Kalanga Boy lands at The Source of the Nile

Kalanga Boy with colleagues at the source of the Nile 

We successfully cruised up to The Source of the Nile and landed on the Island that is on the spot. Everything was just marvelous. There was a small curios kiosk there, selling cultural products.

We scavenged the place for any goodies but the greatest of our findings was that the place offered a nice spot for taking memorable pictures. Either way, it faces the sun, whether in the morning or in the evening.

I know that for so long, many accounts have made Egypt seem like it owns the Nile River but for your own information, Egypt is just a beneficiary at the mouth of the River. Infact, if there is any country on earth whose life desperately and precariously hangs upon a river or water source, that country is Egypt! If you want to suffocate Egypt just put a stopper on any point of the Nile before Egypt, all is over.

Nothing much has really been said about either Uganda or Ethiopia both of which lie at the source of this greatest river. In this account, I detail The Source of the White Nile, which I visited in Uganda. Perhaps should I make it to Ethiopia too, I shall duly give that account as well.

The waters of the Nile can be seen at top, flowing towards
the left while the waters of the Lake are flowing from the
bottom as seen in this picture. Observe the "ridge" like feature
formed in this picture the waters "crush" into each other.

As a Geographer-Historian-Explorer-Journalist, I examined The Source of the Nile carefully. My friend, it’s all crazy. God is great and amazing! Have you ever seen pockets of water on the same level surface opposing each other, running straight into the other, all wanting to pass there at the same time; one towards the north and the other towards the south, all at the same time? That is what happens at The Source of the Nile. I saw it with my own naked eyes.

At that spot, the waters of the lake flow to the south (because the lake is in that direction) and those of the Nile flow to the north (because the river is in that direction), mimicking the shape of a comma with its head (formed by the Nile water) to the south rotating anticlockwise towards the east and finally north while the waters of the lake form the tail, forcing it to rotate anticlockwise towards the west and finally south, amazing!

The "ridge" like water wave seen behind these people is the
is the point where Lake Victoria and Nile River separate. It is
The Source of the Nile. The Nile flows towards the left (behind
Neil, the man in this picture). The lake extends to the right up to 

the background seen here.

The waters of the lake are coming from the direction where the waters of the Nile are flowing to. It’s like the lake will be refusing to let the Nile go. At that point where the waters of the lake and those of the river seem to be competing to pass through towards their respective places, a water “ridge” is formed as shown in the pictures in this blog. There is no waterfall, no; it’s all level surfaces at the tip of the lake. No head ward erosion whatsoever. It’s just not understandable; maybe those of physics can intervene and shed more light. My friend, what I simply mean here is that the Nile River flows out of Lake Victoria, unlike other rivers whose sources are mountain tops.

At the island where the whole drama is observable is a curios
kiosk, behind Neil Tendai Sibanda, a colleague of mine standing

in this file photo. 

I took some time to marvel at that wonder and wished if only one of my brothers was there with me. There was fresh air too. After our eyes had eaten enough, and our hearts had settled and our minds had cleared off, we swooped down on our tour guide, Joe, blasting him left, right and centre with all sorts of questions that we could come up with concerning that place. As a result, a very informative lecture followed.

The Source of the Nile spot is about 27 metres deep, and this varies with seasons whereupon during the rainy season it can be more than that. That is just way deeper than the Zambezi River back home, where at a place off A’Zambezi Lodge it is said to be deepest yet being only 20 metres, 7 metres less than the depth The Source of the Nile.

Inside the curios shop at the Source of the Nile

On the surface, the water is quite slow but deep down, before you reach the lake bed it is super-fast. At the source here, it is fairly warm, offering a tempting spot for swimming which obviously will result in sure death and complete disappearance as a result of the swift change of tide because on one side, the waters of the lake are stagnant while those of the Nile are super mobile. That tug of war will see you capsizing and going for good!

In this picture observe the white rocks characteristic of this 
place

The rocks of that spot are super white and there are three small islands separated by roughly 75 metres each on average. The island directly on the spot, from which this natural drama is clearly observable, is the one with the curios kiosk. The river starts from the east of this island and to its west it is just the lake and about 100 metres from here (far west) you reach the banks. The lake drastically narrows at this point to give way to the Nile and it is roughly 400 metres wide there.

The black swans, seen in this pictures love spreading their wings

and this attracts attention.

More than any other place along the Nile, that is at least to my knowledge and research, this is the same spot which seems to be the most favourable for the black swans. These birds can be seen in the smaller picture which I used in my previous post. They spend the whole day basking on that island, spreading their wings and drawing a lot of tourist attention and normally, a photo thirsty person like me will immediately train his camera on them.

Gandhi's tomb can be seen here through the trees 

Off the east bank of this place is Mahatma Gandhi’s tomb/memorial where the ashes of his cremated remains lie buried. Off the west bank is the memorial tower of John Specks, a British explorer who visited The Source of the Nile 152 years ago. As you always know how history is twisted in favour of our colleagues in Europe, like the accounts of David Livingstone back home in Zimbabwe in connection to the Victoria Falls, this same person is accused by history of having been the first to discover The Source of the Nile.

After shooting as many pictures as we could at that spot, we then jumped back into our canoe and off we went. We first sailed west towards Specks’ tower and then east to have a look at Gandhi’s tomb. My friend, if there is any city of spectacular magnificence, then that city is Jinja. Unlike Bulawayo back home which is both the second largest city of Zimbabwe and the former industrial hub, Jinja is not only the second largest city of Uganda but it is also the country’s former industrial hub plus a cultural heritage as well. Because of being The Source of the Nile, it qualifies Uganda to be undoubtedly named The Pearl of Africa.

On our trip back I took on Joe once more, showering him with endless questions to get a clue about their own understanding of the Nile River and he told me a lot. That night I did not sleep. I pondered on what Joe had told me and I also made a lot of independent research about the river. I also contacted many more people thereafter concerning the River Nile. In my next blog, I shall be sharing with you what I discovered.

Asante sana, sula bulunji.