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Outside Magazine May 2004
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Nile Takedown (cont)

Today's teams are equipped with 16-foot self-bailing, inflatable rafts (along with hardshell kayaks), and they generally have to portage around only unbeatable obstacles like dams and some of the worst whitewater imaginable.

Harder to negotiate is the AK-47 factor. Sudan, through which both crews must travel, is embroiled in a 25-year-old civil war—between government forces and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement—a conflict in which civilians have been killed, maimed, and raped indiscriminately. The war has claimed an estimated two million lives in the past decade; before the recent lull in hostilities, securing safe passage through the country was nearly impossible. Both teams hired armed guards.

And though paddlers today often play on parts of the river—the White Nile in Uganda is a favorite kamikaze kayak spot for big-wave surfers like Brad Ludden—there's been a virtual shutdown of long-distance Nile trips for nearly 40 years, according to Richard Bangs, cofounder of California-based outfitter Mountain Travel Sobek. As a director of the Imax movie, slated for release in 2005, Bangs helped scout the gnarliest parts of the Imax journey.

A British military team completed a Blue Nile descent in 1968 but covered much of the journey on foot. And no one has tackled the entire White Nile since 1951, when American John Goddard and two friends made it to the sea from Lake Victoria's remotest headstream, in Burundi, but were forced to walk around the nastiest whitewater. "Taking nothing away from Goddard's accomplishment," Bangs said, "there is no way he could have run Class V and VI rapids in the collapsible kayaks he had."

Potentially fatal risks remain. The Imax paddlers—who plan to reach the coast by May—have been forced to portage several rapids and rappel down the side of Tis Isat ("Smoke of Fire") Falls. The CARE crew (slated to finish by July) has had similarly scary spills, plus croc attacks.

Still ahead, though, are mammoth swamps, staggering heat, Egypt's Lake Nasser (famed for its headwinds), and the Aswan Dam (a tricky portage, to say the least). But the teams seem prepared for any challenge. Before setting out, Scaturro—afraid he'd get dinged for ignoring the real source of the Blue Nile—hiked up the Ethiopian Plateau to the river's trickling (unraftable) wellspring. Joining scores of pilgrims carrying gourds and canteens—many consider the water holy—Scaturro filled a Nalgene bottle and taped it shut.

"And I'm going to bring it with me," he said, "the rest of the way."
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