Lessons from a hippo attack

These lessons are applicable in our daily lives

Let’s get the obvious lesson out of the way — avoid such an attack at all costs. Hippos are huge, ridiculously aggressive, territorial vegetarians who will gladly chomp you in two at the slightly provocation.

Now we’ve got that out of the way, here’s the story of that fateful day and the five lessons I took away from it that are applicable away from such terrifying encounters.

What happened

I was on a self-organised expedition down the Nile river in Africa. I had spent two years planning it and was on day six of this life changing adventure. For the section from the source in Rwanda through to Lake Victoria I was rafting with three Ugandan rafting guides I’d engaged. That morning as I woke and stretched out in my tent I momentarily froze as I heard a hippo grunting in the river as it made its way upstream. The boys had heard it too. Below is an extract from my upcoming book, Paddle the Nile, about this expedition.

‘There was tension in the air as we got on the water, and it wasn’t too long before we met our first pod of hippos. We made our way past them without any issues. The plan, generally, when you’re in hippo territory is to slap the surface of the water with a paddle. They spend up to 16 hours each day submerged to keep cool. When you slap the water, they resurface to see what the noise is, so you can then see where they are and give them a wide berth. That’s great on a wide river where you have space to manoeuvre, but here it was just 50­ to 70 metres wide and it twisted and turned with short steep banks, so it was impossible to see what was ahead.

Cruising along, the river was about to bend to the left and then right. As we rounded the left bend, a baby hippo popped up slightly ahead of us in the shallows on the left. We stopped paddling, but the river continued to carry us. I’d barely muttered the words, ‘Where’s Mum?’ and she popped up on our right. We unintentionally drifted between her and bub.

You don’t need to be David Attenborough to know this was a huge mistake.

The mother lost it and came at us huffing and puffing. Paulo employed all his athleticism to leap to the front of the raft as she gave us a hefty nudge, putting her head under the raft to seemingly try and flip it.

I felt the sensation of pure primal fear spread through my body — there was no space for thinking, just action. We frantically tried to paddle away from her, but she came at us again, determined to inflict damage. Koa was on the oars, and Peter and I were on either side paddling upfront. Looking towards the riverbank we were desperately trying to get to, I felt a sudden tug on our craft. I turned to see the hippo attached to the back of the raft, less than three metres away from me. Fuck! She had sunk her enormous teeth in and had put a gaping hole in the raft.

She let go and momentarily paused, possibly put off by the pop and rush of air through the hole she’d created. It gave us a short window to get to land and leap to safety onto the riverbank. We stood breathing deeply, hearts racing as we watched nervously to see what she was going to do next. She backed off a little. And then a little more.

We were extremely lucky to have come out unscathed.’

So here are my five lessons.

1. Challenge expert advice

It’s important to get expert advice, particularly when you’re heading into the unknown. That could be starting a business, trying a new sport or as was this case, organising my first expedition.

If people I consider to be experts give me advice, I tend to take it as gospel. When it came to hippos, as mentioned, I was advised that you hit the water with a paddle so they pop up and you go around them. Sounded like a simple and practical plan. However, this wasn’t going to work here as the river was narrow and the risk of them popping up close was high. But I was stuck in thinking, “Well that’s what the experts say, so that’s the only way.”

Peter, one of my guides, wasn’t constrained by that kind of thinking.

Once the hole in the raft was repaired and we were preparing to get back on the water he said, “Next time we see a hippo, if we can get off the river we do, and we tow the raft past.” Genius. Within an hour we came across a large male hippo who put on a psychotic display on catching sight of us. We got off the raft onto the riverbank, waited until he calmed down and then we quietly and slowly towed the raft passed him. It worked a treat.

My takeaway was to always look for different solutions. Away from ‘expert advice’ I’m good at coming up with solutions and dealing with obstacles. Just because you’re advised on one particular approach, that doesn’t mean it’s the only way. It’s not about ignoring the experts, but just because you aren’t an ‘expert’ doesn’t mean you cannot come up with new or better solutions.

2. Be the weakest link

With my lack of experience at going on expeditions, with white water or with African wildlife I was adamant that my team had to be strong and that I was going to be the weakest link.

