by Levison Wood
16. Illegal snares recovered from the Murchison Falls National Park by rangers of the Uganda Wildlife Authority
17. Poaching is rife across East Africa as human populations extend deeper into animal habitats. Trade in bush meat has brought some species to the verge of extinction
18. Vast areas of savannah and forest are being cut down and burnt at alarming rates as the demand for charcoal and sugar cane increases
19. In northern Uganda Kakwa children hunt for bush rat and small antelope with homemade bows
20. Florence, (later renamed Samuel after a biological oversight) the vervet monkey I rescued on the Victoria Nile, joined the expedition for several days before being taken in by Entebbe Wildlife Centre
21. Elephants in Murchison Falls National Park. Although populations are recovering here slowly, across Africa the ivory trade means that they are severely endangered and could be extinct in the wild within ten years unless poaching is stopped
22. Walking through the Murchison Falls National Park, home to Africa’s densest populations of hippos and crocodiles
23. Murchison Falls, named by Samuel Baker in 1864 in his quest for the source of the Nile
24. Jason Florio and Matt Power, the day before Matt tragically died
25. Mundari cattle camp near Terekeka on the edge of the Sudd Swamp, South Sudan
26. Cattle are the primary source of wealth in South Sudan and are revered and fought over by the main tribal groups
27. Getting thoroughly defeated in traditional Mundari wrestling
28. Herdsmen in South Sudan use ash made from burnt cow dung to cover their skin as protection against sun and mosquitoes
29. Bor town, South Sudan. It was the front line of the civil war for several weeks in early 2014 and much of the town was destroyed in the fighting
30. One of the SPLA minders escorting me in South Sudan
31. The bank in Bor had been looted several times as government forces and rebels fought to regain control. The date stamps indicate when the town changed hands
32. Moez Mahir walked with me across the whole of Sudan
33. After crossing the Sahara desert
34. The Bayuda Desert in Sudan where temperatures regularly exceeded 50 degrees
35. Setting up camp in the shadows of the Pyramids of Meroe, capital of the Kushitic Kingdom
36. The Pyramids of Meroe, unlike their Egyptian counterparts, don’t get many visitors
37. The tops of the Pyramids were blown off with dynamite after the tomb raider Giuseppe Ferlini came in search of gold in 1834
38. Awad and Ahmad of the Bedouin Hawawir tribe joined the expedition to look after the camels for 46 days
39. Camels (left to right) Speke, Gordon and Burton
40. With Mahmoud ‘Turbo’ Ezzeldin in Upper Egypt
41. Walking around Lake Nasser, the formidable reservoir formed after the creation of the Aswan High Dam in 1964, which flooded ancient Nubia and caused the resettlement of over 50,000 people
42. Moored Nile cruise ships indicate a decimated tourism economy. Only one of the original 300 remained in service in the summer of 2014
43. Rubbish collectors in El Zabaleen in Cairo, one of the country’s Christian enclaves
44. Nearing the finish at Rashid, surrounded by a military escort and the governor of Beheira
45. The end. The Mediterranean Sea after walking almost 4,000 miles
1. The furthest source of the Nile in the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda
2. Rwanda, land of a thousand hills
3. The Nyabarongo River cuts a swathe through Rwanda. The source of the Nile remains contested
4. Photographs of the victims of the Rwandan genocide fill the Kigali genocide museum
5. Gisovu Prison. A million people were killed during a 100 day period in 1994
6. Children shelter from rain in a Rwandan village. Outside of Kigali the country remains desperately impoverished
7. Ndoole Boston walked with me as guide and translator from December 2013 until March 2014
8. With Boston resting in Tanzania
9. The remains of Christmas lunch alongside Lake Bisongu in Tanzania
10. Lake Bisongu in the wild bandit country of Kagera, north-west Tanzania
11. Much of the journey was spent wild camping
12. The remains of a 6 metre Python killed by villagers on the shores of Lake Victoria after it ate a prized goat
13. Camping near to villages in Uganda always invited a curious crowd
14. Water, not always accessible from the Nile due to stagnant swamps, is a precious commodity in rural Uganda. People travel huge distances to find a well
15. A typical Ugandan village scene
16. Illegal snares recovered from the Murchison Falls National Park by rangers of the Uganda Wildlife Authority
17. Poaching is rife across East Africa as human populations extend deeper into animal habitats. Trade in bush meat has brought some species to the verge of extinction
18. Vast areas of savannah and forest are being cut down and burnt at alarming rates as the demand for charcoal and sugar cane increases
19. In northern Uganda Kakwa children hunt for bush rat and small antelope with homemade bows
20. Florence, (later renamed Samuel after a biological oversight) the vervet monkey I rescued on the Victoria Nile, joined the expedition for several days before being taken in by Entebbe Wildlife Centre
21. Elephants in Murchison Falls National Park. Although populations are recovering here slowly, across Africa the ivory trade means that they are severely endangered and could be extinct in the wild within ten years unless poaching is stopped
22. Walking through the Murchison Falls National Park, home to Africa’s densest populations of hippos and crocodiles
23. Murchison Falls, named by Samuel Baker in 1864 in his quest for the source of the Nile
24. Jason Florio and Matt Power, the day before Matt tragically died
25. Mundari cattle camp near Terekeka on the edge of the Sudd Swamp, South Sudan
26. Cattle are the primary source of wealth in South Sudan and are revered and fought over by the main tribal groups
27. Getting thoroughly defeated in traditional Mundari wrestling
28. Herdsmen in South Sudan use ash made from burnt cow dung to cover their skin as protection against sun and mosquitoes
29. Bor town, South Sudan. It was the front line of the civil war for several weeks in early 2014 and much of the town was destroyed in the fighting
30. One of the SPLA minders escorting me in South Sudan
31. The bank in Bor had been looted several times as government forces and rebels fought to regain control. The date stamps indicate when the town changed hands
32. Moez Mahir walked with me across the whole of Sudan
33. After crossing the Sahara desert
34. The Bayuda Desert in Sudan where temperatures regularly exceeded 50 degrees
35. Setting up camp in the shadows of the Pyramids of Meroe, capital of the Kushitic Kingdom
36. The Pyramids of Meroe, unlike their Egyptian counterparts, don’t get many visitors
37. The tops of the Pyramids were blown off with dynamite after the tomb raider Giuseppe Ferlini came in search of gold in 1834
38. Awad and Ahmad of the Bedouin Hawawir tribe joined the expedition to look after the camels for 46 days
39. Camels (left to right) Speke, Gordon and Burton
40. With Mahmoud ‘Turbo’ Ezzeldin in Upper Egypt
41. Walking around Lake Nasser, the formidable reservoir formed after the creation of the Aswan High Dam in 1964, which flooded ancient Nubia and caused the resettlement of over 50,000 people
42. Moored Nile cruise ships indicate a decimated tourism economy. Only one of the original 300 remained in service in the summer of 2014
43. Rubbish collectors in El Zabaleen in Cairo, one of the country’s Christian enclaves
44. Nearing the finish at Rashid, surrounded by a m
ilitary escort and the governor of Beheira
45. The end. The Mediterranean Sea after walking almost 4,000 miles
