A horror fall from a mountain left a gravely injured trekker stranded for five days without water and fearing death before a rescue mission by a surprise source
Morgan Segui
A dream move almost turned into a nightmare for one thrill-seeker – and things could have been fatal if it wasn’t for a herd of goats!
For French documentary filmmaker Morgan Segui, his epic adventure to the top of a sacred mountain in East Timor almost cost him his life in 2019. The former acrobat found himself gravely injured and stranded after suffering a terrifying fall on Mount Manucoco on Atauro Island.
After reaching the summit of the climb and caught in the baking late afternoon heat, Segui was alone in the jungle with an empty water bottle and facing a long way back down. Hopelessly lost, things got a whole lot worse as he slid off a 40-metre cliff.
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The fall left him with fractured skull, a broken right arm, a number of broken fingers, and a shattered foot. And the ordeal left him fearing for his life. Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, Segui said he was most scared of “dying in a place where no one will find me”.
“I was sad for my kids,” he told us. “A father dying during an adventure is not the best thing, no one wants an endless source of questions. Where is he? Is he still alive? Has he abandoned me?”
Segui lay at the bottom of a dry gorge in the Timorese jungle for three days and nights without water. But dramatically, Segui, who had been “considering myself stuck forever” during the five-day ordeal, confessed his salvation came from a set of unusual friends in the forest – his “goat friends”.
He said: “Because I fell from a cliff that was the only path to escape from my position, I was considering myself stuck forever. No way to climb up this cliff again, especially with a scalped head, a broken arm and fractured heel. The goats came, gave me a kind of ‘Hi buddy, sounds like you are struggling here!’
“The youngest touched my nose with her nose, a kind of goat hug I presume and they suddenly climbed the cliff, under the moon light, showing me the right path to reach the top. Not a stupid climber straight way to the top, but a smart, zigzag goat trail.”
Despite the the horror experience, Segui is still keen to explore. However, he says it wouldn’t be a solo journey in the future. “Try to walk in real nature, forest or mountain, or swim in cold sea – not alone, with good friends in a safe place, using a safety swimming buoy,” he said.
“This is my recipe, I do it with a collective of trained people. Cold water, lakes or rivers can be dangerous for many reasons too. Once you find something to move your body and a collective, it’s a first step to collect joyful moments… a human brain with no joy, no happy visions for the future is the most painful thing on earth.”
He admits: “Falling from a cliff and surviving five days without water is a chance to appreciate life more than ever, but it’s definitely not a business school.”
And one thing he has taken from the situation is how he loves silence now. “Sleeping four nights on the soil, trying to survive like a mammal cured some of my old childhood and young adult problems.
“As a Parisian, I felt completely uprooted, far from any ancient earthly culture. In my family, there were no songs, no culinary specialties, and a very urban relationship to the world. Since childhood, I’ve mourned the fact that my family isn’t connected to the lands of our ancestors – no legends, no boat or mountain ceremonies. Being wounded in the Timorese jungle brought me a kind of second chance, an accelerated training to build a deep connection with the land.”
Real Survival Stories from UK podcast network Noiser is out now – Listen on all major podcast platforms or HERE.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: mirror.co.uk
