Ok. So I have spent more months of my life in the amazon than is decent. I regularly go off trail and though my sense of direction isnt perfect, Im not stupid. Today, I got lost in the forest for the second time in my life. Properly lost. Like spend the night in the forest lost. Id trekked a short distance from the coastal road down a steep creek to a beach with a penguin colony that is little visited. Awesome penguins, but decided to head back with several hours of light to spare. Somehow, crossing the creek for the nth time, I picked up a deer track instead of the crappy trail. This only became apparent 20 mins later after a steep climb, so i worked my way back to the creek and followed that up to the culvert under the coastal road. Big mistake. Not realising that the road jack knifed back from the coast at this point, it was another half hour before it became obvious that I had gone wrong and was following a side creek. As it vanished underground. It took me two hours to relocate the road by which time I was drenched in mud head to foot, covered in pandanus cuts and with a twisted ankle. I was actually heading way back down to the beach to start again, when a rare car went past close enough to hear through the dense forest. Stupidly, as I was visiting a penguin colony near a viewpoint, I had no GPS, no whistle, no water. All would have been fine, as a local outfit visits the colony most days, but the idea of a night(s) on the cove, covered in wet mud did not appeal. Anyway, I got back to the road, flagged down a scared elderly American couple who looked horrified at my state as I emerged from the trees, and relocated my car further up the road. So the moral is, dont be complacent just because thats when you get caught out. Lesson well and truly learned. And dont tell Mike. Though the Penguins were awesome.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 06:11:20 +0000
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