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Running the Amazon
The voyage began in the lunar terrain of the Peruvian Andes, where coca leaf is the only remedy against altitude sickness. It continued down rapids so fierce they could swallow a raft in a split second. It ended six months and 4,200 miles later, where the Amazon runs gently into the Atlantic. Joe Kane's personal account of the first expedition to travel the entirety of the world's longest river is a riveting adventure in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, filled with death-defying with narco-traffickers and Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and nature at its most unforgiving. Not least of all, Running the Amazon shows a polyglot group of urbanized travelers confronting their wilder selves -- their fear and egotism, selflessness and courage.From the Trade Paperback edition.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 17, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
June 17, 2015
Running the Amazon is a thrilling personal account of a truly remarkable expedition, which traversed the entire 4,200 mile length of the powerful and mysterious Amazon river, of which the author Joe Kane was a participant. Starting from the source of the Amazon in Peruvian Andes a team of explorer’s - 10 men and a woman - travel through punishing terrain and dangerous jungles to finish a unique expedition � tracing the Amazon from it’s source to mouth was never recorded before � at Marajo Bay where Amazon meet Atlantic Ocean. Of the initial eleven members only four members � one of them is Joe Kane � made it to the mouth of the might river, with the other members dropping out at various phases, in an exhausting journey, which took six months to finish.
The journey was a grueling test of human endurance as each step of the expedition had an aura of misery and doom written over it and there is enough adventure in the narrative to keep the reader glued to the book. Braving extreme weather, altitude sickness, malaria, murderous rapids, storms, jungles teeming with danger, narcotic traffickers, guerilla forces and native tribes the members of the expedition faces mortal danger on every phase of the journey. Problems with in the team and financial issues also add to the misery of the expedition. Joe Kane� narrative is detailed and he is able to capture the spine-tingling thrills of such an extraordinary journey and the exotic environments of Amazon in a vibrant manner. The way in which the author narrates the kayaking part of the expedition through some of the most dangerous white waters on the planet is breath taking.
It is truly remarkable that Joe Kane who had no previous experience in white water rafting braved all the perils and successfully endured the whole journey. ‘Running the Amazon� is a classic adventure, which gives the reader a thrill ride at the same time providing him with a fair amount of insight into the mysterious Amazonian geography.
The journey was a grueling test of human endurance as each step of the expedition had an aura of misery and doom written over it and there is enough adventure in the narrative to keep the reader glued to the book. Braving extreme weather, altitude sickness, malaria, murderous rapids, storms, jungles teeming with danger, narcotic traffickers, guerilla forces and native tribes the members of the expedition faces mortal danger on every phase of the journey. Problems with in the team and financial issues also add to the misery of the expedition. Joe Kane� narrative is detailed and he is able to capture the spine-tingling thrills of such an extraordinary journey and the exotic environments of Amazon in a vibrant manner. The way in which the author narrates the kayaking part of the expedition through some of the most dangerous white waters on the planet is breath taking.
It is truly remarkable that Joe Kane who had no previous experience in white water rafting braved all the perils and successfully endured the whole journey. ‘Running the Amazon� is a classic adventure, which gives the reader a thrill ride at the same time providing him with a fair amount of insight into the mysterious Amazonian geography.
October 10, 2014
A friend who knew that I had spent a month on the Amazon in a dugout canoe gave me Joe Kane’s book, ‘Running the Amazon�. It’s the story of the first expedition to travel from the source of the great river � 17,000 feet up in the Andes � to its mouth 4,200 miles away in Brazil. I began reading it with a huge dollop of skepticism. After all, I knew it wasn’t as romantic as it seemed. I had spent much of my time on the river swatting no-see-ums during the day, being devoured by mosquitoes at night, sometimes paddling for a full day in the blazing heat without seeing another human being, the river so wide at times you can barely see the other side. But I also knew that when you have a group of people bound together under difficult conditions, especially people with outsized egos, sparks can fly.
The conditions for Kane and the nine others in the expedition he joined as its chronicler were difficult beyond imagination, far beyond my limited sea-level knowledge of the river. They had to battle oxygen deprivation at the top, rapids that roared through immense canyons on the way down, Peruvian revolutionaries who threatened to kill them, drug traffickers, unimaginable fatigue, the vagaries of nature, and most of all, their own emotions and those of each person on the expedition. The result: one of the most thrilling true adventure tales you can imagine.
Joe Kane is a wonderful writer, and he had a unique cast of characters to write about. Imagine ten people with egos big enough to take a journey that no human being had ever taken before, one that would be dangerous at best and deadly at worst. This is the cast of characters that make ‘Running the Amazon� such a magnificent tale. Kane, the only North American, is a newspaper reporter from San Francisco. Francois Odendaal, the South African expedition leader, is a man with grandiose plans and more than a few character flaws. Piotr Chmielinski, the Polish co-leader, proves to be a pillar of strength for a group that is torn by dissension before a third of the journey is completed. British doctor Kate Durrant, the only woman, provides medical support for the group. The others � Tim Biggs, Zbyszek Bzdak, Jack Jourgensen, Jerome Truran, Sergio Leon and Pierre Van Heerden � all have skills that should have made the expedition stronger. But egos clash and personal agendas get in the way. Only a handful would be around at the end of the six month journey. But they give us one helluva ride along the way.
The conditions for Kane and the nine others in the expedition he joined as its chronicler were difficult beyond imagination, far beyond my limited sea-level knowledge of the river. They had to battle oxygen deprivation at the top, rapids that roared through immense canyons on the way down, Peruvian revolutionaries who threatened to kill them, drug traffickers, unimaginable fatigue, the vagaries of nature, and most of all, their own emotions and those of each person on the expedition. The result: one of the most thrilling true adventure tales you can imagine.
