Just finished
unloading pictures (see below) from my Nile Trip. Was really incredible. I
joined for three days the First Nile Expedition. The expedition,
headed by Pasquale Scaturro and with Gordon Brown, left the source of
the Blue Nile high in Ethiopia on Xmas Day 2003 for the first trip
all the way to the mouth of the Nile in Alexandria Egypt. (The Blue
Nile carries 85% of the water of the Nile.) While going down the
river, they were taking part in making an IMAX film. The Expedition
arrived in Khartoum on February 16. After two weeks of rest and
re-stocking, plus filming at some sites near Khartoum, they left on
Monday (the 1st)
to begin the second half of their journey and I went with them. I
spent three days and two nights traveling about 210 kilometers to the
next big town downriver, Shendi.
Being
on the Nile was a real trip. Long ago, the wildlife disappeared from
the river. There are no hippos or crocs. Competition with the
people was just too intense. That’s because the Nile creates a
thin strip of life through the desert. (Every drop of water we went
by fell as rain hundreds of miles upstream in Ethiopia and Central
Africa.) We passed 100’s of small water pumps lifting water from
the river up to the fields on the flood plains. Fields of sorghum,
groves of date palms, fields of tomatoes and other produce are
everywhere that people can get to. All along the shore, men in their
white jellabiyas, women in brightly colored clothes, bashful girls and
playing children waved or ran or asked us – mostly in hand signals
– who we were and where we were going. Despite that lack of big
animals, the Nile reminded me of the Zambezi except usually bigger.
It meandered along sometimes seeming more like a big lake
with no end rather than a stream rushing to get anywhere. We used
two rafts that were necessary for running the upstream rapids. Each
had an outboard motor at the back that was connected to a long handle
that we used to steer. I was allowed to take the “wheel” and
spent many outstanding hours guiding us through the river. Simply no
way to describe how cool that felt. The first great river that man
ever traveled on over a million years ago and I was on it.
The
wind blew most of the time and until we reached the deep desert just
south of Shendi, it blew cool and comfortable. The water was muddy
and lots of things floated in it, including dead cows, goats and
donkeys. The guys washed in the river and our two Sudanese helpers
drank it. I did neither. But I did get into the river in a shallow
to help reposition the motor. It was cool and probably safe enough
since it was flowing rapidly. At night, we made camp on sand bars
that were under the river just several weeks ago. These were lovely
spots of sand and scrub. We pitched tents while dinner was cooked.
I brought along some beer and cigars. We ate under the stars as the
moon crawled through the sky and the water pumps went off. I slept
in a tent that was mostly just a mosquito net. Both nights it was
cool enough to use a cover.
By
the third day, I was getting into the rhythm of the river. Waking
up, breaking camp, setting out, cruising until late afternoon, making
camp, eating, talking till late and then sleeping again. If I stayed
another day, I might never have left.
