I know, I know. I said goodbye and I’m still here. Don’t you hate that. This post was in the works. I didn’t think I’d have it ready but I’ve worked deep into the night. So here it is. Goodbye. I’m off to the KImberley.
The story begins in July 1999 when some 4WD’ers found a bicycle and some camping gear on a lonely sandy track in the Great Sandy Desert.
Once the first mystery was solved a search began for one Robert Bugucki, a fire fighter from Alaska who had set out to cycle across the Great Sandy from the Sandfire Roadhouse to the small town of Fitzroy Crossing. There is a bitumen road from one to the other. It takes a gentle curve around the desert. Google suggests 35 hours of peddling time should do the trick. However our Robert had chosen the short cut. 500 km as the crow flies, nothing but desert in between. What could possibly go wrong?
Broome police began a search. The initial finds were made about 50 km east of the highway. With the aid of Aboriginal trackers they covered another 150 km before their 4WD vehicles could go no further. The search continued from helicopter. And was then abandoned. Mr Bogucki’s girlfriend was said to have told the police that he may have been hiding from them in order to extend his time in the wilderness for spiritual reasons. He was a very religious man.
At that point Mr Bogucki’s future depended on accurate navigation, stamina and his ability to find water.
Mr B’s parents thought more should be done and commissioned the 1st Special Response Group founded and headed by Vietnam and Gulf War veteran Garrison “Gunslinger” St. Clair. They flew in from the USA and talked up a brand new Desert Storm. Don’t misunderstand me, some of my best friends are American but …
The circus had come to town. The chain smoking (cigars, of course) fast talking St. Clair and his team plus bloodhounds (with little boots to protect their feet from the spinifex) got to work … and saved the day. Without ever finding anything. “We are from America and have come to show you how it’s done” didn’t go down all that well. Channel 9 News sent a crew to cover the search. I suspect largely to document the debacle and make sure that St. Clair’s failure occurred in the glare of a good Aussie spotlight. As the Aussies said in WWll “Over paid, over sexed and over here”. Friendly rivalry.
This seems like the right moment to insert the fact that in reality St. Clair had no military record whatsoever but had done time in the States for fraud. When that news broke Gunslinger countered that when you were involved in black ops the records were concealed. He was happy with who he was. But perhaps unhappy that his criminal record hadn’t been sufficiently concealed.
The Nine Network crew chartered a helicopter and headed to the 1st Special Response Group’s camp in the desert. On the way there the pilot spotted a blue bed roll in the scrub, landed and found with it a bible and some hand written notes. This news was radioed to the searchers who headed across country to the helo and confirmed that it all belonged to the missing man.
The News crew prepared to head back to Broome to get the news of their discovery out to the world. St. Clair readied his bloodhounds. On the flight back to Broome, however, the pilot saw Mr Bogucki himself in the scrub, landed and after the filming and interview was finished – a scoop is a scoop – flew him back to civilisation.
Robert Bogucki had spent 43 days and 42 nights in the wilderness, had found water – he was clutching some muddy liquid when discovered – had lost a lot of weight and was lucid. He was at least 200km from his destination. Indeed he was at least 200km from the bitumen in any direction he might choose. He would surely have died a very lonely death had he not been found. Instead he made a complete recovery. All thanks to a sharp-eyed helicopter pilot named Andrew Beaumont flying a routine charter.
I haven’t been able to find exactly where Robert Bogucki was located but it was, I know, close to the gorge that I recently visited. Very tough country to walk in.
bobmcgee 