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00:00We're traveling along the world's longest river, the Nile, 4,000 miles from sea to source.
00:12It's the most remarkable journey I've ever made.
00:16Wow, it's so busy!
00:19It started two months ago in Egypt.
00:21It's pretty unspoiled, isn't it?
00:25Since then, we've met the Nile's most fearsome beast.
00:28I'll leave my sandals on so the crocodile's got something to eat.
00:34Discovered Sudan's hidden beauty secret.
00:37It's like being Joan of Arc, going out to choose which wood to be burnt on.
00:42Met Ethiopia's Olympic hopefuls.
00:45Now you are all my daughters.
00:47Ishi!
00:48And thought about never going home.
00:51I've got to leave Ethiopia now.
00:53It pretty much breaks my heart.
00:56We're nearing the end of the journey.
00:58With just 1,000 miles to go to reach the longest source of the Nile.
01:04Here we are.
01:05Oh my gosh!
01:06Here we are.
01:06Here we are.
01:11Here we are.
01:12Here we are.
01:13VIOLIN PLAYS
01:43Down there is the soot.
01:49It's arguably the largest swamp in the whole world.
01:53It spreads over an area over 12,000 square miles.
02:06The soot is composed of sort of huge floating watches of papyrus.
02:13Completely impenetrable, the Nile pours itself into the soot, spreads out, and this vast
02:21sponge just sucks it up.
02:22The silt in the marshy sediments go down six miles.
02:33Somehow, at the other end, the Nile emerges again.
02:36Samuel Baker, the great explorer, in 1862, when he came across the soot, said,
02:46It's heaven for mosquitoes and a damp hell for man.
02:50That said, I wish we were down there, battling through the swamp.
03:00But because of widespread tribal conflict in the region, we've been told it's still not safe in some areas.
03:06So, unfortunately, we've not been permitted to film on vast stretches of the river.
03:16My journey along the Nile started at the Mediterranean town of Alexandria.
03:20We've followed this great river through Egypt, into the remote deserts of northern Sudan, and on into Khartoum.
03:30Here, I picked up the Blue Nile, tracing its path into the highlands of Ethiopia.
03:36I've now rejoined the White Nile in southern Sudan.
03:40From here, I'm travelling to Juba, and then on into Uganda, and then Rwanda, where my journey ends.
03:49Juba is the seat of government for southern Sudan.
04:11Here, in 2005, a peace agreement was signed, ending Sudan's bitter civil war, the longest civil war in Africa.
04:20The ceasefire is fragile, but it has allowed something rather wonderful to happen.
04:26Well, this is rather unexpected, because I'm on my way to meet a beauty queen.
04:30Here, in southern Sudan, in Juba, in this rather bumpy and exciting street.
04:36Beauty queen.
04:37Well, beauty contests used to be really popular here in the 70s and 80s,
04:40but when the troubles came, they were dropped completely.
04:42They've only just been resurrected in the last two years.
04:44And the reigning queen, Miss Malaika, is called Nok Nora Duang,
04:50and she's apparently very beautiful and very clever,
04:52and she's grooming 12 candidates to become Miss Malaika this year, and she will crown them.
04:58It's going to be very exciting.
04:59Isn't it lovely that after the war, beauty comes back?
05:07The beauty pageant isn't for two weeks.
05:11But on the shady banks of the Nile, the trainee beauty queens are being put through their paces.
05:15Smile.
05:17By last year's winner, 28-year-old Nok Nora.
05:21You're a queen.
05:22Try to look at everyone.
05:25All the tables, people eating spaghetti.
05:28I think it's the hardest thing to remember is this thing of smiling.
05:32Yeah.
05:32And looking around the room.
05:34And the other thing a very grand old English actress told me,
05:36she said she never walks on stage without secretly thinking that she has a secret.
05:42Yeah.
05:42And that self-control of having, knowing you've got a fantastic secret.
05:46Right.
05:46She never told me what it was.
05:48So you're smiling and secretive.
05:50Here in southern Sudan, these young girls do not have to respect the modest Islamic dress code imposed on women in the north.
05:58In fact, events like this would be banned by law in northern Sudan and result in harsh punishment.
06:04Look, why was it important for you to follow this path and become a beauty queen?
06:11You know, I, since I was young, I used to watch Miss Universe every once in a while.
