Friday, February 23, 2024

Adventure: "Google Maps leads German tourists to week-long survival saga in Australian swamp"

From The Register, February 23:

Pair had to dodge croc on trek back to civilization

Two German tourists got more than they bargained for when they put their lives in the hands of Google Maps and blindly followed the service into the depths of the Australian jungle.

Philipp Maier and Marcel Schoene wanted to drive 1,000 km (621 miles) from the tropical city of Cairns, Queensland, on the southeastern Cape York Peninsula to the small town of Bamaga, some 40 km (24 miles) from the northernmost tip.

But around the rural town of Coen, the pair obeyed Google's navigation service and turned off Peninsula Development Road, the main transport link for the region, onto a dirt track and into a national park.

"We decided, 'OK, let's follow Google Maps because Google Maps knows maybe more than we know'," Maier told 9News.

While that is almost certainly true, such blind faith turned out to be their undoing. Sixty kilometers into their bushwhacking adventure, their four-wheel drive got stuck in mud and they had to continue on foot....

....MUCH MORE