Pod Insights Real Survival Stories Trapped in the Tropics: Stranger to Saviour About this episode A chance encounter with an enigmatic stranger presents Warren Macdonald with the adventure opportunity of a lifetime. But deep in Queensland’s Hinchinbrook Island, a bizarre accident changes everything. Smashed to pieces and immobilised, Warren has to pin all his hopes on a man he only met the day before. And trapped in a streambed in excruciating pain, with water rising around him, the odds are not on his side…
A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins.
Written by Chris McDonald | Produced by Ed Baranski | Assistant Producer: Luke Lonergan | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Matt Peaty | Assembly edit by Rob Plummer | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Ralph Tittley.
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Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:03 John Hopkins? It's just after 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April the 9th, 1997. Darkness is folding over Hinchinbrook Island, a rugged, rain-forested outcrop off the coast of Queensland, Australia. The wilderness pulses with life. Frog croaks bounce from tree to tree. Insects hum incessantly. In the dense undergrowth, something larger, something unseen, crashes through the foliage. The last traces of twilight fade behind Mount Bowen, the island's tallest peak, casting the jungle below into shadow.
1:44 John Hopkins? And near its summit, there's the sound of human footsteps stumbling through the dwindling light.
1:53 John Hopkins? Thirty-two-year-old Warren McDonald is searching for a place to answer nature's call.
2:00 Speaker 03 Growing up spending a lot of time in the bush, the rule is you don't take a leak right into your water supply.
2:08 John Hopkins? His makeshift camp is pitched beside a narrow stream, and Warren knows better than to risk contamination of his drinking water. But bordered by impenetrable jungle on one side and a stony creek bed on the other, choices are limited. The only option is dead ahead, a natural stone wall rising about fourteen feet, its top hidden in shadow.
2:33 Speaker 03 I figured that if I get up and over that, there'll be somewhere up there that I'll be able to find that'll be far enough away.
2:40 John Hopkins? Warren steps up to the wall and lays his hands on the rock face. His fingers dance over the cold, coarse granite, searching for handholds.
2:51 John Hopkins? After dismissing a few, he finds a contender for his left hand. It feels solid. Reaching high with his right, he soon locates another good anchor point. He tests their strength to ensure they'll take his weight.
3:07 John Hopkins? He breathes out slowly, then bends his left leg and begins to push himself up. And then, a terrible noise echoes through the forest.
3:20 Speaker 03 I just heard this almighty crack as, basically, the world gave way. Absolutely slammed me back down into that creek bed, and next thing I knew, I'm just in this world of pain.
3:42 John Hopkins? Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice? Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations, people suddenly forced to fight for their lives.
4:04 John Hopkins? In this episode, we meet Warren McDonald. In April 1997, while relaxing on Hinchinbrook Island, a chance encounter presents him with the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to scale the island's highest peak, Mount Bowen. As an adventure enthusiast and yes-man, it's not long before Warren is high up in the wilderness of the island. But then, near the summit, just as he is bedding down for the night, a bizarre accident changes everything.
4:34 Speaker 03 There's probably a second or two that's gone from memory. It was never really there while I was in the air. The next thing I knew is yeah, we hit the ground together and just I had this incredible grinding, burning pain down into my legs.
4:47 John Hopkins? Smashed to pieces and immobilized, Warren has to pin all his hopes on a man he only met the day before. And trapped in a streambed, in excruciating pain, with water rising around him, the odds are not on his side.
5:02 Speaker 03 I would psych myself up, but I could only really hold that for so long and then I would come crashing down on the other side. Nope, you're done. You're done, they're gonna find you dead here in a couple of days.
5:14 John Hopkins? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noiser Podcast Network, this is Real Survival Stories.
5:42 John Hopkins? It's late morning on Tuesday, April 8th, 1997. Hinchinbrook Island, just off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is a truly wild place.
5:53 John Hopkins? The coastline is a ribbon of golden beaches, lapped by impossibly clear turquoise waters.
6:01 John Hopkins? Towering granite peaks loom inland, their slopes veiled in thick tropical greenery, while waterfalls tumble into hidden gullies and rock pools.
6:14 John Hopkins? With no hotels or hostels and visited by just 7,000 tourists a year, Hinschenbrook attracts two types of people: day trippers and adventure lovers.
6:26 John Hopkins? Thirty-two-year-old Warren McDonald falls into the second category.
6:30 John Hopkins? As a boat pulls up to shore, Warren steps off behind a small group of visitors.
6:36 John Hopkins? While the others veer off towards the nearest beach they can find, he shoulders his pack and heads to the coastal path in search of something a little more private.
