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LUMLEY: We're traveling along the world's longest river,
the Nile, 4,000 miles from sea to source.
It's the most remarkable journey I've ever made.
Wow! It's so busy!
It started two months ago in Egypt.
It's pretty unspoiled, isn't it?
[ Indistinct shouting ]
Since then we've met the Nile's most fearsome beast...
I'll leave my sandals on
so the crocodiles have got something to eat.
...discovered Sudan's hidden beauty secret...
It's like being Joan of Arc,
going out to choose which wood to be burnt on.
...met Ethiopia's Olympic hopefuls...
Now you are all my daughters.
Ishi!
...and thought about never going home.
I've got to leave Ethiopia now.
It pretty much breaks my heart.
We're nearing the end of the journey.
We've just a thousand miles to go
to reach the longest source of the Nile.
-MAN: Here we are. -LUMLEY: Oh, my gosh!
Subtitling made possible by RLJ Entertainment
Down there is the Sudd.
It's arguably the largest swamp in the whole world.
It spreads over an area over 12,000 square miles.
The Sudd is composed of sort of
huge, floating porches of papyrus.
It's completely impenetrable.
The Nile pours itself into the Sudd, spreads out,
and this vast sponge just sucks it up.
The silt and the marshy sediments go down six miles.
Somehow, at the other end, the Nile emerges again.
Samuel Baker, the great explorer,
in 1862, when he came across the Sudd, said,
"It's a heaven for mosquitoes and a damp hell for man."
That said, I wish we were down there,
battling through the swamp.
But because of widespread tribal conflict in the region,
we've been told it's still not safe in some areas.
So, unfortunately, we've not been permitted to film
on vast stretches of the river.
My journey along the Nile
started at the Mediterranean town of Alexandria.
We've followed this great river through Egypt,
into the remote deserts of northern Sudan
and on into Khartoum.
Here I picked up the Blue Nile,
tracing its path into the highlands of Ethiopia.
I've now rejoined the White Nile in southern Sudan.
From here I'm traveling to Juba
and then on into Uganda
and then Rwanda, where my journey ends.
[ Horns honking ]
Juba is the seat of government for southern Sudan.
Here, in 2005, a peace agreement was signed,
ending Sudan's bitter civil war,
the longest civil war in Africa.
The cease-fire is fragile,
but it has allowed something rather wonderful to happen.
Well, this is rather unexpected
because I'm on my way to meet a beauty queen
here in southern Sudan, in Juba,
in this rather bumpy and exciting street.
Beauty queen.
Well, beauty contests used to be really popular here
in the '70s and '80s,
but when the troubles came, they were dropped completely,
and they've only just been resurrected
in the last two years.
And the reigning queen, Miss Malaika,
is called Nok Nora Duany,
and she's apparently very beautiful and very clever.
And she's grooming 12 candidates
to become Miss Malaika this year,
and she will crown them.
It's gonna be very exciting.
Isn't it lovely that, after the war, beauty comes back?
The beauty pageant isn't for two weeks.
But on the shady banks of the Nile,
the trainee beauty queens are being put their paces...
WOMAN: Smile.
...by last year's winner, 28-year-old Nok Nora.
You're a queen. Try to look at everyone.
All the tables, people eating spaghetti.
LUMLEY: I think it's the hardest thing to remember
is this thing of smiling and looking 'round the room.
And the other thing a very grand old English actress told me --
She said she never walked onstage
without secretly thinking that she has a secret.
That self-control of knowing you've got a fantastic secret.
She never told anybody what it was.
So you're smiling and secretive.
Here in southern Sudan,
these young girls do not have to respect
the modest Islamic dress code imposed on women in the north.
In fact, events like this
would be banned by law in northern Sudan
and result in harsh punishment.
Look, why was it important for you to follow this path
and become a beauty queen?
You know, since I was young,
I used to watch Miss Universe every once in a while.
And then when I came to Sudan,
I thought that I could actually be a good candidate,
come out, be an ambassador for south Sudan, so...
You said, "When I came to Sudan."
Where had you been?
My family, we were refugees.
We had exile in the U.S., and then we grew up there.
We got American citizenship, some of us,
and then when the peace was signed, we came back.
And you guys got to be closer.
LUMLEY: What does this competition mean
for southern Sudan?
DUANY: I think it's a huge step in kind of showing normalcy
and that everybody in south Sudan,
they're tired of war, they're tired of all the issues,
and we just want to have peace.
