Private just aint what it used to be!
It was a random Sunday afternoon, the weather was playing along beautifully and a float session would be the perfect way to see out the week end. I duly phoned the landowner (one of very few with whom I have managed to win favour over the years) and arranged an afternoon session, his text reading “no problem the dam is not being used today”. With glee I packed the beers, loaded the kick boat and set off only to arrive half an hour later to a veritable car park full of rowdy fisher folk.
00000Now I have no problem with sharing water but it 00000turned out that none of the party present even 00000knew the farmer but that one of them was a 00000friend of a tenant who lived in a neighbouring 00000cottage. Still hardly my place to veto 00000whomsoever manages, in whichever way, 00000to gain access to private water. The guys 00000seemed friendly enough however and even 0000moved their car to allow me closer access to the water for launching. All seemed pretty amicable until, totally engrossed in my wacky presentation; there was a loud scream and an even louder splash behind me in the middle of the dam! I shot around, just emerging from my haze to witness a grown man flying some 15m through the air bellowing like a wild sow in heat and landing butt first in the middle of the drink. Turns out they had constructed a massive slide which dropped from the steep embankment and ended with a curved lip, the likes of which Evil Knieval and Matt Hoffman would have been proud! Don’t get me wrong here; I enjoy a good BALJAAR as much as the next guy and some of their leaps were nothing short of Youtube gold but surely not when you are sharing the water with a stranger
Bass Digest/May, 2014
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