LOST IN THE AUSTRALIAN DESERT
by Kyt Lyn Walken
2015.
Laverton, Western Australia. On the edge of the Great Victoria Desert.
Reginald Foggerdy, a 62-year-old hunter, leaves the town to head to a camp about one hundred and seventy kilometers away.
His goal is to join his brother for a wild camel hunt.
He is dressed in a t shirt, shorts and flip flops. He has a rifle with him, but no provisions.
He is declared missing by his brother, who searches for him in vain.
The searches begin immediately, but the temperatures are scorching, and the Great Victoria desert leaves no way out.
Although Foggerdy has always been a true outdoor lover and certainly accustomed to the prohibitive climate of the West Australian Goldfields, surviving in such conditions is almost a desperate act. The brother urges the research groups to do soon, very soon.
Dehydration and the risk of nocturnal hypothermia are much more than a remote possibility in that part of Australia.
The TRG (Tactical Response Group), made up of expert Trackers, sets out on his trail, along with helicopters who begin to patrol the vast area where Foggerdy is lost.
The hunter applies all the survival techniques he knows to keep himself alive, eating ants and trying to keep himself away from the merciless temperatures by sheltering under the trees. Without water and already in an advanced state of delirium, Foggerdy is waiting. He can’t do anything else.
Meanwhile, the Trackers manage to track down and follow in his footsteps for fifteen kilometers, trying to shorten the distance with the missing person. Indeed, every minute could determine his salvation or his death.
After six days he is found. It is an almost livid dawn, and Foggerdy, dehydrated, dusty and in a daze, is there. A miracle, or maybe not.
He was immediately transported by air rescue to Kalgoorlie hospital.
However, his condition does not cause further concern.
Police Inspector Andy Greatwood said Foggerty “hadn’t had a drop of water for six days, was extremely dehydrated and quite delusional, but managed to speak after receiving first aid. […] It is surprising that he managed to survive by eating only ants ».
Relentless climates, scenarios that offer few or almost zero resources bring our experience into play but stimulate our natural instinct for survival.
We at Bivo are with you to offer you what you need in the hardest moments, when everything seems to hang by a thread.
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