Australia – An Australian grandfather who ate ants for six days to survive after being lost in the Australian outback said he thought he was going to die. Reginald Foggerdy, 62, was out hunting for a camel when he got lost, and was later found by trackers who followed his steps.
The so-called Ant-Man said that the insects tasted good and that he doesn’t mind his new nickname. “I followed this camel into the bush. I’d gone at least 30k, I didn’t know where I was,” he said to Seven Network. He had already killed the camel he was hunting, but had no way of eating it.
“I didn’t have a knife, and I didn’t have matches for a fire,” he said. “So I couldn’t go and cut a steak off the animal because I had no way to cook it and had no way to cut it.” He was lost and out of water, in a dry region 100 miles away from the nearest town.
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Foggerdy, a diabetic who suffered a heart attack earlier this year, remembered some advice he watched in the Bear Grylls survivor show when he saw the ants. He ate between 12 and 18 of them each day, for six days, hoping to stay alive.
He reported that he saw some helicopters flying past his head, although probably they didn’t noticed him because he was seeking shelter from the heat of the sun. At a moment, he thought that no one was going to find him, and that he had given up, according to CNN.
As the sixth day, his organ’s functions started to stop, and he started to welcome his death while he said goodbye in his mind. “I was at peace with myself, wiping away a tear as he remembered the thought of his family seeing his body lying on the dirt beneath the tree,” according to CNN.
Police said they found him extremely dehydrated, showing delusions and confusion. Searchers, with the help of an Aboriginal tracker spotted him when they followed his footprints. Foggerday recalls opening his eyes and seeing them, feeling happy of being found.
Foggerdy was airlifted to an hospital, where he spent the next days recovering from the incident. Health officials reported that he received first aid on the ground before setting off to the hospital.
“I’d given up”
Reginald Foggerdy considers himself lucky for surviving six days without water, as he is aware that most people would have died at those conditions. He recalls that, in a moment of desperation, he thought of getting his gun that is still in the shrub.
“Yes, I want to get my rifle back,” he said. “I hid it behind a tree so well that five police took two days looking for it, and they still can’t find it,” he said to The West Australian.
Arlyn, Foggerdy’s wife, said that she cried out of joy when she heard that her husband was alive, saying that surviving without food and water was a miracle. According to Australian authorities, the Great Australia Desert is the largest of the region, having dunes, plains and dry salt lakes, but no permanent source of water.
Source: CNN