CROC SHOCK!

Trail guide Mark's quick thinking meant a lucky escape from the jaws of a hungry crocodile in the Kruger National Park

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA

THE group of travellers stopped for a water break – tired, thirsty and hot from the relentless Mpumalanga sun. The experienced trail guide leading them was familiar with the Metsi-Metsi River and the surrounding area and felt comfortable to head towards the river to fill his water bottle.

But on his third scoop Mark Montgomery came face to face with one of the world’s deadliest predators – and a split second after he saw the crocodile, the beast clamped its jaws around his hand.

"I looked and the crocodile's head was dead still under the water, Mark (51) recalls. "There wasn't even a ripple or anything. I think I pulled my hand back. If I didn't it would've gotten my arm." Mark's instincts kicked in during the terrifying ordeal, which happened at the end of April, and he tried to fight the animal.

One of the hikers tried to help him but by then the crocodile, estimated to be about 3,5m in length, tried to drag him under the water. It was trying to do the "death roll" - when a crocodile spins its prey underwater to drown it before eating it.

"When he started turning, I was kicking with my right leg, countering his turn," he says. "When I felt him release, I lurched for the surface and lunged for the roots of a fallen tree and pulled myself out" Mark feared the crocodile would get him again but he managed to get to safety.

In that moment his main focus was survival, Mark tells YOU from his hospital bed in Mediclinic Nelspruit.