6:47 John Hopkins? As he traverses the cliff sides, the ocean stretches endlessly towards the horizon. Inland, Mount Bowen, the island's highest peak, is a silhouette against a vast sapphire sky.
7:02 John Hopkins? By late afternoon, Warren arrives at Little Ramsay Bay on the east side of the island.
7:09 John Hopkins? The beach is secluded, silent except for the rhythmic crash of waves.
7:15 John Hopkins? He sets his pack down, strips off, and wades into the sea for a refreshing swim.
7:22 John Hopkins? For Warren, leaving everything behind and vanishing into the wild for a few days isn't unusual. From a young age, he enjoyed escaping the house and running free.
7:34 Speaker 03 I grew up in Melbourne, western suburbs. We were on a pretty long chain. I don't think mum or dad had any clue where we were as we were growing up as kids, and I think that held me in pretty good stead for some of the things I would go through eventually.
7:51 John Hopkins? Rather than curtailing his youthful curiosity and energy, at school, his adventurous spirit was encouraged.
7:59 Speaker 03 We got sent to do an outward-bound style course. It's mostly for kids and teenagers where you take them out into the woods or out on a lake or a river or whatever, on a wilderness-type expedition to build character is really what it's all about.
8:19 John Hopkins? Part of the course included a daunting solo hike. It was during this excursion, alone, under the endless skies, that Warren had an experience that would change his life.
8:32 Speaker 03 I had this feeling that I came to call the connection, and it almost felt like being electrocuted. I've never been a religious person, but it felt like I had this full-blown spiritual experience where, at the same time, felt infinitesimally small and yet, part of everything. It was just a wild, wild feeling.
9:00 John Hopkins? And it's a feeling he will chase his whole life.
9:04 John Hopkins? Though, as adulthood hit, his adventures inevitably became less frequent, at least for a while.
9:14 John Hopkins? Faced with rent, bills, and responsibilities, he took a job at a local gas company.
9:21 John Hopkins? One afternoon, sitting under the harsh fluorescent lights in the office with the veteran employees, he had an epiphany.
9:31 Speaker 03 At one point, I remember thinking, wow, there's guys around me that have been here for 30 years and I just, I can't imagine that. So I started to think that this was maybe not for me.
9:44 John Hopkins? An escape route presented itself. Some friends were planning a trip to the US to spend a couple of months state hopping.
9:53 Speaker 03 I thought, yeah, that sounds like what I need to do. So I asked the boss for some time off. He wasn't keen.
10:00 Speaker 03 I asked him for less time off. He still wasn't keen. I said, okay, fair enough, I'm out.
10:08 John Hopkins? The American trip ignited Warren's love of travel. Journeys through Europe and Africa followed, before he eventually had to return home to Australia. Up in Queensland, he began a painting and decorating business in the idyllic Whitsundays, a postcard-perfect chain of islands fringed with white sand and coral reefs. He threw himself into work, and just as much into partying. Long nights, heavy drinking, and a fast-paced lifestyle became the norm. Eventually though, it caught up with him. And Warren found himself longing for a detox. A chance to get back out into nature. To chase a connection again.
10:52 John Hopkins? The natural splendor of nearby Hinchinbrook Island looked like just a ticket.
11:02 John Hopkins? Now, bobbing in the crystal clear waters of Little Ramsay Bay, salt on his skin and the sun on his face, the trip already feels like it's working wonders. And it's only day one.
11:17 Speaker 03 I'd known about Hinchinbrook for a fair while. It's pretty well known in bushwalking or hiking circles. As a pretty wild place. It's not a long way off the coast, but when you make that crossing across the channel, it's almost like going into Jurassic Park. My plan is to spend five or six days hiking the length of the island along a trail called the Thosborne Trail. Down to the southern end where I'd get picked up by another ferry and call it good.
11:53 John Hopkins? Warren towels off before settling in the shade under the broad leaves of the caliphalem trees that line the dunes.
12:02 John Hopkins? As he lies back, leaning his elbows into the sand, he sees he has company.
12:11 Speaker 03 I'm not alone on the beach, there's one other guy. He's sitting cross-legged under a tree. Got a bandana on his head, sarong around his waist and he's got a sketch pad out. He's kind of sketching the scene of the ocean there.
12:26 John Hopkins? Warren leaves the stranger to his doodling and begins setting up his camp.
12:32 John Hopkins? By the time he's done, the man has finished sketching. Warren wanders over to say hello. With a friendly smile, the man introduces himself as Geert van Koolen from the Netherlands.
12:45 John Hopkins? He's here on Hinchinbrook with one goal. To scale Mount Bowen. The mountain looms in the distance, rising to over 1,000 metres. It's an intimidating, enthralling sight.
