For one night out of three the cold earth of the Blanchisseuse forest was his bed, his pillow was his knapsack, shrubs and leaves his blanket and when he ran out of fruits he ate fig leaves and cornflakes.
This and a determination to survive are what enabled Kevin Arthur, 25, to make it out of the forest yesterday afternoon after going on a hike last Saturday led by Fitness Walkers. The eight-hour hike, or one-way from Acono, Maracas, St Joseph, to Yarra river in La Fillette, became a three-day experience that the Ministry of Finance employee will forever remember.
Speaking with the media at the entrance of the forest yesterday afternoon, moments after exiting, Arthur, flanked by the two men who found him, Joseph Mohanlal and Kevon Burton, said the first thing he planned on doing when he returned to his Belmont home is to play his Fifa video game while listening to radio station Hott 93 FM. Arthurs said he slept the first night by the river and the other nights at a hunters’ camp he stumbled upon while trying to make his way back to Maracas, St Joseph.
Arthur said he lost the group after he stopped to eat a piece of chicken he had packed. The last member of the team of about 60 hikers was about 15 minutes walk in front of him the last time he saw them. The Yarra River separated him from the other hikers, and being afraid since he is unable to swim, when his life jacket burst while he was attempting to cross the river, Arthur found himself plunged into a predicament that would make him a local Bear Grylls, minus the eating of bugs.
Asked about the moment he was rescued, Arthur said, “I start to call out to people cause I heard a voice. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. Because I had heard a voice. I think the voice of this man here (pointing to Burton on his left), my new best friend. So I was saying ‘hello’. He answered me and they came running to me and I was thankful. This was over. Four days. I didn’t know I had that kind of strength to make it. I was praying hard.”