|
|
| ashley's Diary |
| Date |
24 Apr 2006 |
| Country |
Uganda (Jinja The Source of the Nile) |
| Weather |
Sunny |
| Diary |
Nile Special..the most disgusting, vomit inducing beer sampled so far, if this is typical of SABs attempt at beer then I will be a very unhappy man by the time I reach SA. Just have to stick to their competitors products who seem to spend more of their money on the product instead of advertising. Did hear a Ugandan joke though…”Why is drinking a Castle (SAB main product) like making love in a boat?” give up…yep the old one “As it’s f**king* close to water!”
The Nile Special beer couldn’t quite manage to ruin something I have dreamt of since childhood and that is standing at the source of the Nile where John Hanning Speke stood on 28th July 1862 contemplating the sight “Here at last I stood on the brink of the Nile; most beautiful was the scene, nothing could surpass it!” He marched north (not following the river, a mistake in retrospect) and cabled the Royal Geographic Society in London “The Nile is settled”
Unfortunately he had powerful enemies including the famed linguist (he only mastered 29 languages!) and explorer Richard Francis Burton who had been on a previous expedition with Speke from 1857-9 and favoured Lake Tanganyika and/or Lake Baringo as the source.
In September 1864 Burton and Speke were to meet in debate before an audience of several hundred geographers and scientists including Livingstone. The meeting was to be held in Bath and Speke travelled down to stay with his uncle at Neston Park near Box. On the 15th September, whilst out hunting, Speke was climbing over a wall and pulled his shotgun after him. One barrel discharged and Speke died before he could be moved….the official verdict was “accidental death” but who knows what was going through his mind as facing the great orator Burton was a challenge for Speke, a man of few words. Queen Victoria was moved to remark that he had died “before he had received any mark of our Royal favour” His father was then allowed to add a crocodile and a hippopotamus to his coat of arms. At the place where Speke stood contemplating the source a plaque was placed and on it was written “SPEKE DISCOVERED THIS SOURCE OF THE NILE ON THE 28th JULY 1862” Note it said “THIS SOURCE” not “THE SOURCE” The plaque was inundated with the creation of the Owen Dam in the 50s and the Rippon Falls, at the source of the Nile, were drowned forever.
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
