Trapped in a cyclone-swollen creek: Germans' terrifying outback adventure
April 3, 2006
TWO German tourists have been rescued, 48 hours after their campervan became bogged in a remote West Australian creek, swollen by Cyclone Glenda.
Police said the men were lucky to have survived because no one knew they were on the road, and there are only two pastoral stations in the
Kimberley area in which they became stranded.
The men, both in their late 40s, were travelling along the isolated Duncan Highway about 100 kilometres from
Halls Creek on Friday, the day after the category four cyclone crossed the coast further south at
Onslow. The rains brought by the cyclone added to a week of normal wet-season rain and caused extensive flooding.
The campervan struck a pothole crossing a creek and became partly submerged in the waterway. One man went to get help but turned back after a terrifying night spent wandering in the bush among wild pigs.
He had left the vehicle and his travelling companion, taking only an emergency locator
beacon and a litre of water with him.
The man, who lives near Frankfurt and who asked not to be identified, said it was not long before he began to fear for his life.
"I am a greenhorn, what can I say? I know now that Australia is not like Germany. There is so much space and so few houses." "I left the car and my friend to find a
farm and get help but I found nothing. I walked about 30 kilometres. At night all I could hear was wild pigs. My hair was standing on end. I couldn't sleep.
"The next day I turned back to the car. I found a puddle and got water but there was more than water in my plastic container and I knew I was in trouble," the tourist said. He waited until he was a few kilometres from the car before activating the emergency
beacon.
The signal was picked up by emergency
services in
Canberra and within hours a search aircraft had located the vehicle and a helicopter had flown the pair to
Kununurra.
Suffering sunburn and badly blistered feet, the man thanked the emergency
services for rescuing him and his friend, saying they had both learned a lot from the experience.
Sergeant Tom Stafford of
Kununurra police said overseas tourists should do their homework before travelling in the outback, and the two men should not have left the bitumen road during the wet season.
"You wouldn't want to travel on that road during the tourist season, let alone during the wet and so soon after a cyclone," Sergeant Stafford said.
He said the men were lucky to have survived because no one knew they were on the road and there was little chance they would have stumbled across one of only two pastoral stations in the area.
He said it was unlikely the Germans would have to pay for their rescue, but they could expect a substantial bill for getting their rented campervan hauled out of a remote creek.