Italian
I always say it. When traveling in Africa, departures are at dawn or even when it is still dark. The reasons are different but all worth considering. We move early to have 12 hours of daylight that allow us to orient ourselves better, check the condition of the tracks, and if we are looking for animals, the early hours of the morning and the early afternoon are the best times to observe them in activity. So, once again, we resume our journey which is dark. The starry sky, the clear air showcases the Milky Way which seems to pave the way among millions of very bright stars.
Almost on the horizon, here is the unmistakable kite, the extraordinary constellation of the Southern Cross.
Our journey to reach the Nile in Uganda begins in Queen Elizabeth National Park, southwest of the capital Kampala. But let’s take a closer look at the course of this extraordinary river.
The White Nile originates from Lake Victoria [1]. And for this reason, in the first stretch, it is called “Victoria Nile”. The river continues its course to the northwest, always in Ugandan territory, then veers west just before flowing into Lake Albert[2]. Once it leaves the lake, the Nile is called the Albert Nile, flows north until it reaches Sudan, where it is known by the local name Bahar al Jabal, which means “river of the mountain”, reaching the capital Khartoum, where it joins the Blue Nile coming from Ethiopia. The White Nile and the Blue Nile thus form the great Nile, which, after irrigating the lands of Egypt, flows into the Mediterranean, creating one of the largest deltas in the world, extending for over 240 kilometers from Alexandria in Egypt to Port Said. A river that is a true history book!
“The Nile, besides having contributed, starting from the 4th millennium BC, to the well-known and rightly famous Egyptian culture, has always played a role as a link between the African hinterland, the Mediterranean, and, through it, Europe and the Near East. The Nile Valley has always been a long corridor, used since prehistoric times by the first humans to move towards the Near East and Europe. With the aridification of the surrounding regions of the Nile, interactions between the populations of these now desert regions and those of the valley have intensified, making it a melting pot of cultures and ideas, which have also contributed to the Pharaonic civilization. In more recent epochs, along the Nile, not only goods and materials traveled (many masterpieces of Egyptian art were made with materials from the South) but also increasingly cultures and ideas. And, since ancient times, following the goods, ideas have traveled far: for example, the cult of Isis spread from the heart of Africa, in the upper Nile Valley, to the northernmost regions of the Roman world. Beyond the celebratory and triumphant nature of royal monuments, Egypt was then ready to welcome ideas and stimuli from the North and the South and to organically integrate them into its culture. Journeys along the Nile, initially justified by commercial purposes, immediately turned into an opportunity for cultural encounters and exchanges, of fruitful hybridization. To this, the natural curiosity of the Egyptians themselves, and then, progressively, of the Greeks, Romans, and nineteenth-century explorers, for the great river and its flood, a mystery of annual regeneration and therefore imbued with symbolism of hope and rebirth for men, was early added.” [3]
But beyond the historical importance of the river, much of the land it flows through and surrounds, especially in Uganda, is truly a paradise on earth, where nature shows its best. It’s the rainy season and menacing clouds move driven by the wind. Storms alternate with wide clearings, giving us wonderful plays of light on the savannah.
Shortly after entering the park, herds of antelopes, giraffes, elephants, and buffaloes start to become visible.
Stops are continuous to admire these extraordinary animals. They accompany us throughout the journey until we reach the Kazinga Channel that connects Lake George and Lake Edward to the southwest of Kampala. Here, aboard a boat, we sail along this extraordinary channel.
The journey begins with a heavy rain, but this doesn’t make the spectacle of the nature surrounding us any less enchanting. The guide is very skilled and allows us to approach a herd of hippos. We stop to observe them in complete silence. The herd is very busy. Several hippos come out of the water to graze on the lush grass of the riverbanks. Every now and then, they stop to observe us, but then they resume their activity, calling each other with continuous, loud grunts.
Present on Earth for millions of years, these animals reach a height of one and a half meters and weigh over 4 tons! The ancient Egyptians revered them as benevolent creatures, and frequent are the bas-reliefs of these animals in Egyptian tombs. Clumsy, I would even say funny, charming, these animals inspire tenderness but they should never be underestimated because they are among the most dangerous in Africa and those that have recorded the most attacks on humans, often lethal. Very protective of their young and territorial, they do not hesitate to attack boats if they feel threatened.
Although very large, hippos are extremely agile on land. When they charge, they can reach speeds of 30 kilometers per hour and, with equal agility, climb onto the banks or dive into the water. By respecting their habitat and approaching with caution, they offer truly extraordinary shows in their tireless activities. A male and a female on the riverbank are about to reach the river when they stop in front of a tree. They want to graze some more, but the scene is extraordinary because right on that tree numerous weaver birds with intense yellow plumage are flying frantically to complete their nests. A little further away, a kingfisher takes flight and then lands on a branch in front of us, displaying its prey, a small fish.
After a large inlet, here is a herd of buffalo lazing on the river banks while someone rolls in the mud to get rid of annoying parasites.
Then, suddenly, not far from the boat, a large elephant emerges as if by magic. It was underwater and only keeping the tip of its trunk out to breathe.
