Crossing the Darien Gap: Cartels, Jungles & Hostage Training - Daniel Eggington

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Daniel Eggington is an adventurer from the Black Country in the UK who has spent the last decade pushing himself deeper and deeper into the world's most demanding jungles. At 17, he booked a £500 flight to Sumatra with no plan, no preparation, and no clue — and ended up tracking a wild Sumatran tiger in the rainforest just before his 18th birthday. That trip set the trend for everything that followed.

Since then, Daniel has paddled 300km down Guyana's Essequibo River in a handmade dugout canoe with indigenous Wapichan guides, encountered shapeshifters and Kanaima folklore deep in the rainforest, and — on his third attempt — crossed the Darien Gap on foot from Colombia to Panama. That four-year project involved meeting cartel commanders, hiding for ten days in a safehouse, paying the Gulf Clan $1,500 for safe passage, being abandoned by his guide on day two, and walking out alone through some of the most hostile terrain on earth.

This episode covers the full story — Sumatra, the Essequibo, the Darien Gap, the hostage training that prepared him for it, and his next ambition: walking the entire length of the Congo River from Zambia to the Atlantic.

Chapters:
00:00 Colombian military, the Darien border, and armed traffickers
00:39  Daniel Eggington, jungle expedition adventurer
03:34 Growing up in Birmingham — the seeds of adventure
06:11 First overseas trip — Sumatra at 17 with no plan
08:35 Encountering a wild Sumatran tiger
12:42 Why Guyana? The Essequibo River expedition begins
16:10 Buying a dugout canoe and 12 days down the Essequibo
24:55 The Kanaima — shapeshifters and indigenous belief systems
30:03 Why the Darien Gap? Four years of planning
34:12 Getting cartel permission — and an airstrike kills the contact
37:33 Meeting the Gulf Clan fixer and entering the jungle
41:24 Abandoned by the guide — alone in the Darien
44:41 Hostile environment and kidnap training
47:22 Finding a skeleton and a Venezuelan ID in the jungle
48:51 Crossing into Panama — stripped, interrogated, and finally safe
56:59 Decompression and the lasting effects of the Darien
58:44 Next up — walking the entire Congo River
1:03:19 Pay it forward — sponsoring Victoria, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion
1:04:57 Call to adventure and where to find Daniel

Daniel Eggington — expedition adventurer, jungle traveler

Website: danieleggington.com 
Instagram: @Daniel Eggington

Pay it forward: Sponsor Victoria, an 18-year-old Brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete ranked #1 in her weight class in Brazil, training her way out of one of Rio's high-risk favelas — details available via Daniel's website.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Colombian military, the Darien border, and armed traffickers

[00:00:00] Daniel Eggington: Colombian military just took my passport off me, put me on a boat the next day, sent me to Panama, but to give them credit where I was when I was there, which was Juradó it was, you could hear the fighting in the jungle. A lot of, a lot of back and forward, uh, arms going back and forward. We was close to the Panamanian border and he was saying the Panamanian Special Forces, the SENAFRONT guy, they can potentially do operations just past the border to try and counter the traffickers.

[00:00:27] Daniel Eggington: Mm-hmm. So he's like, if I get picked up, then I'm going to prison for a long time because I've done lots of things and they're aware of me, small people back and forward weapons, drugs probably as well. And I couldn't really. 

[00:00:37] : Welcome to the Adventure 

[00:00:39] Guest intro — Daniel Eggington, jungle expedition adventurer

[00:00:39] : Diaries Podcast, where we share tales of adventure, connection, and exploration from the smallest of creators to the larger than life adventurers.

[00:00:49] : We hope their stories inspire you to go create your own extraordinary adventures. And now your host, Chris Watson. Chris Watson. 

[00:00:59] Chris Watson: [00:01:00] Welcome to another episode of The Adventure Diaries. Today we're joined by Daniel Eggington, an adventurer from the black country in the uk, and someone who's undertaken some of the wildest expeditions across some of the most demanding jungle terrains on earth.

[00:01:16] Chris Watson: At the young age of 17, Daniel threw himself deep into the jungle way of life, heading to Sumatra, where he encountered a Wild Sumatran tiger. And since then, he has gone on to paddle Guyana's as a Essequibo River and crossed the Darien gap in his third attempt. But what's more extraordinary is he's now planning one of the most ambitious expedition in the world to date a full Congo River expedition end to end.

[00:01:47] Chris Watson: And in this conversation, we talk all things adventure, wildlife, fear, encountering armed groups in the jungle. Indigenous knowledge, survival techniques, and hostage training. [00:02:00] This is a wild one, so please settle in and enjoy this fantastic conversation with Daniel Eggington. Daniel Eggington, welcome to the Adventure Diaries.

[00:02:13] Chris Watson: How are you? 

[00:02:14] Daniel Eggington: I'm all good. Thank you. Uh, in Oxford now moving around the city, the country, as I do, and I have done for age six. 

[00:02:23] Chris Watson: Excellent. Buzzing for this. Absolutely buzzing. Uh, Daniel has taken us a, a little bit of time, diaries and such to get this in, in the diary, the frame for today, particularly excited about the Latin American adventures.

[00:02:39] Chris Watson: It's been a, a bit of a, a theme on a, a few episodes, but I think having your Darien gap is probably, it's probably the most. I don't want to foreshadow it in a minute, but that's, I want to get into your journey and your Darien gap, uh, Colombia to to Panama, and then we'll talk about your future [00:03:00] plans as well, some epic stuff in the works around the al as well.

[00:03:03] Chris Watson: But before we do that, so let's write, bring it back to what we usually do on the show. So, I think you're from the black country in the uk, so 

[00:03:11] Daniel Eggington: I am, yeah. 

[00:03:12] Chris Watson: Medic. 

[00:03:13] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. So the family, we grew up in Birmingham Medic, uh, the last five or six years though, I probably moved around a lot more. All the family's still there and I do go back once a week if I can, to be fair.

[00:03:27] Daniel Eggington: Depends on the rot and all that sort of stuff, but yeah. Birmingham. 

[00:03:31] Chris Watson: Yeah. What and what, so let's give. 

[00:03:35] Growing up in Birmingham — the seeds of adventure

[00:03:39] Chris Watson: I mean, you've done some, some of the craziest stuff I think that we'll ever discuss on this show. And what will come will kind of, we'll come to that. So I'm curious to know what was younger Daniel?

[00:03:45] Chris Watson: 'cause you're still a young man, uh, today, so, so what was your formative experience? What captivated you in terms of adventure? 

[00:03:52] Daniel Eggington: You know, what it's got to be. We lived in a typical middle class family. A family. We had everything we needed. Not everything we wanted, so to speak. We always [00:04:00] had food on the table, always had that present what we wanted for Christmas kind of thing.

[00:04:04] Daniel Eggington: But as in like a, we, it's a terrace house. We grew up in, um, middle of Birmingham. And I think the biggest thing for me, 'cause we had a quite a big garden, to be fair. And I would, every weekend, every time I could, I'd just go up and down the gardens. Um, I'd go five houses one way, one weekend, then I'd go five houses down another week.

[00:04:25] Daniel Eggington: And that was my, what's the word, my initial kind of adventure in, so to speak, the family. I mean, probably more so my uncle, to be fair. We did a lot of camping with my uncle. Um, and that probably, I dunno, solidified it. Like I enjoyed it and any opportunity I could to get out and about, I would. 

[00:04:47] Chris Watson: And what did younger Daniel want to do?

[00:04:50] Chris Watson: What, what was your dreams and a aspirations? Was this always on the cards or 

[00:04:53] Daniel Eggington: to, 

[00:04:54] Chris Watson: has that just landed in your lap, this life of adventure? 

[00:04:58] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. I think what [00:05:00] led me, I think it was to travel. I'd always loved wildlife, animals, insects. I'd be out, like I say, traveling in the gardens and I'd be collecting spiders, create my own little menagerie.

[00:05:11] Daniel Eggington: We'd kid we'd be able to trap squirrels and all sorts of silly things like that. But I've always wanted to do crazy things or something that someone wouldn't do. So we had the sheds in the garden. We'd, if I was to dare to do something, climb that tree, jump through that shed. I would always be like, yeah, I can do that.

[00:05:28] Daniel Eggington: I can do that. And I dunno why? Why? I dunno how. 'cause my family, as in my parents, my mom, they're just normal, everyday middle class people, working class, always a job. I dunno. It's just a passion. Once you realize, I think that is a thing with everyone. Once you find a passion, no matter what kind of way of life or walk of life you're in, you kind of just zone into it.

[00:05:50] Daniel Eggington: If that's a genuine passion. And I think that's what happened when I could realize and when I realized what I wanted to do, then I've just been a beeline for it. 

[00:05:59] Chris Watson: What [00:06:00] was your first over, what was your first overseas trip? Your first adventure? 

[00:06:04] Daniel Eggington: So my first job, best job I've ever had, ever was a local zoo to me, Dudley Zoo.

[00:06:10] Daniel Eggington: Some people may be 

[00:06:10] First overseas trip — Sumatra at 17 with no plan

[00:06:10] Daniel Eggington: aware of it. And it was a brilliant job. I had a very. Influential person who educated me a lot there. I didn't work there very long, six, seven months. Well, I was working with a venomous snakes and the crocodiles and he's still kicking back now. The guy worked there 40 plus years and I still speak to him now.

[00:06:25] Daniel Eggington: Uh, but that job ended six months, seven months in. I was 17 and I was given tax back for like, and as a 17-year-old, 800 quid tax back was just, you think you're loaded. First thing I did, I went to a local town, um, a travel agent, and I booked the flight to Indonesia and Sumatra random his place. Never done any research on it.