And we want to do the things that all the other countries do.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Though beauty contests
have become unfashionable in the U.K.,
for these girls it's seen as an important way
to campaign for women's rights.
LUMLEY: When the judges say to you Friday,
"What would you like to do with your year if you won?"
what would you say?
Yes.
Gosh, you're tall.
[ Both laugh ]
It's so nice to be with tall, tall girls.
-Oh, thank you. -It's lovely.
-WOMAN: Yes. Thank you. -Lovely. You look wonderful.
Couldn't you just wish that, to be in a beauty competition,
all you had to do is just powder your gorgeous face, that's all?
At home, makeup going on for two hours for something like this.
Here these gorgeous girls just pat their faces like that
and then just look a million dollars.
I obviously only do the same.
Thank you.
The next day, I leave southern Sudan for Uganda,
following the river to the head of Lake Albert.
To continue up the Nile,
I must now catch a ferry across the lake,
into the Murchison Falls National Park.
Small roadside markets are dotted everywhere in Uganda.
They sell everything from mangoes to nuts
to a uniquely African snack.
I thought I might buy some cassava.
In the same way we grow potatoes,
these people grow cassava.
Which is the best? 'Cause I've never had cassava before.
What is the nicest?
This tuber is Africa's most important crop.
Just break and eat it like this?
WOMAN: Yes.
It can be grown almost anywhere,
even during a drought when other crops fail.
How is it?
-Delicious. -[ Laughs ]
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Okay.
It's actually rendered me speechless.
It's completely kind of like flour.
My mouth has filled up with quietness.
MAN ON P.A.: Okay!
So when you are on the boat there...
That's our ferry over there.
I don't know how we're all gonna fit on.
When you reach on the ferry, everybody,
you have to put on the life jacket.
Will we all fit on -- all the lorries, all the people?
There's not very much space. Will we be all like this inside?
[ Laughs ] No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
It's okay. It's okay. It's okay. Yeah.
But you don't have capsizing. You don't have accidents.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
-Joanna. -Uh-huh.
Joanna use head.
This is the only ferry of the day,
and apparently it's always packed.
LUMLEY: I think it's kind of standing room only
for about the next 2 1/2 hours.
Maybe a little light walking around.
A few deck games.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
The lake is named after Queen Victoria's husband,
Prince Albert,
and the ferry is now en route to a huge river delta
created by the Nile.
As the river flows into the lake,
it forms islands and swamps,
making Uganda's largest wildlife reserve.
For the first time on my journey,
I'm gonna get a chance to watch the impressive animals
that live in the Nile.
This stretch of the Nile in Uganda was made famous
by the great British explorers of the Victorian age
who wanted to chart the unexplored lengths
of this amazing river.
The race was on to map the Nile,
one of the last geographical mysteries of the world.
In 1864,
husband-and-wife explorers Samuel and Florence Baker
were the first to travel upstream here.
The local tribes called Florence
"daughter of the moon" because of her long blond hair.
They'd already mapped Lake Albert
when they arrived here at Murchison Falls.
Samuel Baker wrote,
"I could distinctly hear the roar of water,
and upon rounding the corner,
a magnificent sight burst upon us."
Just look at that. The Murchison Falls.
I can't believe I'm seeing them with my own eyes.
It is just fabulously exciting.
That's the Nile boiling down through these rocks.
At the top, it's 164 feet wide.
The gap it has to get through is 23 feet,
so it comes crashing down, all forced through that.
No wonder Victorian explorers were so utterly thrilled
when they found it.
They sent back, just saying,
"We've seen these unbelievable falls."
And remember, this was the time when America had been,
obviously, discovered and settled.
Australia had been discovered and settled.
Everybody knew about that,
but nobody knew about the middle of Africa.
Nobody knew were the Nile came from.
Baker said these are the most important falls
on the whole of the River Nile.
And he named them after the president
of the Royal Geographical Society,
a fantastic body which then, as now,
still sponsors the great explorations of the world.
Today Murchison Falls gives its name
to Uganda's biggest nature reserve.
It covers an area just larger than Cornwall
and is home to the great creatures of African wildlife.
Running through the heart of the park is the River Nile.
My guide is Zimbabwean Andy Alt.
ALT: This is a fantastic group of hippo down here.
There must be at least 60, maybe 70, maybe even 80 of them.
But it wasn't always like this.
In 1971, infamous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin took power.
With no interest in conservation,
he told his troops to use the park as their larder.
Wildlife populations plummeted to virtually nothing.
