That Bear Ate My Pants!

‘That Bear’ is the first book I wrote – the one that started it all! It came about because my trip to Ecuador was so unbelievable, so ridiculous, that I just knew I had to tell the stories to a wider audience. After spending a few years trying to get a publishing deal for it, only to be told be a top London agent that I’d never sell it because I wasn’t famous – I decided to self-publish. Since then, my unpublishable memoir has sold over 100,000 copies, and has funded my adventures for the last ten years! Here’s the blurb:

There comes a time in every man’s life when he says to himself, “Holy Sh*t! I’m about to be eaten by a bear!”

Tony James Slater went to Ecuador, determined to become a man.
It never occurred to him that ‘or die trying’ might be an option…

The trouble with volunteering in a South American animal refuge is that everything wants a piece of you. And the trouble with being Tony, is that most of them got one.

Just how do you ‘look after’ something that’s trying its damnedest to kill you and eat you?
And how do you find love when you a) don’t speak the language, and b) are constantly covered in excrement and entrails?

If only he’d had some relevant experience. Other than owning a pet rabbit when he was nine. And if only he’d bought some travel insurance…

That Bear Ate My Pants is the hilarious tale of one man’s quest to better himself. Whether losing a machete fight with a tree, picking dead tarantulas out of a tank of live ones or sewing the head back on to a partially decapitated crocodile, Tony’s misadventures are ridiculous, unbelievable and always entertaining.

Long before Sky One got involved, there were already plenty of Idiots Abroad. This is the story of one of them…

Praise for 'That Bear'...

Witty, funny, heart-rending, and just all-round enjoyable in every respect. The story was so funny and real that I felt like I was living the adventure. I recommend this book to anyone who'll listen, it was both hilarious and oddly touching. I absolutely loved it. I laughed and I cried

Amazon Reviewer

This book is best read alone and not in the company of people, as you'll spend countless minutes trying to explain in between crying with laughter, why you are doing so, also I'd imagine it would be highly embarrassing to read it on public transport.

Kevin J.D. Kelly

Prologue

“MONKEY!” I shouted, as a brown blur swung out of the cage and onto the path.
The chase was on.

He skipped away with incredible speed, dodging around the corner and heading for freedom as though he’d thought of nothing but this moment for years. I bolted after him, grabbing the edge of a cage to swing me round in hot pursuit. The monkey was a good way ahead of me, and far more manoeuvrable. But I was faster on the straight. I accelerated down the narrow corridor between enclosures, and was closing the distance between us when he reached the steps down to the main road through the farm. This was my chance – if he paused, if he found the stairs confusing, I’d be on him. But no. Being a monkey, he didn’t have much use for stairs. He just jumped.

He made the ten foot leap to the ground with ease, landed on all fours, and scurried off down the road. Pounding along behind him I had less than a second to make the choice. If I slowed to negotiate the stairs even part of the way down, it would all be over. Once he reached the trees by the first bend in the road he’d be gone for good.

Time was up. I reached the top of the steps at a dead run and launched myself over the edge.

In the seconds I was airborne my entire life flashed before my eyes. I seemed to have spent a disproportionate amount of it chasing monkeys.

Somehow I landed on my feet, with bone-jarring force. I was only a step behind the monkey – my leap had taken me considerably further than his – but my body was moving too fast for my legs. I managed to push off with my feet at the same moment as I started to fall headlong on the ground. The result: I bounced forwards another metre, sailing high above the form of the fleeing monkey, then crashed to earth and flattened the fucker.

The impact knocked the stuffing out of me. It temporarily turned the monkey two-dimensional. Pain shot through me. I felt like I’d fallen ten feet onto a small primate. For the monkey it must have been like being beaten around the head with a banana tree. For a split second neither of us could move.

He recovered quicker than I did. Amazingly he wriggled out from under me and leapt towards freedom, just as I, still lying prone, reached out with both arms and caught him.

Unfortunately I could only catch him around the middle. Which meant that while he wasn’t going anywhere, he wasn’t particularly happy about it.

In far less time than it takes to tell, the monkey writhed around in my grasp and sank his fangs into my hand.

“ARGH!”

The monkey switched his attention to my other hand and bit down hard.

“Arrr!” I shrieked. I let go with the recently bitten hand, but I had no other options – I had to grab him again or lose him. As I tried to grab his neck he bit me again, puncturing the thick leather glove easily and scoring my vulnerable flesh. Again and again he bit down, faster than I could even register the damage.

I lay on my belly, flat out on the floor, both arms outstretched in front of me and both hands wrapped around a frantically flailing ball of teeth and rage. There was sod all I could do – without my hands free I couldn’t get to my feet, and without standing up I had no way of controlling the beast. It was not the first time I had the thought; what the hell was I doing in Ecuador?

The End… of the beginning!