Camping with my friends before school started we transported a log, started building the canoe and did a lot of fishing . Life is good.
Back home I talked to 2 of my neighbor friends who liked hunting and fishing to come and spent a week with me in my camp.
They had to think it over but decided to join me.
I told them There was a tree that I had to prepare and transport to the camp to build a canoe.
All I had to do now (but let me tell you that is was a hell of a job using just an ax, a saw and a machete) was to chop off a part of about 20 feet and transport it via the creek to my camp 2 miles downstream.
On our way downstream we had to clear the creek of some smaller trees that some time ago fell over the creek.
It took us 1 day to chop and saw a 20 feet log from the tree and push it into the creek.
To get the log completely floating in the creek the next day took us another 3 we used small trees for lever.
We then had to go downstream , me sitting on the floating log and my friends walking alongside the creek .
Before dawn we secured the log and then walked back to camp.
The next day we went back and brought the log to our camp.
At the camp side we dug a small canal and pulled the log into this canal.
We than closed the canal and started filling it up with sand, roll the log with the use of small trees for lever on the filled side, fill the other side with sand, roll the log over and so on till the log was completely on top and then we rolled it a bit further where we could start working on the canoe.
We debarked the log
We now started to form the outside of the canoe by chopping the log into shape.
Before leaving the camp at the end of our stay, we secured it with stakes buried and hammered deep into the ground so if the creek should overflow it would stay in place. We also used lianas.
When we left camp the outer shape was finished but it was very rough and had to be smoothened in the future.
It would stay in that shape till I would return.
Of course we did not just came to the camp to work on the canoe, but also to have a good time, which we had.
To make some extra cash when we were back home we decided to catch as much fish as we could and smoke them to sell when we were back home. We enlarged the smoking table and started fishing. With this creek never being fished there was plenty of fish so we brought back about 250 lbs of smoked fish back to civilization.
Fishing was great and we had a great time.
We caught a many patakas (Hoplias Malabaricus) and anjoemaras or wolf fish (Hoplias Aimara).
The average weight of a pataka was about 8 lbs and an anjoemara about 20 lbs.
We also did some exploring and shot a few large iguanas (tree chicken) which we cooked with Indian curry.
It was a hell of a job to get our smoked fish out of the jungle to the main road ( I’ll spare you the details).
We came on our bikes which we locked and hid and camouflaged in the bush about a hundred meters from the road.
One of my friends went home on his bike to get us transportation for our merchandise.
Without much money we had a great time and in one week we made more money than most people would make in 3 months in the sixties.
Very good information. Helpful