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May 2004:
Since the last edition of Water Colours, the
expedition has established headquarters in the Sudan producing many positive
results. Sarahlee has joined the crew as a raft guide adding to
the richness and diversity of the team. Just 100 days now stand between the
Colours of the Nile and the river.
The following is an update on the team's progress to date.
The highlights since the
last update are:
The
Colours of the Nile expedition has set up headquarters in Khartoum to act
as a base for planning and preparations for the 6-month period prior to
the expedition. The motivation for the base was threefold; to secure the
necessary authorizations and permits
for river travel in Sudan, to become familiar with Sudanese customs and
languages and to make much needed contacts to assist with the longest leg
of the journey. Mark Tanner,
who has been resident in Sudan since February, has only good things to say
about the Sudanese hospitality. "I'm
a little worried I'll be weighing down the boat when we hit the
river" Mark was quoted as saying, "the remarkably hospitable
Sudanese haven't stopped feeding me since I arrived".
Sarahlee
Lawrence, an active environmentalist and graduate of Whitman College is
the most recent addition to the Colours of the Nile team.
Sarahlee has run and guided rivers of all classes from I-V and
counts among her repertoire the Tuolumne, Kings, Merced, Arkansas,
Deschutes, Salmon and Colorado Rivers.
In addition to her countless hours spent on the river, Sarahlee
also has Wilderness First Responder and Swiftwater Rescue certifications. Although
the team is somewhat weighted in favour of males, Sarahlee brings an
impressive portfolio of skills and experience that make her every bit as
tenacious as her male counterparts. A
rodeo gal, rock climbing instructor, outdoor leader, horse trainer and
river guide, Sarahlee is no stranger to the outdoors.
In addition to her recreational hobbies, Sarahlee spent seven
months living and camping in Kenya, including a stint at a ranch in the
Laikipia highlands where she spent time breaking horses and guiding equine
safaris. A
self-styled "down home cow-girl at heart", Sarahlee describes
herself as someone with "broad shoulders and a passion for running
big water". The Colours of the Nile expedition is pleased to welcome
Sarahlee as one of the rafting guides with practical knowledge of river
ecology and a sharp sense of humour.
For more information please visit our team
The
Colours of the Nile expedition has received official support from the
Sudanese Ministry of Tourism and National Heritage. This important
milestone is crucial to the process of securing permits from the relevant
Sudanese Ministries.
Having headquarters set up in Khartoum has proven invaluable in
dealing with the local bureaucracy and likely would not have been possible
from outside the country.
A special thanks to Daniel Clarke, Emad Hijazy, Mekkawi Osman
Ahmed, Abd el Bagi, Muzaamal Hassan and Midhat Mahir for their valuable
support. To
see a copy of the letter please click here.
A special thanks goes out to Mooz Mahir of Wadi Halfa. The legendary crocodile hunter has provided Mark with important lessons on how best to tame wild crocodiles. The hands-on tuition made use of a live baby crocodile and involved various pinching and tickling maneuvers. "I just hope we won't need to use any of these skills on the river", an enlightened Tanner exclaimed. Mark believes his chances of losing a limb has been significantly lessened as a result of the specialized training. Nile Crocodiles grow up to 6 metres long and are one of only two species in the world regularly known to attack people and view them as prey.
The team has been busy tying together loose ends and has acquired a satellite phone, a dry storage pelican case, dry bags, medical supplies, snake bite anti-venom and other emergency stores and equipment. The
Colours of the Nile team has spent the last 3 weeks calculating calories,
weighing dry stores and running taste tests on a plethora of different
expedition foods.
In stark contrast to most calorie counting exercises that seek high
fibre, low calorie combinations, the expedition has been experimenting
with super foods to establish the most nutrient rich diets available.
Basing the expedition foods largely on Space Shuttle menus, the
team has established a meal plan that promises to deliver a minimum of
2,500 – 3,000 Kilocalories per day, last a single person 3 weeks,
deliver all the daily nutritional requirements and still weigh less than 9
kilograms.
The dried rations are also attractive in that they occupy less room
than a small sleeping bag.
In
the early stages of planning team members expressed mild concern when they
heard rumours of experiments with "Infant Formula", "Space
Food" and a syrupy concoction affectionately referred to as the
"Junk Food Drink", a horrifying concoction made from a
combination of ground up cheesies and cocktail sauce from Iceland.
The melangé, that proved to be barely palatable, packed a whopping
6 calories/gram but was deemed impractical given the queasy after taste
and questionable shelf life.
Readers will be pleased to learn that many of these early wrinkles
however have been worked out and the team now looks forward to enjoying
sound menus that include things like vanilla custard and wafer cookies.
No hakarl, or putrefied shark meat is contemplated as a menu item
at this time. With a little more than 100 days until the team sets sail, a countdown and the latest Colours of the Nile news briefs have been added to homepage of the NileTrip.com website. Stay tuned.
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