ADVENTURE: Kayak the Kwanza: the World-Record Paddle Down Angola’s Longest River

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

Follow travel author Oscar Scafidi on his world-record paddle down the Kwanza River in

Angola. Stretching 600-miles from its source in the Angolan Highlands, in the center of the

country, to the Atlantic Ocean on the country’s west coast, Oscar and his partner Alfie

Weston kayaked the entire length and hiked an additional two hundred miles to circumvent

rapids, waterfalls and dams.

The going was tough and they were unprepared for the dangers and hardships ahead. But,

that’s also part of what’s so inspiring and unique about this story – Oscar and Alfie aren’t

professional adventurers, explorers or African bush experts. They’re just two young guys

with a crazy idea and a lot of guts.

They faced man-eating crocodiles, angry hippos and even angrier police. But over 33 hard