Mike Turner was left stranded after his truck was partially submerged (Picture: Captain Pottie Potgieter/SANDF)
A British safari guide who took a wrong turn and got his truck stuck in a crocodile-filled river says he’s ‘lucky to be alive’.
Mike Turner was following directions from Google Maps through Kruger National Park in South Africa when he was sent across a bridge which had been flooded due to heavy rain.
Mike, 56, managed to wedge the second-hand open-topped ‘game viewer’ truck against the strong current before clambering onto its raised benches and calling for help.
But he ended up clinging to the truck for 15 hours before a rescue helicopter found him, where the Komati and Crocodile Rivers meet, and airlifted him to safety.
Mike, who moved to Mozambique in 2011, was uninjured by the ordeal – and he joked he would have given any crocodiles which tried to attack him a ‘boot in the teeth’.
Describing his desperate plan to survive, he said: ‘It was absolutely terrifying. It’s a miracle that I survived the night.
Mike was thankfully unharmed during the ordeal (Picture: Captain Pottie Potgieter/SANDF)
‘Crocodiles are definitely a serious threat on that stretch of river.
‘The police told me afterwards that two people had been swept away at the same spot earlier that day, and when they found their bodies they’d been half eaten by crocs.
‘I didn’t have any kind of weapon with me. I was thinking “If a croc tries to get me, it’s going to get a boot in the teeth!”‘
Thankfully Mike didn’t spot any crocodiles during his ordeal, but one was spotted sunning itself on the riverbank as the truck was recovered over the weekend.
Originally from Cumbria, Mike ran tours in the Maputo National Park before his previous game viewing vehicle was burnt out in an accident.
Last week he hopped over the South African border to purchase the used Ford Ranger vehicle from Hoedspruit, but due to heavy traffic on his way back last Thursday decided to book into a guest house.
‘I put the location into Google Maps on my phone as it wasn’t an area I knew, and set off along the route,’ he said.
‘It was a dark night and the lights on the vehicle weren’t great, and I came across what I thought was a shallow ford across a river.
He managed to wedge the truck against the remains of the bridge to keep it from drifting away with te current (Picture: Captain Pottie Potgieter/SANDF)
‘There were no warning signs so I carried on. But the water started coming over the bonnet, and then the lights went out.
‘I couldn’t see where the bridge was, but I didn’t want get swept away and end up croc’s dinner.
‘So I managed to wedge the truck over the side of the bridge against the water and climbed to the back row of seats, which was the highest point.’
Mike called the guesthouse he was supposed to be visiting overnight, where staff alerted rescuers.
But with the water 5ft higher than normal, volunteers could only watch from the riverbank until an Oxyx helicopter operated by the South African military was scrambled the following day.
And exposed to the cold wind all night, at one point Mike was shivering so hard he dropped his phone into the river, meaning he had no idea what was going on until the rescue helicopter arrived.
I’m just so thankful to everyone involved in rescuing me,’ Mike said.
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He’s now waiting for the battered but operational truck to be repaired so he can drive it back to Mozambique.
‘Africa does test you, but after 12 years here I feel I have a pretty good understanding of what this continent can throw at you’, he added.
‘I’ve had a few tricky situations, but what made this one different was spending such a long time on the edge between life and death.
‘My diving experience was a life-saver, it taught me just to keep breathing and not to panic or do anything stupid.
‘Hopefully they will put up signs or barriers to prevent anyone else making the same mistake that I did – the next person might not be lucky as me.’
Torrential rain and flash flooding in western parts of South Africa have killed at least 20 people since Christmas Day.
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