Joe Kane is a wonderful writer, and he had a unique cast of characters to write about. Imagine ten people with egos big enough to take a journey that no human being had ever taken before, one that would be dangerous at best and deadly at worst. This is the cast of characters that make ‘Running the Amazon� such a magnificent tale. Kane, the only North American, is a newspaper reporter from San Francisco. Francois Odendaal, the South African expedition leader, is a man with grandiose plans and more than a few character flaws. Piotr Chmielinski, the Polish co-leader, proves to be a pillar of strength for a group that is torn by dissension before a third of the journey is completed. British doctor Kate Durrant, the only woman, provides medical support for the group. The others � Tim Biggs, Zbyszek Bzdak, Jack Jourgensen, Jerome Truran, Sergio Leon and Pierre Van Heerden � all have skills that should have made the expedition stronger. But egos clash and personal agendas get in the way. Only a handful would be around at the end of the six month journey. But they give us one helluva ride along the way.
December 13, 2013
A beautifully told story. From an ice-wall at the source, 17,000 feet up in the Andes, to the taste of salt in the Atlantic at the end, Joe Kane gives us what it was like to make the first transit of the entire length of the Amazon. It's a little surprising to think no one had done it until 1985. Then again, given the near lunacy of the attempt during the 1,000-mile mountain white-water portion... Although none died in the effort, attrition reduced the original party of ten to only four who made it from the "puna," the high Andean desert, to the Atlantic. Kane, the only American, was one. Consider this, just about every facet of the river for all 4,200 miles was hostile: beginning with altitude; progressing through "strainers" where the river plunged through rock crevices with such force that if you were taken into one there is no known way to get your body out; storms; narco-traffickers; terrorists (Sendero Luminoso and others); litanies of diseases, including leprosy; insects (some that deposit larvae under your skin); well-known dangerous animals such as bushmasters (they swim), and some others such as the "candiru, a tiny parasitic catfish that pins itself inside the human urethra with nonretractable spines [which once in place] must be cut out." Add to that, having to make three million paddle strokes to do it at all. And he says he would do it again.
February 29, 2008
Clearly written by an excellent journalist this is a true story about Mr. Kane's expedition on the Amazon, from its source high in the Andes, to its end. His descriptions of the geography, topography and native cultures make it a memorable read, particularly to those interested in South American native culture.
October 22, 2023
Well-told, by a journalist from San Francisco who in the 1990s accompanied an expedition determined to follow the course of the river from its source in the glacial Andes down to its entrance into the Atlantic. Best at describing the tensions among the crew, the difficulty of navigating the white waters, and the massive changes in climate, terrain, and inhabitants, Joe Kane's account moves along with appropriate briskness. I wanted to be swept up into the adventure. But I tellingly could relate best to the fact that he took along a copy of The Portable Conrad. I felt distracted by the pace, and disinterested in what I knew should have kept me turning pages. Maybe I'd been reading too many adventure accounts in quick succession, so Running the Amazon lost for me, no fault of its own merits, some of its momentum. All the same, it made me follow with his travelogue with the Haroauni people of the Oriente, in the heart of development by Texaco and evangelism by the Summer Institute of Linguistics missionaries during the early 1990s, Savages. Perhaps extreme sports enthusiasts may like RtA the best...
March 26, 2017
On the whole, this book is a disappointment. The sub-title describes the voyage: "A firsthand account of the only expedition ever to travel the entire 4,200 mile Amazon from its source high in the Andes to its union with the Atlantic Ocean." It was the sort of trip that was "first" only because there's no real reason to make it. The course of the river down from the high Andes is rough enough that no traveler ever would take it solely for the purpose of getting from one place to another, and it probably wasn't even possible to follow it until the advent of modern equipment. Then, when the river slows down, it presents a journey of over 3,000 miles on flat water that probably would bore most white-water kayakers.
Still, I expected the book to offer insight and observations on the people and plant and animal life of what still was a relatively untouched area. This expectation was not met; the members of the expedition come off more as squabbling tourists than skillful adventure travelers, the descriptions of people living along the river are mundane, and the author is not especially observant of natural history. The book also focuses entirely on the author's own observations and completely ignores what the rest of the group was doing during the frequent occasions when the party was forced to split up. Perhaps this narrow focus was used because the author wanted to tell only his own personal story, or perhaps other members of the expedition chose not to cooperate, as it is evident from fairly early on that they had split into cliques and didn't care much for each other. In any event, the story is left incomplete.
I am a sucker for travel stories in foreign lands, especially when the area in question remains environmentally pristine. Although this book was right up my alley, so to speak, but its shortcomings were obvious.
Still, I expected the book to offer insight and observations on the people and plant and animal life of what still was a relatively untouched area. This expectation was not met; the members of the expedition come off more as squabbling tourists than skillful adventure travelers, the descriptions of people living along the river are mundane, and the author is not especially observant of natural history. The book also focuses entirely on the author's own observations and completely ignores what the rest of the group was doing during the frequent occasions when the party was forced to split up. Perhaps this narrow focus was used because the author wanted to tell only his own personal story, or perhaps other members of the expedition chose not to cooperate, as it is evident from fairly early on that they had split into cliques and didn't care much for each other. In any event, the story is left incomplete.
I am a sucker for travel stories in foreign lands, especially when the area in question remains environmentally pristine. Although this book was right up my alley, so to speak, but its shortcomings were obvious.
