- When Tom Sheridan, 31, set out on a day trip with his friend, Tiffanie, he never expected to be trapped in croc infested waters.
- Swerving around a massive puddle, the car shuddered to a halt with the wheels spinning uselessly.
- They were bogged for 48 hours before their friends came to their rescue.
Here Tom tells his story in his own words.
Want to grab a coffee sometime?’ I said to Tiffanie.
‘Yes, love to,’ she said.
Tiffanie, a vet, and me, a DJ, had just met through friends, and we hit it off instantly.
‘Why don’t we check it out?’
So that Sunday afternoon, December 8, 2024, my eight-year-old rescue staffy, Ruby, and I met up with Tiffanie, 29, at the Foreshore Cafe, in Darwin, NT.
We began talking about our favourite places when Tiffanie remarked, ‘I’d love to visit Gunn Point. I’ve heard it’s a great camping spot.’
‘Why don’t we check it out?’ I suggested. ‘It’s only about an hour away.’
So we jumped into her black Toyota Prado and set off.
After a while the tarmac road turned to dirt.
Then that became deep mud, and suddenly we were heading through swamp filled with huge puddles coming up to our bonnet…
‘We were talking so much we missed the turn off!’ Tiffanie sighed.
‘Yeah, unbelievable!’ I said.
We soon reached the coast so we had to turn back. Suddenly, Tiffanie had to swerve right around a massive puddle.
‘We’re definitely bogged.’
The car shuddered to a halt with the wheels spinning uselessly, churning the water but gaining no traction.
We were well and truly stuck.
‘This isn’t good,’ Tiffanie murmured.
‘We’re definitely bogged,’ I agreed.
As we stepped out of the car into the thick, humid air, the mosquitoes and flies descended in swarms, biting us relentlessly.
But that wasn’t the worst part.
This was crocodile country – and we were sitting targets.
‘Let’s try and get traction,’ I said to Tiffanie.
So grabbing whatever logs and sticks we could find, we put them under the wheels.
‘We must be outside the coverage.’
With no luck, we then deflated the tyres, but that didn’t help either.
We were trapped in the middle of nowhere with no food, no water, no way out – and nobody knew where we were.
Every splash in the distance sent a bolt of fear through us as it was potentially a croc waiting for its dinner… with Tiffanie and me on the menu.
I tried my phone. ‘No signal. You?’
She checked hers and shook her head. ‘Nothing.’
The SOS mode didn’t work either.
‘We must be outside the coverage,’ I sighed.
Thankfully Ruby was completely unfazed.
She licked water off leaves and seemed to be regarding the whole thing as one brilliant, if not very well thought out, adventure.
‘I can’t believe they didn’t see us.’
Night fell and we realised we were trapped overnight here in croc country.
Luckily, Tiffanie’s car had a rooftop tent so we climbed into it, dripping in mud, drenched in sweat and covered in mozzie bites.
We pulled Ruby in with us.
It was too hot for her to stay in the cabin.
Despite everything, we managed to get some sleep and, at dawn, trudged to the gravel road, desperate to find a phone signal.
Still nothing.
Then Tiffanie had a brainwave. ‘I have blue spray paint in the car!’ she cried.
‘I use it to mark dead kangaroos to show I’ve checked the pouches for joeys.’
‘Brilliant!’ I exclaimed.
‘Looks like we’ll be here a while.’
So we sprayed SOS on mats and the car tent, and wrote SOS in the nearby mudflats, hoping someone would see our message.
A chopper flew past and we screamed, waving frantically, but it didn’t stop.
‘I can’t believe they didn’t see us!’ Tiffanie cried.
‘Maybe they’ll come back,’ I said, but they didn’t.
The heat was burning us up so we spent the rest of the day in the car cabin.
At least the aircon was working.
That night was worse.
We climbed into the tent to try and sleep, but the heat was unbearable, and our thirst even more so.
The next day, we licked moisture from leaves, as Ruby was doing.
‘Looks like we’ll be here a while,’ Tiffanie said, as we prepared for a third night in the bush.
Then a miracle happened.
‘Can you hear that?’ Tiffanie cried.
‘I can!’ I exclaimed.
Leaping out of the car, I was amazed to see my mates Matthew and Jackson barrelling down the road towards us in a 4WD, blaring the song ‘Fortunate Son’ out of their car stereo speakers!
Just above them flew a chopper and behind them were two police officers on quad bikes.
‘Is this a mirage?’ Tiffanie gasped.
‘It’s like the A-team coming to rescue us!’ I laughed.
‘We found you!’ said Matthew and Jackson, jumping out of their car and engulfing us in hugs.
‘Thanks so much guys!’ I cried, relieved.
By then we’d been bogged for 48 hours.
The guys even managed to pull Tiffanie’s car out of the mud, so that she could drive it home!
We then found out that, back in Darwin, Tiffanie’s new housemate had raised the alarm when she didn’t return.
A group chat had been formed with both Tiffanie’s friends and mine to try to find us.
They discovered my car left at the Foreshore Cafe and viewed CCTV footage showing us there together.
Tiffanie’s friends remembered that she’d mentioned wanting to check out Gunn Point, and put two and two together.
Then the chopper pilot and crew – amazingly also friends of Tiffanie’s – who’d flown over Gunn Point that day to survey animals, remembered seeing a car in a strange place.
They flew back to it, this time spotting our SOS in the mud and alerting the others!
As we drove home, exhausted, and covered in bites, I realised how lucky we were that we hadn’t ended up as croc food, and that people cared enough to come looking for us.
Next time I go on a ‘day trip’ I’ll make sure I take water, food, and tell people where I’m going.
But I’m so glad it was Tiffanie I was stranded with – she kept her cool in a tough situation and now we’ll be mates forever.
