A horrifying attack while he was leading a safari group in Zimbabwe left Paul Templer with catastrophic injuries, but even as the incident unfolded he was grateful that it wasn’t a different animal
A tour guide who was swallowed by an angry hippopotamus in Zimbabwe has recalled how he had one bizarre thought as the 15ft beast clamped its massive jaws around him.
Paul Templer had been working as a safari guide for about six years when he took the fateful trip up the the Zambezi River. He explained that he had experienced his fair share of near-misses in his time. “I’ve been absolutely terrified on occasion,” he admitted.
He said that, as well as being attacked by a hippo, he had been charged by an elephant and a lion. He added: “One day I was in a kayak, a little one man canoe, and I’ve been attacked by a really large crocodile that had me in its mouth and was like shaking me around.”
But by far the closest he came to death was when he was attacked by what most experts consider one of the most dangerous land animals – claiming more lives than lions. He told th eWhat It Was Like podcast : “A fully grown bull hippo might grow to be 15 feet long, maybe 5 feet tall and weigh up to, say, 8,000 pounds.
“I remember I used to drive a Land Rover, and that would make a fully grown bull hippo about the same length and weigh about twice what my Land Rover did. So that gives you some idea of how solid they can be.”
Paul was supposed to be doing a completely different job that day, but when a colleague fell ill and bosses asked him to conduct a tour group to the picturesque Victoria Falls, Paul jumped at the chance.
When the canoes came close to a family group of hippos, Paul tried to lead the tour group into shallower water so there was no danger of the massive river beasts getting underneath the boats and capsizing them.
But Paul’s colleague Evans Namasango, who was with two tourists in one of the other canoes, somehow became separated from the main group. Paul describes how, at first, he wasn’t too worried, and decided to take in the sights and sounds of the beautiful river until his friend caught up with them.
He continued: “And as I put my paddle down to just soak in the ambiance, there was just this, this crash. Unfortunately, I knew exactly what that sound was, having been around, it was the sound of a hippo hitting a canoe.
“I turned just in time to see Evans’ canoe up in the air, with a hippo underneath the back of it. And Evans, the paddler, flying through the air.”
Paul decided to go back and try to save his fellow-guide, but then the massive hippo decided to turn on him. Within seconds, Paul was in the water.
For a moment, he was completely disoriented. He explained: “I’m pinned inside something, and I’m trying to get around it, and I’m struggling to break free, and I can’t, but I managed to get one hand free.
“And feeling around, I just felt the bristles on the hippo’s snout. So, at least now, I knew where I was. I was from my waist up, head first down a hippo’s throat.”
It was at that point, rather than panicking, that Paul had his bizarre thought: “Maybe the weirdest part of that is my first reaction, I can remember it, is if it had just happened, was relief.
“At first I was terrified that I was up to my waist down a croc’s throat, and crocs scare the heck out of me. They really scare me.”
Luckily for Paul, he was a little bit too big to swallow, and the hippo spat him out. As he struggled to the surface, he realised that he was only a few yards from Evans. Seeing that the other man was in shock, Paul tried to rescue him. He continued “I managed to get behind him and was just moving in for the classic life saver’s hold when I’m hit from below. Once again, I’m up to my waist down the hippo’s throat, but this time I’m feet first.”
The hippo was thrashing Paul around too much for him to pull out his . 357 magnum revolver, and all he could do was wait until the huge beast released him.
For a moment Paul managed to free himself, but his relief was short-lived: “I see the monster charging in towards me with his mouth wide open and he scores a direct hit. His tusks go through my torso and through my side. My knees down are outside one side of his mouth, and my head and shoulders and arms are outside the other.”
Paul suffered grievous injuries in the attack. He had a total of 38 serious bite injuries, including a traumatic “degloving” that had torn all of the flesh from his left arm. One of the tourists, who witnessed the horrific attack, said it was like” watching a vicious dog trying to rip apart a rag doll.”
As the hippo held him in its massive jaws, Paul felt strangely peaceful, recalling: “I’m lying at the bottom of the river. I’m lying wedged inside this hippo’s mouth.
“His tusks are boring through me. And I’m staring up, and I can see the different hues of green and yellow. And I can see the sunlight shimmering on the water surface there.
“And I remember thinking, ‘I wonder who can hold their breath the longest?’ And just being very matter of fact. And then watching as my blood was just mingling with the water, and thinking ‘Am I going to bleed to death?’”
Luckily, Mike, one of Paul’s fellow-guides, managed to pull him to safety. He said: “On my left side, from my elbow up, I could just see bone in every direction you can imagine. The arm had been crushed to a pulp, and from the elbow down, they call it ‘degloved’. The bone had been crushed in more places than I could count, and most of the skin had been ripped off.
“So I said to Mike, okay, roll down my sleeve and button it up. Let’s see if we can keep it attached. There wasn’t much blood coming over.
“The artery had, in fact, sealed itself, which was nothing short of a miracle. The other shoulder, I had had tusks going through both shoulders. My left foot looked like someone had tried to beat a hole through it with a hammer.”
Mike did some basic first aid, but it was clear that Paul would not survive for long without serious medical help. It was then that he had the most amazing stroke of luck: “There was a medical air rescue team with an army shock trauma specialist surgeon with them on an exercise right nearby. And they came across and stabilised me.”
Medics were forced to amputate what remained of Paul’s left arm, but despite that, two years later he was back on the Zambezi, becoming the first person to paddle the river’s entire 1,600 mile length.