When Ben Maloney stumbled out of the Tasmanian wilderness after being lost for five weeks without food, doctors hailed it as a miracle. The young hiker's family, who had already held a memorial service for him, wept for joy.
Mr Maloney explained, modestly: "I wanted to survive."
Ten days on, however,
Mr Maloney has admitted that he was not entirely without sustenance; he had rice that he boiled up with rain water.
Nor was he constantly exposed to the elements on the island's Southern Ranges; he spent at least two nights in a hut. There are even doubts as to whether Mr Maloney, a 27-year-old former soldier, was lost at all.
He said he was in one small area of dense bushland all the time and took 16 days to cover four miles.
But what is certain is that Mr Maloney, who is unemployed, is now $13,000 richer after he sold his story to a television network. He has scoffed at suggestions that he should give the money to the rescue services.
Mr Maloney says that he wandered off a path and became disoriented in thick forest. He carried no map, compass, whistle or emergency beacon on what was supposed to be a 12-day walk. Whenasked why he did not take those items, he replied: "I didn't need them."
- INDEPENDENT