November 7, 2024
Incredible adventure
July 3, 2023
What a find this was! Found in the 'freebie' pile at the end of the local library book sale, I guess it looked old and 'dated'. But what a ride it turned out to be! Written about an expedition in 1985-86 to boat (raft and/or kayak) the entire Amazon River from it's headwaters high in the Peruvian Andes to the outlet at the Atlantic Ocean near Belém, Brazil. You will never look at that river system quite the same as they journey the various tributaries, Apurimac, Ucayali, Marañon, Solimões and the mainstem. The true headwaters of the Amazon are still in some dispute but they started close enough to it, given the variations in how that is defined. The journey down the Apurimac River, crashing out of the high Andes takes up better than half the book and is the most gripping part. It is one crazy river, plunging through deep canyons with Class V rapids (some higher and essentially non-survivable), with cliffs sometime caving in or rocks falling. It seemed miraculous that no one died or was seriously injured although there were numerous close calls. The team itself varied in skill from world-class kayakers to complete newbies (although some rode rafts and others were doing ground support). The team deserves to be named--Kane, the author and only North American was a journalist San Francisco, Francois Odendaal, the South African expedition 'leader', is borderline delusional, Piotr Chmielinski, the Polish co-leader, proves to be the true leader and the major reason that success was achieved. British doctor Kate Durrant, the only woman, provides medical support for the group. The others � Tim Biggs, Zbyszek Bzdak (another stalwart Pole), Jack Jourgensen, Jerome Truran, Sergio Leon and Pierre Van Heerden. Only Truran, Biggs and Cmielihnski were highly experienced kayakers. The fact that Kane, an utter newbie is pressed into kayaking huge swaths of the trip on the lower river is another interesting twist. You feel his pain!
This expedition occurred in 1985-86, near the height of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) insurgency in Peru lending a geopolitical twist to the story that provides an additional layer of danger and uncertainty along with drug traffickers appearing at various points along the river, especially at they approach the Colombian border at Leticia. Kane takes time out in the chronicle for brief historical snippets and sociopolitical observations which add greatly to the context, especially in Peru. Their encounters with the local people, many indigenous, along the river are as fascinating as any of the river theatrics. You can question the wisdom and purpose any such 'adventure', risking life and limb mainly just to say you 'did it'. And the local people certainly do in this book as they struggle just to survive. But humans seem driven to such activities (witness the much ridiculed Titan submersible recently) sometimes for money but often for little discernible gain. Doubt anyone made much money off this epic adventure but I was pleased to see that Piotr Chmielinski the true driving force, went on to have a successful career. I read somewhere that this book was named on some list (there are many) of the top 100 adventure books of all time and I have no doubt it belongs on such a list. I was sad when the journey ended but happy for them and for Joe Kane's tortured wrists!
I'd say 4.5 stars (rounded up) due to the lack of an index and the photos which are dark and often blurry.
This expedition occurred in 1985-86, near the height of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) insurgency in Peru lending a geopolitical twist to the story that provides an additional layer of danger and uncertainty along with drug traffickers appearing at various points along the river, especially at they approach the Colombian border at Leticia. Kane takes time out in the chronicle for brief historical snippets and sociopolitical observations which add greatly to the context, especially in Peru. Their encounters with the local people, many indigenous, along the river are as fascinating as any of the river theatrics. You can question the wisdom and purpose any such 'adventure', risking life and limb mainly just to say you 'did it'. And the local people certainly do in this book as they struggle just to survive. But humans seem driven to such activities (witness the much ridiculed Titan submersible recently) sometimes for money but often for little discernible gain. Doubt anyone made much money off this epic adventure but I was pleased to see that Piotr Chmielinski the true driving force, went on to have a successful career. I read somewhere that this book was named on some list (there are many) of the top 100 adventure books of all time and I have no doubt it belongs on such a list. I was sad when the journey ended but happy for them and for Joe Kane's tortured wrists!
I'd say 4.5 stars (rounded up) due to the lack of an index and the photos which are dark and often blurry.
July 22, 2014
I felt predisposed to like “Running the Amazon� and, while it is a roaring read, came away mildly disappointed. Joe Kane was a journalist who found himself in the right time & place and made the best of it. Asked to join the first full navigation of the Amazon by kayak, despite his lack of river skills, he jumped at joining an expedition of international daredevils � who ended up fighting among themselves almost as much as they fought the river � as the only American. Due to his likable persistence, openness to learning, and siding with the winning clique, he ends being one of only four out of ten starters to actually accomplish the goal. In the process they overcome some of the world’s deadliest white-water, Shining Path guerrillas trying to kill them, inadequate funding and poor health, to be the first to run the Amazon’s full length. Nice.
Yet the book has a claustrophobic feel, and not only from the massive upper river canyons of the Amazon’s furthest tributary, the Apurimac, in Peru. The infighting among the multinational egos � ranging from the Afrikaners who organized the romp, the exiled Poles who became the expedition’s core, a Tico and a Brit � takes more water under the bridge than you would think. The ex-patriot vibe, a bubble of an adventure floating down a river of cultural strangeness, barely diminishes as the months pass by. No natives were invited on the journey to help explain the sights, and instead only serve as picaresque encounters, some positive, many negative.
The inherent drama of a bunch of loony foreigners, here going nearly blindly down a raging river, doesn’t need to feel this way. One of the classics of both travel literature and travel literature in Brazil, Peter Fleming’s 1933 “Brazilian Adventure,� deals with another batty quest (to discover the fate of one Colonel Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon while searching for the Lost City of Z) enlivened by mutiny, came often to mind. While Fleming is as equally uninformed as Kane on the cultures he visits, he delights in the company of some young Brazilian co-adventurers and carries us through with a wit that is both incisive and self-deprecating, making the yarn both hilarious and informative.
