Ash Dykes sets world record with Suriname kayak adventure

A Welsh adventurer has kayaked the length of one of the world’s most remote rivers in a 37-day journey, setting a new world record and helping wildlife conservation.

Ash Dykes from Old Colwyn, Conwy, was last week part of a team that was the first to travel from the source of the Coppename river in Suriname in South America to the Atlantic ocean.

The 33-year-old and his three fellow kayakers faced venomous scorpions, snakes, tarantulas and stingrays on their 380-mile (611km) journey through the Amazon rainforest.

“We didn’t come across any community, any people, any means to charge [a satellite phone], any means to collect food,” Ash said.

It is the latest adventure for Dykes, whose previous challenges include becoming the first person to trek the length of China’s river Yangtze solo.

Suriname has some of the most impenetrable jungle in the world, covering 93% of the country.

The Coppename river runs through the middle of the rainforest and is teeming with wildlife.

Ash said he and the team bathed in the river at night with electric eel, caiman, sting rays, giant river otters and piranha.

“You’re wearing the head torch because it’s night time and you’ve got all of these different coloured eye balls, and you can identify what is what,” he said.

After carrying out research, they got the green light from Guinness World Records that a first was up for grabs.

“There was no evidence to suggest that anyone had ever been to the source, that it had even been mapped,” Ash said.

Ash and wildlife experts Dick Lock and Matt Wallace, along with cameraman Jacob Hudson, were dropped off by a helicopter which landed on a small sand bank.

When the roar of the helicopter was replaced by the sound of the Amazon rainforest, the magnitude of the challenge became clear.

“That was a pretty intimidating and terrifying scene,” Ash said.

“Knowing that if we stand on the back end of a snake, or if we make a mistake, you might not even find us again.”

During a hike upstream to find the source of the river, Ash smashed his feet into rocks and lost three toe nails, splitting his toe open.

The team also had to leave their kayaks at a base camp they set up when it became impossible to head further upstream, hiking through the jungle using machetes for five days.

After finding the source, they undertook a separate challenge.

This was to set a world record in becoming the fastest team to hike up Suriname’s highest mountain, Juliana Top – and they succeeded.

From there they made their way back to the source and back to the kayaks.

They travelled to Suriname’s second highest mountain where they created another base camp to try and set a third world record.

This time they failed to meet the top, falling short by about 3km (1.86 miles) or 150m (492ft) in altitude.

“It was pretty devastating,” Ash said.

Their 11-day-hike was hampered by impenetrable rainforest, with the team covering just a few hundred metres in a whole day.

“We decided that if we pushed on we would be another four to five days without food. No guarantee of water,” Ash said.

“It would simply be too reckless.”

Once back in their kayaks, they travelled another 500km (310 miles) to the Atlantic ocean.

They slept in their kayaks or on sand banks at night.

“We would stop about two hours before sunset, hang up the hammocks, get ready and then we would start fishing,” Ash said.

They caught piranha, wolf fish, sting ray, which they ate along with adventure food rations, and drank water from the river.

“We were borderline starving,” he said.

We would be burning about 6,000 to 7,000 calories and some days we would take in 600 to 1,000 calories.”

They had just four table spoons of oats for breakfast, shared a bag of peanuts on a six-hour hike and then ate lentils in the evening when they could not catch fish.

“I’ve never thought about food so much in my life,” he added.

His biggest fear was being stung by a stingray while fighting the current as he was dragging his kayak over rapids.

“If you step on one of them and they catch you with the barb, that’s pretty much evacuation,” he said.

He also had to carry his deflated kayak through the jungle, watching out for tarantulas, snakes and scorpions, which was “very draining”, Ash said.

“Every single night there was an hour-long routine of pulling ticks out of your skin,” he added.

“It must have been at least 400 ticks between us throughout the journey.”

He learned that rather than fearing the wildlife, he needed to live alongside it.

“We just got so used to it,” Ash said.

“Accidents can happen, and maybe a wolf fish or a piranha will try to take a chunk out of you, but ultimately they’re not really there to get you,” he said.

The singer Cher’s conservation charity Free the Wild helped fund the expedition with the aim of documenting the wildlife and the effect human activity has on it.

“There were many animals that we came across that had probably never seen a human before,” Ash said.

“The jaguar and the caybara were so curious. They didn’t run.”

As they approached the sea, the river became tidal.

The banks were muddy and they couldn’t find anywhere to sleep, so they tied themselves to a tree, trying to sleep in their kayak before being woken by mosquitoes.

Once the current had changed, they paddled ahead on the river.

“We had under five hours of sleep over the course of three nights and four days,” he said.

“Those last three days were pretty brutal.”

As they entered the Atlantic, feeling the waves and smelling the salty air, their world record was confirmed.

“It was a great feeling because we had all been battered in different ways,” Ash said.

“We all made it.”