Did it end with a helicopter ride?

I recently attended an event and a guest asked me to tell the story about when I was rescued from Tasmania. A story God recently placed on my heart as we seek God in our waiting, in the random and scattered places we have been since we sold our house in Lakeway and bought a sailing vessel named "Sea Way". God saved and protected me from the Rainforest in Tasmania and still protects and saves. 

This is the actual submission I sent to Women's Magazine for the "I Survived Column". It reads more like a journal than a story. Here it is:

I work for a software company and travel a little bit. A few years ago I was asked to join a group of people in Australia after an event in Melbourne. The plan was to meet at the end of the event and head to the Island of Tasmania for a weekend of hiking. I had never been and it sounded like fun. So I was in! I was told that we would probably be hiking near some pretty beaches - and with it being May and all I should pack even a swimsuit since we might hit the beach.

Saturday morning up early. We went to a beautiful national park, beaches, car parks, it was cold, but I stopped by the visitor center and bought some possum socks. 

Sunday up early. Had a funny feeling and instead of packing my book, I packed my passport and my blackberry. So we ventured to another park. Douglas - Aspley. The only map we had of the park was one of those Barney Maps – you know what I mean, not a real map, just illustrations. Thankfully we had asked the man who owned the hostel where we were staying about the place – this would be handy later. 

There was vegetation all over the road – no visible signs of anyone ever being there. The car park was empty, there was no visitor station, no place to purchase coffee and I was not happy. Honestly I had it with hiking from the day before – my bottom was really sore and the silly shoes I had on were desperate. You know the ones that are supposed to give you a gluteus workout? My hike mate assured me that it would be beautiful. So we set out and plotted our path on the “barney map” with the plan to  venture to some falls, to a point called Lookout Hills, take the path following the ridge and back to the start point. I think that our initial “hike” was to have been about 5 hours. Well about 20 minutes after the first fallen tree was covering the path, my pessimism was at an all time high and my appetite for adventure was at all time low.

We finally reached the “falls” – looked more like a stream with some rocks – I said “ok – I have had enough, I am not really a hiker, can we go back?” My hike mate said, “Come on and miss out on all of this beauty?” I replied how I had seen as much beauty as I could stand back in the car park – since my head had been pointed downwards for the past 3 hours trying to just watch where I was walking. In fact I offered that I would have been just as happy to have just walked around in circles a few times around the car and asked if we could go back. My hiking mate was not aligned to shorten the adventure, and urged us to go to Lookout Hill.  

When we reached a high spot that forked off the path to Lookout Hill we were about four hours into the “hike”. Instead of going off to see the rock, I told my hike mate that I would wait and let him take it all in and I called my husband. I don't know what time it was in America but it was about 12:30 PM in the forest. I was completely soaked, exhausted, and home sick. I begged my husband to tell me something that would give me strength after I said “You are ex military, can’t you call someone and have them send a helicopter to rescue me?’ He shared a funny story about the dogs, then my tone turned serious. I shared that we were on a path that was horribly marked, that I was really tired and I thought we were kind of pushing, being able to make our way back to the car. I described what I could about where we were and that he did not get a call from me by 7:30 PM we were in trouble and that he should call for help. I gave him the name of the forest that we were in and the name of the “path” that we were on. I remembered seeing the name of a camp site on the map and that if we were not at the campsite, the search party should look for us between Lookout Hill and the campsite. The sun would be going down, we had no flashlights, food or anything to keep us warm or sheltered. 

My hike mate came back from the Falls. “How was the view” I asked. He said, “ it was alright. So we headed for the ridge. We hit everything but a path and really needed a machete to cut a way through the diverse vegetation. We slid down a very long hill, lost the “path” and after being completely surrounded by bushes, my hike mate said that he was going “to be risk adverse and insist that we turn back” Did I mention that the sun set and it was completely pitch black by 5 PM. This was about 3:30 and we had been headed in the direction that we were in for over 7 hours. There was no way we were going to get all the way back in an hour and a half. I grabbed my cell phone, called my husband and this time told him without any hesitation to send help. I told him where we were approximately and that we were going to try to make it to that campsite, as it seemed to be the only landmark. 

We went back and forth on the path and had lots of debates about where to go. I kept my faith, yielding to my inner compass. I was so cold. I kept praying. The only thing that I could focus on was a Christian song “God Of Wonders” by Third Day. The lyrics go like this, “Lord of all creation, Lord of water, earth and sky, the heavens are your tabernacle, glory to the Lord on high” I would get to the end of that stanza and start over. 

We ended up with the help of God getting back to the campsite at sunset. I sat down on a log. That was about the time a leech crawled on me, so I stood up, found a tree to lean on. I think I stood there for about 4 hours in time for a leech to crawl inside my mouth. I guess he was looking for warmth too. I was about out of hope, battery and out of cell range as I looked pulled out my blackberry one last time to type out a message that I loved my husband and would see him in heaven. There was rustling of the bushes in the dark. My thoughts went dark and began to imagine that it was Tasmanian devils and how I would die. Devils tearing the flesh from my bones as I stood defenseless to the dark.

Tasmanian Devil

I kept snapping my thoughts and mind and meditations back to the song: God of Wonders until the miraculous sound of whirling helicopter blades appeared from the darkness and lowered a rescue person into the forest. It took a bit because the trees were so high. Once they were able to negotiate and safely descend on their cable. I ran to the person, think I may have hugged her I asked “how did you find us?” She replied, “it was the call that you made to the United States, someone loves you”. I piled into the helicopter so anxious to get out of there, I called out to the pilot and said "go, go, go" and the rescue person said "what about your friend?" I said, "he keeps saying he is fine, he is fine, go". He too was safely brought on board and we started our flight out of the forest.

When the helicopter landed in the police property yard, the pilot shared “That will be $7500.00 US Dollars”. I said, “Fine, do you take American Express? And how much more to take me to the Airport” 

He was kidding, I was not. Although he could not fly me to the airport, he did informed us that our hostel host, Matt, was happy to have us back and suggested it would be useful to get warm, showered and rest before finally heading to the airport for our flights back to the US. 

Helicopter for illustrative purposes, the trees were high!

I left a lot of details out, some are fuzzy at this writing all of these years later. I will say about 6 months after I returned from Tasmania, someone who was supposed to go asked me what happened. I shared what happened then she asked my hike mate. My hike mate said I had a proclivity towards exaggeration. Her reply was “Did it end in a helicopter rescue? I believe April’s”.