This article is a follow-up to "Explorer Completes First Solo Transcontinental Trek," also available on BK.
Milton Salgado famously completed the first recorded solo expedition across Nava Abhyudaya last year. However, new allegations from several sources have called the explorer’s historic feat into question.
Dr. Osmani's team arrives at a section of the Sal River's dry basin within the Salgado Ravine.
The story first broke in local Tonderay News two weeks ago. Dr. Tayat Osmani, a professor of meteorology at Tonderay University, told reporters that he had been conducting field work in the area of the Salgado Mountains. His work involved study of the rainfall patterns of western Nava Abhyudaya. As part of this study, he visited the Sal River, which Mr. Salgado claimed to have floated down in a raft as part of his famous transcontinental trek.
“When I arrived at the Sal,” Dr. Osmani told the press, “I was totally blown away. The entire thing was completely dry.” Continued study showed this river to be seasonal, dependent on infrequent monsoon rains. “It was completely unexpected. The original satellite images of the area show a wide, strong river, but it turned out that those classic images were taken just after one of the strongest monsoon seasons the area had experienced in decades.”
That was when Dr. Osmani began to grow suspicious about the details of Salgado’s story. “I was looking back through satellite images of the area taken over the years and said to myself ‘Hold on a second. This picture is from last Hujan.’” - around the time that Salgado famously claimed to raft down the river. In the image, the Sal River consists of a few trickles of water running down that same dry riverbed.
Since Dr. Osmani’s story broke, several other people have come forward with assertions that they saw Mr. Salgado in various parts of Ziva during the time period he was allegedly hiking across the continent.
One of the more credible claimants is Naseem Pirzada, who owns and operates a bulk oceanic freighter that frequently transits the Lahore Ocean. Captain Pirzada states that he was in the village of Kirenga around the time that Milton Salgado began his expedition, which set off from that same town. According to Pirzada, someone matching Mr. Salgado’s description booked passage on his ship seeking transport to a port near Tehnali City. Pirzada elaborated that, while carrying travelers on his ship is not unheard of, passenger liners also travel the same route. In fact, according to the Kirenga Port Authorities, one was scheduled to depart just hours after Pirzada’s own ship. Under those circumstances, the captain said, he rarely receives requests for passengers.
The Sabmadi Wilderness Exploration Society, of which Mr. Salgado is a member, put out a press release denouncing the allegations from Dr. Osmani and Cpt. Pirzada. “Milton Salgado is a good man and an upstanding member of the SWES,” read the statement. “These implications of fraud are transparent attempts to ride into the national spotlight by defaming the image of a national hero.”
When asked for comment, Chairwoman Diana Monteiro of the Sabmadi Historic Records Office released a statement, “We don’t work with that type of record in this office,” - a clear condemnation of Mr. Salgado’s allegedly-falsified world record.
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