Great confusion and consternation led to a large-scale search when a Boland couple’s satellite phone incorrectly sent out emergency signals while they were hiking the Fish River Canyon in Namibia.
The drama started to unravel on Monday when it was suspected that ten hikers had gone “missing” in the canyon. It was later determined that six of them had walked out of the canyon without reporting their safe arrival to the resort, as is required of all hikers.
A search was launched for the other four, among them Trevor (63) and Samantha Burger (50) from Franschhoek. It was also suspected that some of the hikers were injured because an emergency signal was apparently sent out several times.
Two hikers safely walked out, leaving Namibian search parties continuing to search for the Burgers.
The couple were eventually found asleep in their tent unharmed by a Namibian rescue team at around 02:00 on Tuesday.
They were completely unaware of the search being launched for them.
A family friend, Janone Spies, told Netwerk24 that she had been contacted on Tuesday and told that the Burgers had walked out of the canyon around 09:00 and were safe and in no way injured.
Nelson Ashipala, spokesperson for Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR), said that the South Africans’ satellite phone accidentally sent out an emergency signal.
“They were tracked down and told our team they were safe.”
The couple wrote on Facebook yesterday morning together with a photo, where they are having a cool drink at the Ai-Ais resort (were the hike ends), that they are grateful to everyone who was concerned about their well-being and that they walked out of the canyon a full day earlier than planned.
“Due to a faulty emergency signal, we are quite ashamed of our ‘fame’ and we want to assure you that we are doing absolutely nothing wrong,” reads the entry. We would like to thank the Namibian park rangers and emergency officials for their efforts to locate us. They finally found us at 02:00 where we slept in our tent, blissfully unaware of the drama. Hopefully everything will calm down soon.
“We are grateful for all the rangers’ efforts to save us.”
