Off the map

Until recent aerial surveys, the Tumucumaque Mountains in the Guiana Highlands that border Brazil were one of the few remaining unknown regions on earth, believed to house El Dorado and the fabled tribe of Amazon warrior women. The barrier of rapids that pour from the mountains has kept it almost unexplored. Almost. In 1950, Raymond Maufrais, a young French explorer, set off into the deepest Amazonian jungle of that region and was never seen again. Fifty years later, inspired by the legacy of Maufrais' diary, John and Heather take to the wilder regions and remoter tributaries of the Amazon with only a canoe and a shotgun for company. Quickly having to adjust to an existence where they are dependent upon nature for food and each other for their sanity, and with no means of contacting civilisation, they are forced to realise the poignancy of Maufrais' final record. Unaided and Off The Map, they encounter jaguars and poisonous frogs, are threatened by malaria, and almost lose their way entirely; all the while struggling to keep their relationship intact in one of the most hostile and unforgiving places in the world.This is travel at its most raw; an incredible story of a couple's gruelling survival in the wild.