THE SOURCE OF THE NILE

The source of the Nile in Uganda ,alluded to hazily in the ancient writings of Ptolemy,stood as one of  the great geographical mysteries of Victorian Age.

The desire to uncover the geographic holy grail inspired the epic journeys of exploration undertaken by Livingstone,Stanley,Burton and Speke.And it was the latter,John Hannig Speke,on a poneering 1862-3 expedition around Lake Victoria,who first controversially suggested that a small waterfall flowing northward out of the lake might be the legendary spring a theory whose accuracy was confirmed morethan ten years later by Stanley.

Flanked today by the city of Jinja,the waterfall described by Speke now lies submerged beneath the Owen Falls Dam Uganda’s main source of hydro-electric power.Still a visit to the source  of the Nile ramains a moving and wondrous experience.

the Nile downriver from Jinja offers some superb white water rafting and game fishing.Its crowning glory however is Murchison Falls where the world’s largest river funnels through a narrow fissure in the Rift Escarpment to erupt out of the other side in a crashing 43 metres plume of white water.The river below the falls is no less spectacular in  its own way with its beautiful birdlife,a number of hippos and  outsized croccodiles.