By Jo Nova
The city kids don’t know the first thing about the sky
Despite the media frenzy here, no one seems to have noticed that the lost tourist, Carolina Wilga, was walking for 11 days in the wrong direction. She said she “followed” the sun, and thought she was going west, but she was actually going north-west, away from help. See the map below to appreciate what a terrible mistake she was making (among a list). At this time of year, the sun is setting almost as far north as it ever sets. Somehow she was missing the entire Wheat Belt of Western Australia.
Primitive hunter gatherers knew the cycles of the sun and the movement of stars we can’t even see. It’s the most ancient science and we seem to have lost it. Not just Ms Wilga, but all the commentators too. Neolithic Brits built Stonehenge 4,000 years ago to mark the solstice and modern phone bunnies with silicon chips have lost it. Heck, even Bogong moths can navigate by the stars.
Carolina Wilga, 26
The 26 year old German backpacker drove 35 km off the beaten track into no-mans land and had an incident where the car slid, and she hit her head and got bogged. After giving up on the car, she waited a day, then walked “west”. She drank water from puddles and bee-hives. At night, temperatures drop to around zero (32F). No surprisingly, she was convinced she would die. It would have been gruelling and very very scary. On the 12th day, somehow, through extraordinary luck, or a divine act, the one sole station owner for 50 kilometers happened to see her on a dirt track that the owner doesn’t travel on much. Tania Henley (the rescuer) called it a miracle, which I thought was the usual hype, until I saw the map. Out in the border-land surrounding the vast desert center of Australia there are thousands of empty square kilometers.
The direction Carolina was headed in was almost doomed — running parallel to the northern edge of the wheat and barley fields in a largely uninhabited semi-arid zone.
What the bland mass media map doesn’t show is where civilization is, and how she was headed in the wrong direction
In the satellite photo below we can see the wheat and barley farms to the south, where she had come from, and would have found safety and people. To the north and north-west is Bimbijy — which is one of the vast remote stations in Western Australia. (The red dots marking her start and end points are only approximate. The car was stuck in “Karroun Hill Reserve” which no one has ever heard of, but is 3,097 square kilometers in size. She apparently covered 24 kilometers on foot and was found west of Bimbijy, and her car was left 35km from “any established track”.)
Never mind the brown snakes, the deadliest thing out there is the lack of water. Rainfall in this area is less than 300mm or 12 inches a year and all the lakes are salt-pans. Luckily June and July are the rainiest time of year. One 73 year old gold prospector went missing in the same area last December, and sadly, has still not been found.
Headed NW to follow the Sun.
Ponder that the one cleared pale square under the word “Bimbijy” above is the station homestead and airstrip. The only one out there.
Tania Henley (the rescuer) said:
“It was meant to be because no one goes up and down that road. “I don’t go to Beacon very often…”
We can zoom out and see that by following the sun Carolina’s direction was one long miss. (Along the dotted white line). In midwinter at 29°S the sun is setting 23° north of west. Though obviously, she should have been going south west, not west in any case. (Don’t leave home without a paper map, eh?)
The golden rule is “never leave the car” but if you’ve somehow got stuck off road, 35 kilometers from any civilization, and no one knows you are there, or expects you home, and you don’t have a satellite phone or an emergency beacon, then all your choices are bad. Spotter planes will find a car faster than a person, but if no one sends out a spotter plane, it might be weeks or months before another car goes past. As it was, her car was found only one day before she was.
Lucky Tania Henley didn’t leave an hour or two earlier.
This is still in the news here in Western Australia every day, because obviously we were delighted she was found. I’m just amazed that no one has mentioned the sun…
A young German got lost on a trail,
Surviving 12 long days but frail,
Very lucky to last,
Where the outback is vast,
She can now tell her ‘walkabout’ tale.
— Ruairi
POST NOTE: Her gracious note from the hospital bed. She is one immigrant/visitor who sounds very Australian.