We are a fishing oriented lodge, not a fancy hotel. We are totally off the grid. We make our own electricity, mostly though solar energy, and manufacture our own drinking water through a reverse osmosis machine. Water gets pumped from a borehole by generator. We are a green lodge. My backup is a generator and a storage facility for drinking water that I have to fetch from town. There is nothing else. Likewise, we are 13 kilometres from any town, so we are remote. The local people around Mongue do not have running water, no flushable toilets, and no electricity. When I came here in the beginning I had the same.
Silver Fish Lodge was built, starting in 1998, refurnished in 2008, with the following priorities.
- Put people on fish
- Serve cold beer and always have enough ice
- Provide good food
- Provide a comfortable place to rest at night
- Have a good braai (barbeque area) where we can braai fresh fish, and whatever your heart desires, and have good conversation.
I am a fisherman, not a hotelier. I have learned to become a hotelier though this process, but I am the first to admit, I will never be cut to fit this mould. My passion is fishing, and that is what I gave up the rat race to do. To pursue my interests and live with what I like doing. To live the dream.
Fishing comes to me naturally. Being a fish mother to finicky guests does not. Lately, because of the downturn in the economy, I started to take in guests who have no interest in fishing. One has to find ways to pay expenses..... Now I find my time more being taken up by demanding guests, than fishing. There is no water to flush my toilet at 1am in the morning, there is no pressure in the shower, there is no hot water, where is the Wi-Fi, where is the TV? This has become the norm from: where are the fish?, what are they taking?, where can I get fresh bait?, what's the weather doing tomorrow?
People in this day and age have become accustomed to switching on a switch to get whatever they want, likewise turning a tap to get water. Whilst I think these are wonderful inventions and creations- most people, in Africa, live without these basic" rights"
We have become so cocooned in our thinking, that without these basic rights, we are out of our comfort zone, and like a fish out of the water. I have learned to accept that there are bigger things in life than to shit myself when I get a little discomfort. I have learned to be humble, to accept more.
Being in a green fishing lodge has its challenges. Likewise, when you go fishing, you will have good days, and other days when the fish don't feed. At the lodge there will be days when things break, or when water runs dry in the tank because there is a leaky toilet, or a faulty tap. Usually I can fix these things within an hour or two, sometimes longer. When I don't catch fish today, then I go out tomorrow, and try again. Sometimes I go out for the third day before I catch fish again. One has to be humble, and accept that things sometimes don't go all your way all the time.
This is fishing, this is life. This is what we do. If you want a five-star hotel, then don't come here... If you want to be in touch with life, nature, catch fish, have some solitude, then you will enjoy my place. Either way, stop the bitching, and realise that there are bigger problems in the universe than the petty shit. Learn to enjoy your life, with whatever you are faced with. Likewise, if we are not successful with fishing today, then we try again tomorrow.
Read Robert Cunningham's book Chasing Records. This is a man who held 57 IGFA world records. It didn't just come to him, it took him a lifetime, and much disappointment first. It is his account of his obsession, disappointment, and triumph. That quest taught him to be humble.
Thoughts are my own and does not represent the views of Silver Fish Lodge Inc. Stay calm and have a beer... See you on the water out there sometime. Get a life!