Surviving is tough
DREAM ENDS IN NIGHTMARES FOR TARRANT BUT HE’S STILL ‘PRETTY STOKED’ ABOUT STINT ON SHOW
THE stress of being on a deserted beach on Australian Survivor for 51 days took its toll on Adelaide magician Matt Tarrant.
Tarrant is the latest to leave the Channel 10 reality show, coming fifth out of 24 contestants – and he is incredibly proud of himself.
But he is still getting over the experience, which he described as mentally draining.
“I don’t think I’m still normal to be honest,” Tarrant said.
“I remember the first couple of weeks after I came back, I was sleeping differently and I was having horror dreams.
“You are constantly reliving moments, thinking: ‘Should I have done things differently?’
“Things are always constantly playing out in your mind.”
In the end Tarrant couldn’t convince swing player Kristie Bennett and Flick Egginton to vote for El Rowland.
The move would have broken up the power couple of Lee Carseldine and Rowland, but Bennett kept her loyalty to the former professional cricketer, which to this day Tarrant doesn’t understand. “I was baffled,” he said. “Kristie came to me a couple of times and said she knew it was the smart decision to go with myself and Flick.
“She knew it was the best move and then she didn’t do it. “I don’t know why.” Tarrant said the one move that turned it around for him and made it nearly impossible to make it to the end was when Egginton turned on his alliance of four: himself, Egginton, Brooke Jowett and Sam Webb.
“We had this really great plan to get to the final four, together as a group,” he said.
“It should have worked and it made perfect sense strategically. It was the best move for all of us. After Flick flipped, I think it made it really tough for all of us to come back.
“I get what she was doing, and maybe it was a really smart move to make one or two tribal councils onwards, but I think at that point it just impacted all of our games.
“But that’s Survivor, isn’t it?”
Tarrant said he was on good terms with everyone after the show, including Egginton.
Despite getting so close to the end, Tarrant said he was unbelievably happy about how far he got.
“It’s amazing, I never would have expected that,” he said.
“I don’t think my family or friends would have expected it either.
“So to finish fifth, and to beat 19 other amazing contestants and do well out there, I don’t think I was a poor contestant by any means – I’m pretty stoked with how I went.”
Now he is back in Adelaide, Tarrant is focusing on his career as a magician, with a number of tours in the works.
As for Australian Survivor, the final two episodes will air tonight and tomorrow night.
Ten has confirmed it will be back next year.