Category: Feature

Fishing Tip: Drinking heaps of water WILL save your life

We all know how good it feels to be drinking loads of water each day. It purifies the mind. Lubricates your body. Gives life.

And then here’s a story…

Drink water!

Avid angler from Maputo Jolito, and his girlfriend were working down on the Komati River in Maputo a few years back. Jolito had a sand mining business and was operating machines and trucks down on the banks. It’s a lovely river. Flanked by vast natural plantations of the ever-important mangrove forests. All three colours. Producing the most oxygen of all trees. And containing and bolstering against flood waters, when they come.

Jolito was working away, sitting on the verandah of his little office. It was a raised platform that Jolito could use to watch over his operations. He drank a lot of water out there in the heat. Bottled water. The 1.25 litre size we all drink. And he never threw one empty bottle away, ever. He had quite a pile in his office always.

The weather had been otherwise down at the coast that day, but upriver, inland, in the catchment area, there had been a tropical downpour. A deluge. And all this water was now reaching the bottleneck of the lower Komati estuary system. The bottleneck was reinforced by the staunch roots of the mangroves. Built to withstand any water, fight the floods, and to preserve the banks.

Jolito heard the water first. A distant roar. He had been watching the river rising all day, but nothing could prepare him for what the roar turned out to be. It came around the corner like a broken wave. A huge rapid in reverse. He screamed warning at his TLB operator right out on the sandbank. He shouted to the truck drivers to get out of there, thinking that up on his perch, he and his girlfriend would be safe.

Adrenalin kicks in!

Then amazingly quickly – the maelstrom-like wave of floodwater hit. Jolito thought his platform would hold, but as the flood raged up towards him, the platform started to list. It was not a mangrove tree and had scanty foundations. When it got to 15 degrees, Jolito’s brain kicked and screamed with adrenalin. Something he had seen on a Behr Grihl survival show! He grabbed his girlfriend, and started forcing the empty but closed water bottles into her clothes. And then his. Down their jeans. Into their zipped up jackets until they looked like Michelin man impersonators.

Jolito turned to watch his TLB and operator get swept away by the torrent, neither to be seen again, ever. The trucks just escaped, floodwater swirling at their wheels.

As the platform and it’s dainty little super structure toppled, Jolito and his brave girl jumped. Into the raging river. Where no-one wants to be, ever. Raging flood water. African style!

But the bottles saved them both. Saved their lives. With all credit to Behr Grihls, the lucky couple made the bank five kilometres down towards the sea. And almost where they would have been swept out for good!

And so…

Drink more water.

Never throw plastic bottles away.

They could save your life.

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If you would like to visit the Maputo area, and fish, surf or dive with us, get in touch on umzimkulu@gmail.com. We have many cool options for you. And we would not advise that you try Maputo on your own, if you don’t have any experience in that mad town.

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