Lodge owner Gavin, 58, was out on a 20-mile training ride as dusk fell and was belting along at 25mph when Africa’s largest rodent suddenly ran straight out right in front of his wheels.
Unable to avoid the 25kg bristling beastie his bike slammed into it hard and the porcupine and Gavin got tangled up as his bike went tumbling down the dusty South African dirt track.
When he got up he realised he had been peppered with quills and was like a human pin cushion with some 20 quills hanging out of his legs and feet and his tyres were as flat as pancakes.
The porcupine he had hit was dazed but there was worse to come – its angry mate was staring right at him out of the undergrowth and was shaking its quills in rage and ran at him.
Lodge owner Gavin, 58, shows the porcupine quills that were embedded in his foot after he came off his bike during a 20-mile training ride in South Africa
Gavin said: ‘I was lying on the ground and all I could do was put my head down to let my helmet take the impact but luckily the quills faced back behind it and not towards me.
‘Porcupines normally attack sideways or backwards so that the quills can cause maximum damage to a predator or someone who is a threat to it but this one just ran straight at me head-on.
‘It gave the porcupine I had just crashed into the chance to get up and escape and then the pair of them disappeared into the bush leaving me looking down at all these quills sticking in me.
‘It was almost dark and both my mountain bike tyres had so many quills sticking there was no way I could fix all the punctures and I tried to ring for help but could get no phone signal.
‘I began picking the quills out of my legs and feet one by one and was lucky that most of them had not embedded very deeply but there were two in my ankle that were very deep and very painful.’
‘This is a remote area and hardly any cars come along here after dark so I knew I was in trouble as the South African bush is nowhere to spend the night out alone and I was in a pickle,’ he said.
The porcupine he had hit was dazed but there was worse to come – its angry mate was staring right at him out of the undergrowth and was shaking its quills in rage and ran at him (File photo)
The punctured rear wheel with six quills sticking out of it. A friend of his came out in his station wagon to Gavin and his bike back to safety
Then Gavin who runs the Hluhluwe River Lodge on the elephant coast in KwaZulu-Natal had his first bit of luck of the night – two cars carrying a plastic surgeon and 3 doctors arrived from nowhere!
Gavin said: ‘I could not believe it and the plastic surgeon had a full emergency kit with him including local anaesthetic and put on his head torch and set about removing the two deep quills.’
‘The quills hurt like hell so I was grateful for the pain relief and one of the doctors was able to call a friend of mine to come out in his station wagon to get me and my bike back to safety,’ he said.
Plastic surgeon Dr Ehren Eksteen, 45, was in his car with his GP wife Hendi, 43, and in the following car were two other medical specialists so Gavin could not have been in better hands.
Dr Eksteen and his three colleagues enjoy studying the South African wildlife and were out searching for frogs and snakes in the local national parks when they saw Gavin in their headlights.
Unable to avoid the 25kg bristling beastie his bike slammed into it hard and the porcupine and Gavin got tangled up as his bike went tumbling down the dusty South African dirt track
Gavin said: ‘I could not believe it and the plastic surgeon had a full emergency kit with him including local anaesthetic and put on his head torch and set about removing the two deep quills’
Gavin said the quills ‘hurt like hell’ and he was grateful for the pain relief
Plastic surgeon Dr Ehren Eksteen (pictured), 45, was in his car with his GP wife Hendi, 43, and in the following car were two other medical specialists so Gavin could not have been in better hands
Married father-of-two Gavin of Hluhluwe said: ‘My tyres and handlebars tell the story of my bike and the photo of the quills in my ankle and cycling shoe tell the story of me and the porcupine!’
Gavid added: ‘It was almost dark and both my mountain bike tyres had so many quills sticking there was no way I could fix all the punctures and I tried to ring for help but could get no phone signal’
Dr Eksteen from Pretoria said: ‘Gavin had picked out most of the porcupine quills himself but there were two very deep ones left both about 5cm deep so I had to do a bit of surgery to get them.
‘I always carry my medical kit for emergencies and it is has come in very handy in the past but this is the first time I have had to use it to sort out a crash between a cyclist and a porcupine!’
‘That road has almost no traffic on it at night as after dark people stay indoors so Gavin was very lucky we happened along,’ he said.
Married father-of-two Gavin of Hluhluwe said: ‘My tyres and handlebars tell the story of my bike and the photo of the quills in my ankle and cycling shoe tell the story of me and the porcupine!
‘Lions and leopards often attack them but almost always come off worse and quills that stick in their mouth can stop them feeding and they starve or they get infected and die of sepsis.’
‘I went home for a cold beer and in the morning saw the doctor who gave me a tetanus jab and some antibiotics and within a week I was back on the bike but now wary of porcupines,’ he said.
The Cape Porcupine can grow up to 28kg and run at 6mph and is Africa’s biggest rodent and is covered in an incredible shield of 30,000 quills which can grow up to 18 inches long.
Gavin said: ‘I drove past the scene the next day and out of curiosity stopped and got out and there were over 100 quills on the track. I picked them up and have them in a pot at home as a reminder!’
Porcupines are usually nocturnal and when they pair up they stay together for life and are aggressively territorial and when hungry eat tree bark, berries, roots, grasses, seeds and leaves.