A trip on the Kafue river

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Horus
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A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Horus »

A gently slap, slap, slapping of water against the hull of my boat awoke me from my snooze, but as was customary I pushed my bush hat back off my face and kept my eyes tightly closed against the sudden burst of sunlight I knew would follow. The sunlight was so strong that the inside of my eyelids were red, I looked down as I slowly opened them to avoid that painful stab into my brain, the sheen of liquid gold spread out across the surface of the water. Small ripples fractured the surface and changed gold into silver as slowly my eyes accustomed to the light and the hot sun shone on my face.

We had been on the river since early morning and had tied up my small boat ‘The Beanie’ under an overhanging tree and after giving the branches a good check for snakes had settled down for a short snooze. Most snakes will just scarper if given half a chance, but some are more dangerous than others, I occasionally see them swimming across the river, gentle ‘S’ shaped bodies with heads slightly raised out of the water. They rarely seem to have any true destination and more often than not just get taken along with the current, but when an opportunity arises they quickly raise their heads even higher and transform into a swift and purposeful creature as they twist and writhe their sleek bodies onto an overhanging branch or a marooned log. I was mainly checking for ‘Boomslangs’ a relatively small snake that was once considered as harmless, but now ranks as one of Africa’s most deadly. They are a back fanged snake which means their fangs hinge down from the rear of their mouths and then face forwards when they strike. They love trees and it is most common to get bitten around the neck and face area and sometimes the bite goes unnoticed, but days later it can be fatal.

On land probably the most dangerous snake to encounter is the Black Mamba, aptly named, although they do vary from a dark olive green to slate black in colour. , they get their name ‘black’ from the colour of their open mouths and not from their body colour. They always seem to me to be an irritable snake and rather than avoiding you as most other do, these will to seek you out if disturbed and they can move very fast indeed. The most lethal is the Gaboon viper with its beautiful camouflaged pattern of rough scales that resemble fallen leaf litter, mixtures of greys, black, white, yellow and cream colours all combine to make this usually placid snake almost invisible. Its wide flat head with black eye flashes and small nose horn conceal the largest fangs of any snake anywhere in the world, a massive 2” or 50mm in length. Fortunately this deadly creature is slow to move and slow to anger as it hides its fat squat short body awaiting its prey of small mammals.

Sometimes as we cruise up the river large Monitor Lizards will accompany us, once again their heads held out of the water and a fat muscular tail weaving from side to side between a pair of trailing legs with the front pair pressed in tightly against their broad bodies. A wide ‘V’ of water forms a bow wave that almost competes with the boat and as we slowly pass by a small watchful eye set in a beady frame glances in our direction, a blink, then a swift kick from one of the rear legs instantly changes its course and we part company once more.

We set up our rods once again and let the colourful lures trail out behind the boat, we are after ‘slide nosed’ or ‘paper mouthed’ bream. So named because if you press down on a bone between the eyes it will slide downwards and in doing so their mouths will gape really wide, almost as large as the fishes head. It is a miracle of nature and when agape it is almost transparent, but retracts back again like a concertina. These fish are predators as are many in the rivers of Africa and are easily caught using lures, either trolled behind a boat or stationary using the ‘spinning’ technique.

All this activity is usually being watched by Fish Eagles who sit like vultures in the trees, each one with its own territory. Large and beautiful birds with a pure white head and a black body which when seen against the sun is a deep russet brown. Their beaks are a bright crisp Lemon Yellow as are their feet, armed with deadly talons that look capable of crushing rocks. These birds will often follow our progress along the river and glide in low over the water almost riding the wake of the boat and on occasion will swoop and steal a hooked fish.

Some strange rock formations can be found in this river, a river that has probably flowed for millennia. One such is a series of small islands, bare outcrops of smooth stone that rise like domes out of the water, no doubt the result of eons of seasonal high water levels flowing over them. They can present a real challenge trying to climb up the rounded smooth side, but we usually manage it with plenty of laughing and slipping into the clear refreshing water, all too aware that there may be crocs in there also. We manage to jamb the mooring rope into a fissure and unload a few bits and pieces, most importantly a cool box with our beers and a fish smoker.

They are often so severely domed that if someone walks to the other side you cannot see them, walking over the smooth hot rock surface I am aware of our quickly drying wet footprints and think that this must be what Robinson Crusoe felt like seeing Man Fridays footprints in the sand, only this was smooth stone. How many other people had stood on this small water worn outcrop in the middle of a remote African river? Maybe none and looking around me, surrounded by the impenetrable growth along the river banks and the dry open Veldt beyond that, it made me realise the insignificance of us humans on this planet

Now a fish smoker is a wonderful thing, it is basically a flat tin with a perforated shelf inside, you could easily improvise one by using a biscuit tin with a cake cooling rack at the bottom. You use it by putting wood chips (hickory is best) in the bottom and your gutted and cleaned fish on the wire grill above the wood. Put the lid back on and put the tin over a small, not too fierce a fire and give it about 10 minutes to cook, the beauty is if its not quite done just stick it back onto the fire again. The wood chips do not catch fire inside the tin, but do produce a lot of smoke which along with the juices in the fish will steam it to perfection. If you have never sat on a small island in the middle of an African river supping a cold beer and eating a freshly smoked fish that you have just caught, then you have never lived.

Night falls quickly in Africa and as we were almost on the Equator it was a 12 hour night and day and the sun would set within a 15 minute period. It had been a long day and we needed to get back to our base camp some distance down river. It was up a small inlet and even in the daytime one inlet looked much like another, in the dark it would be impossible. Another fear was Hippo’s who would come out onto the banks at night to feed, more people are killed by Hippo’s than anything else in Africa. We would also have to negotiate the ‘Petrified Forest’ this was not a real petrified forest although it may be one in a few million years, rather it was as a result of creating a dam downstream and this forest of trees was now mostly submerged. It was great place to catch fish, but lethal to outboard motors as one clip of a submerged branch could easily snap off a propeller blade and often did, today would be no exception.

