Is this guy nuts, or am I just overly risk-averse? Photographer captures amazing images of lions after submerging himself in watering hole for three months
Amazing photos, to be sure — kudos to photographer Greg du Toit — but the aftereffects seem a bit costly to me…
… diagnosed with deadly malaria twice after contracting it through mosquitoes breeding in the pool…
‘The doctors panicked when they noticed that my red blood platelet count was sky high,’ Mr du Toit said.
‘The first real symptom was blood in my urine, which is when I went for blood tests. The blood test confirmed that I had Bilharzia.
‘It’s caused by a type of flatworm which had spent part of its life in water snails and the other part in my liver. It left me weak and in bed for weeks.’
He added: ‘The high red blood platelet count signalled that I was carrying a lot of parasites. This included numerous species of internal worm parasites and a particularly nasty external worm parasite known as Hook Worm.
‘This worm was actually visible under the skin of my foot and would move at night. It became a game to find the worm in my foot each morning.’
After a long stint sick in bed recovering, Mr du Toit was finally given the all clear following courses of powerful antibiotics, pesticides and by spraying liquid nitrogen on the parasites visible under his skin.
To get the “frog’s-eye view”, du Toit apparently just waded into the pond until just his head was above the surface of the water. No flippin’ wonder he picked up so many bugs, being marinated in a cesspool like that! And to top off the exposure to who-knows-what unseen threats, he’s just “a leap away” from the wildlife he photographed.
The lions knew there was something in the water but we think they only recognise humans when they are upright on legs so they took little notice of me and my camera.
He added: ‘It was worth it 100 per cent and I would do it all again, worms and all.’
I wonder if he thought to use something like a drysuit to keep from becoming a large parasite-infested pink raisin. Any bets on whether he finds another pool &
Tags: africa, greg du toit, photography