The River Nile, Uganda

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The River Nile is the greatest river of Africa, and the longest river in the world. By its banks civilisations have been born and passed away. From time immemorial men had searched for the source of this great river that spills out into the Mediterranean after a 6600km journey from the heart of Africa. It was Ptolemy, in the second century, who first attempt to map, from fables and travellers tales, this immortal waterway. In the 18th and 19th centuries the dream of many European explorers was to find the source of the water that is life itself to the lands of Egypt. Many tried, and died in the attempt, but in 1862 John Speke succeeded, and stood on the banks of Lake Victoria at the very source of the great River Nile. Today, a plaque Stands in his memory, looking out towards the river whose source he had searched so long for. Close by is the town of Jinja, a major commercial centre and Uganda's second city. In 1954 the famous Owen Falls Dam was opened and, although the rising waters submerged the Rippon Falls, it made Lake Victoria one of the world's largest reservoirs. The hydroelectric station at the Dam supplies most of the electricity requirements of Uganda, and parts of Kenya as well, other gripping sights in this part of the River are the Bujagali Falls, with about 1km of raging white water, and the small villages that dot the river banks. The River Nile flows northwards to Kyoga and onward through Murchison Falls National Park. Here a 6 metre wide cleft in the rock surface forces the waters into a rag-rig torrent, which then cascades 30 metres into a boiling pot below a dramatic plume of spray rises high into African sky from the millions of tons of water crashing onto the rocks beneath.

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