A man, swallowed up to his waist by a hippo, has shared the secret to surviving such a situation. Paul Templer, a former tour operator, was 28 years old when he was attacked by a large hippo while leading a tour in his home in Zimbabwe. In 1996, he revealed to CNN Travel that he had served time in the British Army and had only recently started working as a tour guide again.
Paul was leading a canoe safari down the Zambezi River. He said, “I loved that stretch of the river. It was an area I know like the back of my hand. Three trainee guides and six tour participants were distributed among three three-person canoes and a one-person safety kayak for the excursion. Things were going the way they were supposed to go. Everyone was having a pretty good time.”
They were surprised to find about a dozen hippos because they weren’t expecting to see them on the Zambezi River. The plan called for going around, but things didn’t work out. He doesn’t know how that happened, but his boat was in front while the others lagged behind, according to Daily Star.
He further said, “Suddenly, there’s this big thud 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.” When they returned for Evans after getting the tourists to safety, things had already started to go awry for Templer. He claimed to have seen a bow wave approaching in the shape of a torpedo and realised it was either a hippo or a sizable crocodile.
Paul explained, “I slapped the water, and as it was supposed to do, the torpedo wave stops. It wasn’t enough though. Happened so fast that I didn’t see a thing. Everything went dark and weirdly quiet as he tried to figure out what had just happened. 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, but I couldn’t."
When they returned for Evans after getting the tourists to safety, things had already started to go awry for Templer. He claimed to have seen a bow wave approaching in the shape of a torpedo and realised it was either a hippo or a sizable crocodile.
He added, “I realised I was up to my waist down a hippo’s throat. But I got lucky I guess I was wedged so far down its throat it must have been uncomfortable because he spat me out. So I burst to the surface, sucked a lungful of fresh air and I came face to face with Evans, the guide who I was trying to rescue. And I said, ‘We got to get out of here!"
Evans swam for him because he still needed assistance, but he has eaten again: “WHAM! - I was struck from below. I’m now down the hippo’s throat to my waist once more. However, this time my hands are free but my legs are confined. He spat out once more, but the hippo kept moving.”
He added, “I’m making pretty good progress and I’m swimming along there when I come up for the stroke and swimming freestyle and I look underneath my arm - and until my dying day I’ll remember this - there’s this hippo charging in towards me with his mouth wide open bearing in before he scores a direct hit."
The third time, as it attempted to tear him apart, he found himself sideways in its stomach. Fortunately for me, everything was moving slowly. I would thus hold my breath as he submerged, he stated. He promised to take a deep breath when the hippo surfaced. Amazingly, Mack, one of the other tour leaders, was able to save him.
He recalled, “Showing incredible bravery, risking his life to save mine – pulls his boat in inches from my face. Mack dragged me to the relative safety of this rock.”
Despite having holes in several different places of his body and pierced lungs, Evans drowned despite also losing his left arm in the attack. He said, “Normally if a hippo is going to be attacking, you’ll see it coming way before," when talking about how to withstand an attack. That bow wave definitely will come. 99.9 out of 100 times, turning a hippo will result from slapping the water. Get out of the canoe if a hippo knocks you into the water while you’re in it. The hippo is attempting to push this large form outside of its domain.
He said to try not to panic, “When dragged underwater. Remember to suck in the air if on the surface.” after happening all these things he still recommends safari though, “My biggest counsel would be: Absolutely go and do it. But hook yourself up with someone who knows what they’re doing out there. But by all means, go out and experience it.”
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