Then, in the early 1990s, with Idi Amin exiled,
the park was revived.
They seem to be very sociable.
Look how closely they stay packed together.
I don't know how they can fit all those bodies
underneath all of the heads,
'cause you see the heads are so close together...
LUMLEY: Yeah.
...and yet you know that there's about a 14-foot body...
Weighing what?
...by about 6 foot wide,
weighing anything between 2,000 and 3,000 kilos.
[ Chuckles ]
[ Hippos grunting ]
Look at them. I just love them.
They're so lovely with their big folds.
"Hippopotamus" is ancient Greek for "river horse."
Until very recently,
biologists thought they had evolved from the pig family,
but now research indicates
that their closest living relatives
are whales and porpoises.
LUMLEY: How long can they stay underwater?
Usually six to eight minutes is about a good average.
If they're stressed or frightened of something,
then they might stay under for up to 15.
There's a calf.
-LUMLEY: Yes. -Tiny little guy.
If you watch just now,
you might see the ears come up and spin around.
That's quite cool, as well, actually.
When they come up and spin their ears around,
it creates a centrifugal force in the ear
so that it's like throwing out of a tea cup or a coffee cup,
when you spin it around and flick it out.
[ Hippo snorts ]
LUMLEY: It's just so incredibly exciting,
sitting here with them disappearing.
You can't really tell where they're gonna pop up,
and suddenly this huge head the size of a small car arrives,
ears going like that -- Pfft!
I've heard they're pretty fast on land.
Is that right?
Yeah, up to about 40 kilometers an hour, running.
That's the equivalent speed of an Olympic sprinter.
And, surprisingly, hippos are one of
the most dangerous animals in the Nile,
quite capable of upturning a boat
and crushing a man to death between their powerful jaws.
But I swear to God, if we didn't know what hippos were,
we'd be aghast at the sight of these things.
And they get that size by eating grass.
Unbelievable, fabled creatures.
Couple of waterbuck bulls.
And a waterbuck female hiding in the grass down there.
Yeah. You see they're displaying.
See how he's bending his neck?
-LUMLEY: Yes. -Arching his neck.
Now, the youngster's being very submissive
because he's just learning some of the sparring technique,
I think, looking at it.
But the big bull, he's being quite...certain.
[ Chuckles ]
All right. So let's keep heading down.
We push on along the river,
dwarfed by huge floating papyrus islands.
This was the stuff Victorian explorers dreaded,
as it made river travel almost impossible.
The swamp provides a haven for animals,
including Uganda's largest, rarest,
and most extraordinary bird.
LUMLEY: I never thought we'd see one of these.
It's a shoebill.
You'll just have to believe me when I tell you
this bird is as tall as my shoulder
and lives for up to 50 years.
That's extraordinary.
It's literally like seeing a pterodactyl or something.
Just phenomenal. Strange, almost animal, face.
Doesn't really look like a bird at all.
Great soft gray. They're very rare.
And then we spot the creature
that's eluded us all the way along the Nile --
the beautiful but quite dangerous Nile crocodile.
It's one of the world's oldest animals,
and it even outlived the dinosaurs.
-Andy? -Yeah?
What has it got its mouth wide open?
-Temperature regulation. -Temperature regulation.
You'll see them quite often just --
particularly on a hot day,
they'll be lying there with their mouth open
to let the heat dissipate.
[ Goats bleating ]
[ Rooster crows ]
At this point, traveling on the water would be perilous,
with rapids and waterfalls on every bend.
So our only option is to go by road,
but even that has its ups and downs...
Whoops.
We are going sideways now.
...made much worse by recent rain.
[ Indistinct shouting ]
I'd like to get out, but it would just be irresponsible
because it would make the car so much lighter.
I love helping out in these situations,
but, you know, just sometimes you be a little bit selfless.
Yes!
Yes!
Thank you. Good boys!
Well done, well done, well done, well done!
Just up the road from here is a remarkable organization
that's successfully breeding
one of Africa's most endangered species.
[ Whispering ] I'm following Tappan Rasheed...
...to see a rhino called Bella and her baby,
which is not even two months old.
I think I just saw her.
Look.
Look at the size of her.
[ Gasps ] There's the baby.
She's absolutely massive.
I can't guess how high her shoulder is,
but maybe five foot at the shoulder.
She weighs, what, two tons or something.
Two tons.
Going at 45 kilometers per hour.
Phew.
It's actually extraordinarily scary
being so close to something which is so huge.
Here at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary,
50 rangers look after six adult rhinos and their three calves.