12:59 Speaker 03 I'd read a little bit about it. There's no marked trail, bit of bushwhacking to get up there. And I thought, ah, it probably looks cool, but it's not the kind of thing you'd want to do on your own. And so Geet's telling me about his plan. He's got some trail notes. And I thought, do you know what? With the two of us, yeah, I reckon this could go. And so he asked me if I wanted to come. And I said, absolutely, let's, let's do it.
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14:33 John Hopkins? Warren wakes early on Wednesday, April 9.
14:38 John Hopkins? At first light, he and Geet eat a quick breakfast and then set off, eager to get started. With only Geet's trail notes to guide them, they shoulder their packs, cross the lagoon behind their camp, and start moving inland. At first, the going is easy. A controlled fire has recently cleared much of the undergrowth, creating a natural throughway.
15:02 John Hopkins? Next, the men follow a creek path. Gentle at first, but it soon becomes steeper. Pebbles become rocks, which become boulders, creating a sharp, jagged obstacle course to navigate.
15:15 Speaker 03 And so you end up kind of boulder hopping. And when that doesn't work, you have to take off into the rainforest and bushwhack your way through. I think it's fair to call it jungle in places, you know, it's pretty thick.
15:32 John Hopkins? Progress slows.
15:35 John Hopkins? The colourful tropical vegetation encroaches on all sides like an impenetrable wall.
15:41 John Hopkins? Frequently, they are forced back to the creek bed to contend with the boulders again, jutting rocks slick with water.
15:50 John Hopkins? More than once, Git loses his balance, falling and scraping his knees and palms.
15:56 John Hopkins? Warren, though, is in his element. He bounds from one rock to the next with an easy grace. Before long, he's having to wait for Git to catch up.
16:08 John Hopkins? All in all, it's draining work. And as they climb ever higher, something starts to feel off.
16:16 Speaker 03 Eventually, we get to the point where it's like, huh. There's a couple landmarks that we haven't seen yet. Traumot's mentioned a campsite and it's like, well, there's nothing that really looks like any kind of a campsite where we are. So we started to have this feeling that, huh, maybe we're not exactly where we are supposed to be.
16:36 John Hopkins? As the sun begins to dip behind the island's peak, it's evident the men have strayed away from the course. There is nowhere to pitch their camp, no flat ground, nowhere to hang their tarp for shelter.
16:49 John Hopkins? With nightfall closing in, their new priority is simple: to find somewhere they can sleep.
16:55 John Hopkins? After struggling on for another half a kilometer, they stumble upon a large slab of rock. Flat, exposed, but usable. A streambed runs along one side with an imposing rock wall above it. Dense jungle looms behind. It's far from ideal, but it'll do.
17:20 John Hopkins? After making camp and eating a quick evening meal, the men are ready to call it a day. By 8pm, exhausted, Giet zips himself into a sleeping bag and bunches his fleece beneath his head.
17:34 John Hopkins? Warren lingers by the edge of the camp. He'll turn in soon enough.
17:40 John Hopkins? But first, there's something he needs to do.
17:46 Speaker 03 Giet got into his sleeping bag. I was just about to get into mine when I thought, well, hang on a minute. Before I do that, I need to take a leak. And growing up, spending a lot of time in the bush, the rule is you don't take a leak right into your water supply. You should move, depends on who you talk to, fifty or a hundred feet away from your water supply.
18:10 John Hopkins? Right now, for Warren, that's easier said than done. Hemmed in by a streambed and jungle, there aren't many options available to him. But there is one.
18:22 Speaker 03 I just made my way across to a twelve or fourteen-foot rock wall. And I figured that if I get up and over that, there'll be somewhere up there that I'll be able to find that'll be far enough away. You know, it might not be as far as I want to be away, but it'll be far enough.
18:40 John Hopkins? In near darkness, he feels along the granite face, fingers probing narrow fissures until they close around a solid hold.
18:50 John Hopkins? He tests his grip twice, then reaches up with his right hand, searching for another.
18:56 John Hopkins? Steading himself, Warren pushes himself onto the wall with his left leg.
19:01 Speaker 03 And that's when I just heard this almighty crack as basically the world gave way.
19:15 John Hopkins? For a few seconds, time seems to stall.
19:20 John Hopkins? Warren is airborne, almost weightless, as his body comes loose from the rock face. Then he crashes back down to earth.
19:32 Speaker 03 I'd figured out pretty quick that what had happened is that that wall was made up of a series of slabs of rock and me putting my weight onto that piece just broke it loose and it just came down, absolutely slammed me back down into that creek bed. The next thing I knew is, yeah, we hit the ground together and just I'd had this incredible grinding, burning pain down into my legs as what turned out to be one tonne of rock just settled into my lap.
