Two American explorers completed an epic four-month journey up the Nile last week. Yasmine El-Rashidi spoke to them about the voyage As the nations of Africa took to the negotiating tables to grapple over use of the water of the Nile, the issue of its "roots" and its ownership took on meaning beyond that of simply its source. Amidst the commotion and debate of definitions at closed rooms far from the waters, two men have moulded themselves into perhaps the greatest experts in the history of mankind on the so-called blue waters. As they approached the mouth of the river in Alexandria last Wednesday, Pasquale Scaturro (PV) and Gordon Brown made history, completing the full descent of the Nile's 5,247 kilometres from source to sea. "We arrived at the Mediterranean Sea at 7.01am," announced Scaturro the following morning. "It's quite a nice feeling after four months on the river. I slept in a bed last night!" Scaturro, a renowned adventurer and geophysicist, and Gordon, an expert kayaker and adventure film maker, began their epic journey on 22 December, from the legendary springs of Sakala high in the Ethiopian Highlands. Anticipation on that morning a few nights before Christmas was high -- the reality of past expeditions gone wrong etched somewhere in the back of the duos minds. "For thousands of years people have been trying to do this," Scaturro says. "But for thousands of years people have failed. Several subsections of the Nile have been explored in this way, but never the whole thing." Past explorers, instead, have fallen to the greater powers of nature -- the unrelenting white waters, the jutting rocks amidst the towering canyons, and the occasional animal attack. "One team of explorers ran the White Nile in 1958," he says. "The Blue has eluded explorers. Between us we have over 20 years of rivers," Scaturro explains. "And the Nile is the equivalent of Mount Everest for rivers, so when IMAX films decided to produce a documentary on Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, it seemed only natural to tie them in with the Nile." The proposal was accepted, and following two months of on and off-land shooting, of national sites and cultures as well as various segments of the Nile, the real work began to "run" the Blue Nile. The vehicle of exploration consisted of two rafts and a kayak. "PV (Scaturro) was on the raft, and I would go up ahead on the kayak, scout ahead," he said, explaining the need to ensure the route ahead for below-surface rocks, currents and other potential perils. And I also had to distract the crocodiles," he laughs. "We cooked and ate on the rafts, and would dock at night to sleep." For these two adventurers, for whom similar stints around the world have comprised the larger portion of their lives, the final package of the journey will be a documentary, Mystery of the Nile released by IMAX theatres. But the journey has provided depth and scope far beyond the usual face-value thriller vacation. "The issue of what the Nile is, and where the Nile is, is one which was raised often," Brown says. "From the start people have questioned why we chose the Blue Nile. To start with, 86 per cent of the water in Lake Nasser is from the Blue, and if you go to the confluence, and look at seasonal flows, the Blue Nile dominates." And to renowned explorers like themselves, the challenge of its meandering course is of added appeal. "People talk of the Grand Canyon in the US. In Ethiopia you have the Grand Canyon of the Nile, and it's equally as grand. People are only familiar with the parts of the Nile around which cities have been built. Those areas are tamer, wider, the traditional river that flows through all the cosmopolitan cities. But hundreds, really thousands, of kilometres are unknown." The reality, of course, is conspicuously contrasting. "The Nile is the most magnificent river in the world," says Scaturro. "It has rapids, waterfalls, jungles, canyons, desert, hippos, crocs, long flat beautiful sections and huge beautiful sandbars," Scaturro says. "It's far from the smooth waters you see in Egypt. In Ethiopia we faced bone-crushing white water. We flipped rafts, faced attacks by crocodiles, were fired at by bandits and attacked by hippos. Sudan was perhaps the easiest part to navigate, except for the dust, sandstorms and forceful winds." In Egypt, the problem was strikingly different. "What has been interesting along the journey has been the Nile's place in the country, and the interaction of the people with it, and with the environment," Brown says. "It's the same river which goes through the different countries, but it changes so much between each. It's like a lifetime," he continues. "The growth between each is very distinct, with Egypt being the most mature. The problem we faced in Egypt was the fact that Egyptians use the Nile for everything. There's traffic, and given its importance, there's high security. In other places, we would just be forgotten, because the locals don't even know where it is. In Sudan and Ethiopia people haven't been down the river!" On the 108th day of the 118-day voyage, Scaturro's diary entry read as follows: "Ethiopia is a wild country full of imposing mountains, canyons and rapids. Virtually no one lives along the Nile and it flows unimpeded and free for 1,200 kilometres, 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 (mountains) visible far in the distance. Many people live along the river in Sudan but mostly just small farmers spread out in small villages. For 2,300 kms we rafted through 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 unnoticed and uncontrolled. "In Egypt the Nile is more than just a ribbon of water flowing through unimpeded and unnoticed. 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 kilometres to the north. The Nile may flow through Ethiopia and Sudan, but it is used by the Egyptians." In Ethiopia, Scaturro elaborated to Al-Ahram Weekly, the waters are used only for the occasional crossing from bank to bank. In Sudan, a little bit of irrigation comes into the equation. In Egypt, the perception of the waters is entirely different. "It's funny," Brown says, his face breaking into a smile, "when you tell people [in Egypt] what you've just done, they seem hit by disbelief, and they all say 'but it's impossible to do that. The Nile starts in Aswan.' To the Egyptians, what they see comprises the Nile. When you have such a close, intense, relationship with something, it's hard to separate and look at the bigger picture." Instead, the populations in each country live with their own constricted perspectives -- including those of stigmas. "We didn't see any signs of civil war or its remains," Brown said of Sudan. "In Sudan it's the governments and the armies that make war. The people are at peace, and wonderful. At times we would be stopped up to 60 times a day by people wanting to invite us to feasts. It was very interesting in that way, because as Americans, we're told it's a dangerous place and not to go there." Both the explorers laugh. "But it just isn't that way at all. I was surprised, I suppose, by the hospitality." The Egyptian government also had them open their eyes in awe. "They were incredibly helpful, facilitating our crossing of a certain portion of Lake Nasser, before the dam. In fact I think we may be the only non-Egyptian private group to ever do that. It was a nice gesture on the part of the Egyptian government," Scaturro says. "To be honest, the kindness and hospitality we have witnessed along the way is what will be most remembered. Amidst the whirlwind of friction surrounding the allocation of the waters of the Nile and their rightful owners, or perhaps users, the explorers feel this openness of the peoples is what is missing in the debate of identity and belonging. "People need to come together and talk about the Nile," Scaturro says. "This water didn't start in Aswan, and it didn't start in Sudan. And it also doesn't flow in just one portion of the continent between the borders of each nation. There is no other river in the world that can compare. And no other river in the world is as closely associated with a particular culture and society as is the Nile. With the Nile there would be no Egypt, no Pharaohs, no Pyramids. The history of civilisation is inextricably tied to the Nile." The hope is that the film will transcend those boundaries and help project a more comprehensive portrait of the land and its peoples. "This expedition highlights how the Nile brings people of all faiths and cultures, particularly Christians and Muslims together," Brown says. "This will be a strong theme in the film, which we hope will have a landmark effect on connecting more people together, more cultures together."
