Ascending South America

Born in 1954, is an archetype of a traveller and sportsman. In his early 20s, he bought himself an old Volkswagen van and travelled from Switzerland all the way down to South Africa where he worked and lived for one year. Another year he spent travelling in South America (Patagonia, the Andes, Amazon and Napo Rivers, just to name a few of the places visited). Extended travels in Southeast Asia, Polynesia/Pacific and trips through Northern America (West to East and from the Mississippi upwards to the Canadian border) followed.

Apart from land travel he has many years of experience as a professional cruising and racing skipper on traditional as well as modern sailing vessels and accomplished more than 100.000 nautical miles. In 1996 friends introduced him to his first Rib-Tour using a six-metre inflatable. They travelled along the pacific coast from Costa Rica to Panama poking into all the little rivers and creeks along the way. “That trip got me infected”, he says today. “Even for somebody like me who had been exploring the world for years on land and on water, this trip was a revelation. Suddenly a whole new world of possibilities opened up. From then on I have been concentrating on rivers and their systems, on the idea of taking one or two ribs and explore places well off the beaten track, on the possibility to enter into nearly unknown or almost forgotten territories.”

Since 2004 Andy, has organised and led source-to-mouth river expeditions on the Mekong, Zambezi, Ganga, Brahmaputra, Gomati, Kaladan, and Yukon rivers. Rib Expedition & Adventure, the company he founded in the beginning of 2004, is based in Palma de Majorca. Andy who successfully ran various ship chandleries on the island now brings his expertise to this new organization.

In his coming expedition, will first ever attempt to cross across the length of South America through different connecting