Donald Starkell -Â Born 1932, Died 2012
On June 1, 1980, explorer Don Starkell and his two sons, Dana and Jeff set out on a stirring canoe journey from their native Canada to Belem, Brazil. Their fluid trek traced the Red River to its headwaters south of Fargo, North Dakota. From there, the family team portaged to the Minnesota River, continuing along the Mississippi River to the Intracoastal Waterway at La Rose, Louisiana. They traced the Waterway south to Mexico, then edged the coast of Mexico to Veracruz. Between November 1980 and mid February 1981, they took a break, during which Jeff Starkell quit. Donald and Dana persisted and – off the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia – had a narrow scrape with pirates. On the Gulf of Coro, Venezuela they got plonked on a sandbar by heavy headwinds and almost starved. But they continued and, on October 14, 1981 docked at Port of Spain, Trinidad. There, they took another, six-week break before heading along the Orinoco river then the Amazon. The journey ended at Belem, Brazil on May 2, 1982.
Four years later, the names of Don and Dana Starkell entered the Guinness Book of World Records for completing the longest ever canoe journey: a distance of 12,181 miles. Their monster trip took two years.