Untamed & Uncharted

The Nile expedition part 1

With two canoes packed with supplies then manned by tribesmen at each end, Anton was in the centre of one canoe, I was in the centre of the other canoe; we left at first light to the sounds of the many birds in the surrounding jungle. It was a momentous time, this was the day that I had longed and planned for and now it has finally happened, the river was easy to travel for the first six weeks; we camped at night when we found a clear safe place.
The fishermen would spear perch, some as long as five feet, and very good to eat, this was a wild country with many dangers, I always kept my handgun ready, Anton had a Lancaster rifle, and the natives took turns on the night watch.
I spent most of my day with my observations and mapping while Anton kept busy reading the river's path ahead; he instructed the natives which way to go as they had not been here before. We travelled around ten hours daily, on the seventh week we set up camp earlier in the afternoon, the hunters with their eighth foot spears wandered off and returned almost three hours later with two Springbok and a warthog. The fishermen gathered wood to keep the fire burning all night to ward off animals, I made a cup of tea for Anton and myself and Anton made some bread.
The game got thrown on top of a raging fire the smell of the burning hair was strong, the carcasses got turned several times and the smell attracted a pack of Hyenas. Then one of the natives kept chasing them with a lengthy burning branch. When cooked the carcasses got divided, I got the front leg of a Springbok. I peeled back the skin and sank my teeth into its magnificent sweet well-cooked flesh. One of the natives then gathered up the leftovers and aided by two others with fire sticks carried them away from the camp. The river was deep and flowing slowly, it then opened into pond sections with shallow mud flats, Anton had the task of choosing which direction to go, it was a guess then the river narrowed and I could hear the roar of fast water ahead.
We approached on foot to find wild rapids, and waterfalls so we hauled the canoes almost forty miles; it was exhausting through rough terrain to bypass that impossible section. The next three hundred miles were kind which was great after that arduous struggle then the river became wide and shallow, in the distance, I could see hundreds of large rounded boulders spread across the width of the river. As I got closer they appear to move, they were Hippopotamus and they are dangerous, I could see there was no way around them and the river banks were like quicksand so we moved very slowly.
We had almost made it when one charged and turned over a canoe tipping two natives into the water, only one of them surfaced and scrambled into another canoe, it was a very dangerous situation, the Hippo's would have killed us all if we didn't get away.
We lost a man and our supply canoe, so we will now need to rely on the natives to provide for us.

The next seven hundred miles again were easy then the river divided with fast flowing water and rapids but safe enough to travel, then around the next bend it turned into nine miles of terror, how we all got through there was a miracle. We camped at the first suitable site and after some time recovering I updated my maps and documented the events of the past week, luckily my delicate equipment maps and journals were in an almost indestructible watertight box. Only a short distance downstream we again heard the sound of rapids so once again we had to haul the canoes around that stretch of river which took four days.
After travelling another six weeks the river became blocked completely by Papyrus grass. The tall grass was up to ten feet high so we all took turns hacking a path through, the air was thick with insects of all kinds it was hot, humid and breathing was difficult. After my turn up to my chest in the thick muddy water slashing at this endless green grass forest, I climbed back into my canoe I saw leaches on my ankles then found that they were all up my legs. I started to scrape them off when Anton yelled leave them they will drop off when they have had their fill sealing the wound, If you scrape them off the wound will stay open and become infected. We hacked away for three days then the muddy river bed became too deep so what will we do now, I was exhausted and dehydrated; I felt that the river was not meant to be tamed.
It was around midday, it was so hot and humid, and we bent the tall grass overhead to make some shade, I was sitting slumped over in the canoe I once again took my mind out of my body to help me cope. The river here could be miles wide so the only way out is to go back, I had become accustomed to the sound of the clouds of mosquitoes singing me to sleep.
I woke in the middle of the night to the sound of torrential rain; I held my open mouth up to catch as much beautiful freshwater as I could. The past three days I had been soaking a shirt in the muddy insect larvae infested river water, I then strained it through another shirt into a bailout bucket for drinking water. Daylight had us bailing out the canoes, the welcome rain continued to build it was so heavy. I could only see about ten feet then I saw white frothy water flowing around my canoe and before long it began to drift along with the current, rain caused the river to rise so we parted the grass which was not so tall now; we drifted along like this for another two days. We had not eaten for three days, as the food was scarce in this green watery desert.
Then the hunters saw a huge clump of birds' nests, they collected a half a bucket of the tiny eggs, I found that they had no taste but would provide nourishment; after I regained some strength then I wondered what lay ahead in this untamed dangerous river.

Read part 5. The Nile expedition part 2

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