Joanna Lumley tells us all about her journey of a lifetime.
What made you want to take this journey on?
I travelled on troop ships as a child and we always went up and down the Red Sea, through the Suez Canal. I always knew that Egypt was just there and the Nile was in the middle of the desert.
The horn of Africa and its travelling nomadic people is a part of the world that I’ve always been fascinated with. I wanted to understand their way of life. We all used to travel, it’s in our genes. That’s why I think we still love travelling and holidays. Whenever we get a chance for a break we say, ‘Where shall we go?’ I believe we’ve all got this passion in us for travelling.
In Africa there are 25 million pastoralists. They keep travelling and occasionally put up a hut. But if the rains come, or they are dried out then they just abandon it and walk off. It seems crackers when you think people spend a fortune on a house here. Pastoralists spend nothing. They build it and then just leave it, they don’t sell it. It’s a different way of thinking.
What were you expecting before you took the journey on?
What thrilled me but also made me terribly apprehensive was the length of the journey. I mean it’s 4200 miles. What really made my heart jump were the five countries we’d be visiting.
Everybody thinks that the Nile is Egypt and they never remember how far it goes. So I thought that would be a real sense of discovery for me and for thousands of viewers.
How did you find the journey?
Egypt is luxurious and then it gets a bit wilder because you go camping. We were driving on un-made roads and encountering all kinds of amazing temperature changes. The temperature in the Sudan is phenomenally hot and then you’re up in the Ethiopian highlands, where it’s very cool at night.
We all got some bugs but luckily we had a trained male nurse with us who we called Matron. And thank god because one of the producers was on a drip for 3 days. I had to have all kinds of things because I had some sort of lurgy. We were often so far away from hospitals, so we had to take everything with us, which made things exciting actually.
What was the most amazing country you visited?
I think the most astonishing country was Ethiopia. Over here we only ever see Ethiopia connected with a starving child and a begging bowl. We think that it must all be sand and failing crops but Ethiopia is lush, verdant and mountainous.
It’s crossed by rivers, lakes and streams and it has more animals than you can imagine. It’s got phenomenal mountain ranges and rough roads. It was absolutely beautiful.”
What is the most surprising thing you found out about the Nile?
The width of it and the size of it. It’s huge in Egypt and as you move down there’s Lake Nassa which is a colossal lake, more like an inland sea. You think the Nile might be very small coming into the lake but it’s a wide river all the way through the Sudan and right down into Uganda. It’s joined by the rushing, dashing Blue Nile which comes out of the Ethiopian highlands.
These two different waters meet in Khartoum. One is so fast and vigorous, flooding once a year. The other is placid, slow and never dries up.
The other thing I loved was the respect and love everybody had for it. Not just because it’s a water source but because it seemed to have a God like quality about it. They adored it and it’s very unusual for people to think about a river like that. But the Nile their life and without ‘it’ there is no life.
Tell us about the camel, Charlie Brown?
His keeper was impressed actually because I spoke in a low voice and because I love animals. I could see him listening to my voice and noticing how gentle I was with him. Animals are clever and he thought, ‘Here’s a kind person.’
I loved his whiffling kisses, huge teeth and whiskers. And I loved the softness of his feet. Camels feet are like sheepskin slippers. No hooves, no toe nails, just a soft pad. And when they walk there is complete silence.
They are extremely beautiful and people who have looked after camels are just crazy for them. They are extraordinarily clever and reliant. You can form a really good bond with them.
What did your family think of you going on this journey?
Oh, Stephen [Joanna’s husband] and Jamie [Joanna’s son] were both jealous, they’re both tremendous travellers as well. We filmed in three sets of three week chunks so I could come back in between and bore them to death with the bit I’d just done.
When someone speaks about the Nile what will it conjure up for you in the future?
One the very last day of our shooting we had to hack through the most unbelievable jungle to get to the source. I don’t think we had any idea of what we were up for.
There were fallen trees, safari ants, long grasses and a swamp up to our knees. We were crashing and hacking through and suddenly we came to this little solemn glade where there was a wooden sign saying, ‘You are now at the longest source of the Nile’. It made tears come to my eyes as it struck me with such force. It’s what explorers have been doing all through history. People have doggedly gone on to find things we didn’t know about.
Who was the most interesting or fascinating person you met on the trip?
The Simian girl runners have stuck in my heart. These 14 year old girls live up in the Ethiopian highlands and don’t even have one sock to hold against another. They’ve got nothing and yet they’re training to run long distance in the Olympics. They were stunning, beautiful, courteous, incredibly modest and so good natured.
They train for about two and a half hours every day before school. The odd one might have plastic shoes or run barefoot. But essentially they’ve got nothing at all and yet they’re so disciplined. They’re training at about nine and a half thousand feet. So when they come down to sea level they will be off like a rocket. I’m putting my money on the Simian girl runners.
Will you ever go back to the Nile?
Oh I hope so. They say if you’ve drunk Nile water then you’re caught in its spell and I drank the water right up by its very source.
Why should people watch this documentary?
Just like me, I don’t think people have the smallest idea of what the river Nile really is. You start off with the thrill of Egypt and then see it progress through these phenomenal countries. We go to the heart of Africa which most of us don’t see.
It’s full of surprises, full of unexpected things and has a beauty that must be seen.
- You can catch the show Mondays from 12th April at 9pm on ITV1.