With leg broken, tramper crawls to safety

BRISBANE: A bushwalker who plunged 6m down a Queensland waterfall and fractured his leg was forced to crawl for two days to survive after his phone fell in a creek.

With no way of calling for help, Neil Parker (54) realised he would have to rescue himself despite a badly fractured leg and wrist from the fall on Sunday.

The trail walk at Cabbage Tree Creek on Mt Nebo, northwest of Brisbane, was meant to be a threehour trip, Mr Parker told reporters from his hospital bed yesterday.

‘‘A lot of things I did wrong. I didn’t tell anyone where I was going and I didn’t have an Epirb [emergency beacon]’’, he said.

‘‘I climbed the waterfall many times before, and this time, with it being so dry, the lichen on the rock, instead of sticking, slipped and gave way,’’ Mr Parker said.

He realised the gully was too deep for a phone signal so he needed to move to find one.

‘‘I went to put my phone into my pocket and missed and [it went] into the drink.’’

Mr Parker, an experienced guide with Brisbane Bushwalkers, splinted his leg with snake bite bandages and walking poles from his kit.

Then he began to crawl, lifting his damaged leg over rocks, alongside the creek towards a junction where he knew people passed by.

‘‘My left foot just below my ankle, clean snapped in half,’’ he said.

‘‘So the whole bottom of my leg came loose.’’

‘‘I had to carry my leg, and legs are very heavy when they’re not connected to anything, and trying to pick it up and get over rocks.

‘‘I would get about a metre, a metre and ahalf before I needed a break.’’

A search party was launched on Monday after he failed to turn up for work.

A rescue helicopter finally spotted him on Tuesday afternoon and winched him to safety. — AAP

❛ I had to carry my leg, and legs are very heavy when they’re not connected to anything