20:00 John Hopkins? Panic and pain surge through him. He thrashes, trying to wriggle free, but the enormous rock slab has him pinned in place.
20:10 John Hopkins? A scream tears from his throat as flesh is sheared away. Within seconds, a beam of light slices through the gloom.
20:20 John Hopkins? Geet appears at the edge of the stream bed, torchlight sweeping across the scene.
20:25 Speaker 03 Geet is just, you know, heard the commotion come running across to this scene of me pinned from the hips down underneath this massive piece of rock and things got pretty crazy at that point.
20:40 John Hopkins? Without hesitation, Geet leaps into the stream. He throws his shoulder against the slab, pushing with everything he has, trying to force it off Warren's legs. His feet slip on the wet rock beneath him, splashing in the shallow water. He grits his teeth and keeps pushing until Warren screams at him to stop.
20:59 John Hopkins? The boulder's tiny movements are grinding against his legs, causing unfathomable pain. They pause and then try again, but the result is the same.
21:13 John Hopkins? Amid the chaos, something shifts in Warren.
21:18 Speaker 03 I don't know if it happened instantly, but I kind of felt this calm come over me, where it was like, we're going to slow things down, all right, we're going to slow this right down. And it was funny, I actually, I started giving Gert directions. It was almost like I'm running the show from under the rock. It was pretty bizarre.
21:37 John Hopkins? Clearly, using brute force is not an option. They need to try something else. Warren, in his oddly composed state, has a suggestion.
21:49 Speaker 03 We need a lever. We've got to get a lever under this end of this corner of this rock to see if there's any way we can just get some of the pressure off. So he goes into the bush, comes back with a branch off a tree, gets in under the rock beside me, puts some weight on it, and it just snaps like a twig. And it's like, yeah, okay, that's not going to work.
22:12 John Hopkins? Still, it's an idea worth pursuing. They just need a sturdier tool. Gert disappears into the jungle once more, penknife in hand.
22:23 John Hopkins? Time drags, with Warren unable to track its passing.
22:30 John Hopkins? Eventually, a shaft of light cuts through the trees, and Gert reappears at the edge of the streambed hauling a small tree trunk. It's thicker and longer than the branch they tried earlier.
22:43 John Hopkins? Carefully, he maneuvers it under the boulder, avoiding Warren's legs. Adjusting the angle for maximum leverage, he braces himself and heaves down with all his might. Concurrently, Warren tries to slide back a few centimeters.
23:00 John Hopkins? The boulder barely shifts, and whatever minuscule movement there is sends a fresh wave of agony through Warren.
23:09 John Hopkins? Then, with a sharp crack, the trunk breaks in two.
23:16 Speaker 03 That's when I knew I was in serious trouble. And that's when things went from bad to worse, when I felt the first few drops of rain.
23:28 John Hopkins? At first, it's little more than a fine drizzle, barely noticeable.
23:33 John Hopkins? But within minutes, the sky splits open.
23:37 John Hopkins? Sheets of water hammer down from the dark clouds above, drenching the forest in a relentless downpour.
23:45 Speaker 03 I noticed that the water level in the creek was starting to come up. So when I'd fallen, my arse was barely in the water. It was kind of just in the water. Like I said, there's a, you know, pretty low volume stream. But over the next couple of hours, that came up and up and up until eventually I had this raging torrent around my waist. And started to think of things like, what are you going to do when that water level goes over your head? The only way I can describe that, what that felt like, was sheer terror really. Because I could see the high watermark on the bank and it was over my head.
24:20 John Hopkins? In an attempt to hold back the rising pool of water, Geert constructs a dam from loose stones, trying to create some kind of barrier around his trapped companion.
24:31 John Hopkins? It makes little difference. Geert then helps Warren into a sit position, placing branches behind his back and arranging them into a makeshift support to keep him upright and comfortable.
24:43 John Hopkins? Well, as comfortable as he can be.
24:47 John Hopkins? Then, to stave off hypothermia, he wraps Warren's top half tightly in his sleeping bag and pulls socks over his hands as makeshift gloves.
24:57 John Hopkins? The two men take a beat and try to come up with some other solutions.
25:05 Speaker 03 We started throwing a whole bunch of other stuff at it. He started piling up rocks underneath that corner of the rock I was under and then left space so that we could get a kind of a wedge-shaped stone in there, something that we could bang in with another rock to try and wedge the thing up. But just, yeah, everything we threw at it, nothing was working.
25:26 John Hopkins? As midnight edges closer, the situation becomes more and more hopeless. They've done everything they can and made zero progress. They must change tack.
