I went fishing over the weekend but with no luck. As i was standing next to the dam with my mate someone approached us with his bakkie and started a conversation with us.
After talking for about 15 minutes about all sorts of nonsense the person asked me if we knew a guy called Fanus Brink, i responded with a no and then the story started.
I thought Fanus was a legend after i heard his story so i thought of going to his house to see him myself. The day turned out to be something almost out of a ghost story. We got to Fanus's house where we found nothing, the wind started to get worst and it was becoming colder every minute. My mate and i was however set on meeting him (the BIG fish master).
We got hold of a family member of Fanus and he told us where we could find him but warned us of the 4 dogs patrolling the yard. We got to his place late afternoon and had to explain very nicely what we wanted and why we were there.
Fanus's story began years ago when he was still a younger man living on the farm in the Eastern Cape. He had a huge dam about 10 kilo's away from the house where he normally spent his weekends drinking and crying over his wife that was killed by a snake one Saterday morning while he was out in the field.
Fanus had a drinking problem and life became to much for him, he spent his time nect to the dam where the momory of his wife was still living strong ( she use to paint the dam and the waterbirds and scenary there).
Fanus has never been a fisherman and had no interest in fishing, the dam was merely a place for him to go to feel close his wife. One day while looking at his wife's painting of the dam he noticed how many waterbirds (BlesHoenders) there was in the painting but he has never seen so many of them on the dam itself.
BlesHoenders is not a travelling bird and normaaly spents it whole life at / on one dam where it finds comfort and security. What happened to these water birds and where have they all gone? Puzzled by this weirdness he decided to watch the birds on the dam and see if he notices anything strange.
Fanus spent allot of time next to the dam but nothing ever happened, the only thing that he could notice was that the birds on the dam would NOT go close to one section of the dam about 8m x 8m in size. Beeing a family farm Fanus remebered his father telling him that there was a huge hole in that specific place, but why would the birds not go there?
It puzzled him even more day after day but he decided to not go back to the dam and to make peace with his wife's death and also the strangeness of the birds and the dam itself.
About 2 years past and Fanus was woken up by someone yelling outside the front door on a Sunday morning. The man (farm worker from nabouring farm) was as pale as a ghost and was clearly tramatized by what he has seen or what had happened to him. He said that there was a strangeness at this dam and that he saw a cow calf beeing dragged / pulled towards the place in the water where the hole was. It wasn't one of the smallest calf's either and this was really becoming undescribable. Fanus asked the man to show him where this happened but he refused setting his foot close to that dam again, everytime the man explained where this happened Fanus realized more and more that it was the hole.
The dam became almost like a legendary place to the local people and the farm workers would not go close to this placel.
About a year later Fanus decided to kill himself also on a Sunday morning, he struggled to eat from a growing ulcer caused by years od drinking and smoking. He took his Colt .45 and a bottle of Brandy and got into the bakkie, he decided that the dam would be the place to do it at.
After consumming most of the Brandy he put the gun to he's head and pulled the trigger, the weapon would not fire for some strange reason. He got out of the bakkie with tears in his eyes and it was just there where man and beast met each other. He saw the tail of something in the water in the middle of the place where the hole is. He did not know what it was but he's wanted to find out right there and then, he's suicide attempt turned into a will for living again.
He told his farm worker to kill a grown chicken and collect a steal cable and a grounding pole and 10 pound hammer. The two of them went down to the dam and tied the chicken to the cable where it was connected to the 1,5m grounding pole next to the dam. The tossed the chicken into the hole in the dam and decided to get back to the bakkie not knowing what might be lurking in the hole. An hour passed and nothing happened so they left it overnight.
The next morning they went back to the dam and.......the grounding pole was pulled out of the ground and was missing, the cable was nowhere to be found and the water became very muddy overnight.
Knowing that it was a fish tail he saw outside the water he knew that it was a fish species, but which one is capable to pull a 1,5 m iron pipe out of the ground? This beast even put fear into the birds living on the dam?
Fanus decided that some things are better left unknown so he forbid anyone close to the dam. Fanus got over he's drinking problem and thanked the strange creature in the dam for helping him focus on something else. One day while cleaning the spare room cupboard Fanus found an old shoe box full of old letters written by his father, in memory of his late father he decided to share some time with him by reading some of the letters. To Fanus's amazement more than 20 of the 25 letters thast was written spoke about the beast in the dam. He knew that he's father also must have seen this creature and drove him mad.
Fanus sold the farm shortly as a way of letting his wife go and his father along with all the bad and good memories shared on the farm. How did this thing live in the dam for all those years? It's totals to more than 30 years?
6 months after Fanus sold the dam the new owner lost his youngest son due to drowing in that dam.....or was it? The body of the child has never been recovered.
