaking point. Shepherd said:
“Privacy goes out the window. I have toLUCY SHEPHERD/SWNSBritish woman
conquers new
Amazon route
scaled the Bolivian
Andes and explored
glacial Svalbard,
managed it with the
help of four men
from Amerindian
tribes, a map that
was 50 years out of
date, and a talent for
thinking on her feet.
Shepherd, who
was chief navigator,
first aider, and film-
ographer, paid trib-
ute to the other mem-
bers of her team, two
of whom had to leave
owing to injury: Aar-
on Bernadine, 52; Viv-
ian Smith, 34, who left
with a leg injury;
Michael McDonald, 25; Lionel James,
53, who was also injured; Maximus
Griffith, 21 and Carlos Honorio, 41.
Shepherd and the men spent 17 days
out of the two-month trek in “claustro-
phobic” darkness under the rainforest’s
tree canopy. She told of encountering
rivers inhabited by alligator-like cai-
mans, and scrambling up toweringPeter Chappell
5 ;LionlJLucy Shepherd,
29, from Suffolk,
was accompanied
by men from local
Amerindian tribes,
left. During the
50-day trek she
foraged and
fished with a
bow and arrow