WHAT IT TAKES   RISKS & REWARDS

...To Swim 3,000 Miles
Through the Jungle
Martin Strel. 52, ultramarathon swimmer

BIG SPLASH: Extreme
swimmer Martin Strel
protected his face
from me Amazon sun
with a custom-made
mask nuring his 66-
day journey.

Every day
was the
same: pain,
pain, pain.


ON APRIL 7. Slovene
Martin Strel stumbled
ashore in Belm. Brazil,
after a 66-day. 3.000plus-
mile swim down the entire
Amazon River. Near the
end of his epic-when he
was suffering from severe fatigue. near third-
degree sunburn. and dangerously higi blood
pressure-his medical team pleaded with him
to take a few days rest. But Strel. already
renowned for stroking the lengths of the Mis-
sissippi, Danube, and Yangtze Rivers, pressed
on. He swam for ten hours a day. eluding pira-
nhas. candiru (tiny parasitic fish that can swim
into the urethra), and even river pirates. Here
he shares the skills that kept him treading
dangerous water. 		-Gregory Mone

Think you can. After I swam the Yangtze [in
20041, people were telling me, Martin, you
can swim the Amazon. Then I talked to people
who told me. Martin, dont do this. You will
die. Thats a big challenge for me!

Beat the heat. I can swim the
crawl for 10. 12. even 20 hours
nonstop. But when the sun was
strong, I swam the backstroke,
and we made a mask that I could
put over my face. That was much
better. Otherwise the sun would
have destroyed me. Then. near the end. there
were huge tidal bores. Every six hours the tide
changed, so I had to swim at night.

Enjoy a cold one. Id stay in the water Eve
and a half to six hours, then get in the boat to
eat and drink for half an hour. After lunch I
needed two cups of red wine. After dinner too.
And I drank maybe one or two cups of beer a
day. Beer was good for my lips, to wash my
mouth of all the mud in the water. Then Id go
in again and swim.

Watch your mouth. When I swim like this.
its not possible to sleep at night. Two, three
hours. maybe. But I can sleep in the water. I
would fall asleep, swim like a snake for about


two minutes. and then some
water would rush in my mouth
and Id wake up.

Psych up. Im alone. lts not a
competition. Its just a tight
between me and this big river in
the jungle. I constantly kept my
mind running through stories
while swimming, about my fam
ily. about what wed done before:
the Mississippi. the Danube. I
had many hallucinations too. Sometimes I
tried to call animals from the jungle, Please
help me. Im so tired. I cant do this.

Assess the risks. This river has many danger-
ous fish, but people in Brazil and Peru
said. Martin. be careful: the most dangerous
things in the Amazon are not iish, not crooo
diles. but women. They outnumber the men
around here 20 to one. Apparently they get a
little aggressive sometimes.

Relish victory. Now Im probably one of the
happiest people in the world. Every afternoon
I visit a spa and stay for two hours-sauna.
Jacuzzi. massage. This is much easier than
the Amazon. I like these days very much.
