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With the rainfall finally easing, the sun emerges from behind the thick inky
clouds creating a striking rainbow that arcs across the misty gorge. It is
September 2004,
when the Colours of the Nile expedition departs Lake Tana, bound for the sea. It is the
furious start to an incredible journey. A perilous journey of courage and discovery. As the sound of birds reverberates between the bluffs and the raindrops glisten in their resting place upon the prospering leaves, it will signal the conclusion of the rainy season in the Ethiopian highlands. For the past three months, rain has poured from the firmament to bring forth the annual Nile floods that civilizations have depended on for thousands of years. The recent deluge means the river is at its highest, ensuring that the rapids are boisterous and less of a problem than at other months of the year when the narrowest parts of the river expose dangerous boulders and an abundance of natural hazards. At the end of the rainy season these hazards are temporarily submerged deep beneath the protective waters. Therefore timing will be everything. Every autumn in Southeastern Europe and Asia, branches relinquish their weary leaves and a chill pervades the air. With the change in season, thousands of birds migrate south to settle upstream, along the Nile corridor. Serendipitously the expedition will drift through this region past a vast array of migratory birds. The spectacle of flight that the party will witness includes; birds of prey, ducks, waders and swallows. Although the southern portion of the journey will pass within 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) of the equator, the heat will be most unbearable in the deserts of Sudan and Egypt an area much further north. Fortunately, it will not be until November before the expedition reaches these seas of sand, a time where the swelter is at its most tolerable. The likelihood of a "haboob", the violent dust storm that occurs in central Sudan in the summer months will also have passed. Early in the new year, likely sporting shaggy hair, bronzed complexions and an abundance of whiskers, the crew will eminently arrive at the shores of the Mediterranean at the quaint town of Rosetta to complete the first unbroken journey from Lake Tana to the sea! It will be a prolonged period of festivities in the Montazah Sheraton in the waterfront city of Alexandria to celebrate the fulfillment of one of the most significant journeys of our generation. Follow us on our journey from Lake Tana to the sea, right here at NileTrip.com.
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