If you’ve watched any news programmes the last few days you may have heard of the two friends who were stranded when their ute got bogged in some salt flats near Broome, in Western Australia. They were forced to sleep on the roof of their car to escape the Crocodiles that were circling.
Apart from the crocodile part, as soon as I heard this story it reminded me of last year when Joey was exploring Cape York (by himself) when he also got himself bogged in some salt flats.
He was adventuring around the short cut road from Punsand Bay which takes you up to ‘the tip.” He had stopped and set up a bit of a camp and had set off pig hunting. Most of this area is out of phone reception, I hadn’t heard from him for a few days. When I finally heard from him he told me his car was bogged and he had walked about 3km’s back to his camp to get phone reception. His plan was to try and contact some people he had helped out a few days earlier.
I was in Sydney with no real idea of exactly where he was, but trying to be helpful, I knew he had water, a bit of food and Barney his dog, was safe. I searched online for any towing companies that I could contact to try to get some help to him. Joey had tried digging himself out for several hours to no avail. Below is a photo he had messaged to me.
He then walked about 10km’s back to the main road where he was able to contact a couple on his little radio. Brett and Sarah heard his calls on the radio and came to his assistance. After about 6 or 7 hours, the other couple that Joey had helped previously also arrived. In the end it took two cars to get him out. While Joey’s ordeal didn’t make the national news like the two guys stuck in WA did, his story was told through one of his rescuers eyes, Sarah. Who got her story and some wonderful photos published in the April edition of 4WD Touring Australia over a huge 7 page spread. Of course we bought a copy, and I’ve taken photos of some of the pictures from the magazine that I’ve shared below. And as you can see, he was pretty stuck!
On our trip up to “the tip” in July where we took a helicopter ride, we were able to get a birds eye view of the spot where Joey got stuck and the remains of his rescue, and what looked like other rescues!
#seeyouontheroad
