Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)A DUTCH woman who was found alive after 18 days trapped down a ravine has admitted she ‘felt a little stupid’ for getting lost.
On returning to the Netherlands, Mary Anne Goossens, 48, talked about her ordeal when she got stuck on a hike in the hills above Nerja.
The mother-of-two – who vanished while undertaking the Rio Chillar canyon walk – decided it was best to stay put near to the waterfall so she would have water to drink.
“It seemed the most intelligent thing to do,” she told a press conference near her home in Stamproy.
Her main fear was being confronted by a snake on her tiny ledge of land between two waterfalls, where she got trapped.
The librarian admitted she felt ‘ a little stupid’ for getting lost, in particular because she had left her hotel in Nerja without giving any details of where she was going.
She also admitted not considering the fact that her mobile phone would not work.
Goossens – who vanished during a 10-day break – revealed to stop from feeling hungry she would imagine she was cooking her favourite dishes or would nibble small bits of wood, but stopped short of eating ants.
Her main survival technique was remaining optimistic.
Each night she would repeat to herself, ‘tomorrow they will rescue me’.
“I sent mental text messages to my two children,” she added.
Her cries for help were eventually heard by a group of hikers who were walking along the river bank.
We were in Nerja during the first days of Mary Anne’s disappearance. Seeing the posters all over town, we talked about her every day. Now we are home in England and it’s wonderful to hear of her being found and that she is OK. What a relief. A happy ending to a worrying event.
There is something very strange about this story. She is “trapped on a tiny ledge of land between two waterfalls” but “decided it was best to stay put near to the waterfall so she would have water to drink.” Those two statements cannot stand together. If she “decided” then she had a choice. If she was ‘trapped’, she did not. A good investigative journalist could sort it out in a few minutes.