What do you get when you cross a hard drinking, flamenco playing, professional gambler with some of the world’s longest and most hostile rivers? An utterly compelling and live affirming documentary that makes you consider how little most of us actually do to raise awareness of some of the planets most pressing issues.
‘Big River Man‘ (showing at selective cinemas now) follows Slovenian endurance swimmer Martin Strel as he attempts to swim the length of the Amazon (some 3,375 miles) for “for peace, friendship and clean waters”.
No stranger to the long distance dip, the 50-year old has conquered the Danube (1,780 miles), murdered the Mississippi (2,414 miles) and has swam from source to sea on the Yangtze (2,487 miles). When the Nile was suggested as his next challenge, Strel casually dismissed the magnificent waterway saying: “It’s long but not challenging enough, it is just a small creek.”
Tankers, toxic waste and dead bodies are among the floating obstacles the 15-stone athlete has dodged. But such impediments are nothing compared to the company he keeps while paddling along. Bull sharks, piranhas and candiru (they’re the fishy fiends that swim up your bits and pieces before locking themselves onto your innards with razor sharp spikes) have all been taken on and defeated on his journeys downstream, so it’s no wonder he often calms his nerves by knocking back two bottles of wine a day while swimming.
Strel’s Amazonian adventure in Speedos was dedicated to preserving the rainforest which, by comparison, makes Sting taking a bloke with a plate in his face out for tea look a little tokenistic.
With Strel swimming further than most of us will walk in a lifetime – and with Eddie Izzard this week completing a knee-shattering 43 marathons in just 51 days in the name of charity – our buying of the Big Issue once every Christmas and sponsoring the odd mate in fun run all seems a little insignificant. I know I must try harder. How about you?
Click here for amazonswim.com
Andy Stone
Related posts:
Tags: Eddie Izzard, Slovenia
