The Route: A two-week, 65-mile expedition down the Class IV and V rapids of one of the world's most romanticized rivers. You'll raft from Lake Victoria to the thundering basalt fissure of Murchison Falls.

When to go: June-July, December-February

Difficulty: Difficult

Travel advisory: Start practicing your breath-holding skills. Most rafters swim an average of 1.8 times on the first day alone, and the huge hydraulics — 150,000 to 200,000 cubic feet per second — can hold you underwater for as long as 30 seconds.

High/low points:

• Seeing firsthand the source of the Nile, the grail that eluded great explorers such as David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley.
• Lugging your rafts and gear along a narrow, tunnel-like hippo trail on the brutal two-day portage around Annihilator rapid.