Crocodile attacks kayakers, drags guide away
Well, at least he went doing something he wanted.
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Coetzee, who was leading two Americans on a whitewater expedition in Central Africa is presumed dead after a crocodile attacked the kayak and dragged him away, rescuers said Thursday.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 12/9/2010 8:25:52 PM ET 2010-12-10T01:25:52
JOHANNESBURG — An acclaimed South African outdoorsman who was leading a kayaking expedition from the source of the White Nile into Congo was dragged from his craft by a crocodile as two Americans watched, horrified. The guide is presumed dead.
The two Americans paddled to safety after the Tuesday morning attack on the Lukuga River in Congo. The International Rescue Committeehttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/2_11pxw.gif helped evacuate the Americans to a nearby town after the attack, said Ciaran Donnelly, the organization's regional director in the Central African country.
The body of 35-year-old Hendrik Coetzee, who was living in Uganda, has not been recovered.
The two Americans — Ben Stookesberry and Chris Korbulic — were "physically unharmed but shaken up by the incident," Donnelly said Thursday. They are currently in Congo but expect to return home to the U.S. shortly. Korbulic is from Rogue River, Ore., and Stookesberry is from Mount Shasta, Calif.
'I would never live a better day'
The three men, all experienced kayakers, were part of a mission to document unexplored whitewater and development projects in the region, the statement added, noting that another focus of the project is to highlight the clean water crisis in Central Africa.
In his online blog, Coetzee discussed the importance of trusting instincts. "Expeditions should not have many rules, but since there is nothing common about sense, some have. Our only rule is jokingly quoted but of the utmost importance. 'Nobody panic,'" he wrote in a Nov. 17 post.
In Coetzee's last entry, dated Nov. 26, he wrote: "It is hard to know the difference between irrational fear and instinct, but fortunate is he who can. Often there is no clear right or wrong option, only the safest one. And if safe was all I wanted, I would have stayed home in Jinja.
- "Too often when trying something no one has ever done, there are only 3 likely outcome (sic): Success, quitting, or serious injury and beyond. The difference in the three, are often forces outside of your control. But this is the nature of the beast: Risk."
After describing some of the geographical and political perils of the day's journey, Coetzee summed up his realizations about the experience as the team looked ahead:
"We stood precariously on a unknown slope deep in the heart of Africa, for once my mind and heart agreed, I would never live a better day."
