Thread: Lost in the bush

Spent an unplanned night out in the Kawekas. We were hunting the Don Juan Range and were running out of daylight.
We could have followed the track back to the car but some genius ( could have been me ) said lets take a compass bearing, bushcrash until we hit Gorge Stream, and just follow it back to the campsite. Yeah, nah. Bad decision. Fell down a 5 metre drop, survived that, other than a wack in the head from my rifle butt. Long story short, ran out of daylight and got bushed. I carry a couple of survival blankets, but my mate had forgotten his. So we curled up together in some fern, pulled the blankets over and thought, ok, we should be ok, not too cold. Went to sleep, and woke up shivering uncontrollably. Gonzo asked me the time, and I was ‘disappointed’ to see it was only 10.00.
Lets just say it was a bloody long night. We moved out at first light, and found Gorge Stream ( and a bloody nice fireplace, already made ) about 50 metres downhill from where we slept. Took about 2 1/2 hours to get back to camp. Moral of the story ? Shortcuts often aren’t shorter. We now carry a bivvy bag each, in our daypack. So cheap lesson learned.