Australian Travel: a weird meeting in the bush

It was during a summer break from University that my partner and I decided to take a hiking trip into New South Wales' largest wilderness area, the Wollemi National Park. The park has since become famous for the discovery of the Wollemi Pine -- a species thought to be previously extinct, which dates back to the era of the dinosaurs.

We had walked down a steep track and camped beside the Colo River. The weather was hot, and you could smell bushfires in the distance. By the time we reached the river, we dropped our packs and dived in to cool off.

Summer in Australia is hot, and in the bush the scent of the eucalyptus becomes particularly strong. The oil in their leaves provides great material for a fire to simply explode between tree tops. Anyone who's been near a bush fire will never forget the sound, as the fire roars at speeds greater than a car can do.

That afternoon we swam and later we erected the tent on a sandy spit about 50 metres from the river. As we were near an old camp-fire site, we thought it was safe enough. By late afternoon it was clear a thunderstorm was building up in the west. The air became humid and lightening lit the sky as the sun died over the mountains.

About midnight the storm hit. Wild winds swirled around and as the lightening struck, the thunder boomed in the sandstone canyons. It was quite a show. "Bloody hell", I thought, as the rain bucketed down. "I hope that river doesn't rise too much."

Well, by 3 am, the river had risen so high it was at the tent's edge. As I put my feet outside I was already wet up to the ankles. I waited a while until first light came. We left everything in the tent, dropped the ropes and pulled the pegs and moved to higher ground.

The day was a lot cooler than the one before. We had breakfast on a log and watched the brown flooded river swirl around the bend. It was then I thought I spotted a body in the water. It was moving across towards us, but at the same time was being dragged down-stream. I got up to take a closer look. Up stream was 60 kilometres of wilderness, running through 200 metre deep canyons.

As I approached the riverbank I could see the body was moving, laying face down on a backpack, its feet kicking and head obscured by a large brimmed straw hat.

It dragged itself out of the water. "Um, G'day mate," I said. "Oh, hello", said the body in a strong yet enthusiastic accent, which I could now see was another guy, about 25 years-old. By his accent I knew he was Swiss. I had spent two years living in Zurich, and sure enough, here in the middle of the wilderness, was an intrepid Swiss explorer.

Hopelessly under-equipped. He only had a small leather lined Swiss Military pack, open-sandles on his feet, a large straw hat, which kept falling across his face as we spoke and only a loaf of German Rye bread for food.

We talked about where he was from, and where he was going. He had it in his mind that he was going to walk 60 kilometres west, through the middle of a boulder-lined canyon, which was now flooded, catch a lift when reaching the first road and attend University at a college in the State's north-west. "Crikey mate, I wouldn't go this way", I said. After all, there a parts of this wilderness that have hidden species of trees from humans for millennia. I had tried walking up the canyon the day before and it took about 2 hours to cover only a kilometre or two.

Well, he wasn't to be convinced, he had his mind set. As we were returning home that day I offered him all the food I had left. He refused, and was more interested in showing me his snake-bite kit. I'd never seen one before -- I prefer to not get bitten in the first place.

Months later, after becoming busy again with study, I was reading a newspaper. I nearly choked when I saw a headline on some obscure page. "Hiker's body found in Wollemi National Park", it read. It told of how skeletal remains had been found beside a hiker's backpack in a cave halfway up the same canyon I'd last seen the Swiss explorer. "Bloody hell!" "It couldn't be ... could it?"

I made a few enquiries and found out it wasn't him. The remains of the hiker were not European. Made me think though. I wonder if that Swiss guy had made it through? It's a big country out there.

Read about some advice on preparing for a hiking trip here.