06:16And then when I came to Sudan, I thought that I could actually be a good candidate, come out, be an ambassador for South Sudan.
06:22You said when I came to Sudan, where had you been?
06:25My family were refugees.
06:27We had exiled in the U.S.
06:29And then we grew up there, we got an American citizenship, some of us.
06:34And then when the peace was signed, we came back.
06:37And you guys got to be closer.
06:40What does this competition mean for southern Sudan?
06:43I think it's a huge step in kind of showing normalcy.
06:47And that everybody in South Sudan, they're tired of war, they're tired of all the issues.
06:51And we just want to have peace.
06:53And we want to do the things that all the other countries do.
06:58Though beauty contests have become unfashionable in the U.K., for these girls, it's seen as an important way to campaign for women's rights.
07:06When the judges say to you, Friday, what would you like to do with your year, if you won, what would you say?
07:15Saving children or do small things about women, you know, because women, they don't have freedom in Sudan.
07:22I just want to change something.
07:24Yes.
07:27I'm really so excited that I'm going to start in front of many people.
07:30You have to show up to the public that you can do something.
07:36Gosh, you're tall.
07:39It's so nice to be with tall, tall girls.
07:41It's lovely.
07:42Yeah, it's beautiful.
07:43Lovely.
07:43You look wonderful.
07:46Couldn't you just wish that to be in a beauty competition, all you had to do is just powder your gorgeous face, that's all.
07:51At home, make-up going on for two hours for something like this.
07:55You hear these gorgeous girls just pat their faces like that and then just look a million dollars.
08:00I obviously only do the same.
08:13The next day, I leave southern Sudan for Uganda, following the river to the head of Lake Albert.
08:21To continue up the Nile, I must now catch a ferry across the lake into the Murchison Falls National Park.
08:27Small roadside markets are dotted everywhere in Uganda.
08:42They sell everything from mangoes to nuts to a uniquely African snack.
08:47I thought I might buy some cassava.
08:51In the same way we grow potatoes, these people grow cassava.
08:55Which is the best?
08:56Because I've never had cassava before.
08:57What is the nicest?
08:59This tuba is Africa's most important crop.
09:02Just break and eat it like this?
09:03Yes.
09:04It can be grown almost anywhere, even during a drought, when other crops fail.
09:08How is it?
09:10Delicious.
09:14Thank you very much.
09:17Okay.
09:17It's actually going to be speechless.
09:19It's completely kind of like flour.
09:20My mouth has filled up with quietness.
09:23Okay.
09:24So when you're on the road there, smoking is not allowed on the ferry.
09:30That's our ferry over there.
09:33We're all going to fit on.
09:37When you're reaching on the ferry, everybody, you have to put on the life jacket.
09:45Will we all fit on?
09:47All the lorries, all the people, there's not very much space.
09:50Will we be all like this inside?
09:52No, no, no, no.
09:53It's okay.
09:54It's okay.
09:54It's okay.
09:54It's okay.
09:55Yeah.
09:55But you don't have capsizing.
09:58You don't have accidents.
09:59No, no, no, no.
10:00That's when we have nothing done it.
10:02Yeah.
10:03This ferry is now 11 years, but it's nothing of that sort.
10:15This is the only ferry of the day.
10:18And apparently, it's always packed.
10:22I think it's kind of standing room only for about the next two and a half hours.
10:26Maybe a little light walking around.
10:29A few deck games.
10:46The lake is named after Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert.
10:50And the ferry is now en route to a huge river delta, created by the Nile.
11:02As the river flows into the lake, it forms islands and swamps, making Uganda's largest wildlife reserve.
11:09For the first time on my journey, I'm going to get a chance to watch the impressive animals that live in the Nile.
11:30This stretch of the Nile in Uganda was made famous by the great British explorers of the Victorian age, who wanted to chart the unexplored lengths of this amazing river.
11:47The race was on to map the Nile, one of the last geographical mysteries of the world.
11:57In 1864, husband and wife explorers, Samuel and Florence Baker, were the first to travel upstream here.
12:09The local tribes called Florence, daughter of the moon, because of her long blonde hair.
12:18They'd already mapped Lake Albert when they arrived here at Murchison Falls.
12:22Samuel Baker wrote, I could distinctly hear the roar of water, and upon rounding the corner, a magnificent sight burst upon us.
