The Nessy eel saga, explained
Nessy eel
Another visit to Percy's palace as Stub's parents' home had become known, happened during the Springhare hunting season around spring when there had been plenty of rainfall in the area and the veld was lush and pretty with indigenous vegetation flowering in profusion.
We arrived in the evening and went straight to bed, exhausted from the long drive and in typical homestead fashion we were kicked out of bed at the crack of dawn. We gobbled our breakfast, though I pocketed my bacon, with the intention of feeding it to Scrooge (he would never give you back the ball after you had thrown it) the very large Heinz 57 varieties dog and his girlfriend/wife Hali (short for halitosis or bad breath). Scrooge looked like a Great Dane and Irish wolfhound cross, while Hali's father was Alsation and the mother was a rather odd looking lady of the night of dubious parentage, who lived nearby. We were informed that the river was high and that we were to go there to catch our supper. I was very brave and big mouthed until I learned that our prey was not fish, but rather, river eels. I blanched at this and tried to make all sorts of excuses, in order to stay at home, but to no avail.
Armed with a few tins of live earthworms and bamboo fishing poles Stretch and I were herded onto the back of the "Truck" which was in no better shape since the Percy episode, and in fact, it looked even more dilapidated, if that was at all possible. We also brought a .22 rifle, a .25 pistol and a .38 revolver with which we were to hunt spring hares on our way back from the river. Which, we didn't do that weekend, because of time constraints.
On arrival at the river I was instructed on the correct eel fishing technique and told where to cast my line. The fishing pole had a short piece of line leading down to a float, then a further piece of line tied to the middle of a C shaped wire with a fish hook attached to each end of the C, an earthworm was threaded onto each hook and dropped into the water at the selected spot. When the float dipped, it was time to strike, hoping that you had caught whatever it was that had nibbled on your bait. I shuddered at the mere thought of catching any of the snakelike creatures, so decided to fool my friends by casting my line without bait on the hooks. I reasoned that, in that way, I would be "fishing", but guaranteed of catching nothing, while I sat and watched Stretch and Stub catch the eels. Perfect! But it wasn't long before they saw through my ruse and baited the hooks for me. OK I thought, I would just ignore the bobbing float. Problem solved, so I cast my line and sat there smugly, waiting for them to catch something, when the unthinkable happened. My float dipped, so I threw a stone at the float to chase the nibbler away, but my float disappeared below the surface and the line was pulled tight so quickly that I overbalanced and ended up standing waist deep in muddy water, with goodness knows what attached to my line and numerous of his/her friends eyeing my skinny legs, debating just where to take a bite. My pride had taken over long ago and I held on for dear life, while the Loch Messy monster writhed and thrashed at the end of my line. Discretion advised me to get my soggy body out of the water because none of us had had a glimpse of the creature yet. To say I was petrified would have been an outright lie, I was mind "blowingly" stomach "voidingly" terrified and held on out of sheer fright.
I kept tugging, and Stub was yelling to drag it over to the side so he could net it, but I stupidly jerked so hard that Nessy came flying through the air to wrap its huge slimy body around Stretch's head and neck. He screamed, then I screamed, but it didn't help. The monster the size of an Amazon Anaconda remained wrapped tightly around his head.
Stub ran up to him and grabbed the monster by the neck, ripped it off Stretch's head then slammed it into a rock snapping its neck. Stretch bellowed and charged at me, but I was too quick and nimble for him and managed to avoid his flying fists. After a while of him trying to catch me he calmed down enough to see the funny side and we rolled around in the mud shrieking with laughter and relief. We remained there for the rest of the afternoon before bad light forced us to leave because there were no lights on the truck. I hadn't fished again but they hadn't caught anything near the size of my Nessy.
When we got home Stub's mom and dad peeled or skinned the eels and cooked them to some head stored recipe. I really struggled to eat my portion and had to force it down even though it didn't taste too bad. Just the thought of what it looked like before cooking was enough for me to gag on each bite. It was only out of sheer respect for my host and hostess that I managed to choke my portion down. My visits to Percy's palace were coming under some serious scrutiny as I seemed destined to have to eat some bad smelling or evil looking thing every time I visited. As a city boy I was building an aversion to all things related to homesteading.
About the Author:
Years of experience with Disability, it's complexity and survival are tackled head on in these articles. Roly has been wheelchair bound with myositis for some 10 years now and he has numerous articles published in magazines in South Africa and on various sites on the internet.
