Despite the fact that a person managed to poke his nose and even make a mess in almost every corner of our huge planet, except, perhaps, only the depths of the sea, there are still many mysterious places on Earth. And most often they are again associated with water bodies.
Lake dweller
Among such places is the mystical African Lake Funduji, located three hundred kilometers from the capital of South Africa, Pretoria. Local residents (the Bevenda tribe) consider it a cursed place and try to bypass it seven miles away. In their opinion, a terrible monster lives in the lake, devouring anyone who dares to even approach the reservoir, not to mention take a dip or even just wash their feet. Modern researchers discovered this lake only in 1917, after a mining engineer Trevor found ore deposits near the reservoir. His team was also attracted by a strange, just some ominous lake with black water and unthinkable legends about it, which were told by local residents. However, the miners had neither the time nor the desire to explore this enchanted reservoir.
Only in 1947, two mad brothers were found, who decided to check whether some kind of monster actually lived in the lake. The fact is that apart from crocodiles, nothing supernatural was observed in the reservoir. So, one of the brothers Gendrik sailed through Funduji on a boat, and Jacobus remained on the shore in order to follow what was happening from the side. The boat safely reached the middle of the lake and then stood up as if tethered, no matter how many efforts Hendrik made to move it from a dead center. However, he did not even have time to be frightened, because the next moment a huge mouth of a monster protruded from the water, which swallowed the daredevil along with the canoe. All this horror was observed from the shore by the second brother.
Other mysteries of Lake Funduji
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However, the terrible monster is not the only secret of the African lake. The rather full-flowing Mutvali River flows into Funduji, not to mention the numerous rivulets and streams, while there is no outflow of water from the reservoir. And nevertheless, it never overflows, moreover, Lake Funduji also has "oceanic" ebb and flow, which, however, do not depend on the Moon, but on what.
The scientists are also surprised by the constant blackness of the water, in which only crocodiles feel at ease. In 1953, Bill Clayton and Alan Ellis tried to uncover the secrets of the lake, but already at the first stage of the study they encountered an unsolvable riddle that amazed and even frightened them so much that they immediately curtailed the expedition and hurriedly left. Scientists filled bottles with black water from a reservoir and tightly sealed the vessels, but the next morning there was not a drop of liquid in them. Where to do it is not clear …
In the footsteps of Clayton and Ellis, Professor Burnside arrived at the lake with his assistant Tucker. For the purity of the experiment, they poured water into various containers - not only glass ones. But this did not help, water disappeared from all vessels. Surprised by this, the professor even tasted the black water, which turned out to be musty and sour. This unforgivable recklessness ultimately cost the scientist his life: a few days later he died of intestinal inflammation. But the most amazing thing is that his assistant Tucker, on the way back from Funduji, found that the containers were filled with black water again. True, upon arrival in the South African capital Pretoria, William Tucker again saw empty containers, so it was not possible to explore the water of the mysterious lake.
Mystical Lords of the Lake
As we already mentioned, there were crocodiles in Funduji, which the lake monster not only did not touch, but even, apparently, endowed with its mystical power. For example, in 1954, European alligator hunters became interested in Funduji crocodiles, especially since there were a lot of these reptiles, valuable because of their skin, and, as they say, they were not scared yet.
A group of fishermen gathered on the shore of the reservoir and began aiming at the huge crocodiles. However, the bullets seemed to bounce off them without causing the slightest harm to the alligators. And then from the heap of these impenetrable animals suddenly separated the largest alligator and headed towards the hunters, who looked at him as if bewitched, unable to budge. The crocodile crawled to the people, grabbed one of the hunters and hid with him under the black water. And only after that the others suddenly came to their senses from the glamor and rushed to flee from the damned lake.
Since then, researchers from different countries tried to study the terrible lake (at least somehow "understand"), however, faced with the first inexplicable phenomena (simply mystical), they immediately left this damned place. Scientists suggest that a huge white man-eating crocodile lives in the lake. In addition, in 2004, Winon Stanley spotted a giant jellyfish here - another dark brown monster measuring approximately four thousand square meters. Although all these "discoveries" explain little …
And the Bevenda tribe continues to bring sacrificial gifts to the lord of Lake Funduji, however, these are no longer the best girls, as it happened back in the nineteenth century, but just animals and alcoholic beverages. However, they argue, these gifts help them to appease the lake monster. Therefore, to avoid many troubles and misfortunes, for example, disappearing people without a trace …