The Night We Almost Died
Dominic McGrath & Callum Mackie
It started when Dom arrived. We needed to find something to do so we decided upon Callum’s terrific idea of visiting the Big Drift sand dunes. Upon inspection of the website which states it is very “easy to get lost”, we thought that with our 3 massive brains, there would be nothing holding us back. We could not have been any less prepared for what was about to happen - apart from the trauma earlier in the day suffered by Gerard and Callum when there was a close encounter with a red bellied black snake.
We had no water and phones at half charge.
We arrived as the sun was going down, enough light to get us there. Yet not enough to see anything. We got some stunning pics but as the hours ticked by on top of the invisible, windy, sand dunes we knew it was time to retrace our faded footsteps back using nothing but our hazy recollection of direction.
Opinions were utterly divided on the way back to the safety of the trail. We desperately searched in the dark for a marker which would guide us to safety. Using nothing but some cheap torches and headlamps, we battled through the difficult conditions as the realisation that we could be spending the night on a massive sand dune, exposed to gale force winds and plummeting temperatures truly hit home.
Panic instantly struck as we searched desperately for that one elusive reflective pole which would be our ticket to freedom. The argument of direction was constant. Gez pointed some what in the right direction, remembering that he saw a red light on the horizon, with Dom pointing in the absolute wrong direction, probably due to him still being ‘para’ from the previous night. Who knows what he was thinking! Callum somehow managed to recall the way in such a disorientating environment but with the others sheer confidence in their own routes we split up for a good minute, until the fear of dying alone set in. We eventually agreed on Gerard’s direction seeming he thought he knew exactly where we were going. We walked in Gerard’s direction for minutes on end in hope of finding the reflective pole, but it just wasn’t where he thought it was. Gerard’s direction was just as useless as Dom’s.
The thought of spending the night on the dune was quickly becoming even more of a reality. So we followed Callum’s initial direction, whilst contemplating possible scenarios for our survival. We walked over a dune and Callum spotted a dim reflection, notifying the others of his miraculous discovery. The fleeting hope of survival kicked up the adrenaline levels just enough to make the final push to the pole. With phones on empty batteries we got to it, only to argue which way the exit was, luckily Dom had drawn a deep arrow in the sand near the pole pointing to the exit, with our fading torches we found the arrow which had transformed into a faint wind swept marking, our ticket home.
We made it out alive. Worth it for the pics.
