Darcy Gaechter - First woman to kayak the Amazon River, 4,300 miles from the source to the sea!

Darcy Gaechter is the first and only woman to kayak the Amazon River from source to sea. She has been whitewater kayaking for twenty-one years and, for the past fifteen years, she has been considered one of the world’s best female kayakers and one of the most accomplished expedition kayakers.    Darcy has won whitewater kayaking races throughout the world, and has participated in and led kayaking expeditions in eighteen different countries. In addition, she has been a kayak, raft and adventure travel guide for two decades and has owned and operated two kayak guiding businesses. She currently spends half the year in Ecuador running Small World Adventures and showing kayakers down some of her favourite rivers in the world.    Darcy has long been a groundbreaker of women pushing the limits in both kayaking and other outdoor pursuits.    Leading by example of what women can accomplish in a predominately male sport, she has inspired other women athletes to push themselves to achieve extraordinary things.   New episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time! Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss out!   The tough girl podcast is sponsorship and ad free thanks to the monthly financial support of patrons. To find out more about supporting your favourite podcast and becoming a patron please check out www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast.   Show notes Who is Darcy
What life was like growing up
Growing up in the mountains and spending time outdoors
Wanting to follow in her dad’s footsteps
Changing the direction of her life
Going to Nepal at 19 years old
Exploring parts that other tourists don’t get to see
Wanting to get better at kayaking
Figuring out the combat role
Deciding to go kayaking in Ecuador
Saying yes to opportunity
Meeting the people that would change her life
Female role models in kayaking
Saying yes to a job in Ecuador
How the idea came about to kayak the Amazon River
Stats  - 4,300 miles done over 148 days
Having the adventure fully funded
Figuring out the logistics for this challenge
Dealing with naysayers
Balancing the risks
Getting mad and getting determined
Being the only woman on the team
Cutting off all her hair
Magical moments - Day 135
What a typical day was like out on the river
Dealing with sand flies
Paddling for 8 - 10 hours per day
The perfect last adventure
When will they settle down?
Getting to the end point and what it was like
Coming up with new goals
The book of legends in Siberia
The motivation for writing the book
To film or not to film
What happened after the adventure
Final words of advice 
  Social Media   Website  darcygaechter.com   Small World Adventures www.smallworldadventures.com    Instagram  @darcygaechter @smallworldadv   Twitter @GaechterDarcy