Dont Assume Others Think Like You

Its very easy to get lost in the bush, too easy to get turned around and have the situation become life threatening in a short period of time, it happened to me a short time back and even though it all turned out well in the end I realised that it was because of my training and keeping a level head that it ended well.

But the reason that it took 5 hours to make it back to camp was because I had failed to carry out the most important thing of all and that was to make solid plans with the bloke I was out there with, I say its my fault because I have been at this game for some and he was relatively new to it so really it was up to me to make sure we were on the same page and we had a plan of action in case of someone being hurt or even lost, by this I mean discussing radio frequencies used, times to be back in camp, etc. etc

The day I got turned around in the bush was the hottest day we experienced in the bush on that trip, after realising that I had lost my bearings in the hilly gullies and creeks I got out my gps only to find out that the thing was on the fritz, turning on but then switching itself off, carrying two sets of fully charged batteries, changing batteries it still did the same thing so basically it was useless and I could not get any direction from it at all.

In the end I climbed, crossed and re crossed the hills to get my bearings but could not see anything that I could recognise to give me a direction back to camp, by this time I had literally used almost all of the water I was carrying and on climbing another hill I could see the road off in the distance so I had a direction I could travel in at least, also spotted a windmill that was closer but still some 4-5 klms away, also I was dehydrated and not feeling too flash already.

Trying to raise the camp by radio every couple of minutes but receiving no reply, later I found that the radios in camp were never switched on despite my being gone for hours, in the end I had no option but to head to the windmill as I could see it turning and knew that there should be water there, thinking I could get water and then walk out about 8 klms out to the road.

So I made a plan to head to the windmill and water, rest up and then walk out to the road, the drama that unfolded at the windmill is a whole other story...., if you find yourself in this situation try no to panic, formulate a plan and stick to it, always remember that water is the no1 priority so if you can get to a water source that's the best thing to do, stay there and wait for help, you can last for weeks without food but maybe a day or so without water in the heat.

Don't ever assume that other people will think as you do given the same situation, even though we had been doing the same routine for about a week arriving back in camp at 11ish for a rest and lunch it did not seem to raise alarm bells that I was still out at 1pm, the radio was never switched on or any attempt made to call or look for me.

This situation occurred due to solid plans not being put in place and my assuming that someone else would think the way same as I would, but at the end of the day it was my fault entirely for not ensuring that we were on the same page and we had some sort of procedure in place so I am prepared to take the blame for that, so the point of this story is to highlight that regardless of who you are in the bush with make sure you sit and discuss it and formulate a plan of action.

And most importantly always carry on you things like a gps, uhf radio, whistle, mirror, water bottle, plastic poncho, fire lighter as I do, and have done for years and never had to use them but did this time, even though the gps was useless the radio was used, and had I not been successful in raising help with that at least I could have camped up and had a fire to keep the bities away and waited until the penny had dropped that I was lost and a search started.

au-fever

Thanks for sharing your story Au-fever and openly commenting on your errors and what helped you. For all of us who detect in the wilds for long periods of time there are risks. Especially if you do it year in and year out the odds of something happening eventually are high. Carrying a PLB is a must in my book, as is carrying at least 4 litres of water if doing a long detecting stint away from camp.

Bloody radios, not turned on...batteries flat..sitting in camp thinking the radio is on. Its worth ensuring all campers have their radios close to their heart and on whenever someone is out of camp. Simple thing but i sometimes forget to turn them on when heading out.

Two things my wife and I turn on when we detect.
1. The detectors
2. The hand-held UHF radios.

We as detectorists spend our maximum dollars to buy the best detector we can afford.
What a pity we don't use the same logic when buying safety gear such as UHF's and GPS units. Put some thought into the brand of batteries you use also.
Buy the best, most powerful communications equipment you can.
A PLB or Epirb is really a no-brainer for outback work.
Install the most powerful car horn you can. Or buy one of those airhorn cans.
Carry a quality compass and know how to use it.
Put a flag and high mast on your vehicle.
Make sure your mobile phone is fully charged.

