JohnCenaFan28
12-16-2008, 10:56 PM
Three British scout leaders were forced to trek through jungle for five days after a hippo capsized their canoe.
http://www.ananova.com/images/web/1462252.jpg
Terrified Brian Sheen, 66, Geoff Ryder, 59, and Michael Billworth, 23, were travelling on the River Niger in Guinea when the huge beast struck.
They were four days into a planned 2,500-mile river journey through Africa, reports the Daily Mail.
Mr Sheen, a retired chemist of Par, Cornwall, said: "We were on full hippo watch and all of a sudden we came to an abrupt halt. I thought we had hit a rock. The front went up and the middle went up.
"Then the back flew in the air and Geoff, who is 16 stone, was suddenly airborne and landed in the water beside the boat.
"It burst out like a submarine missile. We didn't have time to be scared. The canoe was going down fast. The hippo was about 20 yards away looking at us."
The men ditched their canoe - made from a tree trunk - and escaped after scrambling up the riverbank.
They abandoned all their gear apart from their sat nav systems and started a trek through head-high elephant grass and bamboo.
Five days later they reached a village and were fed by the inhabitants, before being given a lift 60 miles on motorcycles back to the town of Faranah in Guinea where they had begun their journey.
-Nova
http://www.ananova.com/images/web/1462252.jpg
Terrified Brian Sheen, 66, Geoff Ryder, 59, and Michael Billworth, 23, were travelling on the River Niger in Guinea when the huge beast struck.
They were four days into a planned 2,500-mile river journey through Africa, reports the Daily Mail.
Mr Sheen, a retired chemist of Par, Cornwall, said: "We were on full hippo watch and all of a sudden we came to an abrupt halt. I thought we had hit a rock. The front went up and the middle went up.
"Then the back flew in the air and Geoff, who is 16 stone, was suddenly airborne and landed in the water beside the boat.
"It burst out like a submarine missile. We didn't have time to be scared. The canoe was going down fast. The hippo was about 20 yards away looking at us."
The men ditched their canoe - made from a tree trunk - and escaped after scrambling up the riverbank.
They abandoned all their gear apart from their sat nav systems and started a trek through head-high elephant grass and bamboo.
Five days later they reached a village and were fed by the inhabitants, before being given a lift 60 miles on motorcycles back to the town of Faranah in Guinea where they had begun their journey.
-Nova