Walking on water

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Horus
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Walking on water

Post by Horus »

Here is another little snippet for you ;)

(Walking on water)

Africa has lots of rivers, some large some small, those like the mighty Congo, Niger and Zambezi both drain and irrigate the central part of this vast continent. One of the lesser-known rivers is the Luansenfwa; and it was always a favourite of mine. We would often plan long weekend fishing trips to this particular river and they were always eventful. I owned a small boat that I would tow on a trailer, it had a 60 HP ‘Evenrude’ outboard engine that was capable of putting the boat up onto the ‘plane’ position, even when carrying four people and all our beers. Plane position for those unfamiliar with the term is when the boat has sufficient power to raises itself out of the water and instead of pushing a bow wave it starts to ride on the top of the water similar to a surfer. In these conditions the boat is only in contact with the water for about the last twenty percent of its length, it will skip across the water and sudden movements of the wheel will send it skittering across the water like a skipping stone, it is an extremely exhilarating ride. The slightest movement of the outboard will instantly set the boat skipping off in a different direction to what you expected a bit like a car out of control on black ice and on rivers subjected to seasonal flooding one has to be aware of sunken trees and rocks and it is advisable to know your river before attempting to put your boat up onto plane.

Prior to the trip the usual procedure was to organise everything during the preceding week, the beer supply, an abundant fuel for the vehicle and boat, the beer supply, the food for several days on the river, the beer supply, the fishing gear and of course the beer supply. We would stash everything into the boat and the back of the towing vehicle, then drive for several hours into the bush to reach one of the few places that you could actually launch the boat from. It is quite difficult to get close to an African river; they are either quite steep with banks that drop off like cliff faces due to seasonal erosion or very dense with thick undergrowth that prevents access, so other than pontoon crossing places a good place to launch a boat is quite difficult to find. When driving off the beaten track the bush roads are nothing more than compacted red Laterite soil, often worn down with the passage of vehicles and pounded into hard rutted ridges pitted with stones. The most uncomfortable aspect is that these ridges always seem to run across the width of the road like corrugated iron, turning it into a bone shaking, suspension breaking dusty washboard. This coupled with the camber would usually send the trailer sliding towards one of the storm ditches located at either side of the road, it was at first very unnerving to observe a few tonnes of boat and supplies seeming to overtake you on each side as it disappeared from your rear view mirror only to reappear again in an alternating fashion in each wing mirror as it slewed from side to side. The only way to compensate for these convolutions and attempt to keep the trailer straight was to drive at high speed to try and even out the bumps, this only added to the fear factor.

Once we had reached our destination we would set up our camp, this usually consisted of stringing an old tarpaulin sheet between a couple of trees to make an overhead shelter. We would then set ourselves a campfire on which we cooked all our food; wood was in plentiful supply all around us, whilst an old circular metal ploughshare blade about two foot in diameter served as a universal frying pan cum cooking pot. We would cook everything from fried fish to bacon and eggs on this metal plate. Usually at the end of the trip we would pile everything that was leftover into it and cook the whole thing up as a stew, oh happy days. On some occasions we would take a small pig with us to spit roast over the open fire. This we did by jacking a vehicle up under the rear axle, then removing a wheel and wrapping a rope around the brake drum and onto the drive pulley of the spit. The engine was started and the vehicle put into a low gear, we employed the same principle of how a car loses grip on ice when one wheel loses traction, the differential gearbox will make the wheel go around but the car wont move forward. In this way we turned the spit and the pig was continually rotated in a very stately manner until late into the evening when the cooking was complete. I do not think that it did the engine a lot of good, but we were not really that bothered as it was a mine vehicle that we ‘borrowed’ for the trip and we had a lovely roasted pig and along with a few beers some of the best crispy pork I have ever tasted. To supplement the pork we would take freshly dug up Peanuts (Mbalala in Swahili) and along with freshly picked Corn on the cob both collected at a village we drove through and just tossed them into the fire for about 15 minutes, the peanuts would cook a bit like roast Chestnuts and not burn as the shells would still be very wet, the corn would cook in a similar manner and all you did was to peel back the blackened outer leaves to eat them, delicious.

