Tourist Recalls What a Near-Fatal Hippo Attack Actually Felt Like

A British couple who were embarked on a five-week camping safari trip through Southern Africa had their dream vacation upended when a hippo capsized their canoe and almost killed the husband in the ensuring attack.

Roland Cherry, 63, and his wife Shirley had already traveled through the National Parks of Botswana from Johannesburg up to Victoria Falls during the first two-week leg of their trip back in June. They were only four days into the second leg of their trip on a river safari on the Kafue River, a tributary of the Zambezi, when the attack occurred. Speaking with the BBC in an interview this week, Cherry described the moment the hippo attacked as like "a massive crash, much like a car crash really."

Cherry says the canoe then "reared up in the air," throwing them both into the water. Thankfully, his wife was able to swim to shore, but his shoulder was dislocated when the boat hit it, leaving him unable to swim.

"The instructions were to swim to safety but I couldn't swim so I was really a sitting duck, trying to swim with one arm which was never going to end well—and then it grabbed me," Cherry recalled, and said that the hippo then dragged him to the bottom of the river.

"I do remember thinking, 'Oh no, what a way to go... I'm not ready to die' and I thought this was it, because nobody survives hippo attacks," he continued.

The hippo briefly relented, leaving Cherry in shallow water near the riverbank. But then he was grabbed for a second time.

"We know subsequently from fellow travelers I was grabbed again and thrown through the air like a rag doll but towards the bank which was the godsend," he explained. "I remember looking down at my legs thinking 'that's not good'. There was bits of flesh sticking out of my torn shorts and blood over my abdomen."

"I was in its jaws and I didn't see it once—we have eye witness accounts of that happening—but I was never conscious of that," he added.

Finally, the hippo seemingly lost interest, thankfully leaving him near the riverbank. Cherry remembered his wife calling his name and "friendly arms" pulling him to shore. He was then put on a motor boat and transported to the nearest village of Chirundu, Zambia by mini bus, about 25 minutes away. The air ambulance company hadn't arrived by the time he got to town, so he was taken to the local hospital. He said the decision "undoubtably saved his life."

All told, Cherry suffered a 10-inch wound to his abdomen and a thigh injury in addition to the dislocated shoulder. He was later moved to a hospital in Johannesburg for further treatment, where staff told him he may not have survived if the wounds had been slightly deeper. A nurse also told him that they had never encountered a hippo attack survivor, as attacks tend to be fatal.

Now, Cherry is hoping to raise £20,000 on a crowdfunding website—not to cover his medical expenses, but to help buy medical equipment for the local hospital to thank them for the "life saving intervention."

"While recovering in my hospital bed, I had time to think and reflect on the incident. What struck me most from this near-death experience was the kindness of strangers," he writes on the page. "I vowed that assuming I made it home to Warwickshire I would talk about the incident at a fundraising event for the Mtendere Mission Hospital and see if we can offer something back to the hospital that had almost certainly saved my life."

And he is indeed very lucky to be alive. Hippos are the second most dangerous land animals on earth—behind only the disease-carrying mosquito—and are responsible for killing at least 500 people a year.