[00:06:51] Daniel Eggington: I just realized Sumatra driver got articulated by pythons and orangutans and mangrove snakes, and that was all in my head. So I'm like, yeah, we're gonna go to Sumatra. [00:07:00] So I literally, within getting the tax back on the Thursday, Friday end of the week, on a Monday, I booked this 500 pound flight to Sumatra.

[00:07:08] Daniel Eggington: Told the family I had quite a bit of money, saved up, lied of course, turned up there in Sumatra in all combat gear, buying like from an ex kind of Army, navy store. I had old para boots, I mean, green Camel rocked up in Medan Airport and the first thing they said to me, you are my enemy. Military. I'm thinking, flipping, what have I got myself into here?

[00:07:31] Daniel Eggington: I'm literally looking like a, like a right wing paramilitary, the way I've rocked up in a, in a, in a rock sack army boots, three, four hours being held up in the bloody airport as a 17-year-old thinking, yeah, this is what life's about. Traveling the military took me aside. I've realized I was just a dopey teenager and, uh, sent me on my way.

[00:07:50] Daniel Eggington: I ended up turning up in a small, like from Medan Airport. I ended up going to a rice field or paddy, like a rice paddy field. And I asked the locals, I wanna go into the jungle and see if we can find some [00:08:00] arch and tigers. They're like, you've gotta be German or English. You are crazy. And I'm like, yeah, English.

[00:08:05] Daniel Eggington: And that is literally it. I ended up in a rice, tiny little, small village, and I remember my guides from, now I, that's such an impression. It had on me Wanderbendi and Pink. They were three random locals that took me into the jungle and 

[00:08:19] Chris Watson: Wow. 

[00:08:20] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. And I was in the jungle 12 days, 13 days probably. And I was, I turned 18 into Sumatran jungle.

[00:08:28] Chris Watson: Jesus. 

[00:08:29] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. 

[00:08:29] Chris Watson: I, I mean, there's so many things to un unpack and it firstly, did you see any tigers? Yeah. Did you see anywhere by Yeah, we did. 

[00:08:36] Encountering a wild Sumatran tiger

[00:08:36] Daniel Eggington: We did. We camped out in like a, like a watering hole. And we'd seen tracks all the time with junk, like monitor lizards. And the one night we, me and wonder went up there and sat there four or five hours probably, and we literally seen the tiger at the watering hole.

[00:08:50] Daniel Eggington: And it was maybe 10 seconds. That sound felt like half an hour, to be fair. And it must've realized we was there, shut off. And that was like thinking as an 18-year-old, [00:09:00] dad's got a mad passion for wildlife. Uh, watching Steve Irwin or David Attenborough from Philipp since I can remember. Yes. Seen the Sumatran tiger in the Sumatran jungle.

[00:09:08] Daniel Eggington: A wild as you get. Just before my 18th birthday. 

[00:09:13] Chris Watson: How you prepared, were you for the jungle? 

[00:09:17] Daniel Eggington: Not prepared at all. How 

[00:09:18] Chris Watson: prepared were you for the jungle Daniel? At, at, as in 

[00:09:23] Daniel Eggington: Not a clue. Not a clue. The fir I'D camped the only time I went abroad. Before that was a family holiday to Spain for like a week, and I boxed in well, meant to box in the Czech Republic when I was like 11, so I was only went abroad twice before then.

[00:09:39] Chris Watson: Can I ask a quick favor? Please. If you are enjoying the Adventure Diaries Podcast, could I ask that you take the time to click that subscribe or follow button, and if you're feeling extra generous, a written review or a star rating on your platform or choice would be greatly appreciated. Now let's get back to the episode.

[00:09:59] Chris Watson: Thank you. 

[00:09:59] Daniel Eggington: [00:10:00] And Spain is just in a swimming pool and check. Full break. I was just catching crickets when I should have been training to box.

[00:10:08] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. Wow. Clueless. 

[00:10:10] Chris Watson: Did your family know that? Did your family know that you were off to the jungle when you went to Sam matter? 

[00:10:14] Daniel Eggington: I've always, I lied to them up until probably the last six years, probably the last six years of my life. As a grown adult, I always kind of step push it like I'm going to take photos of wildlife and it's always controlled in an organized kind of environment.

[00:10:28] Daniel Eggington: And they believe me, fullheartedly really. And, but yeah, they've always tried to turn me against it. But the people that they wouldn't see theirselves doing it kind of thing, they'd be like, why would anyone wanna do it? And I think that's it. 

[00:10:45] Chris Watson: Is that when the bug sit and because some of your expeditions since then, a lot of kind of dense jungle, you know, harsh environments and stuff like that.

[00:10:53] Chris Watson: Is that, was that where that was kinda seeded? 

[00:10:55] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, I think the jungle as an environment I haven't experienced like [00:11:00] desert environments. Uh, I've been to arctic kind of conditions and stuff. Uh. On training courses, whatever may be. But once you kind of feel the be in the jungle and it wasn't a short time, you know, when your people go on holiday in Brazil and they do a two day trip into like up the river for, I dunno, six miles away from an hour I'm there, 17 and it's seven day walking into the deep depth of the jungle.

[00:11:22] Daniel Eggington: And I was in bits, I weren't trained for it. It was hard. I had a big rock sack on my back, which weren't, I still got the exact same rock sack. I don't use it, it's just like a me memorabilia. But yeah, clueless. And I think, yeah, that set the trend because it was just learning as much as you can. The ants I think was always interesting to me.

[00:11:39] Daniel Eggington: Just what ants colonies of ants, what's 

[00:11:41] Chris Watson: the, what's the timeline from Sumatra to, to getting to Latin America? What, so how, how much of a gap did you have between that in terms of planning, dreaming and, and stuff?

[00:11:54] Daniel Eggington: 2012, when did Lee School? So 20 10, 20 11 is when I was in Sumatra. [00:12:00] That's when I just turned 18 2010. And every year since I've gone somewhere, um, leading up to when I was like 21, 22, when I started to genuinely take it serious. But, um, the next place was Costa Rica, Latin America. And again, that was, I'm like to say, I'd like to say 20, probably three years, probably, probably three years.

[00:12:24] Daniel Eggington: I went to Costa Rica after that, so I was 21, maybe. Yeah. So it was Costa Rica then, and that was the first time I went to Latin America on my own. 

[00:12:32] Chris Watson: Yeah. And what, so, so the two signature adventures that, that I wanted to frame up today was the Essequibo. Mm-hmm. I think 2018 and then the Darien gap in 20, uh, 

[00:12:42] Why Guyana? The Essequibo River expedition begins

[00:12:42] Chris Watson: 2022.

[00:12:44] Chris Watson: You know, SA, I think you, you'd went into G Guyana had, had you been to Guyana before? 

[00:12:50] Daniel Eggington: No. So the story behind the guy Guyana, why I look at a place or I look at a challenge and I think what would be the most difficult to do or [00:13:00] the most unique? So South America, you've gotta put it between Colombia Guyana, not many people can point Guyana out on a map.

[00:13:07] Daniel Eggington: They always think it's West Africa, Ghana, it's, they dense, the dense rainforest in Guyana will just, it would, if you have, do a little bit of research on it, anyone does a bit of research on it. They just, it just seems to like, I dunno, instill myths or stories. The crazy folklore as well from the belief systems of the indigenous communities.

[00:13:25] Daniel Eggington: Okay. That was that set. The trend for trach, taking it a lot more professional, but. Go on. 

[00:13:33] Chris Watson: How, how did you, how did you plan that? Because I think for context, that was like almost a 300 kilometer traverse or paddle, wasn't it? Yeah. You know, over 12 days of there with local guides and traditional dugout canoes Yeah.

[00:13:45] Chris Watson: And stuff, so, so how, how did you bring that together? So 

[00:13:48] Daniel Eggington: the original plan was to go to, which again, I think this brings the rookie side of me to it, so it's starting my head. I wanted to go upriver to a town called [00:14:00] Aranaputa, and then when I got that, that was the plan, right? Until the, I'm in Georgetown and I'm sitting there in Georgetown, like, yeah, I'm going upriver from Bartica to Aranaputa, a small indigenous community.

[00:14:09] Daniel Eggington: Then I met the local people who I've kind of, over a year, this was going. Like I was speaking to people, a number of high level business people in Georgetown who had good connections with governments and all that sort of news journalists. And when I got there, a guide Paul, his name was proper energetic, typical Caribbean.

[00:14:28] Daniel Eggington: Really full of vigor, very carnival attitude, loving life. And he is like, you're a crazy Englishman. You've come in here. Why are you going up river? Why not go down river? So I'm thinking that makes so much more sense because he added you need to pay for gas, which would add, then there's rapids that you need to go up and down.

[00:14:46] Daniel Eggington: But I just wasn't thinking like that. I was thinking I'm going up a river as, as simple as that maybe. So we kind of flipped it on its head and we went to just short the source of the Essequibo River to a place called Kingstown, or it [00:15:00] was just an island, really just a little village. And we, I ended up chartering a plane.

[00:15:04] Daniel Eggington: He said to me, do it. From upriver, but do it with a dugout canoe and bring interest to the indigenous community and the conservation. That just sounded like a movie to me. Like a film like Yeah, this can actually be met, done. Oh, we ended up, he ended up getting in touch with a few people. I was there for a couple weeks before we actually worked out, and then we ended up, I ended up meeting a lady, speaking to a lady called Fair, who was like the liaison between indigenous communities and government.