12:42Just look at that, the Murchison Falls. I can't believe I'm seeing them with my own eyes. It is just fabulously exciting.
12:48That's the Nile, boiling down through these rocks. At the top, it's 164 feet wide.
12:55The gap it has to get through is 23 feet, so it comes crashing down, all forced through that.
13:01No wonder the Victorian explorers were so utterly thrilled when they found it.
13:05They sent back, just saying, we've seen these unbelievable falls.
13:09And remember, this was the time when America had been, obviously, discovered and settled.
13:14Australia had been discovered and settled. Everybody knew about that, but nobody knew.
13:18They were about the middle of Africa. Nobody knew where the Nile came from.
13:27Baker said, these are the most important falls on the whole of the River Nile.
13:33And he named them after the President of the Royal Geographical Society.
13:37A fantastic body, which then, as now, still sponsors the great explorations of the world.
13:43Today, Murchison Falls gives its name to Uganda's biggest nature reserve.
13:52It covers an area just larger than Cornwall and is home to the great creatures of African wildlife.
14:09Running through the heart of the park is the River Nile.
14:21My guide is Zimbabwean, Andy Ault.
14:25This is a fantastic group of hippo down here.
14:28There must be at least 60, maybe 70, maybe even 80 of them.
14:35But it wasn't always like this.
14:40In 1971, infamous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin took power.
14:46With no interest in conservation, he told his troops to use the park as their larder.
14:51Wildlife populations plummeted to virtually nothing.
15:01Then, in the early 1990s, with Idi Amin exiled, the park was revived.
15:08They seem to be very sociable. Look how closely they stay packed together.
15:12I don't know how they can fit all those bodies underneath all of the heads.
15:16Because you see, the heads are so close together.
15:19Yeah.
15:20And yet you know that there's about a 14-foot body.
15:23Weighing what?
15:24About 5-6 foot wide, weighing anything between 2,000 and 3,000 kilos.
15:35They're just loving them. They're so lovely with their big folds.
15:39Hippopotamus is ancient Greek for river horse.
15:48Until very recently, biologists thought they had evolved from the pig family.
15:53But now research indicates that their closest living relatives are whales and porpoises.
16:02How long can they stay underwater?
16:04Usually six to eight minutes is about a good average.
16:07If they're stressed or frightened of something, then they might stay under for up to 15.
16:14There's a cough.
16:15Yes.
16:16A tiny little cough.
16:17If you watch, you might see the ears come up and spin around.
16:21That's quite cool as well, actually.
16:23When they come up and spin their ears around, it creates a centrifugal force in the ear.
16:28So that's like throwing bucket out of a teacup or a coffee cup when you spin it around and flick it out.
16:37It's just so incredibly exciting sitting here with them, disappearing.
16:44You can't really tell where they're going to pop up.
16:45And suddenly this huge head the size of a small car arrives.
16:49The ears going like that.
16:50I've heard they're pretty fast on land.
16:57Is that right?
16:57Yeah.
16:59Up to about 40 kilometers an hour running.
17:03That's the equivalent speed of an Olympic sprinter.
17:06And surprisingly, hippos are one of the most dangerous animals in the Nile, quite capable
17:13of upturning a boat and crushing a man to death between their powerful jaws.
17:19But I swear to God, if we didn't know what hippos were,
17:23we'd be a ghast at the size of these things.
17:26And they get that size by eating grass.
17:31Unbelievable fabled creatures.
17:37A couple of waterbuck bulls and a waterbuck female hiding in the grass down there.
17:44Yeah, you see they're displaying.
17:46See how he's bending his neck?
17:47Yes.
17:48Arching his neck.
17:49Now the youngster's being very submissive because he's just learning some of the sparring technique,
17:53I think, looking at it.
17:55But the big bully, he's being quite certain.
18:06All right, so let's keep heading down.
18:15We push on along the river, dwarfed by huge floating papyrus islands.
18:20This was the stuff Victorian explorers dreaded, as it made river travel almost impossible.
18:26The swamp provides a haven for animals, including Uganda's largest, rarest and most extraordinary bird.
18:34I never thought we'd see one of these.
18:36It's a showbill.
18:45You'll just have to believe me when I tell you this bird is as tall as my shoulder and lives for up to 50 years.
