Safari guide recovering after crocodile attack in Kruger National Park

South African safari guide Mark Montgomery escaped the jaws of death when a huge 12-foot crocodile grabbed his hand and dragged him off a river bank and into the murky depths.

Mark, 52, was leading a group of hikers in the Kruger National Park in South Africa a couple of weeks ago when they stopped for lunch and needed kettle water from the nearby River Metsi.

The highly trained ranger was scooping water into a container when a crocodile’s head – apparently nearly two feet long – exploded from the shallow water and locked its teeth on him.

Shaken Mark said:

”It was so quick, so quick. I didn’t even see it come out the water. I only had time to say “Oh Sh.t!” and I was in its jaws and underwater and being taken down.

“I had managed to pull my hand back as it struck otherwise it would have had my whole arm in its mouth and I heard people shouting as it took me in, but I knew I was on my own.

“I put my hand round its neck and tried to poke its eyes and to get my hand in his mouth to open it and deter him, and was kicking up off the bottom to get to the surface.

“The crocodile started the roll and I was using my right leg to turn with it and at that moment it just let go of my hand and I breached the surface five feet from the bank.

“I grabbed a fallen tree and pulled myself over it then got out through the roots and onto the bank on the far side of the river and walked to a shallow point and crossed back.

“There were first aiders in camp who washed the wounds and called a vehicle which took me to the Mediclinic at Nelspruit where they carried out three surgeries on it.

“They fixed the fractures with pins and plates and stitched up all the teeth marks but so far I am lucky there is no infection, and I should get full use of it back in time.”

Mark gave an interview to You Tube channel Wildside Trails & Training and added: ”It won’t put me off guiding but I will be a lot more wary of water and a lot more vigilant.

“Its strength was incredible and I was very lucky,” he said.

Mark was on the 5th of six legs of the 400-mile-long super tough Kruger Trail that starts in the North Kruger at Crooks Corner and heads South and ends up at the Crocodile River.

Normally the trail is completed doing two legs a year taking three years to complete and it is unsupported, sleeping in tents or wild amongst the lions, elephants, rhinos and leopards.

Places are limited and are put out to auction each year with the money raised going to the Kruger National Park for conservation projects and to protect the animals from poaching.

Mark, who is based in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, said:

”Being underwater with the crocodile seemed like an age but when I surfaced the time it took to swim to the bank seemed to be forever.

“You are just waiting for that thing to get you again and time just stands still. But I had said to myself there is no way this crocodile is killing me today and I am getting out.”

Hiker Wayne Stocks who was with Mark collecting water said:

”I just saw this massive head fly out the water very close to my head and it just smashed Mark and it took him.

“I could see his whole body being dragged with his head closer to the surface making a bow wave and it looked like he was holding onto the back of a boat and being towed.

“He disappeared and then popped up again on the other side of the river but although the crocodile was fierce Mark was really fighting it – I am not sure I would have survived.”

Mark added: ”I just knew I had to avoid the death roll. Thousands of thoughts go through your mind so quickly. It was years of experience helped me keep my head and survive”.

Kruger National Park spokesman Isaac Phaala said: ”No matter how many times you have guided this route you respect your territory and remember this is the place wild animals call home.

“We are just glad he did not receive life-threatening injuries and survived,” he said.

The prehistoric looking Nile crocodile can grow to over 20 feet long and weigh a metric ton and run or swim at over 20mph and are responsible for killing more than 300 people every year in South Africa.

Highly eperienced Montgomery, a Special Knowledge and Skills (Dangerous Animals) guide of the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa (FGASA), has been a trail guide since 1998 working hundreds of trails.

To use any of the text, please contact Jamie Pyatt News Ltd at jamiepyatt@hotmail.com

WATCH Mark Montgomery, safari guide on surviving crocodile attack in Kruger Park

If you’d like to help Mark’s recovery so he can get back in the bush:
https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/mark-montgomery-5589438681713045524