By
Chris Leadbeater
10:12 EST, 14 March 2013
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11:22 EST, 14 March 2013
Former British Army captain Ed Stafford made headlines in August 2010 when he became the first person to walk the full length of the River Ama on.
This epic 4000-mile journey took him two-and-a-half years, carrying him from the Andean peaks of Peru to the Atlantic coast of Bra il. Legendary explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes would describe the achievement as ‘truly extraordinary… in the top league of expeditions past and present.’
Staring at oblivion: Ed Stafford spent 60 says on the remote South Pacific island of Olorua
Two years on, Stafford’s next challenge would be rather different: 60 days spent alone on Olorua, an uninhabited island (near Fiji) in the South Pacific. The idea: to see if he could survive for two months equipped with nothing – including any clothing – but the video cameras he would use to film himself.
Here, he talks to Chris Leadbeater about eating raw li ards for tea, coping with isolation and worrying that he was losing his sanity in the middle of the planet’s biggest ocean.
Naked and Marooned with Ed Stafford begins on the Discovery Channel tonight (Thursday 14 March) at 9.00pm (Sky Channel 520 or Virgin Channel 211).
What am I doing here? Ed in full isolation mode on Olorua (left), and in more usual guise at home in Kent (right)
Sixty days by yourself on a desert island? How did the idea come about?
I funded my Ama on expedition myself, but Discovery Channel agreed to show it. The programme did well, so we talked about a new project. I wanted to try something that no-one else had done, but didn’t want to be away for another two years. So we had the idea of limiting the challenge to 60 days. Then it was a case of making something interesting.
Initially, the idea was to strip out any outside help. Then it was stripping out the food. Then someone said: ‘What if you were dropped on a desert island for two months, with absolutely nothing, stark naked? Could you survive?’ I said: ‘I don’t know.’ They said: ‘Perfect. That’s what we’ll do’. Essentially, the plan was to produce something authentic, absolutely real, with no storyline or camera crew. That final factor was very important.
Once you heard the suggestion, did it immediately appeal?
It was a boyhood dream sort of thing. Would I be able to do it? I’m not a bushcraft guru. I’m an expedition leader, an ex-military guy. If I start a fire, I use a lighter. I don’t rub sticks together.
So there were lots of skills that I had to learn. Because I didn’t know all the local plants, or different methods of trapping fish, or hunting techniques, it was a genuine challenge. But that was the beauty of it. That’s how it would be for most people.
Nice place, we’ll take it: Ed was fortunate to find a habitable cave on his first day on the island
How much preparation did you do in advance? Could you really prepare for this?
I worked on making fire by friction, with pieces of wood. I learned how to make a stone axe – although there wasn’t any stone on the island that was suitable as a blade, so I had to use clam shells. I learned how to make a bow-and-arrow. I went to Australia and met up with a few indigenous guys.
In the Aboriginal tradition of coming of age, they go out and spent extended periods of time – 30 days, 40 days – in the bush, on their own. They told me not to underestimate the effect of isolation. They said I had to have tactics that would keep me on an even mental keel. They told me to create a stone circle, and if I felt overwhelmed, I should go and sit in this circle with the belief that, if I was inside it, I was safe. I constructed this on the island. It proved a simple way to keep myself calm.
Was it strange having to film yourself?
The camera is a double-edged sword in this situation. In a way, it’s your friend. Yet I was also very aware that if a wave of panic came over me, it would all be recorded.
But the programme would not be very interesting if it just showed a He-Man figure who only thinks positive thoughts and says positive things. It is more fascinating if you look at the demons and the devils. I was never sure whether the camera made things easier or harder.
Things are hotting up: It took Ed two weeks to be able to make fire using traditional methods
Did you honestly think you would make it through the 60 days?
I always thought I would. It started well. On the first day, I found a cave to sleep in, sea snails to eat, and coconuts to drink. I could have lived like that for the next 60 days and got by. But the idea was not just to survive, but to evolve, become master of the island, build a sustainable, civilised life. I would have looked a muppet if, after 60 days, I was still eating raw food. So there was a pressure that I put on myself, because I was worried that I would not be able to evolve to the extent I should.
