Survival - 17. Surv Chapter 17

The next morning we had sunshine, which was a nice surprise, but off in the horizon, there looked to be a large storm approaching, so we had a quick breakfast, packed up and set off on our second last day of our expedition, but the weather did not hold, as shortly after restarting from a lunch break, the rain came down in bucket loads, and there was even thunder and lightning, which I was not too keen on being caught in the middle of, as we trekked through a rough track, which was very muddy in places, with the occasional short sharp climbs.

By mid-afternoon, Will and I were both very tired, as the rain finally started to lighten to a heavy drizzle, and with Will in the lead, he stopped suddenly, and I wasn’t paying attention, and crashed into the back of him. “Watch where you are going” Will complained, before he pointed out towards the ocean, to show why he had stopped.

“Wow, that must be Lion Rock, looks pretty impressive eh” I commented, as Will stepped off the track, to get a closer look, and he was about 40 metres off the track when I was about to warn Will not to get too close to the edge, but it was too late, as the ground under him gave way, and he slid down the side of the steep slope.

“Will, are you ok?” I called out before hearing a shout from Will, who sounded like he was in real pain, as I crawled carefully towards the edge, and I too soon found myself sliding down the slope, “Watch out I’m sliding down” I called out, and Will managed to roll out of the way, just in time, as I came to a crashing halt at a big boulder, and a shot of pain went up my leg.

I helped Will to take off his backpack, and he did the same for me, before I retrieved the first aid kit, and handed out two pain killer tablets to Will, and then to myself. “What hurts?” I asked Will, “My shoulder, it is either dislocated or broken” Will replied, as he swallowed his tablets, and I did the same.

I felt my ankle and it was already for swollen, so I carefully removed my boot, and socks to examine the damage, carefully examining it to see what damage I had done, Thankfully I could move my toes with a little bit of pain, so I assumed that I had a very bad sprain, so I retrieved a bandage, and wrapped my ankle up tight, to get as much support as possible.

Once I had done that, I wriggled over to Will and looked at his shoulder, “Yes, it is definitely dislocated, and we really need to get it back into position, but it will hurt like hell” I said to Will. I looked around us to see where we are, and I decided that I needed the boulder to assist me with getting the arm back into place, so I instructed Will to lean his back against the rock, with the shoulder, hard up against it, and I found a thick stick and gave it to him.

“Put it in your mouth and bite down hard, and on three I will try and get the arm back into the socket” I said to Will, who nervously nodded his understanding, and wriggled into the required position, before placing the stick into his mouth and closing his eyes.

“Ok, are you ready?” I asked as I carefully grabbed hold of his arm with both hands, and placed my good foot against his hip, and Will nodded his head, yes. “Right on three… one” I said then gave Will’s arms a slight twist and a hard push, and I heard a loud click, as Will screamed in pain, and went unconscious.

I checked that his arm was back in place, before putting it in a sling, then rolled Will onto his side, and once this was done, I began to look around our surroundings. We are in a bit of a valley, with a very steep slope to the top, and we were in a small semi clear flat area, about 3 metres above the rocky beach, with a steep rocky slope below us.

While looking at our surroundings, I was unaware that a small group of hikers were passing by above us, heading in a Westerly direction towards Melaleuca, and even if I shouted, I doubt, they would have heard me, as there was a strong wind blowing out to sea. We were in a real bind, with both of us being injured, there was no way that we could get out without some assistance, and I hoped that the other hikers, were only a day or two behind us.

I needed to get us under some shelter, that was the priority, so I pulled out the ground sheet, rope and pegs, and began to set up the shelter, of to one side of the valley, when I heard groaning, coming from Will.“What happened to two and three?” Will asked, and I gave a short laugh, I thought it would be best to do it that way” I relied, as I saw Will looking at his arm in a sling.

“How long was I out for?” Will asked, “About fifteen minutes, just rest, while I get the shelter set up, we are stuck here until help comes” I said,as I continued to get the ground sheet up, followed by both tents, and once they were up, I helped Will to under the shelter, before placing the backpacks into the smaller tent, and retrieving all the cooking gear and some food.

“We have three days’ worth of food, so we will have to start to ration the food, until help comes, I hope those hikers who were coming behind us won’t be too far behind, luckily I topped up the water bottle at lunch time, so that won’t be a problem” I commented as I saw Will struggle to stand up, “I urgently need to pee” he said.

I quickly helped him to stand up, and taking a few steps out from the shelter he relieved himself, and came back smiling, “that is so much better, nearly wet myself then” Will commented, as he carefully sat down next to me, between the two tents, which I had spaced out a bit further than usual.

The cooking gear was now set up, and the burner heating up some water for a cuppa, I pulled out the mats and sleeping bags and lay them out in the bigger tent, and over a cup of tea, we discussed what to do while we waited for help.

“We have some basic fishing gear, so I could try and catch some fish off the beach, but it will be very difficult to get down to the rocky beach, and back up again. I think we are only about 500 metres from where the track comes down onto the beach, so if we are really desperate, we can try and get to that point, but I suggest that we rest and let our injuries recover a little before we try and do that” I said.

“Ok, that is fine with me. Jacob, I am getting dizzy and I am going to throw up” Will warned me, and I rugby tackled Will from his sitting position, towards the outside of the shelter, just in time, before Will threw up, and when he didn’t respond to when I asked if he felt better, I discovered that he was unconscious again.

