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Revision as of 04:14, 28 February 2007 by Freddy3 (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Colin Angus is a Canadian author and adventurer best known for completing the first human-powered circumnavigation of the planet. This two year 43,000 km (26,700 miles) expedition included voyaging the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans unsupported in a rowboat and traveling through 17 countries by foot, bicycle, ski and canoe. The route began and ended in Vancouver, crossed all longitudinal meridians, and ranged from the tropics to Siberia's far north while remaining in the Northern hemisphere. Angus along with his fiance and expedition partner, Julie Wafaei, were jointly given the Adventurer of the Year Award by National Geographic Adventure for their human powered circumnavigation.Outside Magazine honored Angus for his efforts in combating climate change by including him in a compilation of 25 visionaries changing the world. Other expeditions Angus has completed include the first descent of the world's fifth longest river, the Yenisey, and a complete descent of the Amazon from source to sea. He has written two books Lost in Mongolia and Amazon Extreme and co-produced two films for National Geographic Television.
Angus began his adventuring lifestyle at nineteen with a five year sailing odyssey in the Pacific Ocean, half of it done with his best friend Dan Audet. In 1999, along with Australian Ben Kozel and South African Scott Borthwick, he became the first to raft the Amazon River from source to sea, chronicling the feat in his 2001 book Amazon Extreme. The trio retraced the route of Polish kayaker Piotr Chmielinski’s 1986 historic first-ever descent of the Amazon River from source to sea, which used a kayak. To follow up the rafting of the Amazon, Angus put together a team which would accomplish the same task, only this time on the longest untraversed river in the world, Asia's Yenisey River (also the fifth longest river in the world). This story was recounted in the 2003 book Lost in Mongolia: Rafting The World's Last Unchallenged River.
Most recently Angus became the first person to circle the world using exclusively human power, primarily biking across land and rowing across water. The goal of Angus' expedition was to "promote awareness about global warming and demonstrate how effective human powered travel can be". Toronto-born Julie Wafaei was an integral part of the expedition, rowing and cycling 25,300 km (15,720 miles) of the expedition and managing expedition logistics for the remainder of it. Wafaei was on the expedition for one of the most difficult parts, rowing 10,000 km (6,200 miles) across the Atlantic from Lisbon, Portugal to Limon, Costa Rica in 145 days. In all, the expedition lasted 720 days, ending in Vancouver on May 20, 2006. Angus' third book, "Beyond the Horizon", details the human-powered circumnavigation and will be released in March 2007.
Aside from the first human powered circumnavigation of the world, this expedition established many other records. These include the first row boat crossing of the Atlantic from mainland Europe to mainland North America (Wafaei and Angus), the first Canadian woman to row across any ocean and the first woman in the world to row across the Atlantic from mainland to mainland (both Wafaei).