Robert Bogucki – 40 days alone in the desert
Time stranded: 40 days
Distance traveled: Around 150 miles
Terrain types: Desert
Deaths: 0
Situation ended: Found by news helicopter
Location: Great sandy desert, Western Australia
There are usually only a handful of great outdoor adventures in someone’s life, and Robert Bogucki decided to make cycling through the Great sandy desert in Western Australia one of his. He was 33 years old at the time and on June 11, 1999, he began his trip, starting at the Sandfire Roadhouse located around 1,200 miles north of Perth.
The bike he was using was an old jalopy that he had ridden many miles on before and knew it was reliable. His food supplies consisted of snack bars and a few tinned goods, some camping gear, a bible, and 26 liters of water in containers attached to his bike.
This trip wasn’t going to be a regular cycle across the country but rather a spiritual journey where he hoped to find god. He was going to cycle several days to the McLarty Hills where he planned to stop eating and simply wait for god to come to him, after which he would travel north to the highway between Broome and Fitzroy Crossing and try to hitch a lift.
The trip to McLarty Hills was supposed to take seven days, but Bogucki had never traveled across this area before and found himself constantly running into soft sand he couldn’t ride through. After two very frustrating days of mostly pushing his bike, he decided to ditch it and continue the journey on foot, even though this meant he would have to leave behind most of his supplies along with almost half his water.
Things didn’t quite go according to plan and Bogucki quickly became lost, with the long walk in the hot desert sun quickly draining his remaining water supply. As with so many wilderness survival stories, he didn’t tell anyone where he was going and when he’d be back, with the only clue being a postcard he sent to his parents that read “Going up the road about 20km, then heading into the desert. Won’t write again for a while until I get to another post box.”
Just over two weeks after he first went missing, a group of friends driving through the desert found his abandoned bike along with the supplies he dropped, thinking it looked suspicious they alerted the police in Broome. A search of the area found the receipt from the roadhouse Bogucki started his journey from, and they quickly identified him, making a call to his parents to see if he’d come back home.
At this point, a rescue party was launched and everyone from police and volunteers to local aboriginal animal trackers joined the search. Since it had already been more than two weeks since he first left all traces of his movements were long gone, just like the food and water Bogucki brought with him.
By now Bogucki was in a desperate situation. He was starving and losing weight, but water didn’t seem to be a problem, especially during the first week were he found numerous water holes and even went swimming a few times. The later days of his journey were not so bountiful and the food situation was now critical and the watering holes started to become increasingly rare and hard to find.
He later claimed in an interview that he threw a little tantrum in the desert and lay down afterward, at which point he heard a voice in his head telling him to go and dig for water in a small valley close by. He went in the direction that felt right and came across a large sandy bowl that offered shelter from the wind and had moist enough ground to hold water. He stayed there for about a week and found it to be the most peaceful place he had ever been, even finding some of that spiritual enlightenment he was originally searching for.
Even though his supplies had run out he didn’t want to be rescued, so when he heard a plane fly over he dragged his tarpaulin out of view and remained hidden in the sand bowl. The plane was actually a police search plane that was part of the huge rescue effort that Bogucki had no idea was taking place.
The search teams did all they could but found no sign of Bogucki, and the officer in charge of the search called it off, deeming it too dangerous for the search teams. This didn’t sit well with Bogucki’s family and girlfriend who had already flown into the country to find him, and after hearing the local police had given up they arranged a private rescue effort led by a man named Garrison St Clair. This guy was the real deal when it came to rescuers, and he turned up with tracker dogs, medical specialists, and professional man trackers.
The private search began on August 19 and only a few hours in they found a set of footprints believed to be Bogucki’s. Since he had been gone for so long a number of local news channels became interested in the story and one of their helicopters saw a pile of rubbish that Bogucki had left behind, but no sign of the man himself.
A few clues were found here and there and Bogucki even spelled out the word “help” using white stones and an arrow in the direction he was going to walk, but no one saw it. By pure luck on August 23, a Channel Nine news helicopter was flying over the area looking for more of the story when they spotted a lone figure walking slowly along the desert floor. The strange thing was he didn’t look up at the helicopter or try to signal it in any way and it originally flew right past him. Not wanting to miss the chance for a good story and thinking it might actually be Bogucki, the helicopter turned round and landed before a crew member got out and asked Bogucki what his name was.
He was told about the rescue operation and put on board where he was flown straight to the hospital. When he set out he weighed around 85kg but lost a total of 30kg over the 40 days he was missing. It took him a year to get back into full health again but apart from some dehydration and malnourishment was in remarkably good shape.
He later said in various interviews that he survived by eating the few plants he could find and had to resort to digging for water after the first two weeks. He would often move large rocks and try to soak his blanket in the moisture underneath before wringing it out into his mouth. There were a number of days during his ordeal where he didn’t drink or eat anything, and if he wasn’t found it would have only been a few more days until he met his end.