[00:15:31] Daniel Eggington: And she's like, yeah, you can go from Ogle Airport to Georgetown, a small airport and Georgetown Capital, Georgetown airport's tiny. You let alone anything smaller than that. We chartered an airplane to dirt strip and air airstrip, and for four or five days, myself and the local guide, which at the time, like captain of the, of the village or the community called Campbell, he said, we'll have to go and look for a boat that can be bought.

[00:15:57] Daniel Eggington: So we ended up going four or five days walking around. [00:16:00] Small communities say it is a boat for sale. There's a boat sale because it's. Trying to put it into context. They actually use their boats every single day. Like it's here, you can get rid of your car, you get a new 

[00:16:10] Buying a dugout canoe and 12 days down the Essequibo

[00:16:10] Daniel Eggington: car, it's pe. It's as important as cars there.

[00:16:14] Daniel Eggington: If you've got a decent boat, you are like high-end society, so to speak. So a lot of people weren't wanting to sell their boat and plus a lot of them have been in the family for 15 years. But yeah, it was a dugout canoe. We ended up getting, which was, if I remember right, made of Angel, angel Rock or Angela Rock, which is the tree or Angela Wood tree.

[00:16:34] Daniel Eggington: And it was his granddad's I think, if I remember right. And then I ended up buying that for hundred quid, whatever it may be. And then, yes, set the logistics in place. His son wanted to join up and I'm like, yeah. But we was told in Aranaputa that we are going to be eaten by Caiman. We were going to be killed. The piranhas would eat us.

[00:16:53] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. Caiman is a spiritual belief system over there as well. So yeah. And that was the beginning of the Guyana. And we [00:17:00] canoe 12 days. Yeah. 

[00:17:03] Chris Watson: Again, so, so many things to to unpack there. So the dugout canoe, I mean, firstly that that's a, that's a feat and achievement considering, 'cause I know how valuable those are to, to the, the, you know, certain indigenous and, and people with within those kind of remote en environments.

[00:17:19] Chris Watson: And these are no mean feat to, to actually build these things. And if they're been in potentially for a generation or more, I mean, that's a, that's a big, I mean that's a big thing, managed to procure that. What was it like actually in terms of stability and, 'cause you must have been through some various different types of bodies of water.

[00:17:39] Chris Watson: I can imagine. 

[00:17:39] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, and like I say, it was the quickest way to learn. I've always said you get thrown in the deep end, you learn the quickest. And that's do, that is anything in life. You literally, I mean, I did do a few courses when I was here, but you can't compare a robot. Canoe to a wooden canoe. It's the cold, the water affects the fl [00:18:00] the buoyancy of a rubber canoe.

[00:18:01] Daniel Eggington: The density of the ward changes. Me not being very clued up or familiar with it, my weight to the left will knock us over my weight to the right will knock us over. So there's literally a two day serious crash course. And, um, we just got on with it kind of thing. But yeah, we definitely fell in countless times.

[00:18:18] Daniel Eggington: Countless times. 

[00:18:19] Chris Watson: Yeah. And what, uh, did you have life fests, PFDs stuff? 

[00:18:22] Daniel Eggington: No, either. A good story when we ended off, it was probably six hours, the first day canoe when the beginning of the expedition started. And I wanted to pay the guide on the spot there. And then, because it just, me being politely, I don't think he wouldn't run away.

[00:18:36] Daniel Eggington: I don't run away. And he's, he's, he's like 50 quid a day. He ended up being, and he's like, no, don't pay me. No, because we might not make it. And I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, we might die. But he made it like a comical way. And he's like, pay me at the end. I'm like, okay. So yeah. And that was on a little island called Flight Island is what we called it because there's a flight everywhere.

[00:18:58] Daniel Eggington: But yeah, 

[00:18:59] Chris Watson: I mean [00:19:00] that's, that's amazing considering the trust in somewhere that you've just met as well. 

[00:19:05] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. 

[00:19:07] Chris Watson: What what were your paddles like? Were your paddles like handcrafted as well? 

[00:19:10] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, so it was, I remember the name of that crab wood, which is very lightweight and that the first one only lasted six days and then trying to find crab wood in the dense jungle was even harder than you can imagine.

[00:19:22] Daniel Eggington: So we ended up finding a fallen tree, which was purple, if I remember. Purple heart wood, and it's called Purple Heart. There's two different ones. There's green heart and purple art, I think is what it's called. And you get them wet. It goes like a bright purple or a bright green, and it was there.

[00:19:38] Daniel Eggington: They're a hard, dense wood that don't float, so that's the only deadfall that we found. So the one night was just trying to hack into this, into this hard, solid wood to try and make it, fashion it into like a paddle. 'cause the first one broke and that took four hours, probably five hours that night. And it just ruined the machete.

[00:19:55] Daniel Eggington: Ruined the machete. Wow, 

[00:19:57] Chris Watson: wow. Did you have to carve that [00:20:00] with a machete or did you have to, to heat it or anything like that? Did it over a fire or didn't cure it or anything like that? 

[00:20:05] Daniel Eggington: I mean, nah, it was literally just chopping it with the machete. Um, I had a little goal, the guide had a little goal, so it was, it was grafted but over, like I say, we need it for the next day, so curing it, so making it more supple it out, threw over a fire.

[00:20:21] Daniel Eggington: It was just like, nah, oh, we're gonna be a three days kind of thing. So, yeah. 

[00:20:24] Chris Watson: Wow. What, so were you both paddling, what, what was the dynamic in the canoe? Were you both paddling or taking turns each? 

[00:20:31] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. So half of the day at the back, Campbell would do it, and then another four, five hours of the day I would do it.

[00:20:38] Daniel Eggington: It was just back and forward helping each other out. Yeah. I even gave him my camera at points and he was taking pictures and I was paddling. 

[00:20:44] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:20:45] Daniel Eggington: Oh yeah. 

[00:20:46] Chris Watson: Excellent. And what, what was the environment like then when you were going through and did you come across any settlements or, or other triggers or, yeah, 

[00:20:53] Daniel Eggington: the one which was upset me to an extent because I lost the footage of the, I lost every single, uh, photograph I [00:21:00] took, but I got all the video footage from the GoPros and stuff, but all the photographs I lost.

[00:21:05] Daniel Eggington: Then there was one, two days in maybe it was, um, a lot of screaming in the jungle, a lot of trees moving, a little, little dog barking. And it was a guy with a bow and arrow and a little Jack Russell type dog. And they was hunting a little animal called a packer, and that's just a, a giant Rodin. And they would eat that as like a stable, like food.

[00:21:25] Daniel Eggington: So, and he was running around with a bow and arrow in his drawers. Hunting with a bow arrow and he looked at us, he looked at confused at us as we did at him. But Campbell and like I say, they're familiar, they're expecting, they know all of that sort of stuff. So there's a son and father team, so it's Campbell and James and then me.

[00:21:44] Daniel Eggington: But they've seen it. They've never traveled six days further than their village, which was, it was a learning kind of setting for them as well. So they loved it as much as they was interested, as much as I was, they loved the wilderness, they loved the wildlife. They were the most knowledgeable people [00:22:00] you can think of to be in that environment.

[00:22:02] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:22:03] Daniel Eggington: So yeah, we came across a couple settlements up until about day nine, 10. And then the whole environment started to change, do a lot of, um, illegal gold dredges and that started popping up. But up until then it was pristine giant river otters, black Caiman, piranha every day for food. Harpy Eagles.

[00:22:21] Daniel Eggington: Jaguars. Yeah, harpy Eagles. Oh wow. 

[00:22:24] Chris Watson: That's, that must have been a site that's They are huge, aren't they? And they're quite intimidating looking creature. Yeah. So were you fishing in the Essequibo as well? Yeah. 

[00:22:33] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. So it is, uh, the main thing they would a wolf fish, which is like a giant, looks like a giant pike with huge teeth.

[00:22:40] Daniel Eggington: And it was another fish that they ate with paku, I think. And it was more of a, a fish that would just eat the grass, but they had equally just as big teeth, but more, more for grinding. Yeah. And piranha was almost every day. 

[00:22:52] Chris Watson: Yeah. Excellent. So, so where did you exit the, in terms of like the, the destination 

[00:22:59] Daniel Eggington: in bar?[00:23:00]

[00:23:00] Daniel Eggington: It is a. Strange town in a sense. It's like full of cowboys. It's the best way to describe it. So you get a lot of the illegal groups from Venezuela, a lot of the illegal gold mining groups as well, that's been up and down the Essequibo. And you get there and it's teams of people and they've gone out and they've literally mined and dreaded for gold.

[00:23:19] Daniel Eggington: And the people are coming back with nuggets of like gold. They're selling them to dodgy kind of gold vendors. And then they, they go to Georgetown, live it up for a bit, and then they go back into the jungle. Mine again. Gold Bartica a good story there. We were, there was no electricity for the days I was in Bartica.

[00:23:37] Daniel Eggington: And they all had lighter on in this little, because I wanted to celebrate again. I was abroad, it was my 21st or 22nd birthday, so it was the middle of January and there was lighting the pub or the club, um, with lighters. And there was, you know, like aerosols for light. So it was like just with aerosols, with people, with ones on their waist.

[00:23:56] Daniel Eggington: It was just, it was just like a John Wayne film. 

