Human power to survive in any conditions

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Hollywood loves survival stories. When Aaron Ralston had to amputate his own hand gripped by a boulder in order to save his life, filmmakers did not miss the chance to turn this story into an exciting film called "127 Hours" and get some coveted figurines for it.

However, there are other, no less Oscar-worthy stories that Hollywood has not yet reached:

1. Douglas Mawson's Antarctic Hell

In the early 20th century, Australian scientist Douglas Mawson organized an expedition to Antarctica.

On December 14, 1912, when Mawson and two of his colleagues Belgrave Ninnis and Xavier Meritz, having collected information valuable for science, were already returning to the base, a misfortune happened: Ninnis fell into a crevice and died. As he fell, he carried away the sled with supplies and most of the dogs from the harness of the travelers. There were 310 miles (almost 500 km.) To the house.

To get to the base, Mawson and Meritz had to walk through the lifeless ice desert, where there was absolutely nowhere to hide or rest. There was a maximum of food left for a third of the way.

When supplies ran out, the traveler had to eat his own dogs - which means that they now had to pull the sled on their own. Ultimately, Meritz died of cold and exhaustion. Mawson was left alone with the endless Antarctic horror. He was tormented by conjunctivitis and such a terrible frostbite that his skin began to peel off, his hair fell out in clumps, and the soles of his feet oozed with blood and pus. But, in spite of everything, the traveler stubbornly moved forward.

At some point, he stepped onto a crack imperceptible under a layer of snow, fell into a crevice and hung helplessly over the abyss, while the sled, by some miracle, was firmly stuck in the snow at the edge.

Even in this seemingly hopeless situation, Mawson did not give up. He began to carefully pull himself up on a four-meter rope, from time to time stopping and resting until he reached the edge of the crevice. Having got out, he continued on his way and finally got to the base … where he learned that the ship "Aurora" on which he was supposed to get home, set sail only five hours ago!

The next one had to wait for 10 whole months.

2. The story of a marathon runner lost in the Sahara

The sandy Sahara marathon is considered one of the most difficult in the world. Only the most experienced and hardy will dare to undertake this six-day trek, 250 kilometers long.

Policeman and pentathlete from Sicily Mauro Prosperi also decided to test himself. For four days everything went well, Mauro was seventh.

And then a sandstorm arose. According to the rules, in such cases, the participants were supposed to stop and wait for help, but the Italian decided that some kind of storm would not interfere with him - that he did not see the sand! Mauro wrapped his scarf around his head and continued on his way.

After six hours, the wind died down, and Prosperi realized that all this time he was going somewhere in the wrong direction. He was so far from the rest that even the flares were useless - no one saw them. All alone, in the midst of the most expansive and inhospitable desert on earth.

Prosperi had no choice but to keep walking. To save liquid, I had to write in a flask from under the water. Eventually, he came across an abandoned mosque, where a hungry marathon runner was able to profit by catching bats, ripping off the heads of poor animals and drinking their blood.

Then, out of desperation, Prosperi tried to commit suicide by cutting the veins on his wrists, but from dehydration his blood thickened so much that it refused to pour out, so nothing came of it - just a couple of scratches and a headache. And then the marathon runner vowed that he would fight for life to the end, although, apparently, this death did not want to accept him, so there was simply no other option.

For the next five days, Prosperi continued his wanderings across the Sahara, satisfying his hunger with lizards and scorpions, and his thirst with dew.

And after nine days of ordeals, fate finally took pity on the exhausted Italian - he met a group of nomads who explained that he was in Algeria, more than 200 kilometers from the place where, in theory, he should be.

And what do you think? Two years passed, and Prosperi signed up for a new marathon, from which he returned safe, unharmed and on time.

3. The story of a man who survived in the Australian desert by feeding on frogs

It was in 2001. Someone Ricky Megi woke up … in the middle of the Australian desert. He lay face down, covered with earth, and a flock of dingo dogs ran around, looking at the man with hungry eyes. All this did not promise anything good.

How he managed to be here, Megi did not understand at all. The last thing that remains in memory is that he is driving his own car, driving through a sparsely populated area to the west. Nothing unusual.

For ten days Megi walked barefoot to no one knows where, and the longer he walked, the more senseless this road seemed to him. Finally, he came across a dam, where he smashed a small hut of twigs and twigs. In this hut he lived for the next three months, feeding on leeches and grasshoppers. Sometimes he managed to catch a frog - it was a delicacy. He dried it in the sun until the frog was covered with a crispy crust, and then ate with pleasure. Ultimately, Megi was found and rescued by the farmers. At this point, it looked like this:

After regaining consciousness, Megi wrote a fascinating book about his adventures.

4. The story of a girl who was "adopted" by a family of monkeys

When Marina Chapman was four years old, she was kidnapped. The last thing she remembered was how someone grabbed her from behind, blindfolded her and carried her somewhere. A baby woke up in the Colombian jungle. The girl's dad was by no means Liam Nisan, so there were no mountains of terrorist corpses, no wolves with torn mouths, no fascinating chases in this story. Nor was there a quick rescue of the kidnapped child.

Instead, monkeys found Marina, accepted her into their clan and began to teach her how to get food, climb trees and all other monkey wisdom.

Several years have passed, and Chapman has achieved outstanding success in the art of stealing rice and fruits from the houses of the surrounding villages. Local residents, although they noticed one suspiciously humanoid in the company of monkeys, only threw stones at her, driving the thief away from their homes back into the jungle.

If the fate of a girl, abandoned by people and raised by animals, seems terrible to you, do not rush. Chapman was saved … by a human family with clearly sadistic inclinations. These people actually turned the girl into a slave, giving her a sleeping place on the floor by the stove.

Fortunately, Chapman managed to escape from his "saviors". She climbed a tree, where a local woman noticed her, invited her to live and raised her as her own daughter. Chapman successfully adapted to life in society, moved to England and met a handsome musician. The affair ended with a wedding.

5. The story of a man who stood up to his waist in shit for three days

WWII veteran Coolidge Winsett from Virginia was 75 years old when he got into this literally foul-smelling story.

The lonely pensioner's house was old, with amenities in the yard. Once he went out of necessity, and took the rotten floorboards and failed. Winset found himself in a cesspool, waist-deep in shit - in “biblical hell,” as he later called it. He could not get out on his own, since part of his leg was amputated, and one arm did not work after a stroke. So he stood for three days, in the lake of his own feces, fighting off rats, spiders and snakes, which, as it turned out, were frequent guests there.

In the end, the local postman noticed that no one was taking out the mail, got worried and decided to visit the old man. Passing through the courtyard, he heard faint cries for help and called for rescuers.