The animal turns towards us with a trumpeting sound, observes us, shakes its proboscis violently on the water as if it were a warning not to disturb it, and reaches the shore.
The rain is now beating down. The elephant grabs with its trunk the tender branches of large bushes and starts to eat. The trunk, composed of over one hundred thousand muscles, has numerous fundamental functions. This extraordinary organ allows the animal to drink, explore the surrounding environment, emit sounds imperceptible to humans to stay in touch with other herds, break branches or lift them from the ground to eat. It is not uncommon to see elephants standing on their hind legs and grabbing tasty branches at the tops of trees with their trunks. But the elephant also uses its trunk to play, caress the young ones, intertwine it with those of other herds to communicate, collect and spray water on its body to cool off.
The journey continues northward. The track is in excellent condition and the lush, dazzling greenery on the sides of the road occasionally gives way to the beautiful erythrina, coral trees, with blood-red flowers.
Buffaloes, antelopes, elephants, giraffes, zebras, and even a few lions accompany us for a long stretch. The hours seem to fly by. Surrounded by such beauty, we don’t realize the time.
A few hours and we reach the waterfalls, Murchison or Kabalega, of the White Nile. It always affects me to see this great river whose course is a history book! The first to write about the waterfalls were the Romans who, around 62 AD, under Emperor Nero, organized an expedition to discover the sources of the White Nile… “Ibi, inquit, vidimus duas petras, ex quibus ingens vis fluminis excidebat.”[4] Evidence of the importance and interest that the river Nile held in ancient Rome is the beautiful Mosaic of the Nile (2nd-1st century BC), kept in the Archaeological Museum of Palestrina. It was then in 1864 that the great explorer Samuel Baker gave the name to the waterfalls in honor of Roderick Murchison, president of the prestigious Royal Geographic Society.
We reach the banks of the river on foot, which is in full flow due to the abundant rains of this period. The waters flow fast, impetuous, roaring, inspiring respect, fear, but also great charm. Then the river narrows as it passes through a narrow passage of rocks with bizarre, smooth shapes carved over the centuries by water, and it breaks free with a great leap of over 40 meters forming the Murchison Falls before continuing its course towards Lake Albert. Just downstream of the falls, the roar of the waters becomes a distant, background noise, giving way to the singing of the many birds that populate the lush and dense vegetation on the riverbanks.
A few hours later, we are finally back on board a small boat, sailing on the mythical White Nile! Or rather on the Albert Nile. It is one of the most beautiful places I have seen in Africa. The boat moves slowly allowing us to savor the extraordinary unspoiled nature surrounding us.
On the magnificent banks crowned cranes, ibises, antelopes, elephants. It is a succession of animals that surround us. A magic.
We reach sandbanks in the middle of the riverbed literally covered with hundreds of storks. At an imperceptible but precise command, the birds all take flight together. The hunt has begun. They must have spotted a school of fish.
So all the kites are in formation they soar in the sky first isolating themselves to scrutinize the riverbed, then compacting to give life to complex evolutions and then suddenly gliding on the water’s surface to grab the small fish swimming on the surface. An exciting show. The kites continue their acrobatic flights and I am undecided whether to resume the scene or observe without distractions, letting myself be carried away by the show I am witnessing. Filming from a moving boat with very little space to move, with the birds darting from one side to the other is not an easy task. But the thought of being able to “capture” this unique moment to then be able to see it again and relive it, at least in part, prevails over everything.
The boat now skirts the shore. The large fruits of the African kigelia (known as “sausage trees” for the shape of their large berries) hang over the water’s edge as if they were an ornament of the river. Other larger trees provide us with some shade while some curious guereza or black-and-white colobus monkeys perched on the branches watch us.
In the distance in front of me, I see the sparkle of the glass of the off-road vehicle that awaits us. The adventure on the Nile is coming to an end but not our journey… the mountain gorillas are waiting for us!
[1] The first European to discover the lake was John Hanning Speke, a British explorer, who in 1858 reached its southern shore during an exploratory journey undertaken with Richard Francis Burton to find the source of the Nile, … believing to have found the source of the Nile (subsequent explorations proved him right), and seeing this vast expanse of water for the first time, Speke named the lake Victoria in honor of the then queen of the United Kingdom. Source: https://www.wikiwand.com/it/Lago_Vittoria
[2] Lake Albert, also known as Albert Nyanza, … is one of the great African lakes, approximately 160 km long and 30 km wide. In 1864, the English explorer Samuel Baker and his wife discovered the lake, without navigating it, and named it Albert in memory of Prince Albert of Saxony, the husband of Queen Victoria. … In 1875, the Italian explorer Romolo Gessi … became the first to circumnavigate the entire lake. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Albert
[3] Taken from the exhibition at the Egyptian Academy in Rome: “Egypt, a bridge between two worlds: diary of a journey from the sources of the Nile to the shores of Lazio”. Project curated by Carlo Franchini, University of Naples l’Orientale and Web Technet – 2017
[4] “There we saw two rocks, from which a large vein gushed with force” … Seneca: Natural Questions, book VI