[00:23:59] Chris Watson: Wow. [00:24:00] Wow. H how were you, how were you received as a, a white British man in 

[00:24:04] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, in that 

[00:24:05] Chris Watson: scenario, 

[00:24:06] Daniel Eggington: I, I've, um, there was no issues in Bartica. It was more like they was confused, like, what the heck's this guy doing here? They get a bit touchy to start with, but when, if you explain, like you say, there's no language barrier there, it's English speaking, so I can kind of express what I was doing.

[00:24:22] Daniel Eggington: I can understand what they're saying. And they say, they looked at you, buy your drinks, they're telling you you never got eaten by a, and I'm like, no, no, everything's all good. Like, yeah. 

[00:24:33] Chris Watson: So, uh, yeah, coming back to that because it's quite timely. So I've got another podcast episode that's coming with, uh, someone that's written a book about the Amazon.

[00:24:42] Chris Watson: I won't give that away just yet, but they talk a lot about the mythical, what's the word? But the belief, yeah, the belief systems. And, and there's a lot of Right. Eyeopening Yeah. Stuff in that. So what is it, what is the 

[00:24:55] The Kanaima — shapeshifters and indigenous belief systems

[00:24:55] Chris Watson: Kanaima? Can you, can you enlighten us? So 

[00:24:57] Daniel Eggington: even just context, Campbell and James [00:25:00] Campbell, the grown man, 45 at the time, maybe.

[00:25:02] Daniel Eggington: And Ozzie the son, which is James. He was 20. They both asked me mad questions. This dad asked me if Polar bears lived in England. And the son asked me if dinosaurs still existed. And I'm like, where do you get that from? And he had a National Geographic magazine from the seventies, like a fossil edition.

[00:25:18] Daniel Eggington: And he was genuinely like, yo, do dinosaurs still exist? Kind of thing. And he was, I'm like, I couldn't, yeah. He's just weird belief. But. Yeah. 

[00:25:27] Chris Watson: Well they guy, are they Guyanese, eh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They 

[00:25:31] Daniel Eggington: were Wapichan, they're tribal. Their community Wapichan. Yeah. 

[00:25:35] Chris Watson: Right. Okay. 

[00:25:37] Daniel Eggington: But the belief system are the Kanaima.

[00:25:39] Daniel Eggington: We came across as so-called Kanaima as well. I don't take anything away from 'em 'cause I think that they make as much sense as the Abrahamic religions in my head now. Yeah. Yeah. If they believe that, then why can't that be just as right as Alair and Jesus and all that sort of stuff. 

[00:25:53] Chris Watson: Yeah, exactly. 

[00:25:54] Daniel Eggington: And until I'm proven wrong.

[00:25:56] Daniel Eggington: Okay. The Kanaima is supposedly a [00:26:00] shapeshifter and there was a bloke on day six we came across on the river. He had hundreds and hundreds of scars all over his body and a missing eye. And they said as we are canoeing down, don't look, dad don't look. And they're saying, don't look at this man. And I'm like, okay, well I'm curious.

[00:26:14] Daniel Eggington: This guy's like some outta a new, like, I'm intrigued. So I'm, um, as we get a bit closer, he calls us over. So they're like Campbell and like the, the team proper. We've drawn, we've how we've drawn. Yeah. Yeah. Ended up, we ended up going over asking questions and all the guy did was throw a fish at us and say, here, eat this.

[00:26:34] Daniel Eggington: That's it. Left us to it. We continued our journey. They then told me he was a Kanaima. And I'm like, what do you mean? So this man who gave her the fish with all the scars on his body and the missing eye, he supposedly killed somebody in a village, few hundred miles up river. And he's just disappeared. And that's why they believe he's a Kanaima.

[00:26:55] Daniel Eggington: And he was supposedly a, he, he's killed somebody for whatever reason, loved tiff, for [00:27:00] whatever. And he's living in the jungle now, naked. Not a bit of clothes, scarred all everybody and eye. And he was a connect to them. Yeah. 

[00:27:08] Chris Watson: Oh, wow. It's, I mean, yeah, it's, I mean, you've, you've, firstly, you've got to give respect to people's public systems.

[00:27:15] Chris Watson: Yeah. Whether you, you agree or challenge it sounds scientifically or not, but you're in hostile, you know, unchartered territory. Yeah. In many aspects. So that must've been quite quite unsettling. Imagine. Yeah. 

[00:27:28] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. 

[00:27:30] Chris Watson: So from the sa h, how much did Campbell, and was it Ozzie, I think you said to do yeah, yeah.

[00:27:36] Chris Watson: How much did you learn from them in terms of like bushcraft type skills and stuff and preparing for the Darien gap in future? 

[00:27:43] Daniel Eggington: It's, it's literally the, the fire side of things. They could light a fire with their eyes closed and it's hammering it down thunder and lightning. They could tell you what animals are, what, tell you what I mean, fish to eat.

[00:27:55] Daniel Eggington: I mean, you can eat every single fresh water fish on the planet, but the way they just know the [00:28:00] way when they're catching it, they can tell you what's coming up already before they even see it. 

[00:28:04] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:28:04] Daniel Eggington: But yeah, little, little, little bit of bull and bushcraft like fire side of things. The venomous snakes as well.

[00:28:10] Daniel Eggington: We'd see snakes and yeah, they're just, they have, they're at one every time He jumped in the water, he'd drink the water like the river and he'd kind of really take it. Yeah. He'd take it in as in like, I am now a part of the water look after me or respect me kind of thing. Yeah. Every single time. Every single time.

[00:28:27] Daniel Eggington: Wow. 

[00:28:27] Chris Watson: Did you have any trouble with like water or parasites or, or any sort of, you know, infections or health issues at all? 

[00:28:36] Daniel Eggington: Not in Guyana, 'cause I would like say that was, that was as in as jungles took like a few days. Yes, it is a long time. Almost two weeks in the jungle. But the water side of things, it's filtering it, boiling it, it made a good filtration system and I've used that ever since.

[00:28:51] Daniel Eggington: So, which is just like the water's, the go kind of kind of system. And I've used that forever. Ever since I'm gone. Moving on to a few other different ones, testing other ones out. But yeah, [00:29:00] as in that side of things, 

[00:29:02] Chris Watson: yeah. So I want to get to the Darien, Colombia, six to eight weeks. I think it was about 60 miles, 90 kilometers or whatever it is, Colombia to to Panama.

[00:29:14] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. 

[00:29:15] Chris Watson: I mean, I mean, not many people. I think there's not many people would would ever attempt that, let alone complete it. So I know you had a couple of, uh, failed attempts and you'd done it on a third attempt and Yeah. From what I've seen, even Bear Grylls was giving you a bit of a, a health warning before you, before you embarked on that.

[00:29:35] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. 

[00:29:36] So. Why the Darien Gap? 

[00:29:38] Daniel Eggington: The Darien gap that place took over my life. It was just everything I thought about. I read every single book I dreamed about it, and it came about probably 20 17, 20 18. So around the guy on a trip, really, I was watching a film and it was about a guy who went traveling down South America, and I think he was stood up on the altar and his [00:30:00] wife didn't turn up, so it was a fictional program and he ended up 

[00:30:03] Why the Darien Gap? Four years of planning

[00:30:05] Daniel Eggington: traveling south, like free road, just going.

[00:30:06] Daniel Eggington: Then he hit Panama, then he hit the Darien Gap, and he wasn't unaware of the Darien Gap, didn't have a clue what it was. And the moment he found out that Darien Gap, he is like, oh, it's cartels dodgy Wildlife, and it just draw him in even more. And I just started doing research from then. The film kind of, it was a bit dramatized, but he ended up meeting some cartel members.

[00:30:24] Daniel Eggington: Ended up spending weeks with them, and then ever since then, I just started researching the hell out of it again. Like you say, you go on a Darien gap, Google search and every first hundred search responses do not go death. Worst place on the planet. Yeah. And it is true in every sense of the word I'd say, when people are involved, when it's just a wildlife in the jungle and you understand how to get by, the more you can avoid people, the burying them kind of places.

[00:30:52] Daniel Eggington: And that's literally, that was kind of my, um, kind of law just avoid people at every opportunity, but it didn't work out as smooth as [00:31:00] that. 

[00:31:00] Chris Watson: Yeah. Uh, because I, I think for context and, and that, I mean, they are. Narco routes. There are people smuggling route, their arms trafficking there, there's everything that you can imagine that probably go, goes through that on foot.

[00:31:15] Chris Watson: So, so in terms of your planning 

[00:31:17] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. 

[00:31:17] Chris Watson: Daniel, how, how did you get in touch with, like, how did you get permission, shall we say? You know, your access to fixers, you know, how, how, how did that come to be? 

[00:31:27] Daniel Eggington: So say the guy on the trip finished and then everything was a hundred, a hundred miles an hour for the Darien gap then.

[00:31:33] Daniel Eggington: So I went to Panama two times before I went to Colombia and I went right on the border. I met with the center, France, I met with the local people, made friends, and it was just. Like, and I kind of has repeated that on the Colombia side. So the Panamanian side is a lot more controlled. There's a lot more infrastructure as you would expect.

[00:31:52] Daniel Eggington: But yeah, if you're building networks organically and consistently keeping in contact with us, I went there twice. The plan was to do it north to south [00:32:00] originally, but then the SENAFRONT just refused to let me go. Which SENAFRONT are the border police of Panama? Um, they're, they're the elite soldiers of the Panamanian Defense Force, however you wanna call it.

