Levison Wood’s nine-month journey saw him walk more than 4,000 miles through Africa from the source of the Nile in Rwanda to the shores of the Mediterranean. This program really did catch my attention, here is abit more of the story.
Former Army officer and Afghanistan veteran has endured marauding militias, searing temperatures and close encounters with wildlife to become the first person to walk the length of the world’s longest river.
Along the way, the 32-year-old from Staffordshire found himself caught up in civil war, faced temperatures of 133F (56C) and was nearly killed by a charging hippo. Mr. Wood said despite the challenges he had faced where “everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong”, he had been left with a sense of hope for Africa.
His trek began in Rwanda at the source of the Nile’s longest tributary in December 2013 and he took an estimated 7 million steps before reaching the end of his trip in September 2014. He said terrain and weather had been the hardest parts of his journey, which had ranged over mountains, savannah and the Sahara.
The darkest moment for his trip was when Matthew Power, a 39-year-old American journalist accompanying him for several days, had collapsed and died of heat exhaustion in Uganda in March.
Mr. Wood said: “We had this terrible tragedy along the way. It really brought home the reality of the risks involved in undertaking a journey like that.” The first ep aired last night and really did have an effect on me. While watching I was amazed and scared for them all at the same time. You really have to be a brave man to do that.
I can’t wait till the next episode and to tell more of his story