This is a message to all that are not prepared with safety gear etc for outback travel,i spent a few years that way and it is a tough place on vehicles.Be prepared.

Rescue from dusty death
By KARA LAWRENCE
29may03

THE text message was short and urgent: "Lost in desert, car a wreck . . . emergency." Patricia Gerondis, lost and stranded in the harsh mid-north West Australian outback for three days, had sent her cry for help from her mobile phone to brother Michael in Sydney.

A police officer, Michael was in court on Monday morning when he received the SMS SOS.
Patricia, 37, was alone, dehydrated, scratched, bruised and terrified she would die before anyone found her.

She had not told anyone of her travel plans in the rocky, unforgiving terrain -- so barren of water that even kangaroos don't venture there.

The sharp ground had shredded all the tyres on her 4WD.

And worst of all, despite repeated efforts to reach the outside world, Patricia could get no reception on her mobile . . . until she reached her brother.

Michael then helped save her life, co-ordinating police and emergency services searchers.

Patricia had sent the message: "Please call Karatha (WA) police and ask what they can do.

"Saw sheep and road dust. I think have my back to sun, it was on left. Emergency," it read.

Patricia, speaking from hospital late yesterday, praised the rescue efforts of WA authorities and said her brother had acted as her "lifeline" through the ordeal.

"I thank him for the fact that, thank God, I could get through to him, that he's the sensible one who could liaise between the two (search authorities) and let me know what was happening," she said.

Patricia was planning a trip from Coral Bay to Cape Range National Park last Friday, as part of a last tour of WA before returning home to Bondi, where her parents live.

She had spent a year as a midwife in Newman.

But after she left Coral Bay about 11am, starting her journey along the Coast Road, she stopped for directions -- which turned out to be wrong.

The track she took had turned into rocky terrain and, low on petrol and panicking, Patricia continued way past where she should have headed.

By that time, the sun was setting and all four tyres on her 4WD were holed. All around her, as far as the eye could see, there were only hills.

Patricia set up her tent and, between trying unsuccessfully to dial 000 and send text messages to people she knew, lit a fire and rationed sips of her water.

"I had food with me and plenty of water, but because nobody knew I was lost, I didn't know how long it would last me," she said.

On Monday morning, she decided to climb a hill and see if she could dial 000. It finally worked, and she reached a local police station.

Patricia then went down and sat on the roof of her 4WD, where she found she could SMS.

She sent a message to her brother, a fraud squad detective, who contacted the officer at Exmouth police who was co-ordinating an air search.

That day Patricia and her brother exchanged 21 messages as Det-Insp Gerondis maintained SMS contact with his sister and the WA police officer who was directing the search.

Michael said: "He was very good and he was organising the plane to go and find her, then I told him what she said about the road dust and the sheep.

"(Patricia) told me she thought she saw a plane which was to left of the sun but way over the hill.

"They redirected the plane and they found where she was.

"She was very lucky."

SES spokesman Gerry Blum said the area where she was found was "serious country" where no water could be found.

The private plane spent two hours searching before spotting Patricia beside her disabled 4WD, almost 4km off the nearest dirt track.

Patricia covered the car with a sheet and attached a crystal to reflect the sun from her aerial.

Two emergency services vehicles shredded six tyres between them as they drove through the bush to reach her.

Patricia was then taken to Exmouth hospital for observation.