British explorer Lucy Shepherd has set off on a 120-mile Amazon trek never tried before by a human.
She and three men from Amerindian tribes won’t see sunlight as they trek 10 hours a day through jungle infested with venomous snakes and spiders.
Lucy, 29, will also scale 4,000ft peaks as she aims to reach the Macushi Tribe, isolated from civilisation since ancestors settled in the mountains hundreds of years ago. It could take two months.
With teammates Lionel, Vivian and Chiny, Lucy will be the first to trek east to west across the Kanuku Mountains in Guyana to reach the Brazilian border.
Full-time explorer Lucy, from Henham, Suffolk, is the youngest ever member of the Scientific Exploration Society Council.
She said: “This is the biggest expedition I have done. It’s going to be overwhelming. The physical and mental challenge... will require every ounce of my resilience.
“We will be trekking under the jungle canopy the entire time – in the shadows.
“It will be claustrophobic and the jungle will be incredibly dense.
“We’ll walk eight to 10 hours a day and might only do a kilometre. But we’ve got to become at one with it because we definitely won’t win if we put up a fight.
“To know I’ll be seeing parts of the Amazon that no other human has likely ever set foot in is exhilarating and I can’t wait to share what I discover.”
Lucy’s previous adventures include scaling mountains in the Bolivian Andes, spending 10 weeks in icy Svalbard, between Norway and the North Pole, trekking California’s High Sierra and climbing Alaska’s 20,300ft peak Denali.
