Briton wins explorer title

Former Army officer Ed Stafford, 35, reached the mouth of the river in Brazil in August last year, 859 days after setting off from its source high in the mountains of Peru.

Along the way he encountered venomous snakes, electric eels and piranhas, as well as being wrongly accused of murder and chased by tribesmen armed with machetes, shotguns and bows and arrows.

Mr Stafford, from Mowsley, Leicestershire, received the award at an event called the Wilderness Fair in Stockholm on Saturday..

The jury for the award said he was being presented with it “for having completed one of the world’s last great adventures”.