I'm sure you can all add to the list

Robert

Hi All,

Being lost is a very humbling experience, both times for me was when I was marroning ..a delicacy in WA. The first time I followed a very small creek and it became very dense....not me!!!, the bush!!, and the day was very overcast.....

After twisting and turning many times because "the way" was obstructed and no "SUN" to keep my bearings......"I was lost"

Don't PANIC I said to myself, so I stopped bush bashing and divised a plan, i'll head in that direction for "X" amount of time to try and get out

I looked up to the sky and noticed something very peculiar, the clouds were going in the opposite direction, ok I thought, i'll head in that direction to get out

Unbeknown to me the clouds did not change their direction of travel it was me, so off I trundled in the wrong direction

My missus is "directionally dyslexic" , put her in a situation and she is always 180 degrees out

Walking into the creek I noticed the water was flowing the "wrong" way, so had to do some quick thinking and remembering the "DD" the missus has I deducted I had it all wrong and should have been going in the opposite direction

2hrs later I walked out of that mess saying I never get "lost", well there you go, it can happen to anyone!!!

Another time I took a gps with me and the trees were that dense, not me!!, the trees!!!, that the gps would not get a fix

I tried cutting the corner on a winding bend and that took several hours to sort out even with the missus tooting the horn, the car being in a gully made the sound of the horn travel in a different direction and I walked away from instead of to because of it

In the end I just kept walking.......further away!!!!!!, I eventually heard a car and straight away new where I was and made a beeline back to camp, in the meantime I had dropped off the marron nets and marron as they were dragging me down

Both instances could have been prevented with a simple compass, we also had radios, all they were good for was to say I'm frekin LOST

Ron

Been there twice Ron,the worst time was a warm day ,just went for what I planned as a 1 hr try detect on new ground at mid arvo & followed a creek system that forked in several places & the return walk didn't happen for me . Darkness crept in , then a chilling night chivering in a tee shirt ,i made a shrub wind cover to break the 20 knot cold easterly . no lighter either . I wasn't really lost , but couldn't locate the car in the dark , hid it too well I spose , 20hrs later all up , thinking this way or that , no stubbies took part in it either & 10 am next morning all came good .... felt stupid as the next day, albo.

Hi Albo,

Think of the Oletimers they never got lost, everything they owned was with them at all times, so's all they had to do was KEEP WALKIN!!!!! 

Ron

Thanks for sharing your experiences - we all need reminders from time to time. I've come close... but it hasn't happened to me yet touch wood. Yep, you're right about the old timers Ron!

In my opinion, just like being at sea, always treat the electronics as the backup - never rely on it. The basic essentials are water and fire. You must carry those all the time. My other essential is light. I always carry a tiny headlamp in my backpakck regardless, it weighs stuff all but worth its weight in gold. And it's been used more than once!

Of course I carry other stuff, tailored to what I'm doing, just saying that if worse comes to worst, then water, fire and light is what you'll need most.

Cheers
Stingray

I have done a huge amount of work in the field completely on my own or with the missus and kids in a base camp often up to 30K away. One habit I got into when detecting on dusk was to leave the quad UHF radio on, the amount of times I've got turned about in the late arvo because I was only going for a quick gallop about so had not GPS'd the position and the changing light conditions making everything look different. In every case I was not far away from the quad but could not see it in the dying light, thankfully keying the GME cell call button would let me know two things, one if the quad responded with a double bleep then I was within range of the bike and the other was actually hearing the squark of the radio speaker which has helped me zero in on my too well hidden parking spot.

Another habit I've got myself into over the years is always look back the way I've come making a mental note as I go of local features etc, everything looks different when travelling in the opposite direction. I do not trust GPS and make it a personal point to always question the direction the device is pointing me in, if the GPS concurs with my own inbuilt compass all is good, if however they divide then I start to pay very careful attention to landmarks etc. On a quad or in a vehicle its not so bad but when your on shanks pony any distance travelled that's not in the right direction can be life threatening.

