Surviving three days in the forest

Update

KNYSNA NEWS – Being alone and lost in the Knysna forest for three days is something no one would ever want to endure. But, that is exactly what happened to holidaymaker Alan Broderick, 58, when what was meant to be a routine cycle along the Petrus se Brand trail went wrong on Saturday 3 December.

And if it weren't for the forest knowledge and logical reasoning of three volunteers who joined the search, the outcome could have been worse.

Broderick went missing after his wife Gail dropped him off at the Diepwalle Forest Hut to embark on a cycle through the Knysna forest to Plettenberg Bay, along the Petrus se Brand trail.

He was expected in Plett by 14:00 but never arrived, and his family reported him missing on Sunday. Search and rescue efforts began immediately, and teams of emergency services as well as volunteers began combing the forests.

Lost in the forest

Little did they know that they were looking in the wrong place, as Broderick had been given the wrong directions to the trail and went down a wrong road, which came to a dead end after a few kilometres.

In a bid to find the right trail, Broderick tried to cut through the forest, but soon lost his way in the thick forest cover. This was the start of his ordeal, whereafter he hiked to the top of a ridge to find a vantage point.

There he found the Bitou River, which he figured would be a good landmark to follow as it was bound to lead to civilisation at some point.

But, the terrain was tougher than anticipated, and with nothing but water from the river, it was slow going for Broderick. He however made good ground, and by the time he was found on Monday had travelled roughly 7km on foot.

The rescue team

Luckily for Broderick, as time went on, search and rescue efforts were only intensifying, and it was a group of volunteers that ultimately found him on Monday afternoon. This group was made up of Plettonians John Bozman and Marc Rodgers and Knysnarian Duran de Villiers, who is a qualified helicopter pilot.

Bozman and Rodgers both belong to the volunteer crew at NSRI Plettenberg Bay and are avid bikers who regularly ride forest trails. De Villiers is himself a keen cyclist and also often rides through the forests.

This gave the trio very useful knowledge of the area when they embarked on search efforts. Bozman and Rodgers first set out in search of Broderick on bikes on Sunday afternoon, while De Villiers was up in the air in the helicopter.

While they didn't find Broderick, they did make some key observations. "We were able to eliminate the possibility of him having been injured or something sinister having happened, because we couldn't find his bike," said Bozman.

"This led to us deducing he probably got lost."

'In the middle of nowhere'

After studying maps of the area in detail on Sunday evening, they agreed on the most likely route where Broderick could have strayed and decided to start their search there on Monday.

They had to wait out some bad morning weather before they took to the air in the afternoon with the idea of flying up the Bitou River, and it didn't take long before they found what they were looking for.

"It was something crazy, like 45 seconds into the search, and we spotted movement in a clearing along the river," said De Villiers. They had found Broderick.

"Nobody would have found him there on foot, it really was pretty much in the middle of nowhere." De Villiers and co then hovered low enough to signal to Broderick to stay put, and alerted search and rescue teams. "We called the AMS helicopter and they flew out to airlift him from the area," he said.

Bozman believes the morning's bad weather was a blessing in disguise. "If we had flown out in the morning, he might not have been in the clearing and could have been under a stretch of canopy along the river," he said.

Broderick hails from Johannesburg, and was on holiday in Plett when the ordeal happened.

He was transported to hospital after he was found, and was with his loved ones by Tuesday morning. A private man of few words, he and his family expressed their gratitude for the immense and incredible rescue efforts that were put together to find him.

Alan Broderick