Tappan and his team
guard Bella and her calf, Augusto, 'round the clock.
They're coming closer.
Augusto, go back. Bella, go back.
Go back. Go back.
Go back.
Go back! Go! Go back.
Augusto, go back! Bella, go back! Go back.
Please cool down.
Down. Down, please.
Down. Down.
Don't think they're carrying guns to protect us.
It's to protect the rhinos from poachers.
LUMLEY: You just calmed her down just then.
-Yes. She smell me. -Yeah.
-And she hear my voice. -Yes.
Said, "Ah. We have to be cool.
Because their eyesight is not very good, is it?
-No. They don't see very far. -No.
RASHEED: But they are very, very active
to smell and to hear things.
You can see the ears ever like -- That's like antenna.
-Listening and listening. -Yeah, listening to people.
White rhinos actually get their name
from the Afrikaans word "wijd," which means "wide."
It refers to their wide mouths,
which are different to the hooked mouths of their cousin,
the black rhino.
It's perfectly adapted
to grazing the grass of the African plain.
Here she comes.
La la la. Just walking very smoothly away.
Okay, Tappan.
Go back.
Augusto, go back. Go back!
Go. Go back. Cool down.
Cool, cool. Bella, cool.
The reason I'm so scared is that, as a mother,
Bella's job is to kill us if we get too close to her baby.
Seems awfully cowardly, but I just sort of --
I'm always anxious around big wild animals
because they're unpredictable.
-Here comes Augusto again. -Go back. Go back.
Extremely disobedient and very big baby...
Go!
...with a mother who's...
Go back. Go.
Go back. Cool down. Cool. Cool.
Bella, cool.
Cool.
White rhino in Uganda had been hunted to extinction by 1980.
Today poachers are still after the rhino's horn,
which can sell for up to £250,000 pounds each.
LUMLEY: Can you imagine killing an animal like this?
-Ah. -It's unbearable, isn't it?
Just to remove this small, small thing.
Yeah.
Look, I'm not a doctor, but I can tell you -- It doesn't work.
Aphrodisiacs from horn --
It just doesn't work, so drop it.
Just lose it. Lose that idea.
Send it across the Far East, this message --
It doesn't work, so stop it.
Oh, it's the sweetest thing.
He seems to be eating the mud now.
[ Laughs ]
Tappan just said nobody has ever seen that before,
Bella wallowing like that.
Nobody's seen that before.
[ Rhino farting ]
An immense rhino fart.
Let's go.
So far on my journey in Uganda,
I've crossed Lake Albert and followed the Nile upstream,
passing the magnificent Murchison Falls.
Now I'm going to the place Victorian explorers
believed to be the source of the Nile.
This is Africa's largest lake.
Originally called Nalubaale,
it was renamed after Queen Victoria.
It's the size of Ireland.
Its shoreline is over 2,000 miles long.
Right on the northern edge of the lake,
the River Nile starts.
Here, where the water flows out from the lake,
the Nile begins its mammoth journey
all the way to the Mediterranean.
In 1862, British explorer John Hanning Speke
claimed this spot to be the source of the Nile.
To celebrate Speke's achievement
is a rather battered memorial on one bank.
And on the other, a more polished statue to Gandhi.
This was one of several places around the world
where India's spiritual leader has his ashes scattered.
Just below his statue,
boat drivers tout for trade to take you to the source.
Well...this is it.
This is the Victorian source of the Nile --
1862, when John Hanning Speke
had been searching and searching
and came across this river
pouring out of this massive lake.
You can just see the beginning of it coming from 'round there.
And this was officially named the source of the Nile.
Quite extraordinary to be here.
But it's such a beautiful place,
and those explorers went through such hardship.
They slogged and fought and checked and traveled and...
I can imagine the sense of achievement
because people had been hunting for the source of the Nile
for hundreds and hundreds and maybe even thousands of years.
The ancient Greeks knew about it.
The Romans knew about it. The Egyptians knew about it.
People would come down and be blocked by the Sudd,
gone back again.
They must have been jubilant when they found this
and could say, "Yes, this is it."
But, oh, John Hanning Speke,
if I had a glass, I'd raise it to you now.
What a fabulous achievement.
But it's too soon to celebrate,
as this isn't the end of my journey yet.
In 2006, a new source of this great river was discovered,
putting the Nile into the record books
as the world's longest river.
The person who made this amazing discovery
is modern-day Nile explorer Cam McLeay,
who lives, for some of his time,
on this island in the Nile.
