Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ers gave their legs, or their sanity itself - and in doing so, opened the world up to great
swathes of the African interior.
Those Victorian explorers - David Livingstone, John Hanning Speke, Henry Morton
Stanley, Samuel Baker and countless others - had lived long in my imagination, and it
was faintly surreal to be standing here, having reached the apex of their quest so easily,
with a big wooden sign that announced, in bold yellow letters, 'THIS IS THE FURTHEST
SOURCE OF THE NILE' in the corner of my vision. My quest, however, lay in the op-
posite direction. The idea of recreating this fantastic voyage of discovery in reverse had
first come to me in the winter of 2011, and it had taken almost two years to reach this
point. For as long as I can remember, I had wanted to embark on an epic journey, one that
harked back to the great expeditions of times past, a journey that would test me both phys-
ically and mentally in a way that no other could. I had done plenty of expeditions before,
of course, and more or less devoted my life to travel and exploring the world. At the age of
21, I had hitch-hiked home from Cairo by way of a very troubled Middle East, including a
reckless perambulation through Iraq just after the fall of Baghdad in 2003. A year later, I
continued my roadside-thumbing career with a four-month voyage overland to India, fol-
lowing the fabled Silk Road. Again, I took the road less travelled, by heading through the
middle of an insurgent-infested Afghanistan and fanatical Iran. It wasn't the thrill of war-
zones that drew me to these hostile environments; rather, I hungered to discover the people
in these places, the way humanity shines in the most troubled places of the Earth. The Nile
itself had first cast its spell over me in 2010 when, as part of a charitable expedition, I had
driven overland from London to Malawi to deliver ambulances to communities in need.
Now, three years on, I had given in to its irresistible spell. I wanted to see the places Liv-
ingstone, Speke, Stanley and the rest had discovered as they cut their path into the heart of
this most challenging continent. And, as in my expeditions in the past, I wanted to learn
more about the people who lived along this mighty river, people whose lives were dictated
by its ebb and flow. In a continent in which borders are always in flux, the Nile is a con-
stant. I wanted to see how it shaped lives from the ground, day by day and mile by mile.
'So,' said Amani. 'Now you begin, no?'
I stood and put the metal mug back in my rucksack. 'Let's start walking.'
The spring that fed into the puddle that, in turn, disappeared under the dense foliage soon
faded into memory. As the day wore on, the excitement of having left the source of the
Nile turned into something new: the promise of movement itself. Just as the Nile begins
with a tiny trickle of water, this year-long voyage was beginning with a few tiny steps. No
more planes, buses or Land Cruisers; no more anticipation and worry; now, only forward
motion. On foot.
