Bermuda's team have been disqualified from Eco-Challenge Fiji 2002.

This came after the four-person unit completed four stages of the 300-mile, multi-terrain expedition adventure and then three of them tried unsuccessfully to negotiate stage five.

Having completed four stages, Jim Butterfield dropped out because his feet were heavily blistered and very sore. His three team-mates - Kim Mason (captain), Lee Harrison and Kevin Pearson - were determined to persevere but Harrison's feet, which were almost as bad as Butterfield's, also proved too sore.

Describing the five-day jungle trek as “hell in heaven”, Butterfield - a veteran of tough sports - told The Royal Gazette yesterday he had never been through anything as exhausting and rigorous in his life.

His feet had begun hurting en route to the third checkpoint but it was the arduous journey between there and the fourth checkpoint that did in the 52-year-old.

“What happens is that your feet are constantly wet. My feet had been wet for five days. Every time you walk through a river you pick up more sand and more water and you try and get it out but you can't.

“So, you're walking on wet feet with wet socks with sand in them, hour after hour.”

Added to that, one night Butterfield and company stood up for nine hours on a billi billi (a bamboo Fijian raft), with their feet getting soaked as they pushed the 60-pound raft.

“You just stand there pushing. If you can't push, you paddle with a pole. All the time your feet are in water.

“The long and the short of it was that I knew my feet were finished. When we got there (checkpoint number four) at 8.30 a.m. on Tuesday (5.30 p.m. Monday Bermuda time) I said ‘Guys I can go no further. I am sorry but I am finished'. It was really disappointing but the good thing is we lasted five days.”

His team-mates said they would continue as an unranked team but gave up a few hours later when Harrison could go no further.

Admitting that despite nine months of training they were “totally unprepared” for the Eco-Challenge, Butterfield said “you can't live in Bermuda and prepare for this” and that he would not try the torturous event again.

“Absolutely not! I wouldn't touch this with a barge pole,” he said, adding that it was like taking “an inflatable dinghy and two oars and saying I'm going in the Newport-Bermuda Race”.

Prior to being disqualified, the Bermuda team had moved up into 66th place.