Editor's Note: Ed Stafford, 34, from Leicestershire, central England, has been walking the length Amazon River since April 2, 2008, to raise awareness of the region. He began his trek at the source of the river in Peru, encountering pit vipers, electric eels, anaconda, mosquitoes and scorpions. He was joined in July 2008 by Gadiel "Cho" Sanchez Rivera. The pair are due to reach the shores of the Atlantic on August 9. During his trek Ed has blogged using a laptop and a satellite internet link. You can follow his journey on theWalking the Amazon website. In his third piece for CNN he describes walking back into civilization
(CNN) -- As my tweet reported in real time on the 30th July - Cho and I have been spat out of the jungle for the very last time.
From here on in, we'll be walking through civilization and on to journey's end; Maruda; 9th August 2010.
For Cho and I, the jungle has been a place of adventure and it's also been our normality -- it's been our 'home' for so long now.
Most people I speak to via the internet say they could do a couple of days in the fetid heat, worrying about the jaguars, avoiding the pit vipers and daily trying to sleep in a place that can be as noisy as a nightclub at night, but they can't imagine doing 850 days.
The reality is; this has become our home and although we have dodged death on many occasions and faced starvation, we've also walked through community after community and found warmth and kindness that I doubt I'll ever experience again.
When we return home, Cho and I will remember all the people who've given us a bed for the night, and a hot meal, without need of anything in return. I will dream about this place for the rest of my life.
Our final day in the jungle started mutely at 5am when I silently fanned the fire embers into life and boiled rice in the dark. As the gloom lifted we broke camp and tried to make some headway down the disused power line.
To concisely explain - the power line used to supply the town of Oeiras with electricity but many of the posts have since toppled and the cables now lie knotted in vines. Light has flooded into the linear space in the years of abandonment to form a 30-foot wide, 30-foot high, 50 mile long bramble bush.
The forest to the side was razor grass one minute, dense bamboo the next. We weaved between the two searching for the fastest escape.
CNN