JP

The adventure started after following a creek line that branched into several directions, following it this way and that, the country was hilly, plenty of brush and new unfamiliar country, I usually do the same thing and make mental notes of features and the ground so that I know which direction I came from, I don't rely on the gps solely but rather switch it back on to confirm my direction.

I started logging my base or vehicle on the gps and then switching it off, as many years ago when I got caught out with flat batteries from leaving it on, but found my way back anyway, I always carry spares and had spares with me in this time as well, but when I turned the gps on it kept turning off, I tried the new batteries and it did the same thing, I am meticulous with making sure my batteries are fully charged before I go bush, and I also had spare charged batteries for the uhf radio as well.

In this instance I could not see anything that gave me direction, so the only plan of action is to head one way for a short time, then turn around and head another way for a short time, hoping to see something you can recognise, continually on the radio trying to reach camp, I was getting no reply but had no choice but to continue to try and find the camp, as that was closer than walking out to the road, this sort of closed hilly country is hard to find your way in visually as it easily hides small things such as vehicle and they can be on the other side of the creek line and you can walk past on the other side and not see anything.

When you are on foot its the walking this way and that that wears you out, you do it at first because you think to yourself that the camp cant be too far away so it should be easy enough to find, its only after several hours of traversing this way and that and you have worn yourself out that you come to the conclusion that you are in trouble, although I knew what direction was out to the road I also knew that it was about 8-9 klms away and that with little water and already knackered it would be difficult, so the safest plan was to head to the windmill and get water.

In hindsight I think what I did was to follow one of the creek lines that skirted around the base of a hill, and when I realised that I had lost my direction I was on the other side of that hill, so after the gps failed and I climbed the hill trying to see if I could see the camp area, what I was looking at was another set of hills, so that was why I could not recognise any of the features I was seeing adding to the confusion and causing me to head the wrong way.

The point of me putting this story up was to highlight the need to carry at the very least some basic survival gear and even if you carry it in your kit for years and years like me and never use it, one day you will be glad that you did, I don't think its a matter of "if it will happen" when it could be more of a case of "when it will happen", as stated previously the more time you spend walking the bush the higher the odds are that it will happen to you.

au-fever

Au-Fever,

Your first name wouldn't be Karl would it?? Do you know Barlows Gully at all?

Cat

couple of good points JP.--haven't got a 2 way on my quad but will have in the next 10 days.

Also if i'm traveling around for a afternoon detect with the quad I usually take a Narva worklight--the blue colored one and switch it on for my return--stands out like a proverbial..

regards
oneday

As a young fella I spent a lot of time hunting in the bush, park the vehicle and wander around for the best part of the day and head back to the vehicle at dusk and never had a problem finding it, now don't know if its old age but I find I just don't seem to have the same sense of direction these days.  
I have one of those belts with pouches on it that is all ways in the ute and put it on when "going for a bit of a look" I guess you can relate to this, 50 metres out and some thing a bit further on needs a look and then again while your looking about mite as well take a look over there and before you know it your you are wandering about half a K or more out it the scrub.   In the pouches on the belt I have a 500ml water bottle, cig lighter, crepe bandage, small torch, toilet paper, compass and one of those light plastic ponchos and a couple of spare batteries that suit torch and GPS.
Of course if I'm when it's a planned look about I carry more water and GPS and or a Bushnell trackback which I have found to be very good, simple to use and with the the prices starting ( around $90 ) an affordable safety item.
I say to people, all ways carry a cig lighter, if your lost a fire will help searches spot you.
This may be of interest to some forum members, Office Works have a special clearance price on Bushnell TrackBack point 5 personal GPS at present (here in Brisbane stores Qld) for $70 normal sell $135. == NO I don't work for them.
Some good points in posts put up on this subject and certainly some thing we should all take seriously.
Cheers.
Salt-d

Always an interesting subject about how to handle ya time in the scrub. I'm on my second GPS but I never use them to create a base and mark way points to get home. Dare I say it, I've never been lost yet. I take note of land features. Yeah I know, one day I might get lost.
Early this year we did talk about camp lights. Every bit helps.

http://www.detectingwestaustraliangold.com/t2683-camp-night-lights

Cheers
Cliff