Mystery of the Nile

Mystery of the Nile
By Richard Bangs & Pasquale Scaturro
Official Website
Based on the Imax Movie - Mystery of the Nile (2005)
Book Published by Putnam 2005

I spent several hours at the ER yesterday waiting to have some swelling under my incision looked at. Turns out to be a small problem, nothing to be concerned about - according to the surgeon, but the 4 hour waiting time allowed me to finish reading this book.

This was a brilliant travel book. With lots of adventures, fascinating history, clashes with crocodiles, clashes with military rebels, border guards and bureacracy, malaria & other tropical diseases, and personality clashes as Pasquale and his friend Gordon, plus other crew members, aim to become the first people ever to paddle down the ENTIRE length of the Blue Nile - from Central Ethiopia through Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean sea.

The Blue Nile contributes over 80% of the water flowing into The Nile, and also contributes most of the Silt that fertilises the Nile during the Flood season. The other 20% of water comes from the White Nile that originates from Lake Victoria in East Africa.


Pasquale Scaturro

(from Wikipedia)
On April 28, 2004, geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown became the first people to navigate the Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. Though their expedition included a number of others, Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to remain on the expedition for the entire journey. They chronicled their adventure with an IMAX camera and two handheld video cams, sharing their story in the IMAX film "Mystery of the Nile," and in a book of the same title.

The team was forced to use outboard motors for most of their journey, and it was not until January 29, 2005, when Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark Tanner reached the Mediterranean Sea, that the river had been paddled for the first time under human power.

On 30 April 2005, a team led by South Africans Peter Meredith and Hendri Coetzee became the first to navigate the most remote headstream, the true source of the Nile — the Akagera river which starts as the Rukarara in Nyungwe forest in Rwanda.