18:51That's extraordinary.
18:59It's literally like seeing a pterodactyl or something.
19:01Just phenomenal.
19:03Strange, almost animal face.
19:05Doesn't really look like a bird at all.
19:07Great soft grey, and they're very rare.
19:09Then we spot the creature that's eluded us all the way along the Nile.
19:28The beautiful, but quite dangerous, Nile crocodile.
19:37It's one of the world's oldest animals, and it even outlived the dinosaurs.
19:41Andy, why has it got its mouth wide open?
19:53Temperature regulation.
19:55Temperature regulation?
19:56You'll see them quite often, just particularly on a hot day.
19:59They'll be lying there with their mouth open to let the heat dissipate.
20:26They'll be lying there with their mouth open to let the heat dissipate.
20:48At this point, travelling on the water would be perilous, with rapids and waterfalls on every bend.
20:57So our only option is to go by road.
21:00But even that has its ups and downs.
21:08Made much worse by recent rain.
21:23I'd like to get out, but it would just be irresponsible,
21:25because it would make the car so much lighter.
21:28I love helping out in these situations, but you know,
21:30just sometimes you'd be a little bit selfless.
21:35I love you.
21:39All right.
21:43Yes.
21:46Yes.
21:47Good boys.
21:48Well done, well done, well done, well done.
21:51Just up the road from here is a remarkable organization
21:59that's successfully breeding one of Africa's most endangered species.
22:13I'm following Tapan Rashid
22:15to see a rhino called Bella and her baby.
22:21Which is not even two months old.
22:26I think I just saw her.
22:28Look.
22:31Look at the size of her.
22:34There's the baby.
22:38She's absolutely massive.
22:41I can't guess how high her shoulder is, but maybe five foot at the shoulder.
22:46She weighs, what, two tons or something?
22:49Two tons.
22:51Going at 45 kilometers per hour.
22:56It's actually extraordinarily scary being so close to something which is so huge.
23:04Here at the Zewa Rhino Sanctuary,
23:0750 rangers look after six adult rhinos and their three calves.
23:12Tapan and his team guard Bella and her calf Augusto round the clock.
23:16They're coming closer.
23:18They're coming closer.
23:18I don't think they're carrying guns to protect us.
23:31It's to protect the rhinos from poachers.
23:33Down.
23:33Down.
23:34Down, please.
23:36Down.
23:37Down.
23:39I don't think they're carrying guns to protect us.
23:42It's to protect the rhinos from poachers.
23:44You just calmed her down just then?
23:47Yeah, yes.
23:48She smell me.
23:49Yeah.
23:50And she hear my voice and say, ah, you have to be cool.
23:54Because their eyesight is not very good, is it?
23:56No, no, they're shorted eyes.
23:57They don't see very far.
23:59No.
23:59But they're very, very active to smell and to hear things.
24:04You can see the ears ever like that.
24:06It's like an antenna.
24:06Listening and listening.
24:07Yeah, listening to people.
24:11White rhinos actually get their name from the Afrikaans word, white, which means wide.
24:17It refers to their wide mouths, which are different to the hooked mouths of their cousin, the black rhino.
24:23It's perfectly adapted to grazing the grass of the African plain.
24:29Here she comes.
24:31La la la, just walking very smoothly away.
24:35Okay, Tapa.
24:37Go back.
24:38Go back.
24:40Go.
24:41Go back.
24:42Cool down.
24:42Cool.
24:43Cool.
24:44Bella, cool.
24:45The reason I'm so scared is that as a mother, Bella's job is to kill us if we get too close to her baby.
24:54It seems awfully cowardly, but I just sort of...
24:57I was anxious around big, wild animals because they're unpredictable.
25:01Here comes the buster again.
25:01Go back.
25:02Go back.
25:02Go back.
25:02Go back.
25:03Extremely disobedient and a very big baby.
25:06Go.
25:08With a mother who's...
25:09Go back.
25:11Go.
25:12Go back.
25:13Cool down.
25:14Cool.
25:15Cool.
25:16Bella, cool.
25:17Cool.
25:18White rhino in Uganda had been hunted to extinction by 1980.
25:21Today, poachers are still after the rhino's horn, which can sell for up to a quarter of a million pounds each.
25:30Can you imagine killing an animal like this?
25:32It's unbearable, isn't it?