25:40 Speaker 03 We can't get me out from under this thing and we can't lift this thing. And so, we decided that the only way I was coming out was for Geert to hike out. Right, that he's got to hike out and we've got to organise a rescue.
25:53 John Hopkins? It's a plan laden with risk, but it's the only viable plan they have.
25:59 John Hopkins? Geert cannot traipse back through the jungle in the middle of the night. It's too dangerous, so he'll have to wait for first light before setting off.
26:08 John Hopkins? Until then, anything could happen.
26:12 John Hopkins? There's no knowing how badly injured Warren's left leg is. The rock obscures much of his lower half. For all they know, he could be bleeding out.
26:21 John Hopkins? And if it's not blood loss that kills him, the continuing torrential downpour could. The steadily filling creek is now around his midriff.
26:32 John Hopkins? For hours, they try in vain to get some rest. Every few minutes, Geert calls out to Warren, checking he's holding on.
26:41 John Hopkins? The night crawls, wet, cold, endless.
26:50 John Hopkins? Until finally, something changes. The rain begins to ease, then it stops entirely. A small mercy. The threat of drowning has receded, for now at least.
27:05 Speaker 03 Absolutely the longest night of my life, just waiting for the sun to come up.
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28:18 John Hopkins? It's Thursday, April the 10th.
28:22 John Hopkins? The first pale light has barely begun to spread across the sky, but Gett is already on the move. He flits around the camp, packing up his gear.
28:32 John Hopkins? Then he carefully selects any belongings Warren might need, placing them in plastic bags: a torch, a first-aid kit, some food, a mug, a topolin, a notebook, and pen. It's time to say farewell.
28:47 John Hopkins? Gett gives Warren a hug. It's a strange, strained goodbye. They've known each other for little more than a day. And yet Warren's life is now in Gett's hands. Total stranger to potential savior in just 24 hours.
29:05 Speaker 03 Then he was off, and I think that, you know, hugging him goodbye and watching him head back down the mountain, I never felt so alone, because I knew I was there for another day. It's going to take him a while to get out. And by the time anybody gets in, yeah, I'm here for another day, for sure. And so really, I just settled in to do the only thing that I could do, and that was wait.
29:32 John Hopkins? Alone, Warren eats some of the dried fruit Gett left for him.
29:37 John Hopkins? Quickly restless, he grabs some stones and wedges them under the boulder once more. It's almost certainly futile, but at least it keeps him occupied. In fact, it has an energizing effect. Next, he hacks at the boulder with a rock, striking again and again, sweat slicking his skin.
30:02 John Hopkins? Water laps at his waist, creeping under his coat.
30:06 John Hopkins? The cold gnaws at him. The hours slither by. His leg throbs, the pain constant.
30:16 John Hopkins? At the start of this trip, Warren was desperate to get back into nature. Now he cannot escape it.
30:23 Speaker 03 At one point, it occurred to me that here I was, trapped under this one-ton boulder. And what had I been doing? I'd been chasing this feeling of connection. I remember thinking, is this connected enough for you? You know, it was like, is this what you've been looking for? It started to occur to me that I might not make it. In some ways, I thought, you've had a pretty good life. I was 32 years old. I'd done a lot. I felt like I'd lived a couple of lifetimes. And in another sense, it was like, well, that's it. That's game over. There's all these things that you, you know, you don't get to do.
31:07 John Hopkins? That afternoon, after plenty of soul searching, a faint hum breaks through the silence.
31:14 John Hopkins? Quiet at first, but it grows louder. Warren cranes his neck towards the sky. He spots a glint of metal.
31:24 John Hopkins? A plane.
31:26 John Hopkins? Without a second thought, he snatches the tarpaulin and lifts it into the air, waving it frantically. Surely someone will see it. A pilot or a passenger will notice the flash of blue against the green of the jungle.
31:40 John Hopkins? But the plane comes and goes. It shrinks to a dot, then disappears from view completely.
31:53 John Hopkins? In a cruel torment, numerous aircraft pass overhead during the course of the day.
32:00 Speaker 03 I felt like, you know, aircraft were close enough that if they were looking for me, they might see something. But yeah, it was all to no avail.
32:08 John Hopkins? Seconds stretch out into what feel like hours. The jungle grows black again. Under the pain and pressure of the boulder, Warren is utterly exhausted.
32:21 John Hopkins? His eyes close. Again and again, his head droops until he jerks himself awake.
