Gordo rappels down next to Tissisat falls to receive rafts lowered by crew and prevent them from going over the lower falls.
In 2004 Pasquale Scaturro and Gordon Brown made a historic 114-day river trip to complete the first ever full descent of the Blue Nile from source to sea, a 3,260-mile journey through Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt. Their expedition was featured in MacGillivray Freeman's IMAX film Mystery of the Nile.
The faint red line traces Pasquale and Gordon's journey through Ethiopia on the Blue Nile starting at the Springs at Sakala. The first 800 miles is where most of the drop on the Nile happens. The river starts at close to 10,000 feet and loses 8,000 feet by the time it gets to the Sudanese border. Much of that happens in huge Class V and VI rapids.
The yellow line is the border between Sudan and Ethiopia. Khartoum is in the upper left hand corner. This is the confluence of the White Nile and Blue Nile. The White Nile can be seen as the dark area on the left side of the map running to the Northeast.
This is the Great Bend in the Nile, much of which will be flooded by a dam being constructed at Meroe. In the upper left corner in yellow is the border with Egypt.
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The first descent team scouted the Nile with an ancient Sikorski MI 17.
Gordon runs Arafame, the first big rapid below Lake Tana.
The "Intrepid Expedition Leader" Pasquale Scaturro and his ragtag crew.
Gordon finds a 15-foot python sleeping in the sun.
Changing 65mm film on one of the 2 rafts. It was a cool 110 degrees in the shade.
The team's EPRDF Special Forces escorts, Alemu and Baye, with their ever present Kalashnikovs.
Gordon practicing standard protocol for crocs.
Gordon hoping more crocs aren't waiting at the bottom of the rapid.
Pasquale in a typical camp on the Nile in a MSR Bug Hut with no possible need to set up the rain fly.
Temples at Meroe in Sudan "The Kingdom of Kush."
A 400-year-old Portuguese mud fort in the middle of the river. Ironically this mud has stood the test of time, until now.
Countless ruins along the Nile in Sudan soon to be submerged...
Little archeology has happened in these places.
"It was like walking into Egypt 150 years ago."
A Coptic church turned mosque centuries ago in Old Dongola
Local boy, Mohamed Ali.
Lake Nasser Cormorants
Pasquale and Gordo stop at one of the local tourist attractions that fuel Egypt's economy.
More local tourist attractions.
Rosetta and the Mediterranean, finally, after 114 days on the Nile Pasquale and Gordon finally reach the sea. |
