Diogenes of the XXI century: why a diver from South Africa lives in a barrel on a pole

It's not easy to get into the Guinness Book of Records these days. If you are not distinguished by intelligence, dexterity or strength, then you will have to come up with something original or rethink a well-forgotten old one. This is exactly what the 52-year-old diver from South Africa Vernon Kruger did, who, like the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes, has been living in a barrel for two months.

Unlike the famous Greek, Vernon chose not a clay pythos, but a wooden barrel, and placed it on a 25-meter pole. The barrel is located in his yard, in the city of Dalstrum, Mlumalanga province, South Africa. To date, the man has been sitting in a wooden container at a height for 70 days, but his goal is 80 and work on the record is still ongoing.

Inexplicable for a professional diver, the craving for sitting at a height manifested itself in Kruger back in the late 90s. Then a 30-year-old man decided to spend a record amount of time on a tree and become famous for it all over the world. To his great annoyance, he learned that some Indonesian had already made history by sitting on a tree for 28 days. Then Vernon gave up on this idea, but not on the dream of his life.

In the Guinness Book of Records, Vernon read that a certain Briton spent 54 days in a barrel mounted on a pole. The man decided to break this record and did it in 1997, having spent 64 days in a wine barrel at an altitude. Years later, Kruger decided to shake up the old days and improve his old record, which no one ever broke.

Sitting in a 500-liter barrel at a height is not such an easy task, so Vernon has assistants. These people serve him food in a basket upstairs, as well as water for drinking and hygiene purposes. Twice a week, the record holder washes in a miniature basin, and he fulfills his natural needs through a special drain system, which his modest abode is equipped with.Comparing his great sitting with the old experience, Vernon Kruger admits that it is much easier to retire in a barrel on a pole now than a quarter of a century ago. Thanks to the Internet, the hermit does not feel so lonely. However, the diver sadly states that the years take their toll and sleeping in the fetal position at the bottom of a barrel at 52 is not as easy for him as at 30.

It turned out that the inhabitants of the barrel in the sky are waiting for the most unexpected dangers. Kruger told reporters that not so long ago a thunderstorm broke out over Dalstroom and lightning hit his home. Fortunately, while preparing the equipment for a new record, the man equipped it with a lightning protection system and the discharge did not harm him. At the same time, Kruger admitted that sitting in a barrel on a pole during a thunderstorm is a very specific pleasure and he does not need such an experience anymore.Despite the fact that the man has already broken the old record for a long time, he plans to sit in a barrel as long as he can. 80 days is the nearest goal for him, but far from the limit. According to Kruger, he wants to remain the best in his business for as long as possible and make the task as difficult as possible for those who want to bypass him.

Compared to some of the achievements of the Book of Records, Vernon Krueger's ideas do not seem so stupid.