32:28 Speaker 03 Sleeping through this is probably not the best idea because at one point I started to feel like if you go to sleep you might not wake up. So then it became about trying to keep myself awake. But again, you know, I just kept drifting off and I was having all kinds of weird hallucinations and I was really starting to lose it. It was really through that night that things started to go downhill. I started to feel really unwell. Told afterwards that it was a lot of just toxins building up in my body from my legs being crushed. I was in really, really bad shape.
33:15 John Hopkins? It's Friday, April the 11th. Morning breaks over the Australian wilderness, soft light spilling across the streambed. In his state of flux between sleep and wakefulness, Warren stirs. His body aches, his mouth is dry, and his situation remains unchanged. He has been trapped for around 34 hours. The sun continues to rise, arcing through the vast sky, and there is still no sign of rescue. It's now that Warren turns to his notebook.
33:54 Speaker 03 Eventually I found myself pulling that out and I just, I wrote notes to, you know, a few different people that I didn't think I was gonna see again. That was a really cathartic in a way process to go through. And probably the best way to describe it is I kind of rode between a feeling of acceptance that I might not make it and then the opposing feeling of pushing back and it's like, dude, you're hanging in there, you're getting through this. And so I would psych myself up, but I could only really hold that for so long and then I would come crashing down on the other side, nope, you're done. You're done, they're gonna find you dead here in a couple of days.
34:43 John Hopkins? Stowing the notebook with his final messages inside the bag, Warren glances down at his right leg.
34:50 John Hopkins? The skin is grey now, mottled with green spots.
34:56 John Hopkins? But it's not the discoloration that catches his eye.
35:00 John Hopkins? A vivid splash of blood pools on the rock beneath him. It's not clear where it's coming from.
35:08 John Hopkins? Then, movement, a flicker near his foot. The shape is instantly recognisable, a freshwater lobster. It seems it's been nibbling on Warren's foot without him realising.
35:23 John Hopkins? As it scuttles forward for another bite, Warren grabs a branch and lunges. He misses. Cursing, he shrugs off his shirt, threads it over the end of another stick, and manoeuvres it towards his injured foot. Using the stick as a tool, he drapes the shirt on top of his bleeding extremity and tries to wrap it as best he can, hoping a layer of cotton will be enough to keep the crustacean at bay. But the fact that all this happened without him feeling a thing is more than a little alarming.
35:57 Speaker 03 The way I was trapped, I could actually see down my right leg. I could see my foot. And at one point, I realised that it didn't look very good. And it crossed my mind that I could lose that foot. But I actually, I just pushed that thought out. It's like, dude, don't go there. You've got enough to worry about. And so I did. I literally just shut it out. Didn't think, didn't give it any more thought.
36:25 John Hopkins? On top of the trauma to his legs, his left hand is now becoming claw-like, the cold causing the fingers to curl into the palm. He can't feel his right hand at all. His eyelids feel too heavy to hold open.
36:49 John Hopkins? And just when it seems the day will vanish into another hopeless night, perhaps his last, he hears something.
37:00 Speaker 03 It was pretty late into that second day that I heard this, it's still my favourite sound, the sound of a helicopter heading directly towards me. You know, I don't think I'd ever been so happy to see not just a heli, but just any kind of sign of life at all.
37:19 John Hopkins? The helicopter darts like a dragonfly, tail glinting in the shards of dying daylight.
37:26 John Hopkins? It hovers above as Warren thrashes the blue tarp with every ounce of strength he has left. He screams until his throat is raw, his cries lost in the roar of the rotor blades. Then the helicopter's nose tips downward and it veers away, banking towards one of the island's distant summits.
37:49 Speaker 03 It flew straight over the top and then disappeared. I was like, Christ, I hope they, you know, I really hope they've seen me, but I didn't really know.
38:01 John Hopkins? Time slows back down to a crawl as Warren waits, desperate for any sign that he's been noticed.
38:10 John Hopkins? At last, the sound returns.
38:14 John Hopkins? He's still crushed, trapped, but it's like a great weight has been lifted.
38:19 Speaker 03 It was probably about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes later that I heard it coming back and hovering just down the creek from me. And this time I was like, yep, okay, they've seen me.
38:41 John Hopkins? It's evening on Friday, April the 11th. A helicopter hovers above a clearing near the summit of Mount Bowen. The blades whirl in a fierce blur, whipping up a swirling dust storm that stings Warren's eyes down on the ground. But he doesn't look away as a figure is lowered from the chopper.
39:03 Speaker 03 Next thing I know is I see this guy walking up towards me and I'm pretty damn happy to see somebody and to have somebody there.
39:13 John Hopkins? In an American accent, the man introduces himself as Dr. Chip Jaffers. Lowering himself to Warren's level, the doc assesses the patient. His blood pressure is dangerously low, due to a combination of dehydration and shock.
