rsj223 wrote:I went for a walk with my son and did my best to confuse him, wasn't hard as he was to busy looking at the wrong things but not around him, so after around 40min I said I would follow him back to the car if you can find it "yep I know exactly where it is"so after 50min I said do you want to see the GPS yeah ok he could see how we pretty much circled the car and was thinking WTF, so he used the GPS to walk straight back to the car. Lesson No 126 to young son, tick
I've been properly lost once in Tassie. Started walking from Lake Dobson above Mt Field National Park.
We walked 8 hrs to get to camp. Instructor in his wisdom says ok lets go for another 1hr walk to check out some views.
Get there, pfffft moar lakes and mountains...I'm hungry and my gf was back in the tent so me and a guy I didn't get along with, but had the same idea and both fit enough to run back and over the sightseeing decided to leg it. Teacher says make sure you follow the trail.
Sure. As the crow flies
...went past the camp but didn't have a clue. Slid 30mins down a 45 deg mountain face. Thought it must be just over that next ridge, looked and had no idea. Took 4hrs to climb back up the mountain pulling our selves up tree by tree, stopping to suck water from the moss. Didn't think to drink at the lake we were at due to stress.
Lit a fire to show smoke sign, lucky things were moist and it didn't take off. Could have been bad.
Clouds had rolled in, getting late, wind blowing hard. Got to the top and saw a board walk 10m from where we descended winding back to camp.
Yelled out and they came to us with chocolates and nuts. Yeh.
2 fit dudes were about 100m from camp running back to Lake Dobson to call Westpac SAR.
No mobiles or sat phones back then.
We were not the most popular guys with the instructors but I'm pretty sure they learnt a lesson too. Don't let 16 year olds fcuk off in the high country in winter alone. Don't believe us when we say "Yes of course we will be wise and follow the trails"
A GPS would have avoided 6 hours of stress and potential disaster.
Every one laughed later on over a few scoobs, teacher included.
I was told later people were joking about envisaging me knocking the other twat off and using him as a human canoe to paddle back to National Park