[00:32:11] Daniel Eggington: They just, they'd see you in Panama in, in Jaqué or already border it out and they'd kind of take your passport off you and they would just, no, you're not going too much trouble. Okay. So flipped it on its head kind of thing. And I said Colombia a lot, lot less care. Carefree learner. So I did three recce trips to Colombia and being the familiar, like the guy that's connected with the captains, the boat captains, reaching out to cartel members, ELN, heads of ELN, heads of the Clan del Golfo.

[00:32:41] Daniel Eggington: He's all through his social media. I mean, I've got messages on my phone from oh, Commandante, Otoniel. I've literally had conversations with this fella, so I went there three times. Uh, met with local people, make sure they knew my face. And every year the captain would, oh, you are back. You are [00:33:00] back. So I, they began to know me.

[00:33:02] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, it's like I'd go ahead and a party with them, meet their family. So I did try on two occasions, which both failed. So, 2020 and 2021, if I remember right, or 2019, 2020. The first time, the Colombian military just took my passport off me, put me on a boat the next day, sent me to Panama. Well, to give them credit where I was when I was there, which was Juradó, it was, you could hear the fighting in the jungle.

[00:33:29] Daniel Eggington: A lot of back and forward farms going back and forward. So it was understandable why they did that. So the following, the following time, I think it was the COVID that prevented any movement over there, but I just went and parted with the guys and made sure they were familiar with your face.

[00:33:42] Daniel Eggington: Again, 22, which was, I'll train for it like a crazy person. I said, if I don't do it before I'm 30, I'm never gonna attempt it again. And on that, on in 2022, I was 30. So I was like, here's the year I'm either gonna do or I'm gonna, the worst case scenario I'm gonna, at the bottom [00:34:00] of the hill, went there, got in touch with all the people who I'd spoke to two, three years prior in the F, like the local liar of the land.

[00:34:09] Daniel Eggington: ELN was in charge 2019. 2020. All the 

[00:34:12] Getting cartel permission — and an airstrike kills the contact

[00:34:12] Daniel Eggington: two previous attempts. And is, I got permission, ask Commandante I, and you can Google him. They had a song about him and everything. Finally got in touch with him 2019 after like three years trying to communicate with him through social media, through local people. I think we opened up the pubs at the middle of a week, you know, went through the COVID lockdown and it was like a Wednesday hour Saturday with the pub with my mate, and I've had a text message come asking me questions and I'm like, oh, shit, great.

[00:34:42] Daniel Eggington: It's working. Know. He's like, yeah, um, I've seen all your messages. I've spoken to this person, this person, this person, and all you need to do, you need to pay this person when you get there. Don't use your camera and don't interfere with those kind of thing. I'm like, yes, sound. I have no knowledge. I don't, I try to like be [00:35:00] neutral because I don't fully understand their stories, their fight, what their ideals are.

[00:35:04] Daniel Eggington: No, it says neutral and for my own opinions on the ground kind of thing. So that was middle of the week, Wednesday or Thursday I spoke to him. Permission granted Saturday or that weekend, and a text message on LinkedIn. From a journalist, Richard McCall, who gave me a, I met, I've had a chat with him and he is like, you told me you spoke to Ka to I He's been killed by the military.

[00:35:26] Daniel Eggington: Wow. So they dropped, they dropped a bomb on him and they killed him after like the, the, like you say, all of that. Four years planning, four years comes four years worth of everything. Permission granted. There you go, grant zero again. Wow. Being killed. Airstrike. Wow. Again, 2022 was looking unlikely, but I was like sad that I'm going anyway.

[00:35:48] Chris Watson: Yeah. And what did you have? So, so who, who, who stepped in then? Or was it, how did you get your fixer 

[00:35:55] Daniel Eggington: eventually? So as I got there, 2022, um, I, I shouldn't really name him because [00:36:00] he's Yeah, yeah, 

[00:36:01] Chris Watson: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:36:02] Daniel Eggington: Um, say Fred the Fixer. Yeah. And I was talking to him for two or three years and I went and drank with him, parted with him, met his family.

[00:36:09] Daniel Eggington: He, then I said, I'm coming. He's like, yeah, it's still dangerous, Daniel. You, why are you, why do you wanna do it? I turned up and I just got to the town where I was initially starting, which was Juradó, met him, went out with a drink, relaxing, partying, and I'm like, who's in charge you now then? Because obviously ELN's dead.

[00:36:27] Daniel Eggington: He's like, he said, he's literally on the beach with no one around us. And he went, Clan del Golfo, no one around for like a hundred meters as he like Beatles listening to eavesdropping on. Uh, but it is there in every kind of organization. You can see how they're in all the infrastructure they're in every like.

[00:36:44] Daniel Eggington: They're involved from a community level to like it height up. And so it was a golf clamp, so it was the opposing people who gave me permission originally. So I'm thinking it's, so, it's not gonna work. I'm not gonna get permission, but I'm like, I wanna do it. I'll pay whatever. I'll do whatever they tell me [00:37:00] to do.

[00:37:00] Daniel Eggington: So I'm thinking I'll pay three, 400 quid. This little guy came over to me about four foot, nothing, bag of bones. He had like a bucket hat on and he had a loads of gold earrings pierced into his hat. Some a film and narcos. And he is like, $1,500. I'm like, fuck. And that's literally all I had in the equivalent are pesos in colo.

[00:37:21] Daniel Eggington: And they had $300 for my time when I get to Panama and I'm like, yes, sold this. I'm paying. So I ended up paying him. He obviously spoke to the people in charge and they're like, yeah, leave him to it. Just tell him the rules. And the rules were the exact 

[00:37:33] Meeting the Gulf Clan fixer and entering the jungle

[00:37:33] Daniel Eggington: same as the El s rules. Don't record, don't use the drone and all that sort of stuff.

[00:37:37] Daniel Eggington: I can only use the people they suggest I use. And it was two young lads, which my fixer connected with because they obviously spoke to the clan. And they took me that, that was the first initial contact, personal one-to-one contact with the members of the cartel or the paramilitary, I say they're not cartel, they're like right wing, extreme paramilitary clan Gulf.

[00:37:55] Daniel Eggington: And yeah. And that began the three hour inward journey into a smaller village [00:38:00] than Juradó. But to get to that point, I hid for like 10 days in Juradó. I was in a tight, a man's little house in the top bedroom. And I'd come out only at night, eat my food, meet my fixer, and avoid the migration, the police, because if they see a white guy, they're gonna do the exact same thing they did.

[00:38:15] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. The first time. Because the Chocó district or Chocó department in Colombia, it's uh, they're all Afro descendants or indigenous. Once they see a white guy, they're like, oh, who's this guy? Straight away. And then they would took the passport off me and told me they'd get lost anything. So I just hid for over a week and just little sneaky meetings.

[00:38:32] Chris Watson: And did they feel, did they understand that you wanted to actually cross the full gap to Panama? Yeah. Yeah. 'cause I imagine that those guys probably wouldn't go as far from there to the border, would they? So you would be left at some point? 

[00:38:47] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. So when I finally got to connected with the fixer to the cartel man from a cartel man to the two lads, they took me to a village.

[00:38:55] Daniel Eggington: Another little comment. One of the lads said, always cover your bag in the [00:39:00] black. You know, you got like a, a overall, which is black or green on these rock sacks, like the rain covers. Yeah. Is like, because if you have green, they think you're military and they'll just shoot. Wow. Yeah. So I just black cover.

[00:39:12] Daniel Eggington: So we got to this village and it was pretty straightforward. To be fair. I stayed there for two days, met some other person who took my name down, couldn't tell you who he is, why he took my name down or nothing. Then he, the two lads, introduced me to an old older fella and they said, he will walk with you.

[00:39:27] Daniel Eggington: What's the actual plan? Plan? I'm saying from here to Jaqué. He's like, okay, does this route, this route or this route? I'm playing the whatever's easiest for you guys to kind of organize. But that's the gold pae. Who are Dr. Jaqué? He's like, okay. Met him next morning. He says 6:00 AM both got up, 6:00 AM got our bags on.

[00:39:44] Daniel Eggington: Never said bye to the land. They just disappeared. And me and this little fella walking into the jungle and off we went. So crossed seven Rivers on the first day, no matter how much you train for the Darien gap. You can't kind of, you can't foresee what's coming. It was just raining, [00:40:00] nonstop, walking up rivers, which is a task in itself.

[00:40:03] Daniel Eggington: Whilst you, like, I'm planning for so many miles a day, playing for like eight miles a day. Ended up doing 15 miles a day because I've got a 25 kilo rucksack and he's just with a pair of flipping wellies and while every finds in the, on the land. So yeah, it 

[00:40:19] Chris Watson: looked, it looked. Absolutely. I mean, I've seen some of your, your YouTube videos and stuff on Instagram.

[00:40:24] Chris Watson: It just looks so hostile. Not from, not just from a people perspective, but the environment as well. You know, marsh lands, Delta zones in the rain. How did it affect you mentally and stuff? Did you, was there ever any point when you got into that and you thought, this, what, what am I doing? 

[00:40:40] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, I hated, hated every single minute of it.

[00:40:43] Daniel Eggington: I couldn't, there was not a point I enjoyed, to be honest at all. I dunno, some, some weird kind of mindset. But the guy even left me in on day two. 

[00:40:54] Chris Watson: Yeah, I was gonna say I'm, was it, is that not the story? Was he not wanted for people trafficking, I suppose? Yeah. [00:41:00]

[00:41:00] Daniel Eggington: So he was obviously connecting with the cartel because he was the only one they said you can go with.

[00:41:05] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. 