Don’t get me wrong. Kane writes smoothly, even winningly. Having been sought out, at first, by the expedition to write press releases for fundraising, and, when he refused, was then offered to join the expedition as its scribe if he raised sufficient funds, he demonstrates a becoming humility. Yet a certain coarseness, of a Californian out of his element, plagues him.
While over half of the journey takes place in Brazil, Kane’s set up for the country lacks subtlety or class. His final words of the preceding chapter are: ‘“Good luck in Brazil!� the base commander [in Colombia] shouted as we left. ‘All they do is dance and f- -k!”� Several days later Kane and the lead Polish kayaker spend the night tied up to a cargo boat, as is their wont when no town or village is in sight. Speaking of its captain, Kane struggles with the rough setting and his lack of Portuguese: “I took [Maria] to be Edison’s daughter, until that evening when the charged grunts issuing from the stern quarters she shared with Edison suggested otherwise.� Not content with that, Kane finishes the paragraph with: “Not dissimilar grunts rose from the mosquiteiro [the first mate] Miguel shared with the three boys.�
And this from a narrator who, earlier in the saga, had decided to cheat on his live-in girlfriend (part of the trip’s impetus is that his home situation “scared� him) with the insistent wife of one his Peruvian hosts, which proved fruitless as it was all a joke.
Kane certainly deserves credit for his honesty by confessing up front that he was “by far [the team’s] most naive member.�
Augmenting his obtuseness is the usual modish Leftiness. I find few things less attractive than a traveler who badmouths his country when out of it. (With, clearly, the exception of tyrannical regimes.) So Kane’s puerile reply to a Peruvian host, “‘And if you get a lot of American money down here,� I said, ‘Alan [Garcia] will not be President for long,’� grated. (Garcia was a leftist President in the late �80's whose term was “generally considered disastrous,� and “was marked by a severe economic crisis, social unrest and violence,� per Wikipedia.) When a menacing local revolutionary threatens him, Kane in a smug way relates how his reply to the query “What do you think of Alan?� with “He is intelligent and brave� earns him his freedom. So unblinking Leftism protects you from bad things even in Peru!
Furthermore, while it is understandable that Kane had no time before the trip to research the geographies they would pass through, that he didn’t afterwards is less so. “A dozen bare-chested Indians waited our landfall there. (Yaguas, I believe, though the difference between the mestizo and Indian, let alone Indian and Indian, blur so much from that point on down the river as to be meaningless.)� Now I don’t blame a man for getting confused by the melting cauldron that is Peru and especially Brazil, but the comment neatly sums up the journey: the trip is about the winning, the proving themselves along a long race, and not about learning about the people who blur by in the river’s murky reflection.
Remember, though, that Kane is a journalist, not a writer, so the reader’s expectations should adjust accordingly. (He boasts of writing for The New Yorker, which these days is not such a boon due to its political slant.) As if to compensate for this cultural blur, and to his credit, Kane’s one subsequent book called “Savages� is about an Ecuadorian tribe he spent months studying. And his dislike of American success is softened at book’s end when in a hotel’s sauna “for no reason other than homesickness, a Frank Sinatra song piped over the loudspeaker reduced me to tears.� I gladly cheered him on here.
At last losing his sunglasses “which slip into the deep without a sound,� he reflects, “Over the last week the river has snatched my knife, my thermos, a hat, two pens, and the silly slippers. It is as if she wants to purify me, wants to send me to the sea stripped of all but thought and memory and the bonds of friendship.�
Indeed, the book’s finest moment comes quickly. “But there is no question of quitting now. Tomorrow, as I have for months, I will simply plow along behind my good friend Piotr Chmielinski.� If only Kane could have demonstrated such becoming humbleness towards a power greater than himself other than friendship, what a better book it might have been.
In the Afterword, we learn he “married the girl I left behind� and he nicely sums up the traveler’s code: “For a while, at least, the Amazon sucked me out of my cocoon, and my life has been the better for it.� Good for you Joe!
Yet the book has a claustrophobic feel, and not only from the massive upper river canyons of the Amazon’s furthest tributary, the Apurimac, in Peru. The infighting among the multinational egos � ranging from the Afrikaners who organized the romp, the exiled Poles who became the expedition’s core, a Tico and a Brit � takes more water under the bridge than you would think. The ex-patriot vibe, a bubble of an adventure floating down a river of cultural strangeness, barely diminishes as the months pass by. No natives were invited on the journey to help explain the sights, and instead only serve as picaresque encounters, some positive, many negative.
The inherent drama of a bunch of loony foreigners, here going nearly blindly down a raging river, doesn’t need to feel this way. One of the classics of both travel literature and travel literature in Brazil, Peter Fleming’s 1933 “Brazilian Adventure,� deals with another batty quest (to discover the fate of one Colonel Fawcett who disappeared in the Amazon while searching for the Lost City of Z) enlivened by mutiny, came often to mind. While Fleming is as equally uninformed as Kane on the cultures he visits, he delights in the company of some young Brazilian co-adventurers and carries us through with a wit that is both incisive and self-deprecating, making the yarn both hilarious and informative.
Don’t get me wrong. Kane writes smoothly, even winningly. Having been sought out, at first, by the expedition to write press releases for fundraising, and, when he refused, was then offered to join the expedition as its scribe if he raised sufficient funds, he demonstrates a becoming humility. Yet a certain coarseness, of a Californian out of his element, plagues him.
