Giant South African Snake The Grootslang

The Grootslang is a legendary huge snake that lives  in a deep cave in the Richtersveld, South Africa.Described as being 40–50 feet (12–15 metres)long  and leaving  a track 3 feet (approx 1 metre) wide.

The  cave is  known as the "Wonder Hole" or the "Bottomless Pit" locally and said to be connected to the sea.It is also said to be full of diamonds. It is approximately three miles from the Orange River. Some locals say the Grootslang  takes cattle from the river bank.

 Belief in the snake is strong locally among Khoikhoi  people  and some local living Europeans and they fear it.

Prospector Frederick Carruthers Cornell (1867 — 1921) collected information on the grootslang He wrote that many  Khoikhoi in the area claimed to have seen  it.

 A pastor,Father  Wolf of the Pella Mission also reported that the Khoikhoi spoke of a huge snake preying on their cattle. He took the stories seriously, but his attempts to find the Grootslang were not successful.

South African pioneer Doctor Hans Sauer (1857 — 1939) claimed in his book Ex Africa (1937) to have encountered a grootslang when he was  ten years old at the source of the Orange River.

A general dealer named G. A. Kinnear also claimed to have seen a grootslang in 1899, whilst shipping  goods across the Orange River in a flat-bottomed ferry boat

In 1910 some men were  camped some twenty miles below the Augrabies Falls. One was an American named Kammeyer, The Orange River was in flood and  Kammeyer, had been bathing in a quiet backwater near a herd of cattle. He returned to the camp in an agitated state, claiming that an enormous snake had emerged from the water and dragged one of the calves into the river. It was  confirmed that a calf was missing from the heard, and Kammeyer stuck to his story.

While searching for treasure in the Richtersveld of South Africa in 1917, the English businessman Peter Grayson disappeared. Rumors said  that the Grootslang had taken him.

In June 1950, a G. K. Atherstone claimed that local people had showed him to a spot on the Orange River where a huge snake had been seen. Some hundred yards out on the water, a black serpent's head appeared ahead of the undulating rings of a large body.

There were several reports of sightings between 1960 and 1963

In January 1960, Oranjeville locals Mr and Mrs C. J. Reyneke, and their two children, claimed to have seen a pair of "swimming monsters" in the Vaal Dam.. The Reynekes estimated that the animals were some 200 feet ( 65 metres)   long, but only around 4feet  1.3 metres)  in diameter. The creatures , which the Reynekes believed were playing, eventually dived underwater and disappeared.

Large snakes are not unknown. Largest  living green anaconda snake measured 6.3 metres/20.7 feet), The  largest reticulated python from  Indonesia, was measured at 6.95 m (22 ft 10 in) and weighed 59 kg (130 lb 1 oz) .

A very large snake is not impossible but 200 feet sounds like an exaggeration. The Grootslang may indeed be real.