The White Crocodile God

I live with my father and brother in Johannesburg South Africa "and no there are no lions or antelope running around in the streets it's a city just the same as any other in the US". Well I'm 19 years of age now and a geography student at the University of Johannesburg UJ. I'm a white young male but here in Africa we work together with the native people. Thus I see myself as a meticulous person and scientifically correct.

This occurrence happened during the autumn in April southern hemisphere when we were on a vacation to the northeastern part of the country to Venda land. This is an area where the Venda people have established themselves in a lush vegetated area of the country where there is a small rainforest and a swamis' area. This is situated right next to the Kruger National Park I think everybody is familiar with it and thus its still a very primitive place with lions, crocodiles, antelope and hundreds of other species of animals.

Now I was 17 at the time and almost done with school, this vacation was just what I needed. So we headed towards the Kruger National Park and stayed there for a week's time in the Punda-Maria camp the most northern camp in the park. Having seen Nyala, Giraffe, Hippo, Leopard etc we became bored with the area and decided to travel to Thohoyandou one morning, this is the capital of the Venda land. Now just so you know these people that stay there have been modernized but still have kept to some African traditions, the one that they are renown for is the fact that they believe in a white crocodile, this is their "god", and I'm sure there have been rumors in the US about this but its true they do worship the crocodile because they have done so since before Rome was built. Imagine yourself having to find your only food source which is fish and have no knowledge at all about the outside world. Then a creature that the "king of beasts" the mighty lion even fears appear from nowhere and strikes with such force that it can kill a full grown buffalo, it takes about 4 lionesses to stand a chance against a buffalo. So that's what these people think, its invincible and yet endangered.

So I at the time wanted to see this creature for myself, because every body here talks bout the white crocodile that has been around forever. Now just so you know the crocodiles that you see on television is mostly your American alligators, I have been to Florida in 2000 (and yes were on an airboat ride at the everglades) and the Australians so called salties Steven Irwin. Now the alligators are just plane boring and the Australians are always going on about stuff, the largest salty ever caught wasn't even 4.5 metres, now that's large considering its the length of 3-4 persons. Well here in Africa there is the Nile crocodile, the largest carnivore on land, measuring up to 4 metres and the largest ever was close to 6m, that's almost 20feet.

So we went to the place in Venda and weren't allowed to go into the forest there because only the priests are. For decades young girls of the tribes was sacrificed to this crocodile that inhabits the lake, because it will cause some sort of illness if they don't. So the legend goes that the girls are sent into the lake walking all dressed up with a weaved basket on their head full of Impala meat, then she just disappears below the water and all that you see is the water turning red in the full moon.

So my father made a plan and we decided to wander into the forest that night because everybody is asleep, afraid of the mosquitoes that carry the malaria disease. We got a native to be our guide, his name was Elias, but they call him whitey because he speaks the language of the white man.

That night I will never forget, I don't think it was a ghost, it couldn't be because I don't really believe in such things although the natives do. We went into the forest of Venda meaning nice place of rest. You walk past a lot of cycads and thorn bushes then there is a stage where the bush is just so lush. We eventually made it to the lake at around 22:30pm and sat there on the shore taking a rest. My brother who is now 16 had one of those large 3000,000 candle powered lights with him and shined over the water, to my amazement there were no red little lights which would normally be crocodile eyes shining red in light at night. The Kruger Park is not far from there and crocs are most common in the rivers.

Then the guide Whitey decided to head back because it was closing in on midnight and the moon was going under meaning that it was soon to be so dark that you can't see anything. So we stood up and my brother threw a piece of meat we brought along now covered in mosquitoes into the lake, it was then that I didn't want to leave because there came a huge hissing blowing, soon meaning there was a crocodile near the shore.

Whitey decided to wait for us up in a tree being afraid, now they say white men are ignorant and not respective of nature well that was turning out to be true. What I saw wasn't a ghost it was a real life creature and it wasn't white more grayish. It lifted its head out of the water and then made that sound again bellowing like crazy. It looked like a crocs head but wasn't as flat. The 3 of us ran for it up into the same tree as whitey and sat there staring at it. It came out of the water and then I realized that it wasn't any crocodile but a whitish dinosaur, no really!

The stuff they teach us say they extinct 65 million years ago but here was a large carnivorous looking beast, it didn't leave the lake which is very large it just stood in the shallow water and looked over the lake. It stood on two legs and had a long tail and two small forearms, wasn't the trex form Jurassic park though, it had scales and wasn't as large. My father recon it stood about 2m tall and was like 5meters in length.

I saw it for maybe 20min and then it went under again. Now why would this be in a swamp eating fish and girls and not extinct in some sort of mudstone layer in Northern America.

I ran that night away like I never ran when it went under followed by my father and brother, I swear this is true I can still see it at night in my dreams, but I never told nobody because its against the theory of evolution and scientists which I associate myself with to some degree.

Best of luck to all and thanks for the opportunity that I have to share this with you.