Putting Will in a coma position, I examined his head carefully, and discovered a large contusion to the side of his head, behind his left ear, which really had me worried, and I retrieved the small first aid reference booklet, to see what I could do.

After a few minutes of reading, I guessed that Will was suffering from concussion, and that it is advised to not to give him any food, and only small sips of water for at least 12 hours, and to watch him very carefully for any changes in his condition.

When Will woke up about twenty minutes later, I helped him to get into the tent, and to get into his sleeping bag, and for the rest of the day, and all night, I kept a close watch on Will, checking his pulse and respiration at regular intervals, and I must have fallen asleep sometimeafter dawn, as I woke up when Will called out to me, to wake up.

“Jacob, I am thirsty, any chance of some water please” Will asked, and smiling, I retrieved one of the water bottles, and gave it to him, instructing him to take only small sips. It had now been about 18 hours since we accidentally ended up in the small valley below the track, and it was about 9 am in the morning.

I asked Will some questions, about headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, and he said he only had a headache, and a sore shoulder, so I gave him some pain killer tablets, and I took two as well, as my foot was aching a lot, and it was still very swollen.

We ate a light breakfast, knowing that we would be staying put, and we had limited food supplies, which we could stretch out for an additional two or three days, so that gave us five days, before we needed to take any desperate action to get help.

Knowing that Will had suffered concussion, as well as the dislocated shoulder, I didn’t want to make any attempts to move for at least two full days, as of today, so I settled down to a routine of looking after Will and preparing all the meals.

When it began to rain in the late afternoon, I put the billy out to collect some more fresh water, and I was able to top up the four water bottles, plus refill the billy will plenty of fresh water, no knowing when we would get any more rain, or when we would be rescued.

During the night the temperature plunged again, and it was snowing outside, so we stayed inside the tent, with our backs against each other for extra warmth, as the winds started to pick up again, but luckily, we are fairly well protected, because of all the small trees and shrubs that surround our shelter, on the side of the valley, as we spent our second night stuck in the valley and injured.

When we woke in the morning, it was still lightly snowing, and it was still very cold, with a thick layer of snow on the ground. After dealing with our ablutions, and having our second light breakfast, we returned to the tent, to stay warm, and while Will was writing in his travel diary, I played a game of solitaire with the cards.

Today was meant to be the day that we would be travelling to Hobart and flying out of Tasmania, and on our way home, but we were still stranded in the valley in the South West National Park, and although Will said that his headaches are a lot better, my ankle was not, which made me suspect that I had done a lot worse damage than I suspected, but we still had about three days of light meals, before we needed to start getting worried.

It was about lunch time on this day, nearly two full days since we ended up in the valley, that the hikers heading West, and the hikers that were behind us, had met on the track, halfway between Prion Beach and Granite Beach, and they exchanged information about the condition of the tracks in each direction.

Before separating, the hiking team that were behind us, asked the others, if they had come across two young guys, aged about 17, about two or three days ago. When the hiking team heading west said no, this caused some concern, and the team heading East said they would check with the rangers at Cockle Creek, to see if the young pair had signed out, from completing the hike.

Still 2 ½ days away from the end of their trek, it would only be then they would be able to check on the two young hikers. As soon as they came to civilisation at Cockle Creek, and the team checked the registration book, that did not have our names in it, they immediately called the police, to inform them that two young men were missing in the South-West National Park, somewhere between Prion Beach and Cockle Creek.

Just as a search and rescue operation was being organised, another storm hit the area, this time bringing heavy rain, and gale force winds, thunder and lightning, that put a stop to any search for the missing boys, until the weather cleared.

It had now been over 5 days since Will and I had been stuck in a small protected valley, below the South Coast Track, and just above Lion Rock, as the storm hit the area, and they had now eaten most of their food supplies, with a few snack bars, teabags, some chocolate, and half a bag of sugar barley remaining, but we still have a plentiful supply of fresh rain water.

Will was doing well with his recovery, while I was getting worse, my foot had swollen up very badly, and was all different colours, that we both didn’t like the look of, and I had gone through most of the supply of pain killers in the first aid kit, and I was starting to get delusional.

When the storm finally ended a dull day later, it was nearly dark, and it had now been 6 whole days that we had been injured and stranded in a hidden valley. I woke up the next morning to the sound of voices callingour names, so they knew who we are and that we are missing, which was a relief.

Will gave me a few sips of water, before announcing that he was going to slide down the hill, and try and walk around to the beach, to get some help, and reluctantly I agreed that he needed to go. Less than half an hour later, I heard noises coming from above and below, and I was relieved when Will reappeared with two men following, who were paramedics.

While the paramedics were checking my foot, Will informed me that a rescue team was coming down the hill, with a rescue stretcher, to lower me down onto the beach, where a helicopter will take us to a hospital in Hobart. I informed the paramedics that Will also needed to be checked, as he had hit his head five days ago, and suffered concussion, plus he had a dislocated shoulder, and that is when I noticed that Will was not wearing the arm sling.

“Well if it was dislocated, someone did a very good job of getting it back into place” the senior paramedic stated, after examining Will’s shoulder carefully, then the bump on his head, where he had hit his head on the rock. “That would be my mate, Jacob here, he put it back into place, and he was a bit too tricky in how he did it” Will replied, smiling broadly.