[00:41:05] Daniel Eggington: So two days, he wasn't a very talkative person, but in my Spanish and his Spanish, we could have conversation. Tell me about his son. I tell you about my family back here. And he was pleasant, didn't talk much, didn't have a hammock. He slept on the floor. I had my hammock and he really didn't care if he, if I died or not.

[00:41:22] Daniel Eggington: I don't think 

[00:41:24] Abandoned by the guide — alone in the Darien

[00:41:34] Daniel Eggington: he's like, I'm struggling. He is like, he said, you're right, you've got too much weight in your back. And he'd just carry on. He'd be on, he'd be moles ahead of me. Um, and he'd have to come back quite a lot. Day two we was close to the Panamanian border and he was saying the Panamanian special forces, the SENAFRONT guy, they can potentially do operations just past the border to try and counter the traffickers.

[00:41:46] Daniel Eggington: So he's like, if I get picked up, then I'm going to prison for a long time because I've done lots of things and they're aware of me, small, good people back and forward weapons, drugs probably as well. And I couldn't really argue with him saying, I'm now going, because he could have really set a [00:42:00] different dynamic off, put shit he threw my head, I dunno, threw me down the hill.

[00:42:04] Daniel Eggington: So I'm like, I'm kind of making it humorous, like, you sure you don't wanna say bye to all these people? Like I'm recording him, like, no, no, no. He covered his face and he's like, I said, I need directions. And he gave me some down the hill turn left, follow the river, turn right. That's literally the direction he gave me.

[00:42:18] Daniel Eggington: And like, okay. 

[00:42:21] Chris Watson: See in that Daniel watched one of your videos and you were with the guy and, and you stumbled across some people in the jungle, which appeared to be in the traffickers or 

[00:42:33] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. 

[00:42:34] Chris Watson: What, walk us through your mind when you, when you're in the middle and over and you stumble across these guys because I think one of 'em had a pistol or something as well, didn't he?

[00:42:42] Chris Watson: He, yeah. Two, what was that like? Two young 

[00:42:45] Daniel Eggington: Louds? Probably early twenties probably. Um, they looked worse than I did, to be honest. Or they'd just done something. They was in bits. But I always have this little fact that's in the back of my head. I did a, a really good course with a company, a few, uh, two in 2022 just before it, a hostile environment [00:43:00] course.

[00:43:00] Daniel Eggington: And it's like kidnapped beha behavior under kidnapping, all that sort of, because a lot of kidnaps happening, um, around that time in Colombia. And then what they said to me, they said, every random person like me, you, we can be in wearing a Jordan, Morocco, Colombia. We are worth about 200,000 pound. Like, how the heck do you work that out?

[00:43:17] Daniel Eggington: I ain't, I ain't never gonna see 200,000 pound in my life anyway. He's like saying, your family share it, that you are missing in the jungle. Then once celebrity shares that, then that GoFundMe or that random semi is payable. So that's always in the back of head. If they know the facts, then probably a few more people will get kidnapped.

[00:43:36] Chris Watson: Yeah, it's, it's mad to think that that a western white man, you know, that puts himself in these environments is, you know, is as, as an asset is valuable to someone. So you touched, I was going to ask about that, the hostile, uh, training, you know, kidnap behavior and all that stuff. I've seen you talk about that before.

[00:43:54] Chris Watson: Do you want to talk us through that experience? 

[00:43:56] Daniel Eggington: It was, I reached out to them because there was a [00:44:00] spike in kidnapping in, in the Darien and Bear Grill said it as well when he said, oh, lot kidnapping. It's real over there. So I, you have to take these facts for facts and you have to, you have to be fearful. You have to be, you have to click tick, call the boxes, you need to line up everything really, because it could happen to you.

[00:44:16] Daniel Eggington: But the course was run by XM I five guys, XSF guys, and they're still doing it. The company was called Hostile Environment Training. I think it's one of the, the biggest in the country. And then. They're connected very well with the, the government and they put me through a course. It was, it's over six days.

[00:44:30] Daniel Eggington: They give you, they just, they just treat you bad, man. Like they, so the SF guys is, and the MI five or MI six, like the field kind of one, they would do something very 

[00:44:41] Hostile environment and kidnap training

[00:44:47] Daniel Eggington: similar. So they give you a weapons familiarization, understand the threats of that weapon to that weapon. Once you getting kidnapped, they'll tear you up.

[00:44:48] Daniel Eggington: They're not giving you any water and they're really throwing you around and they treat, they know stuff about you as well, which is weird. They knew my niece and nephew's name, so they're still obviously involved in the MI five guys. They're whispering in your ear. They've [00:45:00] got guns but blanks. So they shoot him, and they'll shoot.

[00:45:04] Daniel Eggington: And it's like as if it's just gone on. And for the first hour, you don't think it's legit. You don't think it's real. It's all like, ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But then when you are getting knocked about bad, you're getting thrown, then your mindset charts change. You're like, fuck, you know, what's sergeant? But you're like.

[00:45:22] Daniel Eggington: It's weird. It changes your mindset and it just, you behave very different. 

[00:45:29] Chris Watson: Yeah. Well you're not getting, like, they're not put like balaclava on you and like punch you out and stuff like that. Yeah. 

[00:45:36] Daniel Eggington: They really throw you back. The one time they, they ba balaclava me up. They said, yeah, you did good now fuck off quickly.

[00:45:41] Daniel Eggington: Or you up go. So I'm running across the field blindfolded. I'll probably go like 50 meters if someone has come run, ran over that and flattened me. Literally flattened me, chinned me, and they dragged me back to whatever shed, it was by my feet. I'm all marked up and they took me back in there and they pull a blank, a gun to your head again and shoot it.

[00:45:59] Daniel Eggington: And then you're like, you [00:46:00] literally flinching at the time as well. So yeah, they do a good decompression kind of stuff afterwards and they like, they've got proper psychologist people. But yeah, it was, it does, it does change your mindset a bit. 

[00:46:12] Chris Watson: Yeah. Wow. So, so flip ing and you've paid for that. 

[00:46:17] Daniel Eggington: That was supportive sponsor.

[00:46:18] Daniel Eggington: That was. 

[00:46:20] Chris Watson: That is, uh, that is absolutely wild. What, uh, so back to the jungle then. Did you meet many people or was that on the route? What was that like? In fact, 'cause I know you, you found like someone's id, didn't you like of Venezuelan girls like Yeah. Lodge or 

[00:46:33] Daniel Eggington: something. Yeah, that was just before the guide disappeared.

[00:46:37] Daniel Eggington: Day two, end of day two, before we started it off, we, a lot of people will be smuggled, not so much on the, the Pacific side. That's very few and far between, but the Caribbean side is just Rife forum and I was on the Pacific side. So it's quite rare for immigration immigrants or people from Haiti or Venezuela to like get to Colombia legally start with, and then cross over the mountains to get to the [00:47:00] Pacific side.

[00:47:01] Daniel Eggington: So when you do come across that, it's quite rare. It's probably a bit more deeper than people trying to get across the border themselves. It's probably spill more people smuggling. But yeah, we found an ID, which I've still got, and skeleton as well human, but like a human skeleton. 

[00:47:15] Chris Watson: What was that like? It was.

[00:47:17] Daniel Eggington: It was old. Like you wouldn't, you couldn't really, yeah, you couldn't really, 

[00:47:23] Finding a skeleton and a Venezuelan ID in the jungle

[00:47:23] Daniel Eggington: I dunno, you couldn't really, like, I, it's sad to say, but you couldn't attach emulsion to it until afterwards when you realize, because you are also in a very high state. So it's like, yeah. That's sad. It's more sad when you've kind of decompressed it.

[00:47:36] Daniel Eggington: You're sitting there in a beer or something, but right there and then it was like, yeah, yeah. Can we just carry on kind of thing. 

[00:47:43] Daniel Eggington 5: Yeah. 

[00:47:44] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. 

[00:47:45] Chris Watson: What was it like when, see, when you were coming to the end of that like kinda six to eight week, uh, trip when you were getting close to, uh, Panama? How, how were you, how did you get into Panama or, [00:48:00] I've con I've concluded it.

[00:48:01] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:48:01] Daniel Eggington: When you get, when you get over, when I'm, I, I found the big, a big river system followed it. And it was, I couldn't cross it even if I tried to, because I was in bits, like, it's like back skins coming off my back and all sorts. And then I seen a small, I knew I was right by the right river. The Jaquéy River, it was the biggest one on the system, on the map system that I had on my GPS.

[00:48:21] Daniel Eggington: So as a feature, it was the biggest feature, the pro most prominent feature. So I knew I was on the real hack a but I couldn't, I couldn't cross over. But then I seen a, uh, a young kid fishing and I shouted over to him and I'm like, who that be? How'd drew that be? Help me, help me. And this guy's looking at me like, who's this guy ended off canoeing up to me.

[00:48:43] Daniel Eggington: I told him I pay him to get me to his village. He's like, yeah, yeah, 20. But bearing in mind I had $300, 

[00:48:50] Crossing into Panama — stripped, interrogated, and finally safe

[00:48:50] Daniel Eggington: 300 notes, 

[00:48:53] Chris Watson: God. 

[00:48:54] Daniel Eggington: So I knew, I knew the outcome was it's gonna be, I'm gonna get robbed. So I gave him a hundred dollars note [00:49:00] of, I know 50 minutes down the river. He took, we got into his village. Um, I said, come back, give him my change.

[00:49:06] Daniel Eggington: He's like, yeah, yeah, no problem. I'll never sit him again. But I got into the village, uh, the center, front four, SENAFRONT guys in. I've got the video as well. Um, and they was, they was really bad, horrible to start with. They kind of reenacted my walk 'cause they didn't realize I was in the village until they seen me.