Early morning on the river was a beautiful time of day, it was always very cold and a thick white mist would spread across the water. Smoke from our fire would hang in the morning air and a dampness would permeate our clothes and the surrounding bush. Feet were always cold and you wore whatever extra clothing you had in order to keep out the morning chill. A few hours later and you would be stripping off to your bare chest and shorts with only your bush hat as protection against the merciless midday sun. With mounting excitement I would pull the starter cord of the outboard and wait for it to roar into life, the sound would shatter the tranquillity and the sweet smell of two stroke oil would signal the start of a new day’s fishing on the river. We clambered aboard and with sleepy eyes we headed up stream to a side tributary of the main river.

On this particular day we had fished for several hours and drank quite a few beers. The sun had reached its zenith and the slack backwater of the river was like a polished mirror that flashed the sun back into our tanned faces. A brown and white ‘Fish Eagle’ sat in a dead tree and watched us; often these beautiful raptors would swoop behind the boat and steal a hooked fish as it surfaced behind the boat. We had caught more fish than we could take back with us and so we threw several overboard as a treat for the ever watchful eagle, we sat lazily back and watched as it swooped across the water to scoop up the floating fish with its razor sharp talons. At such times idle minds can be easily turned to other diversions, there is nature all around you and a great feeling of contentment sweeps over you and you wonder if you will ever be this happy again.

Most African rivers come with crocodiles and Hippopotamus as an added extra and this river was no exception. It is always best to stay clear of Hippo’s especially in a small boat, they can be particularly dangerous if they have young and are responsible for more human deaths than any other animal in Africa. Crocodiles on the other hand are rarely seen, other than on the banks, when they will quickly slip into the water upon the approach of humans. However one must never think that any water is too shallow for crocodiles, it is not! They can be found in the most shallow of streams and will often attack people crossing in water that will barely cover their feet.

It lay in the river with its eyes just breaking the surface, its long wide body barely visible other than for a twin line of reptilian tail scutes projecting from the water. It was a relic from the dawn of time and had outlived the dinosaurs, it knew its territory very well. We sped past it at some distance and were amazed that it ignored our presence and remained on station in the river. “Look at that cocky bugger” someone, said, “Lets give it another closer pass” and fuelled by a few beers, we all decided that this would be a good idea, it was not!

At this point I should explain that the outboard is clamped to a bit of the boat called a ‘transom’ and was steered by means of a cable that ran around the inside of the boat from a drum on the steering wheel, it was then attached to the arm of the outboard engine by a plate held with a small brass bolt. If you turned the wheel in any direction the wire would pull the arm of the outboard engine to the left or the right swivelling on a pivot, thus steering the boat.

We had made several passes at the semi submerged crocodile without any reaction, so I decided that a very close pass was the order of the day. We headed towards the croc at some speed and at the last second I wrenched the wheel to the left to avoid impact and create a sideways wave, it was then that the brass bolt sheared off. The cable no longer held the engine stable and the forward thrust of the propeller made it slam to one side, the propeller was now pushing sideways thus making the boat rotate on its own axis. The bow raised steeply upwards and the stern started to sink beneath the water as we spun around and around with the outboard digging a hole into the water into which we sank, a bit like water going down a plughole. We had one last look at the Crocodilian eyes as they closed with a blink and then slowly dipped below the water line, leaving only an upwelling of water where the reptile had submerged.

At some point the boat started to turn turtle, throwing my mates and myself into the river. In a blur of movement and blind panic and conscious of those snapping jaws somewhere in the water nearby, I managed to walk onto the upturned hull of the boat as it rotated and ran across the water and into the reeds and clambered up the steep bank barely getting my feet wet. To this day my mates, who eventually all got out safely after clinging to the upturned boat and drifting off down stream, swear that they actually saw me running on the water in my desperation to avoid the submerged crocodile, but I know for a fact that I actually did and people wonder why I dislike watching Peter Pan. :D


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Re: Walking on water

Post by Ruby Slippers »

How I envy you all these wonderful memories, Horus! Thank you a million times for taking the time and trouble to write them up for us, and for sharing such a magical time in your life! :thanks:
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Horus »

Your welcome Ruby S :up
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Re: Walking on water

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Terrific story H! Quite enjoyed it :)

What is camber? I tried Googling it but now coming up with much that makes sense to me.

And

When you were cooking outside on weekend trips did you attract wild animals? Were you able to actually keep meat and stuff for a weekend without attracting wild animals into your camp?

Camping around here means you're stringing your meat way up into the trees or locking it away in a car parked away from where you're sleeping. Bears will invariably come into camp and take anything they can lay jaws on even if it means they have to claw open the side door of your car.
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Horus »

LLL, a camber is a word to describe the curve that you get on most roads usually to make the surface water runs towards the sides, a sort of shallow curve that can get quite steep if the road surface on each side wears down as dirt roads often do.

