Today my thoughts flashed back to December last year when we were in Cairo, prior to the start of our expedition, shooting many of the preliminary IMAX shots that will be used in the upcoming IMAX movie “Mystery of the Nile”. I remember sitting on the 10th floor of the Sheraton Gezira Hotel in the heart of Cairo staring at the Nile as it flowed through on its way to the Mediterranean and wondering what it would feel like and what I would be thinking when we finally did pass through in our little rafts after having actually run the entire Nile from its source in Ethiopia down to Cairo. It was, I thought, going to be so exciting to arrive in Cairo after months of camping out on the Nile.

Well, four days ago, after 4,993 kms and 108 river days, we finally made it to Cairo. We motored into Cairo after having run 1025 kms in 9 days from Aswan at the head of Lake Nasser in Upper Egypt, clear through Middle Egypt and then down to the beginning of the Nile Delta. Upon entering Cairo, with its 17-22 million inhabitants, I had no feelings of excitement at all. In fact, all I could think about was how much I wish I was out of Cairo and back up floating the Nile of The Sudan and Ethiopia.

Since entering Egypt below Lake Nasser and the Aswan High Dam we have been subjected to continuous police escort, almost been run over by 200 tourist cruise ships, and have had to struggle every day to find anywhere at all to set up a camp to cook and spend the night. We have been kept up almost every night by outrageously loud sounds emanating from the almost continuous riverside development that lines both sides of the Egyptian Nile clear from Aswan to the Mediterranean. The all-night sounds (on both banks of the Nile) of passing trains, highway truck traffic, blaring car horns, all night wedding parties, people screaming and arguing, dogs barking, the 4:00 a.m. Moslem call to prayer, etc, etc have all managed to keep us awake more than asleep. It is, therefore, no wonder that we decided that it was much easier just staying on the river, with the outboard motors blazing and heading to Cairo rather than to spend much time visiting the villages along the way.

Don’t get me wrong. The people in Egypt have been, for the most part, wonderful people. They are incredibly polite and helpful and the all of the men on the Nile River Police escorts that we have had continuously clear down the river have been honest, professional, tremendous to work with and have actually been a lot of help and assistance. Due to the complete lack of any campsites along the river (sand for beaches and sandbars is no longer being carried down the Nile but is, instead, trapped up in Lake Nasser) we had to actually camp out at several police stations in many of the larger cities along the way and the local police commanders have been wonderful hosts. Down from Aswan and Luxor on the Nile in Upper and Middle Egypt there is so much water Hyacinth (an exotic aquatic plant that grows and spreads out incredibly fast) on the river that it is virtually impossible to pull off the river in many places. Since the Nile no longer floods much of the trash, plant matter, and debris that end up in the Nile are no longer washed down river but just accumulate along the river banks and in the slower moving eddys. We have had to fight our way through short sections of river that is just about completely blocked by the hyacinth. In several sections of the river the smell of raw sewage being dumped into the river is just about overwhelming.

It is just astounding and mind boggling how different the Blue Nile and Nile River is in the three countries that it flows through on its, 5,400 km journey to the sea. Attached are three photos from the Nile in the three countries. I think you can identify which countries they are taken in.

Ethiopia is a wild country full of imposing mountains, canyons and rapids. Virtually no one lives along Nile and it flows unimpeded and free for 1,200 kms, just as it has for thousands of years. In Sudan the Nile is a big wide desert river with huge sandbars and lined with palm trees and desert jebels visible far in the distance. Many people live along the river in The Sudan but mostly just small farmers spread out in small villages. For 2,300 kms we rafted through The Sudan sleeping entirely on the millions of sandbars that line the entire course of the river. In both countries we were free to float the Nile pretty much un-noticed and un-controlled.

In Egypt the Nile is more than just a ribbon of water flowing through unimpeded and un-noticed. It is the life blood of the Egyptians and it is where virtually every one of the 70 million Egyptians lives. It is just about completely controlled, starting with the Aswan High Dam in the south and extending past the numerous water irrigation and diversion dams situated all along the river ending at the Mediterranean Sea 1,000 kms to the north. The Nile may flow through Ethiopia and the Sudan, but it is used by the Egyptians. At no place along the entire Nile while it is in Egypt is the Great River even remotely similar to what is was jut 50 years ago. This is mainly because of the Aswan High Dam, which backs the Nile up from Aswan clear back into The Sudan. Behind the High Dam is trapped the Nile sand and silt that gives the Nile its color and character in Ethiopia and The Sudan. This has also given the Egyptians the ability to control their lives free from the interference of the Nile’s annual floods and to expand up and down the river in ways though unimaginable only a short generation ago.

Of all of the surprises and challenges we have encountered on this expedition during the last 4 months, none has been greater or more unexpected than the extreme differences in character that the Nile (both naturally and man-made) has presented to us during the last 5,200 kms.

We are currently 193.2 kms north of Cairo in the middle of the Nile Delta in a small town called Disuc. In the last two days since leaving Cairo and motoring north we have been able to cover 64.2 kms and 129 kms in two days of motoring. According to my calculations we are situated 70 kms from the mouth of the Nile River where it joins the Mediterranean Sea just north of Rosetta. At a speed of 11.5 kms/hr we will reach the Mediterranean in six more hours of motoring. This means that at about 2:00 p.m. on Monday, April 26, 2004 we should complete the first full descent of the Nile River having started at the source of the Blue Nile at the Springs of Sakala in Ethiopia and ending 5270 kms and 112 days later at the Mediterranean Sea.

Just 6 more hours…….

PV

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Pasquale V Scaturro
Expedition Leader
Nile First Descent Expedition
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