While over half of the journey takes place in Brazil, Kane’s set up for the country lacks subtlety or class. His final words of the preceding chapter are: ‘“Good luck in Brazil!� the base commander [in Colombia] shouted as we left. ‘All they do is dance and f- -k!”� Several days later Kane and the lead Polish kayaker spend the night tied up to a cargo boat, as is their wont when no town or village is in sight. Speaking of its captain, Kane struggles with the rough setting and his lack of Portuguese: “I took [Maria] to be Edison’s daughter, until that evening when the charged grunts issuing from the stern quarters she shared with Edison suggested otherwise.� Not content with that, Kane finishes the paragraph with: “Not dissimilar grunts rose from the mosquiteiro [the first mate] Miguel shared with the three boys.�
And this from a narrator who, earlier in the saga, had decided to cheat on his live-in girlfriend (part of the trip’s impetus is that his home situation “scared� him) with the insistent wife of one his Peruvian hosts, which proved fruitless as it was all a joke.
Kane certainly deserves credit for his honesty by confessing up front that he was “by far [the team’s] most naive member.�
Augmenting his obtuseness is the usual modish Leftiness. I find few things less attractive than a traveler who badmouths his country when out of it. (With, clearly, the exception of tyrannical regimes.) So Kane’s puerile reply to a Peruvian host, “‘And if you get a lot of American money down here,� I said, ‘Alan [Garcia] will not be President for long,’� grated. (Garcia was a leftist President in the late �80's whose term was “generally considered disastrous,� and “was marked by a severe economic crisis, social unrest and violence,� per Wikipedia.) When a menacing local revolutionary threatens him, Kane in a smug way relates how his reply to the query “What do you think of Alan?� with “He is intelligent and brave� earns him his freedom. So unblinking Leftism protects you from bad things even in Peru!
Furthermore, while it is understandable that Kane had no time before the trip to research the geographies they would pass through, that he didn’t afterwards is less so. “A dozen bare-chested Indians waited our landfall there. (Yaguas, I believe, though the difference between the mestizo and Indian, let alone Indian and Indian, blur so much from that point on down the river as to be meaningless.)� Now I don’t blame a man for getting confused by the melting cauldron that is Peru and especially Brazil, but the comment neatly sums up the journey: the trip is about the winning, the proving themselves along a long race, and not about learning about the people who blur by in the river’s murky reflection.
Remember, though, that Kane is a journalist, not a writer, so the reader’s expectations should adjust accordingly. (He boasts of writing for The New Yorker, which these days is not such a boon due to its political slant.) As if to compensate for this cultural blur, and to his credit, Kane’s one subsequent book called “Savages� is about an Ecuadorian tribe he spent months studying. And his dislike of American success is softened at book’s end when in a hotel’s sauna “for no reason other than homesickness, a Frank Sinatra song piped over the loudspeaker reduced me to tears.� I gladly cheered him on here.
At last losing his sunglasses “which slip into the deep without a sound,� he reflects, “Over the last week the river has snatched my knife, my thermos, a hat, two pens, and the silly slippers. It is as if she wants to purify me, wants to send me to the sea stripped of all but thought and memory and the bonds of friendship.�
Indeed, the book’s finest moment comes quickly. “But there is no question of quitting now. Tomorrow, as I have for months, I will simply plow along behind my good friend Piotr Chmielinski.� If only Kane could have demonstrated such becoming humbleness towards a power greater than himself other than friendship, what a better book it might have been.
In the Afterword, we learn he “married the girl I left behind� and he nicely sums up the traveler’s code: “For a while, at least, the Amazon sucked me out of my cocoon, and my life has been the better for it.� Good for you Joe!
March 21, 2022
What a journey! At first I expected a trip down what most people know as the Amazon - the very river full of some rapids and the forest, but this book went beyond that. This story starts high in the Andes and travels through multiple countries to begin at what is presumably the source of the Amazon to run the entirety of the river! This allows for so much more adventure to enter the book and so much more history. The author meets interesting people and goes through perilous points he would not have otherwise encountered making the book that much intriguing. The author also has a stylistic vocabulary which makes the book that much more enjoyable.
February 13, 2015
I hard a hard time getting into this then really loved it. I think at first I was just trying so hard to keep up with which parts of the group were going where and rendezvousing when and so forth that it was kind of distracting but when the author gets on the water and goes the full length, well that was so awesome! I'm the kind of person who doesn't wonder "who wants to do that?" and instead wonders "who doesn't want to do that?"
Read
July 6, 2016If there were a literary canon of river exploration this book would be near the top of the list. Great read about an important and historic descent. Loved it.
April 16, 2020
A true adventure book that I bought many years ago whilst training to become a Kayaking Coach.
Fabulous book about canoeing the length of the Amazon from source to mouth.
Fabulous book about canoeing the length of the Amazon from source to mouth.
September 15, 2020
An exciting book about running the amazon. The beginning is a little slow but the last 1/4 I couldn’t put the book down!
July 18, 2017
This book is constantly on the recommended reading lists for those interested in canoe/kayak expeditions and adventure travel in general.
The author is invited to document the first ever attempt to kayak the entire Amazon from the headwaters somewhere in the mountains of Peru through the Amazonian jungle and finally to the sea.
The majority of the book takes place in Peru. In fact they don't actually reach the Amazon proper until about 75% through the book.