It proved valuable here — there was Peter, with his experience of dealing with hippos, staying calm under extreme pressure and getting us out of sticky situations beyond hippos. Paulo had done an expedition down this stretch of river and all three guides were highly skilled white water rafters and kayakers. Between them, they made me feel safe, despite the various life-threatening experiences we dealt with.

Off the river I would pick up the leadership mantle. We worked well together as a team.

In my first real leadership role in banking I learned the value of my reports having greater experience. I quickly saw there was nothing to threatened by — they each brought valuable skills and I learned from them and together as a team we were successful. My role was to show my confidence in them and support and enable them to do what they do best and then make decisions and get involved when needed.

I took this onto this Nile trip — I showed the guys I had absolute confidence in them and did what I could to enable them to get on with what they did best. This trip reaffirmed the value of a strong team, making up for my lack of expertise and expereince and then supporting them and getting out of their way, while having the confidence to step in when necessary.

3. Manage risk to take risk

I’m a professional risk manager by trade. While the risks on this expedition were different to those in my banking roles, the same principles applied. Identify what can go wrong, what worst case is, assess how significant that would be and how likely, come up with approaches to manage the risk and then have actions plans in place as needed.

It paid off on this trip and with this incident. I chose to be in a raft for the initial section because there was big white water and I’m no white water kayaker. It was my craft of choice also because of the wildlife — hippos, along with big, aggressive crocodiles. My theory was the raft created height and space away between me and these threats. I’d heard and read too many stories of people being attacked and even killed by hippos and crocs in African rivers.

I also had repair kits for the raft (thankfully), a crisis team on hand, insurance for myself and the rafting guides that included medical evacuation, had done remote first aid and much more.

This incident brought home how vital my risk analysis work had been. However, there was room for improvement. I could have spent time thinking about more scenarios of what can go wrong, the causes and outcomes, have others challenge my thinking and look for more potential solutions, prior to the proverbial hitting the fan.

To successfully take risk we need to manage risk, whatever the risks maybe. Spend time thinking about worst case and complete appropriate levels of analysis. Take smart risks and you can live a bigger life and explore what you are capable of.

4. Control the controllables

We had many run ins with hippos and it got to the point I was a bundles of nerves every time we got on the river, stressing about these creatures. I reminded myself it was pointless stressing about something I had zero control over.

I couldn’t control whether these beasts would attack us. I had a choice — stop the expedition or carry on and accept the risk and focus on what I could control. It was a no brainer — I went with the latter and guided my thoughts elsewhere. I focused on the beauty around me, the sounds, the warmth of the sun on my skin, looking at the other animals we came across. I chatted to the boys and focused on being in the moment and enjoying it with the confidence that as a team we would continue to deal with whatever came up. And to breathe. Deeply.

It’s so easy to get caught up in our emotions and negative thought patterns around things we cannot influence, let alone control. Throughout this trip I had to keep bringing myself back to what I could control — my thoughts, actions and emotions and then let everything else go, or at least try to.

It isn’t easy but it’s such a waste of energy to stress about what we can’t control. And like this trip, potentially miss out on the positives and joy.

5. A strong why helps you overcome fear

The only thing that got me back on the river after this terrifying encounter was a desire with every cell in my body to complete this expedition. I wanted to do this more than any goal I’d ever had. I couldn’t fully put into words why it was so important to me, but even a 1,500kg (3,300lb) river monster wasn’t going to stop me.

I am not one of those fearless adventurers. There was so much that terrified me about this trip. It amazed me just what I was willing to face because this expedition was so important to me.

Often what we want the most is the other side of fear. In my experience fear brings friends with it — a feeling of shame for feeling afraid when I see others who aren’t. Then there is the feeling of vulnerability and a sense of isolation. Those are strong feelings and emotions to overcome. If we dig deep into why we want it, and really focus on that, complemented with taking action, even tiny steps, it diminishes the power our fears hold. At least that’s my takeaway.

So there we are. These lessons aren’t ground-breaking but sometimes I need to have these lessons rammed down my throat in the form of a life-threatening situation to really get it.

They are lessons that serve me away from the expedition, and help me explore my possible and try to live my best life. Maybe they can help you too.

Sarah x x

My book ‘Paddle the Nile: One Woman’s Search for a Life Less Ordinary’ is due to be published April 2022.