It turns out that venturing into the Amazon Rainforest isn't for the faint of heart. Just ask adventurer Ash Dykes, who faced terror after terror while in the jungle.
A native of the U.K., he decides to to trek through the jungle for 37 days with his friends Jacob Hudson, Dick Lock and Matt Wallace. They ended up walking more than 370 miles, dealing with all kinds of nasty critters and brutal elements. Speaking with the Daily Mail, the adventurer said he made a fatal flaw out of the gate.
"I took shoes that were one or two sizes too small and then I didn't break them in either. So when I was out there I got so many blisters. I lost three toenails. I snubbed my toe and there was flesh hanging out I thought maybe I would need stitches," he explained. "Multiple layers of skin were rubbed away, each step felt like I was stepping on fiery needles."
Meanwhile, his friend Matt ended up getting stung by a venomous scorpion that also most derailed the trip. Insects proved to be a challenge on the trip. But they also encountered a jaguar in a scary encounter. It ened up staring at them for two minutes. At night, the Amazon became a lot more hostile.
Amazon Terrors
Ash said, "'You've got a head torch on and you're looking around and you've just got loads of pairs of eyes shining back at you reflecting off the torch. You start to decipher what is what. If there's a pair of orange eyes, that's caiman, if there's like these diamond eyes - and there were hundreds of diamond eyes - that's a s*** ton of spiders."
Of course, it was the real threat of starvation that took its biggest toll. The group had to survive on 800 calories a day while spending 8,000 calories a day traveling. They tried to catch as much food as they could, fishing on the banks of the Coppername river in the Amazon.
The group began hallucinating after an extended period out there.
"When we would kayak through the night, and it would be so calm and so still, and all of the stars above you in the night sky would be reflecting off the river it was almost like we were just paddling through space," Ash said. "And then you hit the trance where it then feels like you're riding 30 metre waves, where you feel a motion going up and down, even though there were no waves whatsoever.
He also added, "I think that probably was due to the sleep deprivation. I think at that point your mind starts playing games because it's tired and it starts to make you believe things are happening when, when they're not."
When they finally made it back home. They celebrated with all of the foods you might imagine.
"There was literally a bucket of KFC chicken, there was chicken butter Indian, there were pizzas, there was ice cream, chocolate cake, you name it. We were suffering afterwards but it was so worth it," Ash said.
