Plot Synopsis

Expedition leader, writer and photographer Levison Wood embarks on a 4,250-mile trek to become the first person to successfully walk the entire length of the Nile River. Wood's journey through Africa takes him through rainforest, desert, savannah and swamp. Accompanied by local guides, he battles temperatures of more than fifty degrees Celsius, is often forced to catch his own food and sleep wherever he can fashion a bed. From its source in the highlands of Rwanda and skirting Lake Victoria before entering South Sudan -- the world's newest country -- Wood follows the Nile along its course through the jungles of Tanzania and Uganda. The trip tests Wood's mental and physical limits as he travels with only his backpack through some of Africa's most remote, hostile and spectacular locations. As he traces old Arab slave routes and crosses the Sahara Desert, Wood meets those who've forged new countries out of the ruins of war and revolution while he encounters hippos, crocodiles and lions. Two months after airing as a four-part weekly series in the UK on Channel 4, Animal Planet broadcast the U.S. premiere of WALKING THE NILE on Wednesday, March 18, 2015, showing the program in three back-to-back episodes from 8-11pm ET/PT on the same night.