Source of the Nile & the Holy Stones

Lake Victoria the source of the river Nile at Kisumu, Western Kenya

I have found the source of the river Nile’

John Hanning Speke 1862

The first trip I led overseas was to Kilimanjaro in Tanzania now over twenty years ago and ever since have been hooked on the continent. Since then I have been fortunate to explore southern, Eastern and parts of North Africa. I have also read cover to cover as many books on the early exploration of the continent and some of the bizarre wanderings of Livingstone, Burton, Speke et all as they wandered the continent mapping and exploring. One major fascination they had was the source of rivers and in particular the source of the river Nile. This was after a few attempts decided to be Lake Victoria. The outflow is at Jinja in Uganda and the lake spreads between Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. It must have appeared vast when they first stumbled across it after an epic walk from the coast.

Fisherman on Lake Victoria, Kisumu, Western Kenya

Finally I got to tick this sight of myself as Jo and I headed to Kisumu and Kenya’s western edge and its shoreline on the great lake. We had a stalled start after finishing our courses in Nanyuki due to some protests and a day of unrest but with things settled we took a trip across country to Nakuru and then on to the lake at Kisumu. It is a vast sight and could easily be mistaken for an actual ocean just with the absence of a salty sea smell. Fisherman ply the waters catching Tilapia and Snapper along with other fresh water fish running the gauntlet with Hippo and Crocodiles. We did see Hippo up close as one came right past a lakeshore cafe we where in.

I have managed a few different sights on African waterways, camped on the Shire river in Malawi, and also the Zambezi in Zambia and Okavango river in Botswana. One good expedition was cycling the length of the Nile through Egypt to the border of Sudan it last stretch of country before it empties into the Mediterranean.

Ive also seen it running through Ethiopia where it runs from Lake Tana as the Blue Nile until its confluence Khartoum with the White Nile running from Uganda. From here it becomes the Nile so it was great to see the source which has featured so heavily in a large number of books I have read. The reason for all this fervour for finding the source of rivers seems to have been the lure of the unknown but also perhaps for trade routes and those who controlled the source also had power over those who relied on the rivers further down. A play which Ethiopia has just made with its giant dam which could effect Egypt and cause some tensions.

With the Blue and White Nile sources ticked, the next obvious step will be the Congo for us.

The holy stones at Kit Makai

We also headed here on the rumours that there was some exceptional bouldering, something which Speke and Burton neglected to mention as they would have passed by this strange collection of granite boulders. The rumours where not wrong either as there was indeed some amazing bouldering and potential for climbs to. I have heard of these areas of rocks before in Mwanza, Tanzania that the lake edge was covered in granite formations but I didn’t know it was on Kenyas shoreline to. Rather conveniently during our courses at RVA we had an assistant/trainee Fanuewell who was from the area and who’s father happened to be the chief here which made for a very handy contact for the area and gave us good access to the bouldering. Pretty good but also pretty hard. A super compact granite and also pretty big boulders. An impressive landscape with granite copies dotted as far as you could see. Boulders spread throughout peoples plots and shambas would give a life time of bouldering. We wound round only a few on offer but did take a look at the impressive Kit Mikyai. A tall collection of about 70 metres with some religious significance to. Rated as a Unesco site it is possible to climb here and there would be some super hard climbing to get to the top and then quite a tricky descent.

The Menengai crater near Nakuru, Kenya

We also made an unexpected stop on the route back to Nanyuki. Traveling from Kisumu by bus first to Nakuru and then onto Nanyuki our first bus took much longer that expected. We made a quick decision to stay in Nakuru and found the Mailee Saba (seven miles) camp just a few miles out of town. It was situated right on the lip of one of the largest shield Volcano craters in the world and the the largest in Kenya. The Menengai crater was a pretty impressive sight and could be seen right from our very nicely done Banda. I couldn’t recommend the camp highly enough.

After a leisurely morning it was back to Nanyuki and onto Nairobi earlier than plans as there are a few demonstrations rolling along at the minute so we decided to avoid that with a night near the airport. Yet again a great trip, I can see what lured Speke and Burton back time and time again. Its a stunning continent, difficult and hard at times and at times quite raw. A landscape full of lakes, volcanoes, snowcapped mountains, a vast array of wildlife, tropical coastlines and diverse people can captivate someone and gets under your skin. So although off I know with certainty we shall be back again and exploring soon.

On tour in the interior