39:29 John Hopkins? Chip inserts a cannula into Warren's arm and within moments, morphine begins to flow through the line. As the pain dulls, two more men join, hauling rescue equipment.
39:43 Speaker 03 A couple of other guys from the rescue crew, Danny Portiffay and Bill Johnson, turn up and start to figure out how they're gonna get me out.
39:54 John Hopkins? After a brief discussion, they settle on a plan.
40:01 John Hopkins? Bill carefully wedges a jack beneath the boulder's right side, while Danny slides a crowbar between the ground and the left edge.
40:11 Speaker 03 Before they started, Chip had given me a huge shot of adrenaline to get my heart cranking or really pumping so that as the toxins that had built up in my legs get released as the pressure comes off, that that wouldn't just shut my internal organs down.
40:28 John Hopkins? Chip gives his colleagues a nod. Bill starts pumping on the jack while Danny levers the boulder with a crowbar.
40:38 John Hopkins? The crushing weight eases off Warren's legs immediately. They work slowly, each movement carefully considered.
40:47 John Hopkins? When the jack has reached its highest position, Bill slides a wooden chalk into place to take the boulder's weight. Then he moves the jack to the other side and continues to pump.
40:59 John Hopkins? Warren fades in and out of consciousness as, over the course of two hours, the boulder is raised to around 20 centimeters off the ground.
41:10 John Hopkins? Now comes the riskiest part of the whole operation. One slip, one nudge in the wrong place could send the boulder tumbling.
41:21 John Hopkins? Carefully, Danny crouches behind Warren, locking his arms around his waist. On the count of three, he drags Warren backwards as gently as he can.
41:35 John Hopkins? Finally, Warren's legs are clear and he's secured to a stretcher. Someone speaks into a radio and moments later, the helicopter roars back into view.
41:47 John Hopkins? Warren is attached to a cable and winched heavenward.
41:53 John Hopkins? The rescue mission is a success. The wilderness recedes behind him and the relief is incalculable. But he's not out of the woods yet.
42:03 Speaker 03 Chip told me afterwards that he actually thought I was dead. He said, "You were grey and I was in a bad way."
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43:20 John Hopkins? It's 8:40 PM on Friday, April 11. A helicopter touches down at Cairns Base Hospital, nearly 200 kilometers from the scene of the accident. As the rotors come to a stop, Warren is lowered out of the craft on his stretcher. As smoothly as possible, he is wheeled through the doors of the hospital and handed over to the medics.
43:46 Speaker 03 I had a team of doctors and nurses start to run all kinds of tests on me. And those tests basically consisted of, can you feel this? Can you feel that? You know, they're kind of scratching at my legs, running all kinds of different things down them. And the reality was, I wasn't feeling much at all. A guy by the name of Bill Clark comes in, introduces himself as a surgeon. Easily the most softly spoken man I've ever had a conversation with. He says to me, he says, you know, Warren, I think you realize your legs have been badly damaged. And I said, yeah, I do. And he says, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but we're gonna have to amputate them.
44:28 Speaker 03 And it was that one word, "them," that just ripped something out of my guts.
44:35 Speaker 03 And yeah, cried myself to sleep and woke up the following afternoon into pretty much a whole new world.
44:51 John Hopkins? After the amputations, Warren spends the next ten days in intensive care.
44:57 John Hopkins? He undergoes five further operations and is monitored around the clock.
45:03 John Hopkins? Eventually, he's stable enough to be moved to another ward.
45:09 John Hopkins? It's there, at last, that he's reunited with Geert and begins to understand the full extent of what his new friend went through to save him. Battling over sharp, slippery boulders and through harsh, unforgiving jungle.
45:24 Speaker 03 He had a really tough time going down. Got really beaten up. By the time he got down to the beach and raised the alarm, he had a hell of an ordeal. Him finding out that I'd lost my legs was just a real shock to him. He went through a really hard time with survivor guilt over the whole experience. It really, it took years, I think, for me to convince him that he saved my life.
45:54 John Hopkins? As the days pass, Warren's body begins the slow process of healing. The accident has left him with life-altering injuries: both legs amputated above the knee and a shattered pelvis.
46:07 John Hopkins? Due to the latter injury, the nurses have to roll him onto his side in order to change his bed. Even this movement is unbearably painful.
46:18 John Hopkins? Above his bed hangs a metal frame, a simple support bar within his reach if he leans forward just enough. At first, he can only grasp it for a second or two before collapsing backwards, panting and sweating.
46:33 John Hopkins? With practice, though, he finds he can hold on for longer and longer. Eventually, he's able to lift himself ever so slightly from the bed.
