I know its true because he said so..........(part 2)

I already introduced you to my Grandfather in a previous blog, like I said a man of character!
Another 'truth' form his youth came to me whist talking to Louis recently in London, its about the biggest fish he ever caught.
In his later life Oupa was a keen fisherman, not necessarily because he liked it, but rather because times were tough and he had to provide for his family.
I remember how he used to sit on the stoep and point at the then barren Santos Beach and relate stories of how he came back from there with four big bags full of fish.
However that is a story for another day. This one goes back to when he was a young man with 16 (yes as I mentioned before 16) siblings.

Food was scarce and the family needed to eat, the roof of the house was in a dilapidated state and the wet Western Cape winter was approaching fast.
Oupa and one of his brothers were playing marble (actually marbles but as they were very poor they only had one!) when his father came home from town with no food in sight!
The old man told the youngsters to go to the river and try to catch some fish. Without hesitating they set of for the river, with the hunger pains making them walking faster and faster until they stumbled over a piece of oddly shaped wood. They dug it out, and what do you know, an old muzzle loader rifle! they took it with them to the river as it was a nice toy to play with.
Using some old twine, cat-gut and a rusty safety pin they tried to fish for hours but to no avail, and out of boredom they decided to take a closer look at the muzzle loader, and found that it still had a old rusty percussion cap in place but could not see any bullet in the barrel. The strange thing was that they saw a piece of cotton cloth in the barrel which might mean that there is still some powder in the chamber! 'Could this thing still fire?' they wondered.
Just at that moment they saw the biggest Kudu ever, moving out of the bush to drink water at the river! Being on a sandy strip, there where no pebbles that they could use as bullets, then it struck Oupa that he still had the marble in his pocket.
He loaded it into the muzzle, and what do you know, it was a perfect fit! Thinking quickly, he ripped a piece off his shirt to use as packing and rammed it into the barrel with a stick. With sweat pearling on his forehead, he cocked the Voorlaaier, he took carefull aim at the Kudu, slowly he squeezed the trigger!
Then with a big bang the shot went off, the only thing you could see was smoke and Oupa sitting on his backside with his eyes as big as his mouth!

Bewildered he stood up and saw the strangest thing, on the other bank of the river, the huge Kudu was lying motionless, and floating in the river, a silver "submarine" (the biggest Kabeljou in the history of mankind) as dead as a door nail!
As he fired at the Kudu, this Jona fish jumped out of the water and he shot him through the eyes, and the bullet kept going to hit the Kudu in the head.
Looking behind him to see why he had such a soft landing, he saw that he fell on a mother rabbit with six young ones, all dead!

And his brother?, well seeing what happened, he ran to the house  to get everybody to come and help.
To get the Kudu to the house, all 17 children, as well as the old people, had to help, they had to quarter it and use the cart to get the meat to the house, the skin was so heavy, the house could not pull the cart and the had to use four oxen as well.
The fish was so big, they had to call the extended family to help, it took them two days to cut it into manageable pieces, the fish was so big, they used the scales as roofing shingles and the bones as fencing poles.
The Kudu was so big, they made leather throes for 2 double beds and used the offcuts to make a pair of shoes for each of the children.

Only shows you, when you need it, you get it!

Well till next time.