How we escaped bush killers

New Zealanders Garth MacIntyre, left, and Cam McLeay were members of a party ambushed in Uganda.

Blinded by blood pouring from a bullet wound to his head, explorer Garth MacIntyre has told how he fled rogue bandits in Uganda, not knowing whether he would be hunted down and shot.

"I'm just happy to be alive. I'm probably the luckiest one there," the 43-year-old New Zealander said from Gulu, a northern Uganda military stronghold last night.

"We didn't know if they were coming after us. We didn't know, if we were discovered, if we were going to get shot. We didn't know how many there were.

"When your life goes in front of you like that, and you've got bullets spraying around the cab, and you know you're under attack ... you just get into survival mode."

He, fellow New Zealander Cam McLeay and two Britons survived the ambush.

A fifth man, Briton Steve Willis who lives in Uganda but was helping the Ascend the Nile expedition for the day, was shot and killed.

The four explorers, central to a team trying to become the first to ascend the length of the Nile River, were all due to travel to Kampala overnight and have not decided if they will carry on.

Mr McLeay, who was last night separated from the others and is still in Paraa, lives in Uganda, where he runs a rafting company and is a close friend of Mr Willis. He told Campbell Live last night that he feared for his life as he ran barefoot through bush for five hours to escape.

Mr MacIntyre spoke of the fear he felt and told the Herald that he and Englishman George Heathcote fled together. They worked out a survival plan to hide from the bandits, believed to be soldiers from the rebel Lord's Resistance Army.

He had been sitting directly behind Mr Willis and was shot in the head as - without warning - two bandits wielding AK-47s stepped into the road and opened fire on their vehicle.

"They riddled the Land Rover with bullets. We blew out a tyre and lost control, and we were then in survival mode. By going through the passenger window, which was open, we all bailed out.

"I lost vision and lucidity because I lost a lot of blood, that's just from a head wound. It's minor when you think that you got out of it okay.

"We took off into the bush, two of us were together. Cam took off and Neil [McGrigor, a Briton] - he didn't go very far. He was discovered by the bandits and the prognosis wasn't looking good at that stage, but they didn't kill him.

"That was lucky, that was lucky."

Mr MacIntyre and Mr Heathcote crawled on their bellies until they found a safe place to hide.

He said the rebels made Mr McGrigor unload their gear from the vehicle and hand over cash and then they tried to torch it.

But Mr McGrigor was able to put out the flames and use a satellite phone to call Mr McLeay's wife in Kampala for help.

Kate McLeay called US Embassy officials. They alerted the Ugandan Army, who sent in military helicopters and vehicles.

"It was three or four hours later; the military had come in with support, and that's when we discovered Steve had bought it.

"I had a minor injury at the end of the day, and Neil had a few minor burns."

He said the bandits did not look for any of the others after finding Mr McGrigor.

It is not clear how much of the group's equipment was destroyed or taken and whether they will carry on their expedition, which should have ended in Rwanda in about three weeks.

Mr MacIntyre, of Heretaunga near Wellington, said the expedition had been exhilarating but admitted his thoughts were with his wife, Sue, and four children, whose classmates have been following the expedition.

"It should have all gone to plan, but there was a couple of rogue bandits from the LRA. It was a random act. They came out of the bush, and they took their chance.

"The good news is four of us from the expedition are still alive. The bad news is ... Cam has lost a good friend, and he and his wife will obviously feel the pain."

Uganda media reports yesterday said troops were chasing the rebels. Mr Willis was the third European killed by the LRA in as many days, after a British aid worker and an Italian both died.

- additional reporting Elizabeth Binning