Little Kids on the Water

[Paul Boote]

Saw a nice little article just now about taking Baby fishing - 6 essentials for spending a day on the water with an infant under 6 months | Raising Gus - which triggered of a memory that still disturbs me over thirty years later nor cannot have been ever forgotten by the then baby's parents.

Just be careful where you take your child or baby fishing.

In 1982 (or 1981) I was on another visit to Corbett Park in Northern India when a young couple I knew, he an Indian-born American, a great, multilingual Himalayan trek-leader and birdwatcher, and she a lovely Kiwi girl, plus their new, first baby appeared and stayed a couple of days.

They came down to watch me fish the piece of river above the old riverside bungalow in whose grounds we had pitched some tents.

Baby was in a carrycot that would be placed on the pebble beach at Christina's feet as they watched me fish and, being both great naturalists, also scanned the surrounding forests for birds with their always-at-hand binoculars.

Then I hooked a small mahseer, causing both of them to walk 20 or so yards over to me to watch me land and release it.

Christina's scream of "Geoff!" (her husband) will never leave me.

In the few seconds that Christina was away from baby in her cot, a jackal had come out of the forest, scampered thirty yards over to cot and was stood above it about to take its contents. The jackal bolted double-quick. We were left standing in numb, shaky silence.

Still haunts me.

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

similar thing in Oz with a dingo happened year back if I recall correctly

 

[Paul Boote]

similar thing in Oz with a dingo happened year back if I recall correctly

A case which we were all aware of at the time, with it having occurred at Ayres Rock in 1980.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain"]Death of Azaria Chamberlain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

I walked straight into a tiger whilst walking along a track through high elephant-grass to get to the river one afternoon in February 1982, virtually but not literally scaring the carp out of me, but it's that near-miss with Jeff and Christina's baby which really sticks in my mind.

 

[greenie62]

...I walked straight into a tiger whilst walking along a track .....

But is the tiger all right?!! mg:

 

[Paul Boote]

Stopped for a few seconds as it crossed the track fifteen yards in front of me, gave me a brief "What are you?" assessing look, then was gone into grass on the other side. The tiger, I understand, spent the next decade in therapy.

 

[nogoodboyo]

Picnic at Hanging Rock
A great film with a great soundtrack
The wilderness is indeed a strange and frightening world.

 

[jamie_moe]

My nephews one and although I can't wait to take him out on the bank with me it's far to dangerous, he's far to confident when it comes to walking around, you only have to blink and he's on his way, i'll just have to wait until he's about 3/4 and start him off then

 

[greenie62]

My nephews one and although I can't wait to take him out on the bank with me it's far to dangerous, he's far to confident when it comes to walking around, you only have to blink and he's on his way, i'll just have to wait until he's about 3/4 and start him off then

First thing to do is to get him a life jacket! We used to use one on the grandson for exactly the same problem! - Luckily he never needed to use it!
12-years later he has just gained his PADI Open Water Diver certification.

 

[jamie_moe]

That's an investment I'm willing to make

 

[Paul Boote]

And get him some Swimming lessons asap, as my folks did once they had realised that their toddler couldn't stay away from water and was going to be spending a lot of time beside it in the years to come. Probably on account of the time that a four-year old me, having watched the "big boys and girls" climbing the steps of the highest slide at a Llandudno outdoor pool, lost his Mum and Dad for a few moments, followed the big kids up there, went down the slide and was dragged out mostly dead a few minutes later from the bottom of the pool.

 

[sagalout]

walked straight into a tiger whilst walking along a track through high elephant-grass

You should see some of things that have crossed my path in down town Torquay

 

[Titus]

Toddlers and fishing = reins, rope and dog spike. They can wander, but not too far.

 

[flightliner]

Would / were marsh mugger crocadiles ever a problem in india???

 

[Paul Boote]

Would / were marsh mugger crocadiles ever a problem in india???

Odd, I never really gave them a thought when I was fishing Indian rivers that held them - often wading whilst fishing, swimming often and washing waist-deep in the river three times a day, but Muggers often take drinking and swimming deer, even the occasional human. The Mugger crocs, like the mahseer, are very much localized these days, owing to habitat destruction. Big old things that could give you a nasty fatal turn, though. The long-snouted Gharial crocs that often occupy the same water, being fish-eaters, are safe to humans though, except when one took a plug-hooked 8-pound mahseer that I was playing in a lake - I was livid when it took not only the fish but a pretty pricey plug.