I HAD A GOOD BUT STRANGE WEEKEND.
After talking for about 15 minutes about all sorts of nonsense the person asked me if we knew a guy called Fanus Brink, i responded with a no and then the story started.
I thought Fanus was a legend after i heard his story so i thought of going to his house to see him myself. The day turned out to be something almost out of a ghost story. We got to Fanus's house where we found nothing, the wind started to get worst and it was becoming colder every minute. My mate and i was however set on meeting him (the BIG fish master).
We got hold of a family member of Fanus and he told us where we could find him but warned us of the 4 dogs patrolling the yard. We got to his place late afternoon and had to explain very nicely what we wanted and why we were there.
Fanus's story began years ago when he was still a younger man living on the farm in the Eastern Cape. He had a huge dam about 10 kilo's away from the house where he normally spent his weekends drinking and crying over his wife that was killed by a snake one Saterday morning while he was out in the field.
Fanus had a drinking problem and life became to much for him, he spent his time nect to the dam where the momory of his wife was still living strong ( she use to paint the dam and the waterbirds and scenary there).
Fanus has never been a fisherman and had no interest in fishing, the dam was merely a place for him to go to feel close his wife. One day while looking at his wife's painting of the dam he noticed how many waterbirds (BlesHoenders) there was in the painting but he has never seen so many of them on the dam itself.
BlesHoenders is not a travelling bird and normaaly spents it whole life at / on one dam where it finds comfort and security. What happened to these water birds and where have they all gone? Puzzled by this weirdness he decided to watch the birds on the dam and see if he notices anything strange.
Fanus spent allot of time next to the dam but nothing ever happened, the only thing that he could notice was that the birds on the dam would NOT go close to one section of the dam about 8m x 8m in size. Beeing a family farm Fanus remebered his father telling him that there was a huge hole in that specific place, but why would the birds not go there?
It puzzled him even more day after day but he decided to not go back to the dam and to make peace with his wife's death and also the strangeness of the birds and the dam itself.
About 2 years past and Fanus was woken up by someone yelling outside the front door on a Sunday morning. The man (farm worker from nabouring farm) was as pale as a ghost and was clearly tramatized by what he has seen or what had happened to him. He said that there was a strangeness at this dam and that he saw a cow calf beeing dragged / pulled towards the place in the water where the hole was. It wasn't one of the smallest calf's either and this was really becoming undescribable. Fanus asked the man to show him where this happened but he refused setting his foot close to that dam again, everytime the man explained where this happened Fanus realized more and more that it was the hole.
The dam became almost like a legendary place to the local people and the farm workers would not go close to this placel.
About a year later Fanus decided to kill himself also on a Sunday morning, he struggled to eat from a growing ulcer caused by years od drinking and smoking. He took his Colt .45 and a bottle of Brandy and got into the bakkie, he decided that the dam would be the place to do it at.
After consumming most of the Brandy he put the gun to he's head and pulled the trigger, the weapon would not fire for some strange reason. He got out of the bakkie with tears in his eyes and it was just there where man and beast met each other. He saw the tail of something in the water in the middle of the place where the hole is. He did not know what it was but he's wanted to find out right there and then, he's suicide attempt turned into a will for living again.
He told his farm worker to kill a grown chicken and collect a steal cable and a grounding pole and 10 pound hammer. The two of them went down to the dam and tied the chicken to the cable where it was connected to the 1,5m grounding pole next to the dam. The tossed the chicken into the hole in the dam and decided to get back to the bakkie not knowing what might be lurking in the hole. An hour passed and nothing happened so they left it overnight.
The next morning they went back to the dam and.......the grounding pole was pulled out of the ground and was missing, the cable was nowhere to be found and the water became very muddy overnight.
Knowing that it was a fish tail he saw outside the water he knew that it was a fish species, but which one is capable to pull a 1,5 m iron pipe out of the ground? This beast even put fear into the birds living on the dam?
Fanus decided that some things are better left unknown so he forbid anyone close to the dam. Fanus got over he's drinking problem and thanked the strange creature in the dam for helping him focus on something else. One day while cleaning the spare room cupboard Fanus found an old shoe box full of old letters written by his father, in memory of his late father he decided to share some time with him by reading some of the letters. To Fanus's amazement more than 20 of the 25 letters thast was written spoke about the beast in the dam. He knew that he's father also must have seen this creature and drove him mad.
Fanus sold the farm shortly as a way of letting his wife go and his father along with all the bad and good memories shared on the farm. How did this thing live in the dam for all those years? It's totals to more than 30 years?
6 months after Fanus sold the dam the new owner lost his youngest son due to drowing in that dam.....or was it? The body of the child has never been recovered.
I HAD A GOOD BUT STRANGE WEEKEND.
