The local cops sure hope so. They have their hands full with all the other adventure travelers turning up in Australia, eager–but often unprepared–to test themselves in the wild. After getting bawled out by a police official for being stupid and self-centered, Bogucki offered thanks and apologies. But even as the search for him was going on, rescuers plucked two separate couples to safety from elsewhere in the Great Sandy Desert.
Bogucki had begun a lengthy bike trip in Sydney with his girlfriend, Janet North. She couldn’t keep up, though, and wasn’t on hand when he abandoned his bike 300 kilometers south of Broome and walked into the desert, taking with him a tent, food and water and his Bible. North warned police Bogucki was on a quest for spiritual enlightenment and might be avoiding searchers. Bogucki soon ran out of provisions and was reduced to digging for murky water and eating leaves and flowers. But all along, he says, “I had the feeling that God would take care of me.” Australian police aided by Aboriginal trackers gave up the search after two weeks. Said Western Australian Senior Constable Lindsay Greatorex: “It’s not our fault if some idiot wants to walk across a desert and doesn’t want to be found.”
Back in Malibu, Calif., Bogucki’s parents, Ray and Betty Bogucki, hired a private rescue squad to restart the search. The 1st Special Response Group drew a big press contingent. The media found Bogucki’s last camp and a TV crew finally spotted him from their helicopter. They interviewed him for 45 minutes before flying him out to the coastal town of Broome. In the hospital, Bogucki found he had lost nearly 60 pounds, but was otherwise healthy.
According to the Australian Tourism Commission, a growing number of tourists want to explore “hidden Australia” –whether by trekking into rain forests or exploring the deserts. ATC’s Rachel Crowley says the ATC warns people that such holidays are “no walk in the park.” Arunas Pilka was luckier than many. A government worker from Canberra, Pilka was kayaking at the northern tip of Australia when a crocodile attacked him, severely wounding his legs. His two friends fought off the animal, fired a distress flare and scrawled croc attack in the sand. They were spotted by a plane and Pilka was helicoptered out.
But not everyone gets rescued. The day Bogucki was released from the hospital, police abandoned the search for four Australian men in their mid-20s who had been missing in the Snowy Mountains since Aug. 7. They were snowboarding without any shelter or communications equipment. And they didn’t even have a Bible.
