Angling. A Sport. A Lifestyle.: Sudan Territory

Sudan Territory Travel Summary

I thrive off the superstitions of others. I earn very much and the work is pretty adventurous.

My next angling adventure took me straight to Sudan where I was to fish on the highly dangerous Blue Nile River. I journeyed on the Red Sea and arrived at Port Sudan, a largely populated fishing a shipping port. The Sudan is home to roughly 43,939,598 inhabitants. The area of Sudan is over 2.5 million km2 with only 6% being water. This will be an excruciating journey.

My boat and I in Port Sudan

The locals believe that one of the thousands of boats harbored in Port Sudan may have brought the feared creatures to the Blue Nile. They also believe that the presence of human beings was enough to prevent that fearful creature from being released. There were several skeptical locals, believing the fish would eventually put human on their menus. My task consisted of finding this terrorizing fish on the irregular surface of the Blue Nile during the daily allowed six hours of fishing. An arduous task: the government watching me as I fish; the boat was uncomfortable, painful even; the route was boring; the locals, dangerous communities of savages; every once in a while other boats would bump into our vessel and I would sustain slight injuries. Finally, tired of it, the crew quit on me, I would have to travel alone now. The locals hastened to replace my crew with another man who, with his mere presence, would prevent the fish from taking my life.

The unforgiving Blue Nile River

Immediately, I learned that an indigenous lady in Wad Madani had a lost a pair of feet and that she believed, who can say why, that they were taken by the devil in the form of a fish. Since the lady, who always fished in the river, couldn't see what attacked her, she told me my best bet to catch that evil creature would be at night. I start to travel further south down the Blue Nile to see one of those devil fish I have been so intrigued by. I begin to set up a pair of rods, my guide did not fail to inform me as he points of a shadow in the water, because that's the one, without a doubt, there are the devilish fish in this area. Then I casted a line and hoped to drag it in alive so as to make all evil disappear from the faces of the locals. I stayed awake during the first nights, keeping an eye on the locals: what sneaky, angry peoples. Later I felt my zeal to be unjustified and, just as soon as the guide went to bed, I would wrap my gun in a blanket and, sit in a folding chair, I wouldn’t sleep during the entire night. So I never managed to discover which of the two local tribes hated me the most. Later I told my guide that I was going to give up that job or fish over the allowed time limit because it seemed it was bad for my health to stay awake all night.

The locals and my new guide waiting on the boat for my arrival

Besides, I had just learned that there was an old tribe in Sinja overlooking the deep ravine I was in and, in their village, elders were depicting me as a man that will bring evil. The locals, very aggressive people, believed that I was a relative of the devil and bringing forth bad luck that would leave them to die shortly. They provided me with a unscrupulous feeling and I became the statuette of my guide. I began to depend on his knowledge to protect me from my pending death. The old Blue Nile was left to ourselves, though I suspected locals spied on us. The guide receives my poll from the in the gloomy river. We mutually decided to fish from the shore since the unforgiving river current and the local weather is very unpredictable. I lowered my eyes, sighed, and casted out into the depths of the Blue Nile hoping to catch the evil creature, and in turn have the locals trust. Soon I answered to the rode as it was dragged nearly off the shore. I'm saving up my energy and I dig in for a long battle. Yes, I keep battling the beast since I can't stay alive more than a couple of hours until the locals agree to kill me. As I've already said, I earn very much living off other people's superstitions. The locals started to rally up on the other side of the shore as I battled against the devil fish. After days of trying to survive and catching almost no fish, I had the beast on the line fighting. I was dragging in the monster and the locals were starting to deploy their boats to sail across the river to kill me for the bad luck I could bring. A hidden miracle revealed itself from the surface of the river. The devil fish was real. I dragged in the huge fish and the locals were nearly to my side of the shore.

Joyous to tame the brutal monster ( my guide on my left, local who wanted to kill me on the right)

My guide and I held up the miraculous demonized fish and the villagers cheered upon their boats. They struck the shore and surrounded us cheering while we held the trophy.

The journey back to Port Sudan was much easier as the word spread of my conquering of the devil fish. Somehow the locals devised a great communication system and I was a local hero along the Blue Nile.

My trip to Sudan was not easy and was probably the deadliest journey I have ever been on. The devil fish was not nearly as dangerous as the local people were.