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A Tasmanian bushwalker who spent two days lost in the wilderness on the state’s west coast says he was losing hope that he would be discovered.
On Saturday afternoon 75-year-old Harry Gruner left his two walking companions at a remote hut in the Mount Dundas area and headed to Fraser Falls by himself.
He told 936 ABC Hobart he underestimated the length of the stroll and it became dark before he created it back.
“I did not have a torch with me, I did not have matches with me since I thought I would be coming back early which was very foolish,” he said.
“I walked down and it got actually dark and ultimately I ended up at the river but I did not know exactly where I was.”
With out an EPIRB on him, Mr Gruner’s disappearance sparked an comprehensive search involving more than 25 police and State Emergency Service volunteers as properly as the rescue helicopter.
I walked over the bridge, effectively a lot more or less crawled over, and all of a sudden I saw a four-wheel drive of the SES and I thought ‘oh you’re safe’.
Harry Gruner
Mr Gruner mentioned he struggled to be seen by the rescue teams because of the thick scrub.
“On Saturday I heard the helicopter but it was very hard to be observed,” he stated.
“Everywhere you look, trees, I believed ‘if I get on prime of the hills and I could be observed by the chopper’, but I was struggling to get up to the hill tops only to find out they have been heavily grown with trees.”
Mr Gruner stated he became weaker and was forced to drink water from nearby streams which created him sick.
He mentioned he was “obtaining desperate” when the rescue crews lastly situated him about four:00pm yesterday.
“All of a sudden I saw a suspension bridge in front of me, so I climbed up with this final strength I had,” he mentioned.
“I walked over the bridge, well more or much less crawled more than, and all of a sudden I saw a four-wheel drive of the SES and I believed ‘oh you are safe’.
“It took about an hour ahead of a couple of blokes came.”
Mr Gruner was taken to the Queenstown Hospital suffering dehydration and exhaustion.
Earlier this year bushwalkers have been urged to carry rescue beacons such as the EPIRB following a spate of comprehensive searches for missing bushwalkers.
In October, a man was rescued from Mount Anne soon after spending two nights in the remote location.
Significantly less than two weeks later two Victorian bushwalkers have been rescued from the very same region.
Last month an knowledgeable bushwalker from New South Wales went missing for two days on South Cape Variety in south western Tasmania.
Topics: disasters-and-accidents, emergency-incidents, zeehan-7469