Struggle Over the Nile

Cam McLeay: Exploring the Nile

The New Zealand adventurer led the first expedition to travel up the Nile to its source.

In September 2005, a team of explorers set off on a unique journey up the Nile River.

Led by New Zealand adventurer Cam McLeay, the team aimed at being the first expedition to travel up the Nile to its source.

The first stage of the trek, through Egypt and northern Sudan, proved a breeze. But then the explorers encountered the Sudd, the world’s largest swamp.

The Sudd means ‘obstacle’ in Arabic. And it has proved just that – a labyrinth of waterways that has hindered past expeditions up the Nile, but McLeay’s team managed to navigate their way out of the swamp.

After 90 days of travel, overcoming tremendous obstacles, they eventually arrived in Rwanda – at a tiny spring which they determined to be the southern-most source of the Nile.

Today, McLeay is settled in Uganda, where he runs a whitewater rafting business in the city of Jinja on the Nile.