Google Map fail leads to long hike
Two German tourists walked 60km to be rescued in a weeklong ordeal after following directions from Google Maps during an ill-advised wet season Cape York road trip.
The men left Cairns on February 4, headed for Bamaga.
Google Maps took the travellers into Oyala Thumotang National Park via an old dirt track known as Langi Track that leads off Rokeby Rd, 25km north of Coen.
However, more than 250mm of rain falling around Coen in January meant on February 6, the pair’s four-wheel-drive got bogged.
Due to their remote location there was no mobile service or internet connection.
The mistake meant a weeklong ordeal and a 60km walk back to civilisation during which the pair survived on pasta with tomato paste and drank from creeks and puddles using a towel as a filter.
About a week after abandoning their vehicle, the tourists stumbled into Coen and advised authorities they had left their car in the national park.
Ranger in charge Roger James said a local mechanic was sent to recover the vehicle.
“This is not the first incident of Google Maps sending people off the Peninsula Development Road and into national parks, where they either get lost or their vehicles get bogged,” he said.
Mr Maier said he drove into the national park for 60km before getting the Nissan Navara bogged to the axle.
“At Coen Google Maps said go to the national park and (we thought) OK because the main road is closed because of a high river,” he said.
Gold Coast surfing royalty joined Glitter Strip identities and guests from Brisbane for the launch of the newest southern hotspot.
Eight-time world surfing champion Stephanie Gilmore - on a gap year from the tour - was among the crowd at Brisbane hospitality giant Johnny Gambaro’s Pipi’s restaurant opening in Coolangatta on Saturday.
The 2012 world surfing champion Joel Parkinson was also on board for the venue launch in the Awaken tower developed by Paul Gedoun, in Coolangatta.
Gedoun who developed Flow tower nearby was also soaking up the hospitality on the night along with Grand Prix motorcycle legend Mick Doohan.
Nineteen at the Star partners and Cross Promotions festival and entertainment duo Billy and Jackie Cross also popped in to check out the space.
Mr Gambaro said: “For years we’ve been dying to have an ocean view restaurant, and when Paul Gedoun approached me, when I visited the location, my eyes lit up.”
GC AT LARGE P37
Covid jabs have been linked to rare occurrences of heart, brain and blood disorders, a worrying study by researchers in Australia and New Zealand has revealed.
Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines were found to cause a slight spike in neurological, blood and heartrelated medical conditions, according to the findings from the Global Vaccine Data Network.
The massive global study, hosted by the University of Auckland and further worked on by network researchers in Melbourne, analysed 99 million people who received jabs in eight countries and monitored for increases in 13 medical conditions.
Rare cases of myocarditis – inflammation of the heart muscle – were found in those who had received three doses of Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid jabs, the study, published in the journal Vaccine, found.
Those who had a third AstraZeneca jab had a 6.9-fold increased risk of contracting another heart condition, pericarditis, the inflammation of the cardiac muscle, the University of Auckland statement said.
A first and fourth dose of Moderna’s Covid jab had a 1.7fold increased risk of myocarditis and a 2.6-fold increased risk of pericarditis, respectively.
AstraZeneca’s viral-vector shots – which differs from the mRNA technology of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – proved to have an increased risk of a type of blood clot in the brain.
Disturbingly, the study found that people who received AstraZeneca’s jab had a 2.5 times greater risk of developing Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder in which the immune system attacks the nerves.
Possible safety signals for transverse myelitis, a spinal cord inflammation, were identified after patients received viral-vector vaccines.
Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis – the inflammation and swelling in the brain and spinal cord – were also detected after both viral-vector and mRNA vaccines, the researchers found.
The experts examined 13 medical conditions that they considered “adverse events of special interest” among the subjects, aiming to identify higher-than-expected cases after a vaccine.
“The size of the population in this study increased the possibility of identifying rare potential vaccine safety signals,” lead author Kristyna Faksova of the Department of Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, said in a release.
“Single sites or regions are unlikely to have a large enough population to detect very rare signals,” she said.
Dr Steven Black, co-director of the Global Vaccine Data Network, said: “GVDN supports a co-ordinated global effort to assess vaccine safety and effectiveness so that vaccine questions can be addressed in a more rapid, efficient, and costeffective manner.
“We have a number of studies under way to build upon our understanding of vaccines and how we understand vaccine safety using big data,” Dr Black said