25:33Just remove this small, small thing.
25:36Yeah.
25:37Look, I'm not a doctor, but I can tell you, it doesn't work.
25:41Aphrodisiac's horn.
25:42It just doesn't work, so drop it.
25:44Just lose it.
25:45Lose that idea.
25:45Send it across to the Far East, this message.
25:48It doesn't work, so stop it.
25:52That's the sweetest thing.
25:54He seems to be eating the mud now.
26:04Tapan just said nobody has ever seen that before.
26:08Bella wallowing like that.
26:10Nobody's seen that before.
26:15So far on my journey in Uganda, I've crossed Lake Albert and followed the Nile upstream, passing the magnificent Murchison Falls.
26:42Now I'm going to the place Victorian explorers believed to be the source of the Nile.
26:58This is Africa's largest lake.
27:01Originally called Nalubale, it was renamed after Queen Victoria.
27:05It's the size of Ireland.
27:10Its shoreline is over 2,000 miles long.
27:14Right on the northern edge of the lake, the River Nile starts.
27:19Here, where the water flows out from the lake, the Nile begins its mammoth journey all the way to the Mediterranean.
27:25In 1862, British explorer John Hanning Speake claimed this spot to be the source of the Nile.
27:38To celebrate Speake's achievement is a rather battered memorial on one bank.
27:46And on the other, a more polished statue to Gandhi.
27:55This was one of several places around the world where India's spiritual leader had his ashes scattered.
28:03Just below his statue, boat drivers tout for trade to take you to the source.
28:08This is it.
28:25This is the Victorian source of the Nile.
28:281862, when John Hanning Speake had been searching and searching, came across this river pouring out of this massive lake.
28:37You can just see the beginning of it coming from around there.
28:41And this was officially named the source of the Nile.
28:46Quite extraordinary to be here.
28:48But it's such a beautiful place.
28:50And those explorers went through such hardship.
28:53They slogged and thought and checked and travelled.
28:58And I can imagine the sense of achievement.
29:01Because people had been hunting for the source of the Nile for hundreds and hundreds and maybe even thousands of years.
29:09The ancient Greeks knew about it.
29:10The Romans knew about it.
29:12The Egyptians knew about it.
29:13People had come down and been blocked by the Sud.
29:16Gone back again.
29:17They must have been jubilant when they found this and could say, yes, this is it.
29:26But, oh, John Hanning Speake, if I had a glass, I'd raise it to you now.
29:31What a fabulous achievement.
29:41But it's too soon to celebrate, as this isn't the end of my journey yet.
29:47In 2006, a new source of this great river was discovered, putting the Nile into the record books as the world's longest river.
29:57The person who made this amazing discovery is modern-day Nile explorer Cam Maclay, who lives, for some of his time, on this island in the Nile.
30:11His expedition took three months to complete.
30:21Cam and two friends were the first to travel the entire length of the Nile, from the Mediterranean to its furthest source in Rwanda.
30:28Cam, you're the first person I've met who's done the whole Nile by boat.
30:42Tell me why you decided to do it the hard way, which is going upstream the whole way, instead of just coasting down the easy way.
30:49What we wanted to do on this journey was to map the Nile and to travel to its longest source.
30:55Yes.
30:55So our argument was that if you're travelling the longest river in the world, then you don't go necessarily to the highest source or the largest or the furthest south, but the longest.
31:07And how did you measure it?
31:08With GPSs.
31:09So we used modern technology and we recorded our distance every 50 metres from satellite.
31:15Wow.
31:16So accurate as accurate as it would be.
31:18So we could come out at the end of the trip and say, categorically, the river is 6,718 kilometres long.
31:27And there's the three of us, Nile McGregor, Darth McIntyre and myself, who did the whole expedition.
31:33Do you think the max names will be up in the Royal Geographical Society up around there with Burton, Speak, Livingston, Shackleton?
31:41Wouldn't it be lovely?
31:41I don't think we quite belong up there in that category.
31:46You've discovered the source of the Nile.
31:49Yeah.
31:50I mean, I feel very proud of what we did.
31:53And I'm very proud of, you know, the fact that it's now in writing for our children to read and my grandchildren perhaps.
32:00But I think the thing is that it's, you know, our journey was very different to the Victorian explorers.
32:07And it was very hard in its own way.