As to wild animals, not really a problem, most big cats stay well clear of your camp as will other animals like Antelopes who are no problem anyway. Rhino’s and Elephant tend to be confined nowadays to the major game park reserves. The smaller wildlife may be a nuisance like Porcupines, Pangolins, Cane rats etc, ferreting about when you leave camp, but probably the biggest problem would be Baboons coming across an unguarded camp as they would wreck everything. Your biggest danger near rivers would be from Crocs in the water and Hippos in the shallows or on the banks at night time.
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Re: Walking on water

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Cougars and wolves never invaded our camps. Cougars prefer fresh meat but here it is bears, raccoons, weasels will come towards any smell of fresh meat (and at night if you step outside and stand still you will see absolutely MEGA mice swarming everything. One stomp and they disappear but otherwise they're everywhere)

I was thinking more the scavengers i.e. hyenas (but never thought about baboons)

What is also a bit of a danger here out in the bush is if you run a chain saw. For some reason MOOSE are attracted to that sound and they'll suddenly come charging through to attack the 'sound' of a chain saw! Go figure! But many a person has spent quite a few hours up a tree (HIGH up a tree at Moose are really tall) whilst a moose strolls around looking for the sound (not that I worry about moose on the island but they can be a nuisance on the mainland)
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Horus »

Oh no! you mean that 'BullWinkle' is dangerous? ;)
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Re: Walking on water

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Yeah Bullwinkle has a real short temper and he poses the one of the biggest dangers to loggers cause the sound of a chain saw is like blowing a whistle to a dog. Interesting.

I just would have thought that there would have been more wild animals coming into your campsite with the smell of meat cooking over time.
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Jayway »

Well, thankyou Horus - - - and congratulations on being still alive ! ! ! As there were so many dangerous animals did you all have guns? I read that a baboon can rip your throat out easily - - -never have liked monkeys - -
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Horus »

LLL, there are not so many wild animals wandering about in Africa as you might imagine, you are probably more at risk in open Veldt than anywhere else from lions that blend in extremely well with the browning yellow grass, or Cape Buffalo which kill many people out there as they are very aggressive. Interesting about your Moose, I have seen videos of them attacking people in towns when they wander in.

Baboons can be very dangerous Jay and they have very large dog like canines that can inflict a lot of damage it they did attack you. As for guns, well it depended on what you were doing at the time, contrary to popular belief it takes a very big gun to stop a Elephant, Hippo, Buffalo or Croc in its tracks. Although I do recall an instance when Joe McLean a character who may appear in a later story, decided to let rip at a Cobra he spotted while we were all sitting around the campfire one night. A mad Scotsman, a pistol, a black snake and a dark night with a flickering fire do not make for a good combination. :lol: :lol:
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Re: Walking on water

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

Ahhhh another story - well I'm all set to listen and hear it! ;) :) :) :)
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Kiya »

Besides work it sounds though you & friends had an amazing time in Africa.

I don't think I would have been as brave as you all things you have done there. :)

Were you having a beer at the time of writing ;) as I noticed you wrote it four times ;) :)
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Horus »

Were you having a beer at the time of writing ;) as I noticed you wrote it four times ;) :)
No that was intentional Kiya, just getting the priorities in order as they came into my mind :D
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Jayway »

That was funny Kiya ... made me imagine Oz men with their cannies - . . . Yes Horus, I saw a monkey (vile creatures) attack a poor woman on the Rock, I was quite afraid as I stoned it away, not a pitchfork in sight - - -
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Kiya »

Horus wrote:
Were you having a beer at the time of writing ;) as I noticed you wrote it four times ;) :)
No that was intentional Kiya, just getting the priorities in order as they came into my mind :D

Oh yes! got to have the priorities in order :lol: :lol:
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Re: Walking on water

Post by LovelyLadyLux »

I watched a documentary once about people who raised chimpanzees. Cute when they're babies but really dangerous when they get older. Somewhere this documentary segway'd to a part where chimps somehow attacked their owners and it seems they have a tendency to want to literally rip off the faces of their targets along with inflicting lots of other damage to the person.
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Re: Walking on water

Post by Horus »

An adult chimp is far stronger than most humans are can could easily rip a mans arm off. Recent research also shows them hunting other small monkeys for food and literally tearing the prey apart.
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