[00:49:23] Daniel Eggington: And then they made me go back to the river to walk back into it and then recorded it for whatever reason. I don't know, just documenting things, studies, training, I don't know. And then they strip me naked, took everything outta a bag and they just quiz me. Wouldn say, realized I weren't a Venezuelan criminal and I was a guy from Britain, just a daft showed on my website and all that sort of stuff.

[00:49:46] Daniel Eggington: Like, oh. And then he started trying to speak English with me. 'cause he, he knew like six or seven languages. He was learning English. And then after that they were, they were best friends. 

[00:49:54] Chris Watson: Oh, amazing. What, and what was, what was that kinda little village or like, [00:50:00] kinda area like, 

[00:50:01] Daniel Eggington: I mean, there's probably six houses or hoots and then one like kind of watchtower, which just center up front would stay at, there's loads of feral dogs.

[00:50:08] Daniel Eggington: It look worse than I did. And lots of just like old am Indians cooking always. I always offering me food. And they do a really good thing in South America and Latin America. They have like a powder and they put that into water and it's like a, it's like a cordial and I was just getting rid of them. I always gimme that one.

[00:50:25] Daniel Eggington: Gimme that one. Gimme that one. Yeah. I just hammer them. 

[00:50:28] Chris Watson: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, what, what's, what was your, uh, exchanges like with the hammer Indian or the tribes and stuff? 

[00:50:35] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. Over the. I mean, they're, they're shocked. They're inquisitive. They wanna learn about me as much as I wanna learn about them. Where you're from, when you show them pictures of like the uk these towns and stuff big, like London with high rises, they're like, nah, that's not real.

[00:50:51] Daniel Eggington: They just, they just can't fathom it. 

[00:50:53] Chris Watson: It must be quite dystopian for, for, for cultures like that Yeah. That are lived like the same way for Yeah. [00:51:00] Thousands of years. Yeah. Or longer. And then to see that it must be quite, it must be quite a yeah, I mean that point I bet you said about the, the polar bears and, and Yeah.

[00:51:09] Chris Watson: You know, it's, it just shows you that it's, we can be worlds apart really. And it's such a small planet. Yeah. 

[00:51:16] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. 

[00:51:17] Chris Watson: How did you feel when you completed it? 

[00:51:20] Daniel Eggington: My first thing I did is ring the journalist in Colombia. 'cause he was like my kind of go-to kind of liaison rather than me ring the family every other day for them to panic and start getting the embassy involved.

[00:51:30] Daniel Eggington: I rang him. And he said he looked at the number, he weren't gonna answer it because it was a satellite phone number, so it is like fucking 17 different digits. And he answered it. I gave a quick, Daniel, I'm okay, can you get in touch with my brother? And that's through Twitter or whatever x and he is like, yeah, are you sure everything's okay?

[00:51:44] Daniel Eggington: Daniel like, yeah, coordinates. And he's like, yeah, yeah. And then an hour later I rang my brother and he's like, where have you been? Your PR kind of thing. 

[00:51:52] Chris Watson: Had you had any idea what you had just been through? 

[00:51:54] Daniel Eggington: No. Clueless. Well, I'll tell you what, it was even more scary. I had my tracking device and [00:52:00] that did not work through eight at all.

[00:52:01] Daniel Eggington: I think in the, in the time I was there, I think it put five points up. And that's because the denseness of the cap. Uh, of the canopy. Yeah. So I got my money back from them. 

[00:52:10] Chris Watson: Right. Uh, see what I want to question. What? See your food supplies and stuff that you took through the Darien. What? Yeah.

[00:52:18] Chris Watson: How did you sustain yourself through that? 

[00:52:20] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, so again, it was a majority inefficient. But I always take four days emergency rations, so like, army rations. So high dense, calorie, tasty. You gotta enjoy it as well at the same time and very varied. But most of the time it was like I was eating termites, uh, fishing eggs.

[00:52:40] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. Um, and you'd be surprised what you can actually eat to be fair. And you'd be surprised at what you can't eat, which will turn you over. Yeah. But 

[00:52:48] Chris Watson: yeah. Yeah. Did you ever have any mishaps with the bugs, insects, no. Food or berries, anything like that? 

[00:52:54] Daniel Eggington: Always getting it in the live by. Insects. Bees that just want the salt.

[00:52:59] Daniel Eggington: [00:53:00] There's a massive, horrible flies as well, black flies. And they, they don't just nibble, they like kind of cut your skin and then drink your blood. Like little vampire flies. Yeah. Um, caterpillars is probably one that I have a fear the most of in the back of my head. 

[00:53:12] Chris Watson: Caterpillars. Yeah. It's just in the 

[00:53:13] Daniel Eggington: Amazon.

[00:53:14] Daniel Eggington: It's just because they just, there's so many unknowns about caterpillars. They're all much outta them. Will knock you sideways to be fair. So, and you can't see them. You're brushing past them, you're chopping through and a bit of a caterpillar go on your skin and it, someone could probably actually kill you as well.

[00:53:30] Chris Watson: And did you get stung anything? Like a bullet answer? Did you come across anything like that? Bullet 

[00:53:34] Daniel Eggington: ants? No. No. Never got somebody to bullet ants. But bull face hornets as teeka ants, they're always over there. Like these little ants that just swarm, but, yeah. 

[00:53:41] Chris Watson: And how, I know you'd been in the SA and stuff like that, but what, what is it like at night when you're in that?

[00:53:48] Chris Watson: Yeah. How do you manage your mental state of mind? 

[00:53:51] Daniel Eggington: Oh, well it was wild. One of the, one of the nights, it was first or second night, I was left on my own from the guide and it was [00:54:00] the biggest storm I can ever can't kind of like bring it to the fore. 'cause it just wouldn't make like people, you can't imagine it unless you are there.

[00:54:08] Daniel Eggington: You know, you do like that count back, you hear the, you see the lightning, you came back for the sun, it's like five miles away or whatever. Yeah. They're both hitting at the same time every single time. So it's like, it's like a in the same room as you. 

[00:54:21] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:54:22] Daniel Eggington: Geez. And the vibration from that and the heavy dense rain, torrential rain, then the dead falls coming down as well.

[00:54:29] Daniel Eggington: So two dead falls as well came like landing by me. Yeah. And you can literally hear it. I'm in a camp Ham and I'm saying it's gonna hit me, it's gonna hit me, it's gonna hit me. And I'm literally in a feet, like a fetal position and it's gonna hit me and it just crack.

[00:54:42] Chris Watson: Yeah. Did you get much sleep each night or were you, was it almost like naps?

[00:54:47] Chris Watson: Tell. How was that? 

[00:54:49] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, I feel I I try, when I'm camping, I get better sleep than I do like in a normal bed. But when you are so drained, I think the devil sitting at the bottom of your [00:55:00] bed wouldn't keep me up. 

[00:55:01] Chris Watson: Yeah, yeah. I 

[00:55:02] Daniel Eggington: just, I didn't look at his face. I just wave anyone down. 

[00:55:05] Chris Watson: Yeah. And what, how, see, 'cause it is so wet and, you know, and even seeing your videos and stuff, it just brings it to life, you know, fires and keep 'em warm and trying to keep dry and stuff.

[00:55:16] Chris Watson: Was that a challenge for you? 

[00:55:18] Daniel Eggington: I swear by like pine dried pine, so I'd have a kit, like a little, my own little fire kit. So you get some good dry pine. I have two different lighters and some batches. And no matter where you are on earth, you can light that pine, it can be, you can be sitting in a wet boat and you can light that pine.

[00:55:35] Daniel Eggington: But most of the time, to be fair, unless it's an early night, I light, I've settled down for like four o'clock. I wouldn't really use the fire kind of. I'd be soaked through, and then right at the last minute I'd get into like my dry, dry ish dryer kit. But yeah, 

[00:55:51] Chris Watson: Yeah. Excellent. And decompression from the Darien Gap how did you deal with that?

[00:55:56] Chris Watson: Did you stay around in eh, Panama for a while [00:56:00] afterwards? I don't, 

[00:56:01] Daniel Eggington: yeah. I, I mean, I don't, I've never touched on this, but I think there's definitely some sort of, I, I wouldn't say trauma or whatever, but there's definitely something because I'm still like, I'll have mad nightmares or, so I'm just like, it's just summit in the back of your head, and it's like, you think about that and I, I have vivid, like I can have vivid dreams.

[00:56:21] Daniel Eggington: I literally, and it's always about flipping, uh, eyes in the jungle or something. 

[00:56:25] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:56:26] Daniel Eggington: Well decompress. Like I don't fear, I don't fear the dreaming or the, the thoughts or whatever, but I think decompress. Yeah. I like to like nice people, A nice pool, pretty wait to waitresses to chat to you. I've been in the jungle for however long and I'll just go, I'll like I'll go out in Oxford.

[00:56:43] Daniel Eggington: I'll go and sit in the pub on my own. I'll do the same thing when I'm in Panama, Colombia, Brazil, within wherever. Then I just, 

[00:56:48] Chris Watson: yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Uh, I mean, that's it. It's epic. It's absolutely epic. And I think I would encourage anyone that's watching or listening to this to go and have a nosy around your 

[00:56:58] Decompression and the lasting effects of the Darien

[00:56:58] Chris Watson: Instagram page and also the YouTube channel.

