Man dies in desert after leaving vehicle

[nabraxas]

November 07, 2012

A RESCUER who found one young man dead and one barely alive in the Simpson Desert says both would have survived if they had stayed in their air-conditioned vehicle.

Mauritz 'Mo' Pieterse, 25, and Josh Hayes, 30, decided to walk out after their four-wheel drive became bogged in soft sand while they were inspecting bores on the Ethabuka nature reserve in Queensland's southwest on Monday.

They were carrying only a small amount of water when they abandoned the vehicle on Monday afternoon and set out to walk 14km to a homestead in blazing heat, with temperatures in the high 40s.

Greg Woods, from neighbouring Carlo Station, set out to search for the pair just before dark on Monday.

He found Mr Pieterse's body about 11.30pm (AEST) on a bush track.

"I found Mo's hat and shirt and car keys where he'd dropped them and I came across him a bit further down the track, but he was finished," he told AAP.

"I was more wild with him for doing it than I was bloody sad for him - I thought he had more bloody sense than that - but anyway that's the way it turned out."

Mr Woods said the pair made many mistakes but the worst was walking away from their vehicle in the blazing heat.

"They were only bogged, they had plenty of fuel, they could have just sat there with the air conditioner going until somebody found them.

"That's what I was doing. I wasn't giving up until I found them, and I expected to find them in that car - but no, it turned out the other way."

After finding Mr Pieterse's body, Mr Woods retraced his tracks and found Mr Hayes, who had been lying under a bush when he first drove past.

He was in a pitiful condition and near death.

"Another hour and he would have been gone, too. He was just bloody lucky he got through - he didn't even have a hat to start with, but he had a massive head of hair and that might have helped him a bit.

"He was well and truly perished. His eyes were like owl eyes, wide open and sunk in his head.

"He was flat out bloody walking and you could see his heart beating out of his chest and he reckoned he couldn't hear anything other than his heartbeat."

Mr Woods said he had to turn back from sand dune country at one stage during the search, because even at 10.20pm the heat from the sand was so intense he would not have been able to drive through the dunes safely.

After getting Mr Hayes into his air-conditioned vehicle and giving him water to sip Mr Woods drove him back to the Ethabuka homestead where he was put in a cool shower until medical help arrived.

He is now in a stable condition in Mt Isa Hospital recovering from severe dehydration and exhaustion.

 

http://www.courierma...o-1226511974502

i found this quite disturbing.

14 kms, that's a 3-4 hour walk.

if they had had enough water w/them they should have done it easy.

even with no water if they'd waited until nightfall they might have had a chance.

if you go bush anywhere in Australia please make sure you have enough water.

Edited November 8, 2012 by nabraxas

[∂an]

yeah its especially tragic when people die in seemingly non-life threatening situations. i remember there was an american tourist who got lost on moreton island a couple of years back after having a drink.... he didn't die but was not found for a couple of days, and that island is only a few k's wide...

[WoodDragon]

In this day and age, with portable GPSs and decent radio/telephone technologies, there's just no excuse for that type of incident. Greg Woods was one the money:

"I was more wild with him for doing it than I was bloody sad for him..."

For any of us who've done remote field work, it's just about Darwin Award material.

[SunChaser]

November 07, 2012

i found this quite disturbing.

14 kms, that's a 3-4 hour walk.

if they had had enough water w/them they should have done it easy.

 

Yeah, 14km doesn’t sound far. But I think under the conditions it would of been a very difficult walk to make. When you consider the over 40 degree conditions in the direct sun, including the heat from the sand beaming straight back up at them, then consider they would of already dripped out multiple litres of sweat before they’d even left the vehicle, just from attempting to get unbogged.

I mean they probably would of been sweating a few litres every hour just from walking, so probably would of needed at least 2 litres of water (probably more) every hour, to stop themselves from getting dangerously dehydrated under those harsh conditions. It would have also been a very difficult discussion to make on how much water to take, compared to how much weight to carry.

Not saying it couldn’t be done, but still leaving the vehicle in the heat of the day would have been a stupid gamble for anyone to make, imo. Human beings simply weren't designed to survive in those kind of conditions.

[tipz]

edit ( just read the article ) irrelevant comment

Edited November 9, 2012 by tipz

[Torsten]

I've been to Ethabuka station and the neighbouring ones. 14 km is a pretty hard walk on that surface. It is soft squishy sand, so even if it is all flat it is like walking on the dry part of the beach - but much harder because it is soft and dry for meters deep rather than just a few centimeters at the beach. Not only does each step waste about half because the pushing foot simply moves backwards in the soft sand, but it is also so soft in all directions that you have to put a lot of energy into your legs just to keep balance. But unlike the beach this sand is also littered with dead wood which can be so sharp that it punctures desert tyres - not to mention shoes and calf muscles. I blew out 3 tyres in less than 5km once.

I haven't looked at the exact location of the bore in relationship to the homestead, but if it is up near carlo then that involves traversing quite a few sand dunes. I was pretty fucked doing a few of those in winter and with an airconditioned car with cold drinks waiting for me nearby. Most of the work we did was at night which was fun, but still pretty exhausting due to the soft sand.

From memory the rule of thumb for 'walking home' is 5km at ethabuka if it is over dunes. Beyond that you need to have a radio or satellite phone [and know how to use it]. And obviously you always need to have water with you.

These guys did everything wrong. I'll wait till all the details are known, but at this stage it does look like natural selection at work. The worst thing is that this will affect everyone else who gets to spend time there. I'd never been to such a big desert before my trip there and yet things like satellite phone, spare fuel and ridiculous amounts of water were the first things I organised.

[Thelema]

wandered onto a frozen lake in lapland in arctic summer and when in the middle heard it cracking all around me...I was lucky to get out of there...

[Torsten]

There's a bit of a difference with this story. Checking bores is a routine procedure at ethabuka [and any other station]. The tracks are clearly visible and the likelihood of getting bogged is not uncommon . It doesn't seem there were any extreme circumstances like sandstorm etc. The biggest puzzle is why they did not use their radio which was apparently working fine.

Personally if walking home was the only option I'd rest in the shade of the ute till evening and then head off. It almost seems they were disoriented and lacking judgement before they took off.