And that's because to actually start from the official headwaters of the Amazon you have to canoe several rivers that feed into the Amazon river system:
After 730.70 kilometres (454.04 mi), the Apurímac joins the Mantaro River and becomes the Ene River at 12°15�46″S 73°58�44″W, 440 m (1,440 ft) above sea level; then after joining the Perené River at 330 m (1,080 ft) above sea level, it becomes the Tambo River; when it joins the Urubamba at 280 m (920 ft) above sea level the river becomes the Ucayali, which is the main headstream of the Amazon.
The Apurimac river is essentially one long Class V (or VI) rapid through a narrow canyon.
Kane's description of running this particular river is worth the read alone. It is the kind of edge of your seat adventure writing that is great for armchair explorers.
In addition to running the river the group has to deal with insects, hostile (sometimes surprisingly so) natives, lack of food, Communist Guerrillas (this took place in the 80's at the height of the Shining Path insurgency) and trigger happy border guards.
And, most significantly, the dynamics of the group which were complex at best and led to a significant lack of group cohesion through a large part of the trip (often threatening to end the whole trip prematurely).
Here's a tip: getting asked to join an expedition to somewhere far-flung and dangerous?? Check the references of the other group members - especially the leaders. It might save you some nasty surprises when you are in the middle of nowhere.
The author is invited to document the first ever attempt to kayak the entire Amazon from the headwaters somewhere in the mountains of Peru through the Amazonian jungle and finally to the sea.
The majority of the book takes place in Peru. In fact they don't actually reach the Amazon proper until about 75% through the book.
And that's because to actually start from the official headwaters of the Amazon you have to canoe several rivers that feed into the Amazon river system:
After 730.70 kilometres (454.04 mi), the Apurímac joins the Mantaro River and becomes the Ene River at 12°15�46″S 73°58�44″W, 440 m (1,440 ft) above sea level; then after joining the Perené River at 330 m (1,080 ft) above sea level, it becomes the Tambo River; when it joins the Urubamba at 280 m (920 ft) above sea level the river becomes the Ucayali, which is the main headstream of the Amazon.
The Apurimac river is essentially one long Class V (or VI) rapid through a narrow canyon.
Kane's description of running this particular river is worth the read alone. It is the kind of edge of your seat adventure writing that is great for armchair explorers.
In addition to running the river the group has to deal with insects, hostile (sometimes surprisingly so) natives, lack of food, Communist Guerrillas (this took place in the 80's at the height of the Shining Path insurgency) and trigger happy border guards.
And, most significantly, the dynamics of the group which were complex at best and led to a significant lack of group cohesion through a large part of the trip (often threatening to end the whole trip prematurely).
Here's a tip: getting asked to join an expedition to somewhere far-flung and dangerous?? Check the references of the other group members - especially the leaders. It might save you some nasty surprises when you are in the middle of nowhere.
September 12, 2022
Literary work on exploration of nature is rare these days. This one was a true exploration story - of the River Amazon Source to Sea Expedition.
The writer joined the exploration not by choice but by chance. I did not expect much in the beginning for that reason.
But after about half the book I found that the writer developed real appreciation for nature. His report of the moral standards, the lack of it to be precise, of the people of the banks of the Amazon River specially in the Brazilian part of it is very worrying.
More detailed information on the terrain and its occupants, both human, plants and animals would have made the book more valuable.
The author displayed his understanding of the propriety of the language in choosing uncommon use of some English words, 'purchase' etc. But we also noticed with frustration that the current complacency regarding the propriety of speech in avoiding the indecency that is so common also affected the author. At one place the author writes:
"The names painted ornately on these leaky hulks were the wildest of boasts: Queen of Belém, Grace of God, Princess of the Sea, the word Princesa all but obliterated by soot from her farting engine", (Chapter 18, The Pará).
Here the use of the word "farting" to mean the release of gaseous and solid substances that are residue of the combustion process of the engine of the vessel is noticeable. The word "fart" is a "very informal" expression of the act "to release gas from the bowels through the bottom", according to the Cambridge Dictionary,
Using this word in the case of a vessel is unthoughtful and unwise. We regret that.
We wish to read the other book the author wrote, titled 'Savages', Vintage, 1995. ISBN 0-679-41191-7.
The writer joined the exploration not by choice but by chance. I did not expect much in the beginning for that reason.
But after about half the book I found that the writer developed real appreciation for nature. His report of the moral standards, the lack of it to be precise, of the people of the banks of the Amazon River specially in the Brazilian part of it is very worrying.
More detailed information on the terrain and its occupants, both human, plants and animals would have made the book more valuable.
The author displayed his understanding of the propriety of the language in choosing uncommon use of some English words, 'purchase' etc. But we also noticed with frustration that the current complacency regarding the propriety of speech in avoiding the indecency that is so common also affected the author. At one place the author writes:
"The names painted ornately on these leaky hulks were the wildest of boasts: Queen of Belém, Grace of God, Princess of the Sea, the word Princesa all but obliterated by soot from her farting engine", (Chapter 18, The Pará).
Here the use of the word "farting" to mean the release of gaseous and solid substances that are residue of the combustion process of the engine of the vessel is noticeable. The word "fart" is a "very informal" expression of the act "to release gas from the bowels through the bottom", according to the Cambridge Dictionary,
Using this word in the case of a vessel is unthoughtful and unwise. We regret that.
We wish to read the other book the author wrote, titled 'Savages', Vintage, 1995. ISBN 0-679-41191-7.
