Monsters: Kongamato

Each day this week, I will be presenting a cryptid monster you might not have heard of during this "What the Freak Is It?" week on Ghost Hunting Theories. At the end of my presentation on the information regarding the creature, I will give you a flash horror short story based on the beast.

The Kongamato is a pterosaur-like flying creature that is reported in Nambia and Congo regions of Africa. Said to be along the rivers, it is reported by locals to attack small boats and those who disturb it.

From Wikipedia "In 1956 an engineer, J.P.F. Brown, allegedly saw the creature at Fort Rosebery near Lake Bangweulu in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). It was about 6:00 p.m. when he saw two creatures flying slowly and silently directly overhead. He observed that they looked prehistoric. He estimated a wingspan of about 3 to 3 ¹⁄₂ feet (0.91 to 1.1 meters) and a beak-to-tail length of about 4 ¹⁄₂ feet (1.4 meters). It reportedly had a long thin tail, and a narrow head which he likened to an elongated snout of a dog.

The following year, at a hospital at Fort Rosebery, a patient came in with a severe wound in his chest, claiming that a large bird-like creature had attacked him in the Bangweulu swamps. When asked to draw the creature, he allegedly drew a creature resembling a pterosaur. This drawing does not appear to have survived to the present."

Wrath of the Kongamato

The explorers forged forward down the waterway with the two oarsmen guiding them through the silty pools of warm water. The oppressive heat had wrung them dry and they feared drinking the water, but soon they would have to relent.

One of the men stopped rowing and looked up at the sky, blotting out the sun with his hand. A huge dark shadow moved over them and the explorers looked up, wondering if a plane was overhead.

The two guides began to scream and duck down, holding the oars over their heads. The explorers looked around them, judging the distance to the shores, the threat of crocodiles and decided to stay. The men who were standing tossed out their oars, dove down into the water and splashed their way to shore, leaving the two confused men with a boat they couldn't guide and water that was rapidly splashing with crocodiles attracted by the splashing.

The beast overhead glided on its wings, back and forth, a thin tail dragging across the blue sky. It tilted its strange dog-like head to peer down and then swooped.

All at once, the men jumped overboard, scrambling to paddle to shore when the giant angry bird caught the seat within the boat on its nose-like beak and tossed it to shore without missing a flap of its wings as it climbed skyward again with a squawk.

The explorers pulled themselves up onto the muddy banks. The prehistoric bird was forgotten as the men concentrated on the other threatening relics from the stone age - the crocodiles surrounding them.

**For a collection of my short stories, check out "Don't Go There! A Flash Horror Anthology" where every story is timed so you know how long it'll take to read depending on your time constraints and the variety of many dozens of short stories cover the gamut of every horror subject possible with a special features section in the end that has short nonfiction stories of me being alone in places no one wants to be alone in. This is available in paperback on Amazon, Kindle and Nook (link above).**

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