We had set off back a little later than usual and the sun was really low in the sky, I put the boat up on plane and we put on a few miles against the ever descending sun as it swiftly headed towards the horizon, a bit like one of those vampire films when the good guys are trying to beat the sunset. We entered the petrified forest still on plane with the darkness fast closing in from the river banks. Russ sat at the front of the boat shining a torch which just about penetrated the white billowing mist that always settles on this river at night. Black twisted silhouettes loomed out of the darkness seemingly grabbing at the boat as I swerved it past the obstacles of dead tree trunks and anything else that came into view and hoping to reach the inlet before the light failed. Bang! I didn’t need to know we had hit a branch, the shaking and shuddering was enough to tell me that something was seriously amiss, the boat slumped back lower into the water as if the anchor had been thrown out and was pushing a big bow wave. Something told me to just keep the engine going and not to throttle back as it would never regain the balance to continue running if I did. We limped on into the gloom for about another five minutes with me desperately trying to get the boat in towards the bank while fighting a strong current. Finally the outboard could take no more and stalled, at which point we whipped out our emergency paddles, actually they were two big garden shovels like builders use that we always threw in the boat for emergencies. After some frantic paddling we crashed into the overhanging branches and in the darkness I could imagine all sorts of nasty creatures dropping on our heads. We grabbed at branches, twigs and just about anything to stop the boat and eventually drifted into a little backwater, at least we were out of the main river flow.

Now one place you really do not want to be at night is in a little backwater on a river that has Hippo’s and crocs in it. Luckily we had the torch and we shone it around hoping not to see those crystal bright eyes beaming back at us on top of the water or those twin piggy eyes of a Hippo which would be capable of biting my boat in half. Now in all honesty I could not say that we recognised anything familiar amongst all that dense bush, but a faint glint reflected back through the trees told us that we were near to our parked vehicles and we able to paddle up the inlet to our camp. The damage assessment could wait until morning, for now it was a few more beers and I could regale the rest of my mates with how I managed to navigate so well in the dark and save them. ;)


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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Excellently interesting H! About how old were you when you had this experience and from what go to what age were you in Africa? I solid stay or were you back and froth between African and the UK?

I can't see how anybody could survive and African night lost out in the bush with all manner of predator and beasties out there. I don't know if I'd be afraid of the insects or snakes more.

I've read and seen on TV enough about hippopotamus to know they are dangerous but if you had both just stayed in the boat all night would you actually have been prey to a hippo? Do they attack based on scent? Or visual threat? Or?

And - you mentioned black mambas. Do they usually attack or slither away?
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Horus »

So many questions LLL :lol:
LovelyLadyLux wrote:Excellently interesting H! About how old were you when you had this experience ( I was about 28 years old) and from what go to what age were you in Africa? ( Ilived there for over 6 years) I solid stay or were you back and froth between African and the UK? (I did travel back for longish holidays)

I can't see how anybody could survive and African night lost out in the bush with all manner of predator and beasties out there. (Away from the rivers there is really not much danger from wild animals) I don't know if I'd be afraid of the insects or snakes more. (definately the snakes)

I've read and seen on TV enough about hippopotamus to know they are dangerous but if you had both just stayed in the boat all night would you actually have been prey to a hippo? (not really prey as such, rather an intolerable annoyance if they see you) Do they attack based on scent? (no, vision only) Or visual threat? (Yes visual, or any other perceived threat) Or? (especially if they have young with them)

And - you mentioned black mambas. Do they usually attack or slither away? (they often attack, because they have very acute vision, snakes don't hear as such, but they sense vibration). As I said they are extremely fast movers and if they see you before you see them, rather than just slither off they tend to attack if they feel threatened and often you are unaware that you have disturbed them)
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Wow! Terrific story and explanations :) :) :) (I still wouldn't want to have to spend the night in the African bush though! ;) )
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Ruby Slippers »

Bravo, Horus! :up Encore, encore! Surprising what you can do when you try - and you have really tried! Thanks for taking the time to put it all down and - when's the next instalment? :lol:
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Horus »

when's the next instalment? :lol:
The next time it rains all day :lol:
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Grandad »

Crocodile Dundee Eh ? Nice little story H :up Hope it rains soon ;)
:gg:
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Kiya »

Horus thank-you for sharing your story & exciting times on the river :) I'm not sure I would be as brave.....too much creepy crawlies & things that slither in the night for my liking :o Bravo to you :)

Waiting for the next instalment :)
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Horus »

Thanks for reading and for the comments folks. :)

I must point out that the story was not really a part of a longer tale, rather it was just a one off recollection of a particular day out fishing in the Bush and hopefully give you a flavour of what it was like being there, so sorry there is no part 2 as such. :(
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Ruby Slippers »

Not part 2 of this tale, that I can understand, but you must have a 1001 'vignettes' that stick in your mind, Horus! :up
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Any of the vignettes of your time in Africa would be super interesting to read H. Loved this snippet. You really painted a vivid picture of your "life and times" ;) Definitely waiting for MORE - hope it rains! :up :up :up
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Horus »

hope it rains!
:lol: :lol: You would all soon get tired of reading them if it did rain a lot. :lol:
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Jayway »

No, hoping it rains again, love your stories, Horus. Please write some more african tales, so interesting.
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Re: A trip on the Kafue river

Post by Horus »

They are not really stories Jay (as in made up) just ordinary things that I did, or happened to me while I lived there. ;)
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