‘A Boy’s Own Adventure’ is one way New Zealand director James Heyward describes his Banff pitch project White Nile – The Final Challenge.

Certainly that could apply to his body of work so far, which includes films documenting and recreating assaults on Everest, deep-sea rescues and multi-sport events that take in everything from sea-kayaking to caving.

The Final Challenge has another side though: through the person of expedition member Sam Baker, the great grandson of noted Victorian explorer Sir Samuel Baker, the story finds another thread: the closing of a circle. In 1862, Sir Samuel Baker and his wife Florence, both explorers in search of the source of the Nile, journeyed as far as Murchison Falls and got stuck. Sick and running low on supplies they turned back, just 200 miles short of the source of the Nile itself, unknown to Europeans at that time and later named Lake Victoria. ‘The source of the Nile was the question of the day. It obsessed Victorian society,’ says Heyward.

Murchison Falls is to be the end point of Heyward’s journey, which will cover the stretch from Karuma Falls, 80 kilometers and three week’s worth of rafting through crocodile-infested water to map the last section of the Nile never to have been navigated.

‘Rafting this section will effectively bring to a close the navigational history of the Nile, which is over 2,000 years old.’

It will be no easy task. With dense jungle on one bank and lion grass on the other – which grows taller than a human and goes on for miles – there is no means for the expedition to leave the river once the journey has commenced. Although the group will have radio contact with Ugandan officials, hq is in Kampala, four days’ drive from where the boats are launched. The trip will also bring them in touch with wildlife that has never been hunted by humans and is aggressively territorial.

‘This section of the river is crawling with crocodiles, hippos and wildlife of all sorts, including a lot that want to eat you. That’s the problem,’ says Heyward. ‘On one level, the story is driven by the contemporary adventure: the Nile has four-to-five times more water volume on a good day than the Colorado River in flood. The rapids that the expedition will run range up to grade five [the most challenging level]. If anyone comes to grief that’s it; the next stop is Murchison Falls.’

The technical challenges on the project are huge. Among them is the issue of choosing a crew that is up to the task. With his history of producing adventure-themed documentaries, Heyward has a pool of talent to choose from including ‘people I’ve used for base-jumping films, sky diving films, caving films… they know how to look after themselves. There’s a balance between someone who can look after themselves and someone who’s a great shooter. On this one we need someone who can swim and then has rafting experience or we’re looking at training them. But effectively the person who does it will close the exploration of the Nile.

‘I’ve made a number of successful programs but this is potentially one of the best,’ adds Heyward. ‘There aren’t many ‘firsts’ left in the world and even fewer really great stories. I think White Nile – The Final Challenge is one of them.’

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