Drunk tourist leaps off boat to wrestle croc

metre-long crocodile for a dare.
The 21-year-old Zimbabwean-born teacher, Scott Brand who teaches at the £9 630-a-term exclusive school at Cumnor House School in Haywards Heath in West Sussex, was holidaying in Zimbabwe with frie-nds in January when, after downing one-too-many, they went looking for crocodiles to wrestle in Lake Kariba.
In no time they saw the huge reptile in the water and Scott, who also plays as an openside flanker for Uckfield Rugby Club in East Sussex, jumped off the boat and tried to grab the reptile around the neck.
‘‘Unfortunately, I had also been sampling Africa’s finest lager all afternoon, making our plans to wrestle with one of the water’s most dangerous predators all the more tricky. ‘I saw a four-foot long croc and just jumped in and grabbed it.
‘‘It went nuts and was really going for me and it eventually got a hold of my left arm and bit down,” Brand, who admitted he had had a few drinks before deciding to tackle the crocodile, said.
He added: ‘‘It was bloody sore, but I got back on land and just poured some vodka over it and bandaged it up.”
Mr Brand admitted that he and his pals “weren’t too concerned”, adding: ‘‘We were in the middle of a lake, right in the middle of nowhere.
‘‘We were four days away from civilisation, but to be honest it only took a few seconds before I got another beer down me and we stayed for another six days.”
When he got back to the UK, however, his left arm had swollen up and become infected and he was rushed to hospital for treatment. He phoned his headmaster to tell him that he couldn’t make it into school because he had been bitten by a crocodile.
Doctors at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead operated on the wound after discovering that blood poisoning was setting in and stitched the wound up.
He said school staff and pupils were “amazed” when he told them why he needed a few days off sick, adding: “Everyone at school, the headmaster, kids and other teachers, were shocked and couldn’t believe I had been bitten by a crocodile.
“I was off school for a few days and missed three rugby matches. Everyone is calling me croc bait or Mick Dundee now.” – Daily Mail- HR.