As great escapes in the bush go, few are as dramatic and fortunate than that of Chris Goodhew and his young family.
Chris, 23, is still shaking his head at last week's Cape York survival tale which saw them nearly drown in the swollen, crocodile-infested Wenlock River before being found starving and dehydrated as the sun set.
What was to be an eight-hour round trip from one side of the Cape to the other took more than three days before finally getting home safe to Lockhart River.
And all for two tins of lactose-free baby formula.
Chris says a mistake in a chemist order for six-month-old Riley sparked the decision to make the 300km "dash" to Weipa.
The carpenter and his partner Daisy packed Riley, 18-month-old Luke and dog Patch into their 4WD ute and made the trip without problems.
But by the time they got to the Wenlock River on the way back, after changing a flat tyre, the crossing was unsafe due to seasonal rains.
They waited by the road for two nights, watching as the water level went up four metres, before going down to what Chris thought was a crossable level.
But he was wrong; the ute quickly got dragged by the strong current and floated down the river.
"There was instant panic, regret and calling myself an idiot," he said
The ute smashed into a tree in the river and then rolled sideways in the strong current.
Chris told Daisy to grab their boys and get out but the door wouldn't open.
He went into "survival mode", shouldered it open and pushed her out of the car before "frantically" grabbing anything he could.
"We lost our eldest son for a few seconds under the water," he said. "But I managed to pull him to the surface again."
Tears of relief turned into more tears when they couldn't save a yelping Patch.
They still weren't in the clear.
It was 23km back to the main road. It took them almost five hours on Thursday to get there.
"I left the kids and the missus there under a shaded tree (at 3.30pm)," Chris said. "They were sunburnt, dehydrated and she had blood blisters under her feet."
Drinking brown water from puddles beside the road and praying, he defied the heat, cramps, and pain in his bare feet to walk another 24km before the sun started to set.
"As it was getting dark I got really worried," he said.
But a couple of Weipa locals - Klae Harrison and David Robinson - on their way to Cairns luckily came across Daisy and the boys at 7pm and then set out for Chris.
"We are some lucky bastards and I know there's a few people up in those white clouds looking out for us," he admitted.
Share
