I was swallowed by a hippo – I thought ‘this is how I die’ but somehow I survived
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A SAFARI guide has miraculously survived after he was almost swallowed whole by a hippo.
In 1996, 28-year-old Paul Templer had just moved back to Zimbabwe following a stint in the British army.
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He returned to his job as a safari guide and was excited to take a group of six on a canoe trip down the Zambezi River alongside two co-workers, CNN reported.
The excursion started out smooth, but things went awry when the group encountered a pod of hippos.
“We were getting closer, and I was trying to take evasive action,” Templer said.
“The idea was let’s just paddle safely around the hippos.”
He managed to get around the animals, but one of the other canoes encountered an issue.
“Suddenly, there’s this big thud,” Templer said.
“And I see the canoe, like the back of it, catapulted up into the air. And Evans, the guide in the back of the canoe, catapulted out of the canoe.”
Somehow, the two clients managed to stay in the boat.
INTO THE RIVER
Templer quickly turned back to save Evans, who the river was carrying toward a mother hippo and her baby.
Just as Templer was about to pull Evans out of the water, a wave erupted beneath his boat.
After he was knocked out of the canoe, Templer ended up in a strange spot.
“I realized I was up to my waist down a hippo’s throat,” he said.
“From the waist down, I could feel the water. I could feel I was wet in the river. From my waist up, it was different. I was warm, and it wasn’t wet like the river, but it wasn’t dry either. And it was just incredible pressure on my lower back. I tried to move around; I couldn’t.”
For some reason, the hippo decided to spit Templer out.
But as he made another attempt to save Evans, who was still thrashing around in the river, Templer got partially swallowed again, this time from the waist down.
After he was spit out a second time, Templer assumed Evans had been rescued.
THRASHED LIKE A RAGOLL
But the guide’s ordeal wasn’t over.
He ended up in a hippo’s mouth again, this time sideways. The animal thrashed Templer around violently.
One of the clients said the attack looked like a “vicious dog trying to rip apart a rag doll.”
Templer was saved by another guide, who bravely came up to the side of the hippo in a kayak.
After grabbing onto the vessel and finding refuge on a rock in the middle of the river, Templer realized the extent of his injuries.
There was a hole in his left foot, one of his arms had been crushed to a pulp, and he was bleeding out of his mouth due to a punctured lung.
This was also when Templer realized that Evans hadn’t survived the ordeal.
His body was found three days later. Investigators concluded that he had drowned.
After an excruciating boat ride that ended with an eight-hour drive to a hospital, a surgeon managed to save Templer’s life.
But he wasn’t able to save the guide’s arm, which had to be amputated.
Despite everything he went through, Templer said travelers shouldn’t shy away from safari excursions.
“Absolutely go and do it,” he said.
“But hook yourself up with someone who knows what they’re doing out there.”
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