Heartbreaking: Daughter speaks out after 87-year-old mother goes missing during hiking trip, after the first GPS signal was detected and all traces were found
‘I thought I wasn’t gonna see my mum again’: Daughter speaks out after 87-year-old’s bushwalk disappearance
The daughter of an 87-year-old bushwalker who endured a freezing night lost in south-west Western Australia is speaking out, hoping her story helps others.
The cold and dehydrated grandmother survived on nothing but a packet of raisins until she was found alive on Saturday afternoon.
The bushwalker set off on Friday on a track near Donnelly River Village, 280 kilometres south of Perth, but took a wrong turn.
Daughter Jo said her mum really wanted to go on a bushwalk. (9News)
“Mum, who’s unstoppable and has just gotten new hips, decided she really wanted to do a walk,” daughter Jo said today.
The 87-year-old spent the night alone in dense bushland as temperatures plunged to 6 degrees.
“I thought I wasn’t gonna see my mum again,” Jo said.
“I really didn’t think she was coming back.”
The alarm was raised by 8pm on Friday. Family and emergency services combed the tracks, helicopters and drones searched overhead but the thick canopy was hiding her.
“We did all the trails and forestry tracks on our bikes and walking for the whole night, and didn’t find her,” Jo said.
Finally she was found – exhausted, dehydrated but unhurt – 2 kilometres from where she started, after her phone managed to call Triple Zero.
The family of an 87-year-old bushwalker who endured a freezing night lost in south-west Western Australia is speaking out, hoping her story helps others. (9News)
“She was sitting on a jarra log, waiting here obediently, eating her little packet of raisins,” Jo said.
Police warn more people are heading into remote areas unprepared, sparking major rescue operations. Experts urging walkers to always tell loved ones their plans.
“Take extra water, take a little bit of extra food, extra clothing, maybe some form of shelter,” bush survival expert Terry Hewett said.
” … a four to six or maybe eight-hour walk could end up being an overnight event.”
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