His expedition took three months to complete.
Cam and two friends were the first to travel
the entire length of the Nile,
from the Mediterranean to its furthest source in Rwanda.
Cam, you're the first person I've met
who's done the whole Nile by boat.
Tell me why you decided to do it the hard way,
which is going upstream the whole way,
instead of just coasting down the easy way.
What we wanted to do on this journey
was to map the Nile and to travel to its longest source.
Yes.
So our argument was that if you're traveling
the longest river in the world,
then you don't go necessarily to the highest source
or the largest or the furtherest south,
but the longest.
-And how did you measure it? -With GPS's.
So we used modern technology,
and we recorded our distance every 50 meters, from satellite.
Wow. So, accurate -- as accurate as you can be.
So we could come out at the end of the trip
and say categorically
the river is 6,718 kilometers long.
And there's the three of us --
Neil McGrigor, Garth MacIntyre, and myself --
who did the whole expedition.
LUMLEY: Do you think the Macs' names
will be up in the Royal Geographical Society,
up around there with Burton, Speke,
Livingston, Shackleton?
Wouldn't it be lovely?
I don't think we quite belong up there in that category, but I --
But you've discovered the source of the Nile.
Yeah, it's...
I mean, I feel very proud of what we did,
and I'm very proud of, you know,
the fact that it's now in writing
for our children to read and my grandchildren, perhaps.
But I think the thing is that it's --
Our journey was very different to the Victorian explorers.
And it was very hard in its own way,
but it's in a whole different league to what they did.
This is one of the three Zapcats
that carried Cam and his team
4,000 miles along the Nile.
It would have earlier explorers turning green with envy.
When they came across rapids too large to navigate,
they used an unusual method based on an Italian concept.
When this wasn't possible, they had to resort to other means --
Yeah, that's good.
...carrying their boats, a method known as portage,
from the French word "to carry."
One, two, three.
I can't believe how laborious this is, you know?
How long is the longest that you've had to carry it?
McLEAY: About 5 kilometers.
-It's quite a way. -Thanks, Cam.
I can probably manage to take this back on my own,
if you like.
-That would be wonderful. -[ Chuckles ]
Okay. Things are a bit easier now.
That's okay. She's sort of floating this bit.
The English phrase for this is "messing about with boats."
Ohh. Ohh.
Just about need your life jacket on there, Joanna.
Modern-day Nile explorer Cam McLeay
has brought me to Rwanda to go on an expedition
to see the furthest source of the Nile
that he discovered in 2006.
To find this new source,
Cam had started at the Victorian source.
From here he drew an imaginary line across the lake
to the mouth of the longest tributary.
He then followed the Rukarara River
to where it rises
in the mountains of the Nyungwe Forest.
We're following the last part of his route.
From the edge of the Nyungwe Forest,
we get ready to walk the final three miles to the source.
I'm just gonna change this,
what I've got in here, put on my boots.
I mean, I can't really believe it.
I can't believe, after however many weeks of shooting,
that we're going to do all the rest of this on foot.
It's too fantastically exciting.
To make sure we have everything we could possibly need,
we have 15 porters.
Hat. Put it on.
Versace glasses. I think not.
Insect stuff.
Do you know -- No.
Actually, I wasn't going to show you this now,
but I have to 'cause you'll think it's strange.
I bought this in Jinja in the market.
And it's my little man in a boat.
And I want to set him off on the Nile, on a journey back --
the journey that I've done --
starting off here, at the very source of the Nile.
There.
-Shall we go? -Yeah.
I'm following in your footsteps.
Excellent.
Now we're getting up high now.
LUMLEY: Yeah.
This is extraordinary.
I hadn't really thought of it being at 7,600 feet.
-Yes. -Height of Addis Ababa.
-It's incredible, isn't it? -It's amazing.
-Oh, look, Cam. -Wow.
What we did is we moved further upstream from here
and got to a point where we said,
"Well, there's a perceptible flow of water here,
but, really, we can't go any further."
LUMLEY: What, we're going up there?
We're going up there.
LUMLEY: I'm keeping a fair bit behind you
because I can see, with your manly slashes...
Yeah. Give me a bit of space.
These are the perfect thing for here
because you can cut where you can't see.
And if you need to, you can stop and have a shave.
[ Laughing ] It's staggeringly hard to get over
this enormous obstacle.
McLEAY: And we still have our river flowing beautifully here.
Do you know, this is the first Nile water I've really drunk.
