Well I promised you an 'Only in Africa' story from Jerry Burley last night and here it is involving bridges that won't fall down and nasty things that bite (again). Anyway jerry starts off: "Lord Cockerill of the Sudan has returned from/to various bosoms, from the land of milk and honey and is again with us undead here in the Big Banana, a very hot and dry BB it must be said. His bridging loan is approaching maturity and he has sent me a short update, plus I thought we'd share a couple of recent acquisitions from mud island with you too."
"However, back in time first, to when the dinosaurs roamed free over the continent and monsters prowled the deep waters, for today's marine biology lesson. Five years ago a group of us toddled over the massive Congolese rainforests (in a 737 rather than in the manner that Livingstone used to move around, and its still a bloody long way even by plane!) to the capital of the DRC, Kinshasa, for a spot of ad-hoc, competitive sport fishing, as you do."
Not everyone's idea of the perfect holiday destination Kinshasa, it must be said, but then there was a good reason for the 'discomfort'. Namely to travel 100kms by powerboat up the mighty Congo River (the photo with the boats shows the other bank which is Congo Brazzaville - Kinshasa and Brazzaville are the world's closest capitals being just 5kms apart) to where the Black River joins it, to hunt the mighty Goliath Tiger in the land that time forgot. And that's one in the boat..." Now click through here for more...
JB continues: "It's the last place on earth where the greatest freshwater fighting fish of them all still exists. Any fisherman will have heard of a tiger fish, the Zambezi 'normal' tigers can get pretty big - up to 20lbs and more and they fight like siamesed tarts during shore leave, as I can vouch. Very few people have ever seen a Goliath in the flesh, fewer still have boated one. God had a major hangover when he created the Goliath and dumped it in the Congo, overdoing the growth hormone and attitude pills at the same time. Think piranha mates with Arnie!"
"The Congo river is extraordinary, in its massive 4500kms length, and the variety of what goes on along its banks, on it and in it. And that barge at the top of the blog, with just two little 30hp outboard engines to power it, is travelling 2,500kms along the river to Kisangani, a trip that can take two months. 1000's of people live, eat, sleep, are born, die and perform all life's other functions on these things, the alternate 'trucks of the Congo', as there are no working roads at all east to west. Extraordinary. And that's an example of what we caught (not me, but the good fishermen amongst us, as these are a fiendishly cunning adversary and WILL defeat the stupid), the ultimate freshwater game fish."
"That big one you see being manhandled weighed in at 52kg (that's a 100kg scale dial half way round), not very far off a world record. Although this one was diseased and probably dying as you can see from its mouth, it stripped 200m of 80lb line off the reel in under 15 seconds. Work that speed out!"
"The teeth are 2" long, needle sharp and fit into sockets in the opposite jaw, like an old-fashioned bear trap. On the rare occasion that they bite a human, they take out a chunk the size and shape of half a rugby ball. You can't remove the hooks from its mouth until it is well and truly dead, its' bite is so dangerous, so they never get put back unfortunately."
"But back to the real world meanwhile and Cockerill is on his 6th and final bridge, thus bringing Juba, in S.Sudan, back into 'safe and reliable' (read the disclaimer below!) contact with northern Uganda, so your summer package road tours to this region are once again assured. Who's first for the safari? The old concrete and steel bridge this Bailey replaces is interesting - it was deliberately blown up in 1979 during whichever phase of the war it was to keep out the advancing forces T55's and supply trucks, but was still strong enough after even this major assault that trucks use it to this day. The close up shows the pretty game effort at wrecking it, so it must have been well built if even Sudan can't break it!"
And here we see the replacement being put together...
Wel let's hope they can't break this one Jerry!
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