In 1994, Jason Lewis and Steve Smith set out to circle the Earth using human power rather than engines or sails.
asserted
Lewis → set → power
Thirteen years later, Lewis completed the expedition after travelling 46,505 miles across five continents and numerous seas and oceans.
asserted
Lewis → complete → continents
In 2005, on the Cape York Peninsula in Australia, Lewis encountered a crocodile he estimated at 15 feet long.
asserted
he → encounter → crocodile
He knew estuarine crocodiles populated those waters.
asserted
crocodiles → know → waters
In his first-person account published by Sidetracked under the title “Crocodile Attack”, Lewis described how the crocodile followed his kayak to shore, attacked his paddle before retreating into deeper water.
asserted
crocodile → publish → water
The encounter became one episode in his extraordinary 13-year circumnavigation.
asserted
encounter → become → circumnavigation
How did Jason Lewis survive the crocodile attack
asserted
Lewis → survive → attack
One of the most dangerous episodes came on 13 May 2005 at Cape York Peninsula in Australia.
uncertain
One → come → Australia
Lewis recalled seeing two eyes and a snub nose gliding behind his kayak as he approached shore.
asserted
he → recall → shore
He had already paddled twenty-two miles in five and a half hours, while a leak in the canvas hull had forced him to bail frequently.
asserted
leak → paddle → him
He described the experience as the “primal, fundamentally hard-wired horror of being hunted and considered prey”.
asserted
He → describe → horror
Reaching the beach did not end the danger.
asserted
Reaching → reach → danger
Lewis wrote that the crocodile, which he estimated at 15 feet long, moved through the surf towards his kayak.
asserted
he → write → kayak
Using the hull as protection, he prodded its snout with his paddle, but the animal opened its mouth, hissed and lunged at him.
asserted
animal → use → him
Its jaws caught the paddle blade, beginning a struggle in which Lewis eventually thrust the blade into its throat and struck at it, breaking the paddle.
asserted
Lewis → catch → paddle
The crocodile then turned and slipped back into deeper water.
asserted
crocodile → turn → water
Jason Lewis survived the night 25,000 miles from home
After the crocodile retreated, Lewis contacted John Andrews in Cairns using his satellite phone.
asserted
Lewis → survive → phone
Andrews warned him to leave the beach and seek higher ground, telling him that if he remained there overnight, the crocodile could wait until he was asleep.
uncertain
he → warn → him
Lewis followed the advice and carried his equipment up the steep path to the top of the headland.
asserted
Lewis → follow → headland
Lewis described his feet as swollen and said he was utterly spent as he sat in the windswept grass while mosquitoes gathered around him.
asserted
mosquitoes → describe → him
Below, he could see the crocodile's eyes moving in the darkness.
uncertain
eyes → see → darkness
In his own account, he later reflected on how he had ended up “25,000 miles from home” on the cliff above a “man-eater”, after years of the expedition.
asserted
he → reflect → expedition
PC: Kenny Brown; Sidetracked
Jason Lewis became the first to circle Earth by human power
The Cape York encounter formed part of a much longer expedition that ultimately lasted 13 years.
asserted
that → sidetrack → expedition
Lewis is recognised by
Guinness World Records as the first person to circumnavigate the Earth without using motors or sails.
asserted
Lewis → recognise → motors
Its account says he walked, cycled and inline skated across five continents and used kayaking, swimming, rowing and a pedal-powered boat to cross rivers, seas and oceans.
asserted
he → say → rivers
According to Guinness World Records, Lewis completed the circumnavigation on 6 October 2007, having travelled 74,842 kilometres, or 46,505 miles.
uncertain
Lewis → accord → kilometres
His route passed through antipodal points and covered more than the Earth's circumference of 24,900 miles, or 40,075 kilometres.
asserted
route → pass → miles
The journey that began from Greenwich in 1994 therefore ended 13 years later with Lewis completing the first individual circumnavigation of the globe using human power.
asserted
Lewis → begin → power
The Aporia