[00:57:01] Chris Watson: There's some cracking on your website as well, which we'll come to later. But there's some, uh, cracking excellent content on it that just kinda, it just, yeah. It's, it's such a feat. So firstly, congratulations. I appreciate it's attempt in, in doing that and considering. The clans, the tribes, the cartels, the indigenous.

[00:57:22] Chris Watson: It's just, uh, it's a, it's epic. It's absolutely epic. And I don't think you, you're not stopping there, aren't you? You're planning what?

[00:57:34] Daniel Eggington: I could play you a voice note. Now. What some guy in, in, in the Congo has sent to me, he's quote, and this will be the book's name when I write it. Eventually walking the entire Congo will be, will be harder if you walk the through the entire Hal. And that's the way he said it. Walking the Congo will be like walking through Hal 

[00:57:53] Daniel Eggington 5: geez.

[00:57:54] Daniel Eggington: Again, I wanna form my own opinions and why the Congo, [00:58:00] Congo was always on my radar, has been for years as is Siberia. But Siberia is now few, few years ahead because of the geopolitical side of things. I brought the Congo two or three years forward, but the Congo will be an attempt at walking. Man powered the entire length of the Congo from Zambia through to the Atlantic coast following the Congo River in its entirety.

[00:58:21] Chris Watson: Wow. Has that have you started that planning already that, because I know you've put some stuff in Insta, so is that happening then? 

[00:58:28] Daniel Eggington: It is 100% happening. I will be in the Congo next month, and for context, that'll be September this year. Wow. Uh, that'll just be a five to seven day trip. Gotta meet decision makers, politicians, journalists, do a bit of filming out there, try and bring credibility 

[00:58:44] Next up — walking the entire Congo River

[00:58:47] Daniel Eggington: in a sense to it, because people don't think it's, it's all talk.

[00:58:48] Daniel Eggington: But once I'm there, do a bit of film. And as with social media, as fickle as the world is, you need to like, you need to like, you need to evidence it. Yeah. But [00:59:00] yeah. 

[00:59:00] Chris Watson: Yeah. 

[00:59:01] Daniel Eggington: Full emotion. 

[00:59:02] Chris Watson: Excellent. Have you got any more hostile en environment environment training to undertake, to prepare you for that? 

[00:59:08] Daniel Eggington: I've spoken to a few people.

[00:59:09] Daniel Eggington: I will need experts in every walk of life, medical experts. I'm gonna do a really advanced medical course. I've got in touch with a number of medical people. I will speak to the, 'cause I'm like a security firm that I've been sponsored with before, and the hostile environment people, if they have any insights and like very specific or dedicated courses for that side of environment, kind of environment.

[00:59:30] Daniel Eggington: But yeah, any way I can add bits of nuggets of information, knowledge from world lead experts in anything you daft if you don't take them opportunities in anything. 

[00:59:38] Chris Watson: Yeah, agreed. I, I think the, the kinda extreme medicine side of that would be, I think would be particularly wise. 

[00:59:46] Daniel Eggington 4: Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:59:47] Chris Watson: How long does that expedition anticipated to take?

[00:59:52] Daniel Eggington: I've mapped out every single day for 12 months. Spreadsheets. Got law spreadsheet. Spreadsheets. Spreadsheets. Yeah. [01:00:00] So it's working out about 12 months at the minute. And every day's accounted for, every mile accounted for. And that will change, I believe over the quarter, the next few months as well.

[01:00:10] Daniel Eggington: Everything team, people being, getting involved, opportunities that present themselves. But yeah, it's gonna tick if everything works out, everything works smooth as hope than 12 months, but unlikely it's gonna work out like that. 

[01:00:23] Chris Watson: Yeah. Well ho hopefully, I mean, that goes to plan that it is an epic adventure and that you come back and we can come on and talk, you can take us through, take us through the Congo, that sounds particular, particularly, I mean, I just, I can't believe that you've done the, the ING gap and then you might be doing it at the Congo as well.

[01:00:41] Chris Watson: That that is pretty spectacular. 

[01:00:44] Daniel Eggington 4: Appreciate it. 

[01:00:45] Chris Watson: It doesn't get much wilder, uh, quite frankly. Well, I, I seen something. You can, would you consider them doing something where in Pakistan as well? 

[01:00:52] Daniel Eggington: Yeah, so the, there's, that's like more of a media thing. So there's a team of camera people that, uh, have a plan.

[01:00:59] Daniel Eggington: They want me to [01:01:00] go out there and it's just treking up one of the, one of the marathons to try and find a community that live out there wouldn't be long, maybe two weeks. So that is still working in motion and I've, I've got in touch with a few people over there to kind of build the foundation. But yeah, we'll see if, um, like I say, I'll go tomorrow.

[01:01:20] Daniel Eggington: Like I say, I need the team involved because it's not my project. It's more of like some guys wanna film the community and the social aspect of it, and they want me to corner the hills. 

[01:01:29] Chris Watson: Excellent. Uh, that sounds equally as exciting. I can't believe I'll be over, over an hour. It's my mi in my mind, I'm going down the rabbit hole just on, on that the day, the daily and gap.

[01:01:39] Chris Watson: But after this, I'm gonna get back and to your YouTube channel again, just to bring some of this to, to life. And I, I recommend that others do the same. So, so probably time to, to shift into closing traditions, Daniel, so of which there are three pay forward call to adventure. And then I've got a quick fire round of can attain questions [01:02:00] just to end in a bit of a lighthearted note.

[01:02:03] Chris Watson: So if we start with a pay forward recommendation for an opportunity for you to raise awareness for a charity or a awarded project. 

[01:02:10] Daniel Eggington: So a thing that I'm really passionate about. In 2017, I went to Brazil and I teach kids boxing in from one of the, one of the high risk of Ella's kids, 10 year olds walking around, machine guns, rocket launches and all that sort of crap, which is still happening right now.

[01:02:23] Daniel Eggington: I went back there last year, November to see the three kids that I was working with. Two of them have now died through gang violence or whatever. A bit emotional, but there's one girl called Victoria and she's stuck at the Brazilian juujitsu. She's now ranked number one in Brazil for a weight class, and I kind of sponsor her every month.

[01:02:43] Daniel Eggington: I send like $300 to her every month. So kit, bills, whatever it may be, in like a form of like an ath, I'm sponsoring an athletes because she's ranked one in Brazil, but nobody knows about her. She's just 18. She hasn't got into the gang violence. She's got into the typical work young ladies would do in villas.[01:03:00]

[01:03:00] Daniel Eggington: She's just gone full steam and Brazilian juujitsu. So every time I do talks in schools, which will be starting from autumn. There, it's gonna be an option, not pay me to pay her directly. And if people can just reach out to me, I'll have her connected on my website and they can just pay her account and stuff and like that.

[01:03:17] Daniel Eggington: But that's a very thing I'm pushing heavy. 

[01:03:19] Pay it forward — sponsoring Victoria, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion

[01:03:19] Chris Watson: Yeah. Excellent. That is paying it forward. That is the definition of that. That is excellent. Thank you very much for that Daniel. So next a call to adventure. So an opportunity to raise up not an opportunity to raise awareness, a call to adventure, to get people excited to do something adventurous, a, a place or an activity.

[01:03:37] Chris Watson: So what would your call to adventure be to listeners of yours? 

[01:03:40] Daniel Eggington: I think South Wales is a location that I, I really enjoy exploring. Pick something that you're gonna, I dunno, focus on for like two, three months and train for it. Even if it's just a five mile run or, or that hill you've always wanted a Snow Brecken, penny fan, south Wales, I think set yourself a goal and I think commit [01:04:00] heavily to it.

[01:04:01] Daniel Eggington: Be a small goal in comparison to some, if you think it's a big goal in comparison to some, just, just commit to a goal as long as it's outdoors and you're off a screen. Yeah. Happy days. 

[01:04:10] Chris Watson: Excellent. Yep. Agreed. Happy days. Happy days. Excellent.

[01:04:14]

[01:04:16] Chris Watson: It's been excellent. Daniel, thank you for kinda, I appreciate it taking. 

[01:04:20] Daniel Eggington 4: It's all good. Let's 

[01:04:21] Chris Watson: do this. So all good, usual fashion.

[01:04:23] Chris Watson: Where can everyone find out more about your adventures and everything that you have in the pipeline? 

[01:04:31] Daniel Eggington: I am pushing a lot more Instagram these days, which is just my name, Daniel Eggington, which has gone quite, it's, it's working out re like quite good lately. But also I do have a website which is changing.

[01:04:45] Daniel Eggington: It's currently merchant traveler.com, but by the end of this week I hope will be just my name, Daniel eggington com. And that's all the updates of the upcoming Congo. The past exhibitions that I've done from the Darien 

[01:04:57] Call to adventure and where to find Daniel

[01:04:57] Daniel Eggington: to Guyana to Guata to the Amazon. Everything in between, but yeah, all Daniel Egginton.

[01:05:04] Daniel Eggington: Yeah. 

[01:05:05] Chris Watson: Excellent. And of course, yeah, Daniel eggington.com and we'll get all that listed, show notes and all that good stuff. So this has been excellent, Daniel. Thank you. Appreciate it for coming on and it's all good. And sharing. Yeah, sharing your story today. So with that, we'll bring it to our close.

[01:05:24] Daniel Eggington: Alright, thank you. 

[01:05:26] : Thanks for tuning in to today's episode. For the show notes and further information, please visit adventure diaries.com/podcast. And finally, we hope to have inspired you to take action and plan your next adventure, big or small, because sometimes we all need a little adventure to cleanse that bitter taste of life from the soul.

[01:05:48] : Until next time, have fun and keep paying it forward.