Desert Survival Stories
A desert is classed as any large area of land that receives less than 10 inches of rain each year. The biggest desert in the world is in Antarctica where it never rains liquid water, but the following desert survival stories are all based in Hot climates. See Arctic survival stories for the cold weather deserts.
Ricky Megee – 71 Days in an Australian Desert
The story of Ricky Megee is different from all the rest as he can’t seem to give a straight answer as to how he got into his survival situation in the first place. One day he woke up in the middle of a desert with nothing on him but his clothes. His phone and car were nowhere to be seen and he needed food or water.
Amongst his explanations as to how he got there in the first place include being robbed by 3 people he helped get gas, and being drugged by a hitchhiker he picked up. Whatever the real reason was, it doesn’t change the fact that he did survive alone in the desert for 71 days, as his condition was close to death from starvation and dehydration at the time he was found.
Ricky Megee – The Full Survival Story
William LaFever – 3 Weeks in the Utah wilderness
This man was traveling to Paige in Arizona from Boulder in Utah, but instead of driving he decided to walk the 90-mile trip. He began walking along the Escalante River with his dog but due to his autism, massively underestimated how much food and water to bring.
He quickly ran out of both and his dog ran off on the first night, making him panic and walk off course. Since he didn’t give an arrival time no one knew he was missing for the first few days, and William was left wandering along the Escalante River hoping to run into someone.
One of the police officers taking part in the search for him had recently finished a course on finding missing people with autism and got lucky. He sent a search helicopter to the location he suspected and surely enough, there was William sitting next to the water.
William LaFever – The Full Survival Story
Ed Rosenthal – 6 Days in the desert
A story we can all learn from, this man was just taking a leisurely stroll through the desert on a route he had taken many times. He knew exactly how long it would take him and so only brought a small bottle of water and no food.
At one point on the walk he decided to wander off into a canyon and ended up getting lost. He spent the next few days trying to find water and became certain he was going to die, and even tried to scratch messages to his loved ones on a rock. After getting rescued he believed god was responsible for saving his life and also wrote a book of his experience, which includes 36 poems about how he got lost and was found again.
Ed Rosenthal – The Full Survival Story
Mauro Prosperi – 9 Days in the Algerian Desert
Every year in northern Africa there’s a race called the Marathon des Sables, a race that’s over 6 times the length of a standard marathon which takes place entirely in the desert. Mauro was an Italian police officer who enjoyed being active and liked a good challenge, so in 1994 he entered the race.
At one point on the route, a sandstorm hit, and Mauro became disorientated, and after losing his sense of direction began to run in the wrong direction. He ended up running several dozen kilometers before he realized how bad his situation was, and was forced to take shelter in an abandoned shrine in the middle of nowhere.
He survived by drinking the blood of bats he found living on the roof and was close to death before making one final run out into the desert to find help.
Mauro Prosperi – The Full Survival Story
Victoria Grover – 5 Nights in the Desert
(Box-Death Hollow Canyon)
Victoria was a lifelong fan of the outdoors and in 2012 decided to go for a walk in the Box Death Hollow Canyon in Utah. On the first day she was out walking she was caught suddenly in the dark after not paying attention to her surroundings and had to spend the night there.
She claims the first night was quite pleasant, but it wasn’t until the morning things got serious. As she was also lost at this point she decided the best way to get back to her car was to hop down a series of ledges about 5 to 6 feet high, which she believed would save her several hours.
On the last ledge, she broke her leg and had to spend the next few nights next to a small stream with no food. The most important thing to learn from her story is the reason no one found her sooner, as she didn’t tell anyone where she was going. She blames the clerk at the lodge she checked into for not raising the alarm, even though she only asked him to save her some supper until she got back that night, which to me isn’t the same as “I’m going to this specific location and if I’m not back by this particular time, raise the alarm”.
Victoria Grover – The Full Survival Story
Ann Rogers – 9 days stranded in the Arizona Desert
Ann Rogers is an excellent example of some of the right things to do in a survival situation. After running out of gas in the middle of the Arizona desert, 72-year-old Rogers gathered the right gear and went in the right direction, leaving a note to anyone who came looking for her.
After spending 9 days with her dog in the middle of nowhere, the “help” sign she had made was spotted by a helicopter and she was picked up soon after. Drinking from a creek and eating edible plants kept her alive, and at one point a turtle roasted in its shell helped to keep her going.
Ann Rogers – The Full Survival Story
Captain James Riley – Stranded and Enslaved
Captain James Riley was unlucky enough to not only become stranded in the desert but was also taken as a slave. Being forced to march hundreds of miles through one of the harshest environments on earth, he finally reached a city where he promised his captors there was a man he knew there who’d pay for him.
This was all a lie as he was only trying his luck and just hoping a consul from a friendly country would be there.