Suddenly, the surface erupted as the massive head and shoulders of a mature leopard seal, mouth gaping in expectation, crashed through the eggshell covering. It closed its powerful jaws about my right leg, and I fell backward, shocked and helpless in its vise-like grip. Feeling myself being dragged toward a watery grave, I locked my left crampon onto the opposing edge. I knew that once I was in the water, it would be all over.
"Help, help, Steve, Tim, help," I screamed repeatedly. It seemed an age before I finally caught sight of their running figures."Kick it, kick it, kick it, get the bloody thing off me, hurry, hurry for Christ's sake, you bastard, you bastard," I yelled hysterically, my gloved hands scrabbling fruitlessly for purchase on the smooth ice behind me as I strained against the seal's prodigious weight.
For one tiny fraction of a second our eyes met. These were not the pleading eyes of a Weddell seal nor the shy glance of a crabeater sealโthey were cold and evil with intent. What fear the seal must have recognized in my own during this brief moment of communication, I can only imagine.
"Bloody hell, it's a leopard seal," Steve shouted breathlessly as he leapt across the crack to attack the brute from the opposite side.
"Get the bloody thing off me, kick it, for Christ's sake," I screamed again.
"Aim for its eye, its eye," Tim shouted, his voice verging on panic.
"Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!" Steve chanted in rhythm to his swinging boot.
― Bobson Dugnutt (ulysses), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:45 (seven years ago) link