Blind woman breaks TWO world records for catching giant catfish

A fisherman who introduced his blind wife to fishing has been upstaged twice - as he watched her break two world records for catching giant catfish.

Retired gardener Alan Penfold, 63, decided to start bringing wife Sheila along on his fishing trips four years ago but wouldn't have expected to be upstaged by his partially-sighted partner.

She has broken the record for the biggest catfish ever caught by a woman and then hooked the largest albino catfish ever caught in two fishing holidays.

Alan and Sheila regularly take trips to the famous River Ebro, near Barcelona, Spain to fish - but Mr Penfold could be forgiven for thinking that his wife's degenerative eye condition Retinitis Pigmentosa would prevent her matching him.

The great grandmother's first big catch came when she caught a 214lb monster catfish in 2009 - the largest ever caught by a woman. The amateur angler had to be directed where to place her bait.

Weighing the equivalent of 15.3 stones - around twice the weight of X Factor judge Cheryl Cole - she posed for a photo with the beast before putting it back into the water.

Husband Alan, who has caught dozens of catfish that are almost as big but never managed anything as large, vowed to snare a bigger monster when the pair flew out for a two week break two months ago.

Within days of the couple arriving in Spain, Alan managed to hook another mammoth catfish - but when he put it on the scales it came to just 2lb under his wife's 2009 record at 212lb.

He then reeled in another giant of the deep, but again he failed to beat his wife's catch after it came in on the nose at exactly the same as his wife's catch the year before - 214lb.

Sheila, speaking today, said: 'Alan was happy he managed to equal my catch, but he didn't quite manage to beat it.'

The 59-year-old housewife, who has three children, three grandchildren and one great grandchild, said her second record-breaker came on October 4 this year when she reeled in a rare albino catfish.

She was rowed out into the middle of the river to place her bait before heading back to the shore - and within minutes she felt a tug on her line which she said 'felt like a car', she told the Angler's Mail.

After nearly an hour of reeling the fish to the surface, she almost dropped her rod in amazement when she heard people shouting around her that it was a very rare catfish.

Four fellow fishermen and the tour guide helped Sheila, from Wandsworth, south London, get the huge fish onto dry land.

The previous world record for an albino catfish- caught by either a man or a woman - was just 179lb, almost a stone lighter than Sheila's catch.

Speaking about the moment she hooked the albino catfish, Sheila - who is just 5ft 3ins - said: 'When I first felt the tug I thought, 'this is either a good biter or a massive fish and then all of a sudden it started streaming off the line and it felt like I had hooked a car.'

Sheila said: 'I only started fishing four years ago after Alan and my son Arthur said how much fun it was, so I thought I would give it a go.

'My first catch was a 106lb catfish and I never really thought I'd do much better than that, but now I have two world records which is amazing.

'It's funny really because Alan matched my 214lb catfish this year, but then I go and get another world record by catching a 192lb albino catfish which put his catch in the shade somewhat.'

Alan said: 'What can I say. She's got two world records and I don't have any.

'Even when I managed to catch a whopper I couldn't beat her.'

The biggest catfish ever caught in the world by a man is a staggering 646lb - or 46 stone - Giant Mekong Catfish caught in Thailand in 2005.

The moment a kayaker plunged down a 128-foot waterfall

This is the jaw-dropping moment a lone kayaker decided to really take the plunge plummeting down a 128-foot waterfall.

Kayak legend Rafa Ortiz was caught on camera tackling the enormous Big Banana Falls, in Mexico, by extreme sports photographer Lucas Gilman.

Lucas and Rafa trekked through five miles of steaming jungle and dangerous drug growing cartels to reach the breath-taking falls with Rafa's only intention being to jump off them.

Beside the swirling whirlpool at the bottom of the falls Lucas had the job of capturing the moment Rafa made his dizzying descent.

In just seconds Rafa's tiny kayak can be seen bursting out through the water before the heart-stopping dive to the water.

Miraculously he got through the whole stunt with just a scratch, for which he needed three stitches, and a black eye.

Photographer Lucas, from Colorado, Denver, has followed extreme sports all over the world, but he said this was one of the most challenging shoots ever.

Using two cameras, one horizontal and one vertical, he had just one chance to capture the perfect shot.

He said: 'It was not like I could say to Rafa, 'do you mind climbing up 128 foot again and doing that again'.

'It's not just a question of that, it's also obviously extremely dangerous, if he comes down any other way than the right way the chances are he will be seriously injured or even be killed.

'I just seconds to get the right shot and luckily I got it.'

Lucas was photographing Rafa, who is a Red Bull freestyle kayaker and one of only four people in the world to tackle a plus 100-foot waterfall, as part of an expedition to one of the remotest regions of Mexico.

He said: 'It took us five days to get to the falls and the jungle wasn't the only thing we had to worry about, the area is heavily used by drug dealers to grow marajuana.

'I have been all over the world following extreme sports from India to Africa and Australia, and I'm always planning my next adventure.'

Lucas captured the amazing action on his camera, a Nikon D3S.

2,400-year-old bowl of soup found in tomb of ancient soldier... and it's still liquid

It's most likely past its sell-by date but Chinese archaeologists believe they have discovered a 2,400-year-old bowl of soup.

Sealed in a three-legged bronze cooking pot, the culinary find was dug up from a tomb near the ancient capital of Xian.

It is 8in high and 10in in diameter and would have been used for cooking and serving meat.

Archaeologists said the soup, which contained several bones, was still liquid but had turned green due to the oxidisation of the bronze. It is because the tomb was so tightly sealed that the liquid did not evaporate.

Liu Daiyun, of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, said: 'It's the first discovery of bone soup in Chinese archaeological history.

'The discovery will play an important role in studying the eating habits and culture of the Warring States Period.'

That period ran from 475 to 221BC and was a time when warlords took over small states to build up their power base.

The pot has now been resealed and sent away so that researchers can analyse its contents.

A separate bronze vessel that contained an odourless liquid, believed to be wine, was also found in the tomb.

It is thought that it could have belonged to either a member of the land-owning class or a military officer.

Xian, a city that served as China's ancient capital for over 1,100 years, is famed for the terracotta army at the burial site of Qin Shihuang. It was Qin who presided over the unification of China in 221BC and declared himself the first emperor.

The bronze pot and vessel were found in a tomb being excavated to make way for the extension of the airport in Xian.

However, this is not the oldest pot found with food in it. Five years ago a 4,000-year-old pot containing noodles was found in 2005 at a site near the Yellow River.