What was the toughest part?
I was always slightly dehydrated, because the water source was not abundant enough until it rained heavily – when I was able to collect more water. I was always slightly malnourished. And there were times when I questioned what I was doing. I would start thinking: ‘I have a beautiful fiancée in London, and I’m sitting on an island on the far side of the world, starving.’ Isolation alters your perspective.
Great leap forward: ‘The idea was not just to survive, but to evolve, become the master of the island’
What was your fiancée’s reaction to you doing this?
She thinks I’m a bit cra y. But we only met because she read my book about walking the Ama on. She knows what I’m like. And in comparison to the Ama on expedition, this was a relatively short project. It had to be, really. When I was in South America, I was single. I could afford to be more far reckless, and spend more time away from home.
Had you been to the South Pacific before?
I had been to mainland Fiji, but only on holiday.
So I had to adjust. Lighting a fire took two weeks, because I couldn’t identify the right wood. I knew roughly what to look for. But when you want some hot food and you’re starving – and you’re whittling these bits of tree into the right shape with a clam shell, and after a day and a half’s work you realise that it won’t work because it’s the wrong wood… that sort of thing is really difficult.
Woodsman: Ed managed to complete his 60 days on the island, but struggled with the sense of isolation
In the first episode you eat sea snails and geckos. Which tasted better?
They were both pretty disgusting. The best thing I ate was a coconut crab. They are bigger than a lobster, phenomenal things. And because they eat coconuts, they have this oily coconut flavour.
There was also a herd of feral goats that a Fijian clan had left on the island about 60 years earlier. I managed to kill one. That was wonderful. A big goat – 45, 50 kilos. I had to skin it, cut it up, try to cure it. I cut it into thin strips, marinated it in seawater so that it would absorb salt to help cure it, then hung it above the fire to dry. The meat lasted eight days – eight days of gorging myself. It would have lasted longer, but it was so tasty.
How did the island compare to walking the Ama on?
Different beasts. Walking the Ama on was, of course, harder. It took two and a half years. There were life-threatening scenarios, whether it was being held at arrow-point by indigenous tribes, or held at gunpoint by drugs traffickers in Peru. Oh, and the snakes.
That said, there were moments on the island when I was surprised how far it pushed me. There was a reef around the island. So the waves broke on the reef, and then again on the beach, with this dual breaking sound, 24 hours a day. It became like white noise. After a while, my brain found it impossible to process it, and turned it into music. I had songs – Land Of Hope And Glory, bi arrely – that never left my head. You can’t prepare for something like that. I could concentrate and cut the music out – but only for two or three seconds.
Was it temporary madness? I knew there was no music there. I couldn’t stop it.
Up to his neck in it: Ed became the first man to walk the length of the River Ama on in 2010
Did you have a holiday at the end of this?
I went to the Maldives with my fiancée a few weeks later. That’s a bi arre place to go on holiday when you’ve been stranded on a desert island for two months. Curiously similar, but obviously with much, much nicer food. It was certainly a good place to go and relax.
Where is your favourite place you’ve ever been?
Probably Patagonia. I spent over a year monitoring condors in the foothills of the Andes, and taking scientists on two-week ice-cap traverses in Chile. That’s an ama ing part of the world. Argentinians have a great sense of humour, and it’s a nice society to meld into. I didn’t feel too much of an outsider, even as an ex-British Army captain. Lovely people.
Homeward bound: Ed takes one last glance at Olorua after completing his two-month survival challenge
Do you have another big project in mind?
I’m going to take some time off first. But I have a couple of ideas in the pot…
Naked and Marooned with Ed Stafford begins on the Discovery Channel tonight (Thursday 14 March) at 9.00pm (Sky Channel 520 or Virgin Channel 211).
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Explorer Ed Stafford talks being naked and marooned on a South Pacific desert island
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