Lost: Travellers spend two days stranded in the outback after getting their car bogged

Two students etched “SOS” in the roadside and spent two days lost in the SA outback without food or water. Yesterday, they were rescued by a remote worker.

The pair scratched this SOS sign in the dirt, and even left a handwritten notes, before they were found near Innamincka.

Two international students have been rescued by a Santos worker after getting their car bogged in the outback and leaving desperate calls for help across the desert.

But they’re not the only people to have been lost in the remote location recently.

The hero field worker came across the students – one from France and the other from Hong Kong – at a satellite station near Innamincka after seeing their calls for help, which included handwritten notes dropped on the ground and “SOS” etched into the roadside.

They abandoned their Toyota RAV4 after bogging it on Cordillo Downs Road, about an hour north of Innamincka in the state’s northeast, on Sunday.

Two days were spent on their own, without food or water, until they were found about 9.30am on Tuesday.

They were dropped at the Innamincka Trading Post, where they are now staying, and given a once-over by Royal Flying Doctor Service.

The local ranger took them out on Wednesday morning to help recover their car from the road.

The handwritten note left by travellers who got lost in South Australia's far north . Picture: supplied

“We are pleased our folk were able to find the pair, locate their car and following a medical check up by our on-site medical team, were taken to Innamincka to continue on their journey,” a Santos spokesman told The Advertiser.

“The tourists had been walking for two days after their car had become bogged.
“First aid was immediately provided by the Santos operators and company emergency response processes were initiated.”

Jayne Whaite at the Trading Post said a man had encountered the pair north of the tiny town a few days earlier, low on fuel and unsure where to go.

When he called the Trading Post to check if they’d turned up, Ms Whaite knew something was wrong.

“I haven’t had a chance to have a yarn with them but the medic gave them the once over and they slept the rest of the day,” she said.

Astonishingly, she said another pair came unstuck in similar circumstances less than a week ago.

Those two, Ms Whaite said, stayed with their car until they ran out of food and water, before walking out into the scrub.

“If it wasn’t for the manager at Innamincka Station, they probably wouldn’t have been found, either,” she said.

He went out flying and, by chance, flew over the land where they were stranded.

He landed the plane and rescued the pair.