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July 23, 2001
Overland Australia - basecamp update 5
As many hiking trips as I have taken in my home state of Utah, I have
never been concerned about getting lost. Not just lost for a moment
but lost to the extent to which food and water become major concerns.
I have read a lot about Australia's terrain. The majority of the
landscape is considered "remote", with tracks stretching for hundreds
of kilometers and little or no sign of civilization. I have used the
word "remote" in many descriptive stories and to do the word justice I
have learned first hand today that the next time I use "remote" in a
story I had better be talking about Australia's Outback
Next to Australia's Outback, getting in "remote" areas in Utah is the
equivalent of getting lost in a down town mall. Let me tell you how I
know.
Day 1 was to be an easy day. We had planned to get up in the morning,
take in the re-enactment of Captain Cook's landing on the Australian
shores with the Endeavour and its crew in Cooktown, pack up our three
vehicles and head for our expedition starting point on the mouth of the
Starke River. It was to be a trip that should have taken two hours on
rough Outback trails. Trails not roads. However that was not at all
how it went.
I was in the smallest of the three vehicles with Bel, Josh and our
driver Chris. We decided to go ahead of our support vehicle, and
though Chris had traveled this route before, we still got terribly lost. We
had short wave radios among the three vehicles, but we were out of
range by the time we tried to make contact. We were on our own.
With no water, maps, 3 quarters of fuel and a box of breakfast bars we
would enjoy a ride that was like being on the oldest, meanest Roller
Coaster you can imagine for seven hours. From; racing against the tide
on the 20 mile beach of Cape Flattery, almost getting stuck in knee
high sand and waist high river crossings, driving in the dark in a pitch
black jungle to stopping every so often to check for tire marks that
may or may not be the tracks of our support vehicles dual rear tires, we
finally found our camp on the Starke River. It could easily have been
longer than that.
We discovered that the two other vehicles found themselves lost many
times as well, however we made the most critical error. We left the
group. They had the water, food, maps and fuel and in this "remote"
wilderness even the most experienced guides will find themselves lost.
To go out alone is indeed risking it all. Our lesson could have been
more severe, but I can tell you that I will never venture away from the
group again.
Mike Roney
Posted on July 23, 2001 3:59 PM