I’ve led a number of arduous expeditions but they have all been shorter than this. Is this the biggest challenge you have undertaken to date? There are a couple of unreliable borders as well – notably in Sudan and Egypt. Also, hitting the Sahara in the summer will be rather unpleasant but there’s no way around that one. I’m worried about South Sudan – the Sudd swamp is a vast swampland that people simply disappear into and if I don’t make it through before the rains come then the expedition will fail. Is there any part of the route about which you are particularly concerned? Small luxuries like a sat phone have been invented so why not use them? I’ll be mainly self filming along the way and the film crew will only come out three or four times for a week or so to get some interview style footage and scenery shots I can only travel with what I can carry on my back anyway so I don’t think that will detract from the wilderness. I will travel as light as possible and there wont be that much technology involved really. Do you think the sense of freedom and isolation experienced by expeditions of the past will be diminished by the way you are documenting the expedition and the technology you are taking with you? The best guide will be the local people I will travel with. Sat-Navs run out of battery and actually there’s not that much digital mapping of parts of Central Africa anyway. What are your plans for route navigation? Sat-Nav or printed maps?īoth, but you can’t beat good old maps. You have to set yourself little goals each day and stick to them. It’s all about keeping motivated and maintaining momentum. Yes, having the discipline to carry on each day will be one of the biggest challenges. How do you plan to combat the inevitable mental fatigue which will result from an expedition of that length? I don’t like being encumbered with a bike or raft or canoe.

Lev Wood: Walking is the original mode of getting around – it is how the earliest humans got out of Africa and it is still the best way to see a country and meet its people. Sidetracked: Why did you decide to walk the Nile?

Levison wood silk road