Davey du Plessis, in his own words for the first time in public.

Some of you may remember the newspaper headlines toward the end of August telling the story of SA adventurer Davey du Plessis’ daring escape after being shot in the Peru jungle.

In short du Plessis was nearing the end of his epic solo kayaking expedition in which the 24 year old was attempting to navigate the Amazon from source to sea when he was attacked by gunmen. He was shot in the neck, back and leg and still managed to escape with his life despite being partially paralysed, and unable to call for help.  The headlines read: ‘Adventurer shot in Peru‘, ‘Mom tells of son’s close call in the Amazon‘ and ‘Shot, left for dead but lives to tell the tale‘. Then the news wires went dead…

“He was shot at in his kayak. He fell out [but] could not move his arm. They shot at him again [as] he swam to get away.”

Well, Davey is back in SA and spoke publicly for the first time about his harrowing ordeal at this year’s FEAT event. It’s an inspiring if somewhat chilling presentation by a young man who’s clearly been scarred by the attack but says he won’t be giving up any time soon. Check this out:

Follow @DaveyDuPlessis on Twitter and visit his website; Worldwonderer.co.za

What’s FEAT?

FEAT if you don’t know, is an acronym for Fascinating Expedition & Adventure Talks.  It’s an annual evening of time-limited presentations by adventurers where ‘each presenter speaks for seven minutes; no more, no less.’ We can’t all attend these gatherings of inspiration but they upload speakers videos intermittently. Check them out at www.feat.co.za and if you subscribe to the FEAT YouTube channel you’ll get notified by email as and when they upload new content.

Follow @AdventureFEAT on Twitter.