About a year ago I came across this newspaper article. It was the first time I had ever heard of a “River monster” in South Africa, at least recently. And definitely the first I had heard of in Cape Town.
I frequently drive by (and over) the Black River so the notion of some creature living hidden beneath it’s waters scared and intrigued me. The description did seem very “dragonish” and my heart thrilled at the thought that I might get to see one. Apparently not long after this article sightings stopped. Dragons are incredibly secretive and it’s likely that it was getting more attention than it desired.
The article was printed in 2006 so it had been many a year since the sightings had stopped, and from my discussions
with many other locals it seems that no one even remembered the article and were completely unaware that a dragon could potentially be living right beneath our noses!
I then resolved to begin looking out actively for any sign of a dragon. From the descriptions given in the article and the artistic impressions I at least had an idea of what to look for. It intrigued me that the description of the dragon seemed quite similar to other famous water dwelling beasties like “Champ” or the “Ogopogo” ,Water horses, Kelpies and even Nessie. How many of this kind of dragon were there? Were they the same species? The Black River Dragon, as I’m inclined to name it, lives in a river. Would he look different to a lake dwelling dragon?
I had so many questions. I never could have imagined what my efforts would yield.
The Modern Dragon 
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