May 16, 2018
I'm surprised I never encountered this book in the Rupununi, it seems like Karanambu would have this title. :) Premise - a man kayaks the length of the Amazon from Andes to the Atlantic. Damn! I was interested by that alone; I always had a wild dream to kayak the Colorado River. The Amazon is the biggest river by volume, and debatable on length - or at least it was back when Joe Kane was on it - depending on the route taken through the deltas. As I read this book, the technical details made this journey so much more layered and interesting. Of course, the entirety can't be kayaked, I learned. The first portion was hiked by a team of more than 10, gathered by Francoise Odendaal, in freezing temperatures on the Andes Mountains. Then, a raft and a few on kayaks, started at the turbulent white water, and finally, towards the second half, did Kane begin kayaking (the group numbers dwindling). Kane began the trip as the writer of the expedition, a background "character." He was one of two who made it to the Atlantic primarily by kayak, and another two by boat. The details of the team, and how funds were raised, hierarchies were formed and the setbacks they had were all interesting. The isolated people and towns along the way were illuminating. The journey, not just the destination. Kane was able to paint a vivid picture, with fewer words. He wrote of their troubles without a dramatic flair, he let them speak for themselves. A humble, dangerous adventure, and me, 30 years later, am proud of Kane, Chimolienski and the rest of the crew.
July 25, 2020
I thought this was going to be a book about the Amazon river basin, including the environment and the animals. I was wrong.
It is a chronicle of a disorganized team (if one could call it a team) that its selfish, bossy, and insecure members know nothing but fighting, bickering, arguing, disputing, conspiring, and vying for dominance. Did I mention fighting? What about bickering? If I forgot, let me tell you: They keep fighting, bickering, arguing, etc. etc. etc. etc. all the time. The author seems to be the only decent person on the team (at least he has a humble attitude), but I would prefer to hear the others' accounts before deciding on that. Other than fighting that tops their list, their only other priority seems to be sex (up to the point of almost getting themselves killed for it).
Animals are not mentioned except when they exasperate the writer, or when they are killed, either as food or for enjoyment. The environment is considered to be an enemy. Its beauty is ignored most of the time.
The only thing which the book gets right is the adventure. The kayaking, rafting, challenges of hiking� they have all been discussed in vivid detail. You almost feel you are experiencing all that for yourself. In spite of all the negativity, it was the driving force that kept me reading. But the constant fighting has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that not even all the water in the Amazon can rinse it.
It is a chronicle of a disorganized team (if one could call it a team) that its selfish, bossy, and insecure members know nothing but fighting, bickering, arguing, disputing, conspiring, and vying for dominance. Did I mention fighting? What about bickering? If I forgot, let me tell you: They keep fighting, bickering, arguing, etc. etc. etc. etc. all the time. The author seems to be the only decent person on the team (at least he has a humble attitude), but I would prefer to hear the others' accounts before deciding on that. Other than fighting that tops their list, their only other priority seems to be sex (up to the point of almost getting themselves killed for it).
Animals are not mentioned except when they exasperate the writer, or when they are killed, either as food or for enjoyment. The environment is considered to be an enemy. Its beauty is ignored most of the time.
The only thing which the book gets right is the adventure. The kayaking, rafting, challenges of hiking� they have all been discussed in vivid detail. You almost feel you are experiencing all that for yourself. In spite of all the negativity, it was the driving force that kept me reading. But the constant fighting has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that not even all the water in the Amazon can rinse it.
April 30, 2018
Running the Amazon by Joe Kane is about a voyage that began in the Peruvian Andes. It continued down rapids so fierce they could swallow a raft in a split second. It took 6 months and was 4,200 miles long. It ended where the Amazon River runs into the Atlantic. This is Joe Kane’s personal account of the first expedition to travel the entirety of the world’s longest river. It is an adventure filled with death-defying encounters.
I would recommend this book to people who are interested in adventure. I liked how the story was told and was an interesting read even if you are not into whitewater adventure. Joe Kane did a good job of describing the canyons, forest, and local people. He was able to tie them into the Amazon’s history very well. Reading the foreign names were somewhat difficult to pronounce for myself internally as I was reading. After I got through that the book was amazing.
I would recommend this book to people who are interested in adventure. I liked how the story was told and was an interesting read even if you are not into whitewater adventure. Joe Kane did a good job of describing the canyons, forest, and local people. He was able to tie them into the Amazon’s history very well. Reading the foreign names were somewhat difficult to pronounce for myself internally as I was reading. After I got through that the book was amazing.
August 15, 2022
The great Amazon river has never been rowed from its source in the peruvian Andes to the other end in the Atlantic ocean. This is the mounstrous task that an expedition comprised of Joe Kane and several others pretend to achieve. Kayaking when possible, walking when not, and losing many jaded companions along the journey, Piotr Chmielinski and Joe Kane end up being the first (and only) people to ever row the entirety of the 4200KM between the Andes and the Atlantic ocean.
It's a great adventure. Kane definitely made his time to take notes along the way, everything is described in such great detail that you'd think he wrote the book just days after finishing his enterprise. My only nitpick would be that the amount of unnecessary information at times is too much: historic facts, geographic data and river descriptions that end up not adding much to the reading experience. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read.
It's a great adventure. Kane definitely made his time to take notes along the way, everything is described in such great detail that you'd think he wrote the book just days after finishing his enterprise. My only nitpick would be that the amount of unnecessary information at times is too much: historic facts, geographic data and river descriptions that end up not adding much to the reading experience. Overall a thoroughly enjoyable read.
May 25, 2023
The events in this book took place in 1986. The author was part of an international team attempting to kayak the Amazon from source to sea, some 4200 miles. They did all of this without GPS or satellite phones. They just got in the water and paddled.