32:10But it's in a whole different league to what they did.
32:14This is one of the three Zapcats that carried Cam and his team 4,000 miles along the Nile.
32:26It would have earlier explorers turning green with envy.
32:29When they came across rapids too large to navigate, they used an unusual method based on an Italian concept.
32:49When this wasn't possible, they had to resort to other means.
33:14OK, that's good.
33:17Carrying their boats, a method known as portage, from the French word to carry.
33:23One, two, three.
33:26I can't believe how laborious this is, you know.
33:30How long is the longest that you've had to carry it?
33:33About five kilometres.
33:35It's quite a way.
33:37Thanks, Cam.
33:37I can probably manage to take this back on my own if you like.
33:40That would be wonderful.
33:41OK, things are a bit easier now.
33:45That's OK, she's sort of floating this bit.
33:47The English phrase for this is messing about with boats.
33:50Oh, oh.
33:52Just about need your life jacket on there, Joanna.
33:54Modern day Nile explorer Cam MacLea has brought me to Rwanda to go on an expedition to see the furthest source of the Nile that he discovered in 2006.
34:13To find this new source, Cam had started at the Victorian source.
34:25From here, he drew an imaginary line across the lake to the mouth of the longest tributary.
34:32He then followed the Rukarara River to where it rises in the mountains of the Nyungwe Forest.
34:37We are following the last part of his route.
34:50From the edge of the Nyungwe Forest, we get ready to walk the final three miles to the source.
34:56I'm just going to change this, what I've got in here, put on my boots.
35:03I mean, I can't really believe it.
35:05I can't believe, after however many weeks of shooting, that we're going to do all the rest of this on foot.
35:11It's too fantastically exciting.
35:15To make sure we have everything we could possibly need, we have 15 porters.
35:21Hat, put it on.
35:22Versace glasses, I think not.
35:27Insect stuff.
35:29Do you know?
35:30No.
35:34Actually, I wasn't going to show you this now, but I have to, because you'll think it's strange.
35:38I bought this in Ginger in the market.
35:41And it's my little man in a boat.
35:44And I want to set him off on the Nile.
35:46On a journey back, the journey that I've done.
35:49Starting off here, the very source of the Nile.
35:52There.
35:59Shall we go?
35:59Yeah.
36:01I'm following in your footsteps.
36:02Excellent.
36:03We're getting up high now.
36:09You know we're getting up high now.
36:24Yeah.
36:25This is extraordinary.
36:26I hadn't really thought of it being at 7,600 feet.
36:29Yes.
36:30Height of Addis Ababa.
36:32That's incredible, isn't it?
36:33Amazing.
36:33Oh, look.
36:34Oh, look.
36:39Wow.
36:39Wow.
36:47What we did is we moved further upstream from here and got to a point where we said, well,
36:52there's a perceptible flow of water here, but really, we can't go any further.
36:57And, um...
36:59Are we going up there?
37:00We're going up there.
37:01I'm keeping a fair bit behind you because I can see with your manly slashes.
37:11Yeah.
37:12Give me a bit of space.
37:13This is the perfect thing for here.
37:18You can tap where you can't see, and if you need to, you can stop and have a shave.
37:25It's just so incredibly hard to get over this enormous obstacle.
37:43And we still have our river flying beautifully here.
37:53Do you know, this is the first Nile water I've really drunk.
37:55Everybody said drink from the Nile.
37:58It's completely pure sweet water.
38:01Fantastic, isn't it?
38:02Wow.
38:07Everything's just...
38:09Yeah, they're gorgeous.
38:09I don't know, so huge.
38:13Oops.
38:16Crikey.
38:18Oh, no.
38:19Oh, no.
38:21Oops.
38:21Hang on, I've got my boots stuck.
38:24Oh, you're back in there.
38:26You ready?
38:26Hang on a second.
38:27I'm not quite in.
38:29Oh, okay.
38:29Can you serve us?
38:30I've got a cyst anyway.
38:31Hey.
38:33That's one of the saddest things you've ever had to do.
38:36Thanks, Cam.
38:37Because after all this, we wouldn't really want to leave them behind, would we?
38:40It's just because they're a little bit big that they keep getting sucked right off.
38:43See it moving around?
38:44A bit more solid here.
38:45Yeah.
38:46And there she is.
