Now it is time to talk about the nature and landscapes between Kosti and Juba. Basically the trip is divided into three sections. First from Kosti to somewhere after the point where the Sobat river splits off. From there nearly all the way to Bor is the Sudd, the large Sudanese swamp area. From Bor onwards the landscape changes again.
From Kosti down to the Sobat the Nile is wide and the river is still crossing rather dry areas. Therefore the vegetation is mostly only around the river itself, it is low with some interspersed trees and palms. Generally the riverbanks are rather dry now, however this area, as all the others we passed through, surely look very different during the rainy season. The first new element in the landscape is only a couple of hours after Kosti, a small town situated under two hill, fittingly name Jabalain (two mountains). Just before reaching Malakal the river suddenly is lined by palm trees. Already at this point and from here onwards for the whole trip, there was big plants swimming in the water. They grow on the side of the river and I presume that they rip off with the seeds, swim further down and then grow again on the side of the river at a lower point. While it seems obvious how this plant moves down the river, I wonder why it doesn’t die out further up the river –especially as the seeds, if my interpretation that this were seeds is correct, are approximately half the size of a fist and cannot be moved by wind. Sometimes the water was practically full of these swimming plants.