It’s a truly remarkable story, really well told. A considerable amount of the story is given over to the relationships between the members of the team. These were fractious, argumentative and often caused and exacerbated by the team leader.
The story of the people of South America they meet along the way and the changing landscape from the height of the Andes to the Amazon basin is written well. The author paints a picture of a place that whilst still mainly harsh, lonely wilderness, was already being systematically destroyed by industry. I wonder how different it looks now, almost forty years on?
It’s a truly remarkable story, really well told. A considerable amount of the story is given over to the relationships between the members of the team. These were fractious, argumentative and often caused and exacerbated by the team leader.
The story of the people of South America they meet along the way and the changing landscape from the height of the Andes to the Amazon basin is written well. The author paints a picture of a place that whilst still mainly harsh, lonely wilderness, was already being systematically destroyed by industry. I wonder how different it looks now, almost forty years on?
October 19, 2017
The 1985 Source to Sea Expedition recruited the author at the last minute to document the first kayak journey along the entire length of the Amazon River, from its source high in the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean. While he started as a member of the support team, following along in a raft through the Class 6 rapids, when the expedition was in danger of falling apart due to inept leadership, he assumed a more active role, eventually becoming one of the two team members to kayak the rest of the 4,200 mile river, despite having no kayak experience. Along their journey, he chronicles the people, forests, and most of all the river itself, making for a highly interesting read.
March 12, 2018
In the 1980's a group of people were hired to attempt the canoe/kayak/raft the Amazon River from it's source to the Ocean. The person who chose the team only knew a few of the people he hired and the rest were picked at random. By doing this the team lacked cohesiveness and direction, soon falling apart. The author, Joe Kane, was chosen to write about the journey and as it turned out, he and one other were actually able to complete the complicated journey by sea kayak while only 2 others were left to do the support work from the original number. Interesting story but would have liked more maps inserted in the book to guide the reader on the journey.
July 27, 2019
If you like real-life adventure stories you'll love this riveting tale of a group of adventurers who set out to run the Amazon river from its source high in the mountains of Peru to the point where it spills into the Pacific ocean in Brazil - a distance of more than 4000 miles.
From tackling heart-stopping level 6 rapids near the source, to dodging bullets from the 'Shining Path' guerillas, to battling heat, hunger, exhaustion, and disease, Running the Amazon is a story of survival and perseverance. The book is also exceptionally well-written, with fantastic descriptions of the land and the people who occupy it. An excellent read.
From tackling heart-stopping level 6 rapids near the source, to dodging bullets from the 'Shining Path' guerillas, to battling heat, hunger, exhaustion, and disease, Running the Amazon is a story of survival and perseverance. The book is also exceptionally well-written, with fantastic descriptions of the land and the people who occupy it. An excellent read.
January 28, 2020
Pretty good! A young guy with no kayak experience ends up partnering with an experienced padler and they run all 4m miles of the Amazon River. He skips the initial whitewater, but gets in an ocean kayak with 3m plus miles to go. It is a big group to begin with, and lots of bickering which was annoying but I suppose that is the way it is. The book found it's stride when it was just the two paddlers coming into remote villages at night looking for food and a tent site, and the unusual people they would meet.
September 22, 2020
Gripping adventure story
Slow in the beginning, the story moves like the river itself, and quickens its pace until I couldn't stop reading. I was most amazed by the descriptions of the people that live along the river. How they survive is beyond me - the lack of food and basic supplies. And how these people made it through the trip alive with all the sickness and poisonous insects and snakes is amazing in itself. Very good read.
Slow in the beginning, the story moves like the river itself, and quickens its pace until I couldn't stop reading. I was most amazed by the descriptions of the people that live along the river. How they survive is beyond me - the lack of food and basic supplies. And how these people made it through the trip alive with all the sickness and poisonous insects and snakes is amazing in itself. Very good read.
November 3, 2021
3 1/2 stars. Action adventure travel. Mind boggling account of the Amazon Source to Sea Expedition. Hiking to the source of the Amazon River high in the Andes of Peru and then kayaking through insurmountable obstacles both physical and mental all the way to the Atlantic Ocean 4200 miles away. Well written, adrenaline inducing, though for me there was too much time given to the infighting among the team
January 8, 2023
Writing style is somehow not easy but subject ...
The subject of this book sounds interesting but due to ?Joey Kane's writing style, I cannot judge whether this is going to be a good book or a slog. I'm only reviewing the Kindle sample, which I downloaded to see if the book was worth purchasing. I'm still undecided but leaning towards not, unless it becomes available as art of the kindle unlimited program.
The subject of this book sounds interesting but due to ?Joey Kane's writing style, I cannot judge whether this is going to be a good book or a slog. I'm only reviewing the Kindle sample, which I downloaded to see if the book was worth purchasing. I'm still undecided but leaning towards not, unless it becomes available as art of the kindle unlimited program.
Read
April 9, 2023Was really motivated to finish this book before the end of school since Cam lent it to me (thanks Cam!!). Found it hard to get into up until Odendaal left the expedition. Learned a lot about the whole area, culture of the people along the way, and different philosophies for undertaking an expedition like this. Lots of detail in there. Can’t believe how lucky they were, somethings made my jaw drop. Also cool that Piotr has an environmental engineering firm. He was my favourite.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 21, 2017
Even if you know NOTHING about river exploration, kayaks, Peru, Brazil, or a little history of the Incas read this book. It's a great travel book for the arm chair traveler and very informative. Easy to follow and one can only marvel at the strength it took to accomplish four thousand miles of river travel with men you hadn't known until this trip
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