Woman’s 16-day hiking ordeal
Amanda Eller ventured into a dense forest in Hawaii on May 8, confident her 4.8km hike would finish so quickly that her phone and water were unnecessary. She left behind her wallet and her keys, hidden in her car’s tyre well for when she returned.
A physical therapist and yoga instructor who lives on Maui, Eller knew the terrain from a previous hike and veered off the trail for a quick rest.
But when she got up to resume, she was turned around, and in a quixotic search for the trail, Eller fractured her leg.
She ate insects in the 16 days she was missing in the Makawao Forest Reserve — a disappearance that triggered a massive search drawing hundreds of volunteers, even after authorities scaled back their efforts early on.
Eller was found alive at the weekend, sunburned and smiling. A helicopter search team contracted by her family spotted her 6.5km from her car, gaunt after surviving on plants and water. She was airlifted to a hospital.
“She figured it out, she was smart, she was strong, she was prepared. We said that in the beginning and it was absolutely true,” said her father, John Eller, according to KITV.
Eller fractured her leg and tore her meniscus on the third day. She used ferns and leaves for warmth when the temperature plummeted, and one night, slept in a wild boar’s den. She ate moths and wild strawberry guavas, her mother Julia Eller told
Maui News. She could identify those. Other plants were risky and unknown meals. A flood took her shoes, leaving her barefoot and crawling.
“I wanted to give up,” she told the
New York Times. “But the only option I had was life or death.”