In the summer, almost every week, rescuers take mushroom pickers or hunters out of the forest, confident that they are perfectly oriented in the thickets, out of the forest. But the forest is not a park near the house, where all the trees are planted along a ruler and signs are everywhere.
Just a couple of days ago, a man was taken out of the Krasnoyarsk Stolby reserve, who wandered in the thicket for three days and could not get out. Volunteers and employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations went in search of him. But the man had a bonus - he got in touch from time to time. He even got to the highway and tried to brake passing cars, but none of the drivers stopped.
And such stories happen almost every week.
This is far from the longest period that people spent in the wild when they could not find a way out.
Victor Vinogradov - 20 days in the taiga
Just a year ago, 65-year-old Siberian Viktor Vinogradov, together with his dog Thor, spent almost a month in the Krasnoyarsk taiga. His disappearance was not immediately noticed: Victor's wife arrived at the dacha and found that her husband was not there, and the stove was not heated. The search was announced on October 6.
Unfortunately, by that time he had been absent for several days, time was lost, false landmarks appeared.
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Victor came out of the forest 20 days later. Later he admitted that he was mistaken and went to the south of the taiga. He and the dog ate mountain ash, chewed tar and drank from puddles. The man built a hut and, in order not to freeze, slept in an embrace with the dog. Thanks to Thor, we managed to avoid a meeting with the bear with the cubs (which, most likely, would have ended sadly).
A week later, Victor and Thor came across a hunting hut, where they managed to get hold of a can of stew, butter and matches. And also the mice that Victor fed to his faithful dog. After some more time, Victor and Thor came across people who were chopping wood. Wandering through the taiga, Victor lost 16 kg, and his dog - 14. But both survived.
Lisa Teris - 28 days in the forests of Alabama
In 2017, Lisa, a visually impaired person, was found naked wandering along the highway under the scorching sun. She was unrecognizable: her hair had become tangled and turned into a solid mat, her skin turned brown from sunburn, and her whole body was covered with scars and wounds from insect bites and poison ivy.
Liza was practically declared dead and was hardly looked for. Little was known about how the girl ended up in the middle of thousands of acres of forest.
“It was amazing to wander through the woods,” Lisa said. “All the time I expected to meet a person or stumble upon a house, even if it was empty, but there was nothing around.”
Lisa drank dirty water and ate berries and mushrooms. She said that only thoughts of family made her move on.
Before that, the girl somehow ended up in the company of two men - Davis and Oswald, who were planning a burglary. The girl said that she did not want to be an accomplice in the crime and fled from the robbers. The men were detained, but their testimony was different: Davis said that the girl jumped out of the truck, and Oswald claimed that he shot Lisa when she tried to escape, and threw her body into the stream. The police suspect that both the men and Lisa herself were under the influence of drugs at the time of her disappearance.
49 days in Nepal
21-year-old Lian Sheng Yue and his girlfriend, 19-year-old Liu Chen Chun, went to travel through the forests of Nepal. The weather turned bad, and two travelers could hardly distinguish the path. Eventually they fell into a ravine, where they found a cave and hid in it. For 7 weeks, the couple hid in a cave, without access to food and water. Liu died, and Lian slept most of the time. The only food he ate was snow and salt that remained from their supplies.
Liana found a helicopter rescue team. He lost 30 kg and his right leg, which was eaten by insects.
17 days in the Australian bush
Shannon Leah Fisher got into an argument with her fiancé in September 2014. It happens. To cool off a little, she went for a walk and got lost. Interestingly, after 17 days, Shannon went to almost the same place from where she left. She was practically naked, her skin was burned enough to bleed, and Shannon severely injured her leg. A farmer found her by accident. All this time, Shannon survived by eating beetles and drinking water from the springs. The trouble was, the rescue team was looking for her in a different direction.