14 August 2009

14 August, Day 62: gone fishin'

The bell tolls from the wee early hours. I drag my ass out of bed in time to witness the first sunrise in a while (I don’t make an effort to wake up for these anymore) and I have the camera handy to snap a few good’ns. Coffee and more rusks, breakfast of muesli and yo-gurt (I say YO-gurt, not “yoghurt”), bacon, delicious, sweet, tasty bacon, eggs and toast with a fruit salad. Yes, we really do eat that much for breakfast, and I usually clean up the scraps. Maintaining this magnificent physique takes that kind of dedication...

Bit of sport today: we’re going fishing! Haven’t touched a rod (oh get your mind out of the gutter!) in a good while. Did some light sea fishing a while back with Dan the Man with a Plan on the Isle of Wight. Or is it “white”, I can never remember! Anyhoo, I didn’t catch anything then either and it wasn’t a serious attempt.

Tender boats are loaded up with booze and snacks and a rather funny looking vegetable rack, full of soil. “What’s that?”, I ask. “Bait”, replies Jenny. Spot the rookie. Indeed, the container was filled with soil and earthworms. After a brief lesson on “How to attach a hook to the fishing line without garrotting yourself” we cast off in search of Breem. The other variety that you can catch for sport around these parts is Tigerfish, mean looking critter, big nasty teeth, not very edible though. Mattie, Jenny, Fanie, myself and Marco (...polo...) head off to a secluded, shallow bay while the other tender boat with the girls, Marieke, Marietta and Annelie head the other direction with Bryan. They don’t feel like staying out too long and opted for a quick game cruise instead.

We find a nice spot next to a petrified tree and tie up the boat. I allow the captain to show me how to hook an earthworm onto the hook... eeeew... and cast my line... badly. I blame the equipment, of course, but it turns out I don’t have to cast the bait too fair, I can just drop it over the side. I do so with elegance and grace. In the short time it takes me to actually get my line wet, Jenny has already caught a sizable Breem! Into the cargo hold it goes. Mattie is next and the captain follows with little ones and then bigger specimens, perfect for filleting. Fanie catches up with more, and Jenny reels in another big fella. Me, well, they sure seemed to like my bait! I couldn’t catch anything, and I was on my third worm already (which I put on the hook myself. Eeew.) I decided to try my luck on the other side of the boat and had a few more nibbles. The others in the meantime have caught a ton of fish, Mattie seems to be a natural catching no less than 5 Breems with ONE worm! Dang, he even caught one without any bait.

Lots of smack talking on the boat, of course, mostly from Mattie. I can’t even join in, since I’m so shit at this point. Just then I got one nibble, another insistent nibble and then a bite and I snap back on the rod and start reeling him in! Out of the water emerges the smallest Breem I’ve ever seen in my life (and I’ve seen at least 10 in my career, all in the space of the last few minutes). I smile for the picture anyway, what the hell :) Into the hold it goes. My next catch, a good time later is even smaller! I comment that it’s perfectly ok, since I enjoy sushi very much, and these are already down to sushi portions so no wastage.

And that was the sum total of my fishing experience. The End.

On the way back we spot the a stricken sister boat dead in the water. As it happened, the girls’ quick 20 minute cruise turned into a full hour of floating. The engine didn’t seem to want to start anymore. Kind of a big deal, not only because it’s inconvenient, but because hippos generally fear outboard motors. They fear silent, drifting boats far less...

The captain expertly zigs and zags between the dead trees towards them and we cast them a line (just like fishing! Only without worms). Next, we drag their sorry asses back to the African Queen, stopping in a bay where a croc has secured a drown Grants Gazelle and was dragging it out to water.

Back on the AQ and the boys get busy with the filleting. They also purchased a few more Breem’s from the local fishermen operating in the area, no doubt to make up for my ineptitude.

A delicious lunch of cold meats, bread, jams and a large salad is rudely interrupted by a swarm (of exactly 4) bees! Mattie excuses himself and retires to his cabin. More bees arrive as we piss off the scouting party and we basically have to grab food and retreat ourselves. The little bastards seem to enjoy the orange slices lining the salad quite a bit, so these are removed. We also cast off in an effort to get away from the nearby bee nest. Once the coast was clear, we could go back upstairs and get back to doing a whole lot of nothing.

Halfway to Gordon’s bay (no, not the Gordon’s bay in Cape Town) we stop again for a refreshing dip seemingly in the middle of nowhere before continuing on.

Chef extraordinaire Bryan dazzles us once again with a wonderful setting battered fish (yes, the Breem. Am I spelling “breem” right? Spell checker seems to hate it.) and chips, salad and “Bryans Patatoes”, which I think is potatoes, cooked and removed from their skins, mashed, creamed and cheesed and put back into the skin! Fruit salad and what was left of the custard for desert. We play more cards and drink coffee before tucking in for bed.

Highlights: I caught a fish! Two, in fact.

[G & A], out

You’re my favourite damn disease

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