A young couple were forced to spend hours wearing dripping wet clothes in the cold after getting lost on a hiking adventure after the sun set.
Tallis Boerne Marcus and his girlfriend Natalie Ojeda were hiking through Macquarie Pass National Park on the afternoon of April 5, hunting for hidden waterfalls.
The couple arrived about 3pm and found the first watering hole with ease, but were determined to find two more that they’d heard about online.
Both waterfalls they were searching for were off the beaten track. They set off regardless, thinking only of the adventure they were embarking on.
After about two hours, they found what they were looking for and spent the afternoon taking loved-up selfies, swimming and enjoying the fading afternoon sun.
Tallis Boerne Marcus and his girlfriend Natalie Ojeda were hiking through Macquarie Pass National Park on the afternoon of April 5, hunting for hidden waterfalls
The couple regularly spend their time hiking and exploring their own backyard in New South Wales
What they never considered was the return trip home.
Their phones were quickly losing battery, they were running out of water and reception was scarce.
The sun disappeared rapidly and soon enough they were shrouded in complete darkness without any sense of how to get to the clearing they’d parked their car in.
‘By the time 6pm hit, you couldn’t have seen the entire cast and crew of Neighbours 10 metres away,’ Mr Marcus wrote in Explore Travel.
‘It was pitch black and our attempts to find the trail were ending only in hopelessly walking in circles, slipping on muddy rocks and tripping over tree roots.’
The couple found themselves lost and stranded after dark, and had to sit tight waiting for SES crews to rescue them
The couple arrived about 3pm and found the first watering hole with ease, but were determined to find two more that they’d heard about online
By this point, the couple were terrified. They knew any further attempts to find their way out would do little but exhaust them, and their minds were beginning to ‘play tricks on them’ through the shadows of darkness.
Mr Marcus stood on his tiptoes on the highest rock he could see nearby with his arm high in the sky in an attempt to get enough reception to call 000.
‘They could barely decipher us through the awful signal, we gave our location as best we could,’ said.
They were told SES were on their way.
‘What followed was a nervous hour of shivering cold… We were cold, wet and completely alone… Scared and completely at the mercy of the dark bush surrounding us.’
The couple were terrified. They knew any further attempts to find their way out would do little but exhaust them, and their minds were beginning to ‘play tricks on them’ through the shadows of darkness
Mr Marcus said there were several key mistakes that he and his girlfriend made prior to arriving at the hiking trail
‘Australia has wonderful and brave volunteers, willing to sacrifice their time for the safety of people like me. As we sat shivering in our regret, an army of these volunteers were scouting the dense bushland. It took about two hours for them to find us and I’ve never been so grateful to see those uniforms.’
Mr Marcus said there were several key mistakes that he and his girlfriend made prior to arriving at the hiking trail.
While they had planned to stop at a waterfall named Rainbow Falls and then continue down an unmarked trail hoping to stumble upon Mulangong Falls and Clover Hill Trail, they never researched how long the walk itself should take.
In addition to not knowing how long they would spend walking, Mr Marcus had very little charge on his phone and didn’t come prepared with any portable chargers or backups.
‘But perhaps my most crucial shortcoming was not being aware daylight savings had ended the night before,’ he admitted.
This mistake cost him more than an hour of sunlight. By the time they’d started the two hour walk back to the base, the sun was just 25 minutes from entirely setting.
‘My girlfriend and I experimented far too long with self timer photos before eventually deciding to head back,’ he added.
In addition to not knowing how long they would spend walking, Mr Marcus had very little charge on his phone and didn’t come prepared with any portable chargers or backups