Everybody said, "Drink from the Nile."
That's completely pure, sweet water.
-It's fantastic, isn't it? -Wow.
-Everything's just... -Yeah, aren't they gorgeous?
Wow, and they're so huge.
Oops.
Crikey.
Oh, no!
-Oh, no. -McLEAY: Oops.
LUMLEY: Hang on. I've got my boot stuck.
McLEAY: Oh, you're back in that. You ready?
LUMLEY: Hang on a second. I'm not quite in.
-McLEAY: Oh, okay. -Can you sort of...
[ Both laugh ]
That's one of the saddest things you've ever had to do.
-McLEAY: [ Laughs ] -Thanks, Cam.
'Cause after all this, we wouldn't really want to
leave them behind, would we?
It's just 'cause they're a little bit big
that they keep getting sucked right off.
Keep moving around.
-Bit more solid here. -Yeah.
McLEAY: And there she is, still flowing beautifully.
LUMLEY: You're such a lovely, optimistic person.
I do think you're wonderful, Cam,
because if I came here and saw this,
I'm not sure I'd say it was still flowing beautifully.
[ Insects buzzing ]
Okay, we're getting very close now.
So the longest source of the Nile is just up here.
How extraordinary this is.
Look. Perceptible water.
It's perceptible because I'm perceiving it.
-Hang on a second. -Got you on the thing.
-There we are. -Right.
LUMLEY: So this is it? We've made it?
Okay. Okay.
We followed a false lead.
I lost the water down there,
so I was going to look for it again,
but I think we may lose it completely just up here.
So let's go back, and we'll try out the other one,
look for our perceptible flow.
LUMLEY: We are going back.
Little bit of Slough of Despond here.
I have to say I'm sort of beginning to --
just beginning to wonder
about the sanity of this venture.
-McLEAY: Well done. -Lovely.
[ Gasps ]
-McLEAY: Here we are. -LUMLEY: Oh, my gosh!
McLEAY: We can go no further.
LUMLEY: Look at that.
And look at the perceptible flow.
[ Both laugh ]
It's like a little crocodile's nose.
Just a little drip.
McLEAY: 4,199 miles from the Mediterranean.
LUMLEY: To tell you the truth, I never thought we'd get here.
I had a strange feeling that we'd sort of have to call it off
or this bit would be too difficult to do
or it had stopped.
I mean, you know how you wake up at night, thinking,
"What if that source of the Nile has dried up?
What if we can't find it?
What if our cameramen can't make the journey?
What if our sound man is bitten by ants?"
You know, all those sorts of things crossed my mind.
But they soldiered on, so I soldiered on.
[ Chuckling ] And we're here.
It's almost unbelievable when I think back to where we were.
Following this immense river through five countries,
crossing 32 degrees of latitude,
traveling more than 4,000 miles has been humbling.
One thing I half knew has been reinforced --
that without water, we couldn't survive.
[ Speaking Arabic, laughs ]
[ Laughs ]
It's been feared as a devil and revered as a god.
It has transported goods and passengers in war and peace.
It has drowned villages and nursed civilizations.
It brings life to the deserts
and has seen fortunes rise and fall.
It blesses marriages.
[ Goats bleating ]
It brings hope for the future.
[ Laughs ]
It floods every year, and it never dries up.
It's held sacred and holy by many different religions.
[ Speaking native language ]
[ Cheers and applause ]
I can't believe it, how such a huge river starts so quietly.
I think I've been told
that this water takes three and a half months
to get to the Mediterranean.
And I brought my little guy in his little boat
because I wanted him to do the journey that we've done,
but in reverse, the proper way,
following the flow of the water, which starts here,
a journey of 4,199 miles,
the longest river in the world.
I mean, I think rushing water is going to come here later,
and I'm going to leave him here.
I'm gonna settle him here so when the next rain falls,
he'll start his journey.
He's thinking. Pensive.
Thinking of his long journey ahead.
I think I'm just gonna help him over the first bit...
...into that bit.
"No," he says. "Don't push me. I'm thinking."
Okay, well, just a little bit.
There. You could almost feel he was floating.
You could almost feel he was --
You could almost...
[ Laughs ]
I think that I'm now
stopping the source of the Nile by kneeling.
There we are.
Oh, God, Cam, look what I've done to your river.
I'm so sorry.
I'm sorry.
I'm so sorry.
So this is it. This is the end of the journey.
It's kind of the beginning of the journey
because we did it back to front --
beginning of the Nile and end of our journey.
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