38:47Still flying beautifully.
38:50You're such a lovely, optimistic person.
38:52I do think you're wonderful, Cam, because if I came here and saw this, I'm not sure I'd say it was still flowing beautifully.
38:58Okay, we're getting very close now.
39:17for the longest source of the Nile is just up here.
39:21Look how extraordinary this is.
39:23Look.
39:25Perceptible water.
39:26It's perceptible.
39:28Because I'm perceiving it.
39:32Hang on a second.
39:33I've got the scent.
39:34There we are.
39:35Great.
39:36So this is it?
39:37We've made it?
39:38Okay.
39:40Okay.
39:41And we've followed a false lead.
39:45I lost the water down there,
39:47so I was going to look for it again,
39:49but I think we may lose it completely just up here.
39:52So let's go back,
39:53and we'll try up the other one.
39:57Look for our perceptible flow.
40:06We are going back.
40:08A little bit of slav to spawn here.
40:17I have to say,
40:26I'm sort of beginning to...
40:27just beginning to wonder
40:33about the sanity of this venture.
40:36Well done.
40:53Lovely.
40:56Here we are.
40:57Oh, my gosh.
40:59We can go no further.
41:01Look at that.
41:03and look
41:05at the perceptible flow.
41:09It's like a little crocodile's nose.
41:12Just a little trip.
41:154,199 miles
41:19from the Mediterranean.
41:20To tell you the truth,
41:26I never thought we'd get here.
41:28I had a sort of strange feeling
41:30that we'd...
41:31we'd sort of have to call it off,
41:34or...
41:34or this bit would be too difficult to do.
41:37Um...
41:38Or it had stopped.
41:39I mean, you know how you wake up at night thinking,
41:41what if that source of the Nile
41:43has dried up?
41:45What if we can't find it?
41:46What if our cameraman can't make the journey?
41:50What if our sandman is bitten by ants?
41:52You know, all those sorts of things
41:53have crossed my mind.
41:56But they soldiered on,
41:57so I soldiered on.
41:59And we're here.
41:59It's almost unbelievable.
42:01When I think back to where we were...
42:03Following this immense river
42:10through five countries,
42:12crossing 32 degrees of latitude,
42:15travelling more than 4,000 miles,
42:18has been humbling.
42:20One thing I half knew
42:22has been reinforced,
42:24that without water,
42:25we couldn't survive.
42:29Is that out?
42:30It's been feared as a devil
42:34and revered as a god.
42:39It has transported goods and passengers
42:43in war and peace.
42:46It has drowned villages
42:48and nursed civilisations.
42:51It brings life to the deserts
43:04and has seen fortunes rise and fall.
43:10It blesses marriages.
43:17It brings hope for the future.
43:19It's held sacred and holy
43:34by many different religions.
43:35I can't believe it
43:47how such a huge river
43:48starts so quietly.
43:51I think I've been told
43:52that this water takes
43:54three and a half months
43:55to get to the Mediterranean.
43:57and I brought my little guy
44:00and his little boat
44:02because I wanted him
44:04to do the journey
44:05that we've done
44:05but in reverse,
44:06the proper way,
44:08following the flow of the water
44:09which starts here,
44:12a journey of 4,199 miles,
44:15the longest river in the world.
44:18I mean, I think rushing water
44:20is going to come here later
44:21and I'm going to leave him here.
44:23I'm going to settle him here
44:24so when the next rain falls
44:26he'll start his journey.
44:29He's thinking,
44:30pensive,
44:31thinking of his long journey ahead.
44:33I think I'm just going to help him
44:35over the first bit.
44:37Into that bit.
44:40No, he says,
44:41don't push me.
44:41I'm thinking,
44:42OK, we're just a little bit...
44:43There, you could almost feel
44:44he was floating.
44:45You could almost feel
44:46he was...
44:47I think that I'm now
44:53stopping the source
44:54of the Nile
44:54by kneeling on it.
44:56There we are.
44:58Oh, God,
44:58come look what I've done
44:59to your river.
45:00I'm so sorry.
45:04Sorry.
45:05I'm so sorry.
45:09So this is it.
45:10This is the end of the journey.
45:11It's kind of the beginning
45:13of the journey
45:13because we did it
45:14back to front.
45:15Beginning of the Nile.
45:16An end of our journey.
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