46:43 John Hopkins? Now, when the sheets need changing, he simply pulls himself clear using the bar. It's a tiny maneuver, but it feels like a momentous achievement following such significant surgery. An achievement Warren is eager to use as a springboard.
47:00 Speaker 03 I started to think about, what the hell does this mean? What kind of life can somebody possibly have with no legs? Because, you know, I was kind of like most people, disability just wasn't part of my world. I didn't know anybody that had any kind of disability at all, really.
47:17 Speaker 03 So it just became a matter of figuring it out, like, you know, how am I going to do this?
47:28 John Hopkins? When Warren finally leaves hospital, the challenges of his new reality quickly become apparent.
47:36 Speaker 03 So you leave the hospital, you've got curb cuts and stuff, and it's really hard to get around in a wheelchair like that in the beginning. But every time I would overcome something, it would kind of bolster me up. I'd sit up a bit higher, a bit taller. And eventually, I got to this point where I actually started looking for obstacles. It was a real turning point.
48:02 John Hopkins? With this attitude, Warren takes his first steps on prosthetics just 10 weeks after losing his legs.
48:09 John Hopkins? And after that, a series of milestones follow. A few months after the accident, he and a friend leave the city for Whipperfield National Park. There, Warren navigates his wheelchair three miles over rugged terrain. In January 1998, he completes the 1.2 kilometer pier-to-pub swim in Lorn, Victoria. But even this is only a warm-up for what comes next. A few weeks later, he sets his sights even higher, on a 1,500-meter peak in Tasmania.
48:45 Speaker 03 Eventually, found myself on top of Cradle Mountain, which was really, really emotional. It was almost like I reclaimed this massive part of my life and getting back into, you know, not the wildest place on the planet, but a pretty wild place. And just sitting up on top of that mountain with really close friends, it was, it felt like I was back.
49:09 John Hopkins? It won't be the last summit he reaches. In 2003, Warren makes history, becoming the first double above-the-knee amputee to scale Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak.
49:22 Speaker 03 The biggest key is resilience for me, and the way I like to put it is resilience is a little bit like a bank account. So I always recommend that we have a resilience practice, and all that is, is that we get in the habit of doing hard things, that we don't shy away from doing hard things. Because every time we do something hard, it's like we make a deposit into our resilience account, and then when you need to draw on it, you've only got what you've got.
49:49 John Hopkins? Warren's tough mindset fortified him during his near-death experience and guided him through his recovery. But he is clear that first and foremost, he owes Git a huge debt of gratitude, a man who went from stranger to brother.
50:06 Speaker 03 He did an incredible job under really hard circumstances to get out in one piece and raise the alarm. I wouldn't be here otherwise.
50:20 John Hopkins? In the following years, Warren and Git stay in touch, their relationship now an unbreakable bond. Git, ever the free spirit, is hard to pin down, but they do make one important trip together.
50:35 John Hopkins? In 2017, on the 20th anniversary of the accident, the two men travelled back to the island, along with rescuer Dr. Chip Jaffas.
50:45 John Hopkins? Then, while up in Queensland, Warren manages to track down Bill Clark, the surgeon who operated on him.
50:54 Speaker 03 It was a pretty interesting experience being back on the island. There was a lot to unpack there. Bill, you know, he's obviously, he's older now, he's retired, and we sit down and we have a meal, and we're chatting away, and at one point, he says to me, "I have to tell you this, but doing your surgery that night that you came in, that was absolutely the worst night of my career."
51:20 Speaker 03 Having to amputate the legs of a thirty-two-year-old man. And, you know, that was kind of a bit of a showstopper. I said it worked out, that what you did saved my life. So, you know, it might have been the worst day of your career, but it was a lifeline for me that led to a pretty incredible life. So it was amazing to get the opportunity to tell him that because it had obviously weighed really heavily on him.
51:49 Speaker 03 It was an amazing meeting that kind of closed the book, if you like, of that whole ordeal.
52:03 John Hopkins? Next time on Real Survival Stories, we meet Viral Dalal. In early 2001, Viral, a master's student studying in the US, travels back to India to visit loved ones.
52:17 John Hopkins? It's a welcome break from his studies. But on the morning of January the 26th, this time of joy is interrupted violently and suddenly by a devastating high-magnitude earthquake. Viral will find himself trapped in a coffin-sized air pocket beneath the rubble.
52:37 John Hopkins? As the hours turn into days, he will cling on to perhaps the most powerful motivation there is: the promise of seeing his family again.
52:46 John Hopkins? That's next time on Real Survival Stories.
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Previous Deadliest Day on Everest Next Earthquake in India: Buried Alive Page updated November 1, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated