Walking the Nile
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4.4 • 8 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
The explorer and author of Walking the Americas and Walking the Himalayas delivers “a bold travelogue, illuminating great swathes of modern Africa” (Kirkus Reviews).
Starting in November 2013 in a forest in Rwanda—where a modest spring spouts a trickle of clear, cold water—writer, photographer, and explorer Levison Wood set forth on foot, aiming to become the first person to walk the entire length of the fabled river. He followed the Nile for nine months, over 4,000 miles, through six nations—Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan, the Republic of Sudan, and Egypt—to the Mediterranean coast.
Like his predecessors, Wood camped in the wild, foraged for food, and trudged through rainforest, swamp, savannah, and desert, enduring life-threatening conditions at every turn. He traversed sandstorms, flash floods, minefields, and more, becoming a local celebrity in Uganda, where a popular rap song was written about him, and a potential enemy of the state in South Sudan, where he found himself caught in a civil war and detained by the secret police. As well as recounting his triumphs, like escaping a charging hippo and staving off wild crocodiles, Wood’s gripping account recalls the loss of Matthew Power, a journalist who died suddenly from heat exhaustion during their trek. As Wood walks on, often joined by local guides who help him to navigate foreign languages and customs, Walking the Nile maps out African history and contemporary life.
“Woods emerges as a dutiful and brave guide.”—Los Angeles Times
“Many have attempted this holy grail of an expedition—so I admire Lev’s determination and courage to pull this off.”—Bear Grylls
“A brilliant book.”—Financial Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wood, a British veteran who served in Afghanistan, recounts his ambitious attempt, beginning in November 2013, to walk the entire length of the Nile River: 4,250 miles of water running through five countries. The impetus for the journey was a desire to emulate Western explorers of Africa such as Richard Burton, Henry Stanley, David Livingstone, and John Hanning Speke, whose adventures Wood admired. Wood also sought to meet people and hear their stories. Beginning in Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, Wood travels through Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan, and Egypt before reaching the Nile Delta and the Mediterranean, following the river through forests, villages, cities, deserts, and in South Sudan active war zones and refugee settlements. The narration is unadorned and mostly relays the viewpoints of local guides and porters, who accompany the author through the majority of his trip, and others he meets en route. Wood does provide some history and contextual asides, but he devotes most of his book to sharing the opinions of the people he encounters, which are dynamic and at times surprising. A man in Sudan, for example, laments the end of British rule because of the prosperity that ended with it. These voices, seen through the lens of Wood's words, make this memoir a success.
