A bushwalker who was ‘too stubborn’ to turn back after a wrong turning before being battered by waves and then forced to cling to a remote rock edge for almost 24 hours has given a casual, one-word description of his daring rescue mission.
Daniel Hart, 27, was hurled into the ocean after he spent three hours clambering over rocks following a wrong turning on the Coast Track in the Royal National Park, 50 kilometres south of Sydney, about 4pm on Saturday.
He was ‘ragdolled’ by the angry waves before being washed up on a rocky ledge around 20 metres below the Eagle Rock cliff face – some four kilometres through thick bush from the nearest road.
Mr Hart spent a cold night ‘curled up in a ball’ on the cliffside before another walker heard his cries for help in the morning and alerted authorities.
Shortly after lunchtime on Sunday, a crew of NSW Ambulance paramedics abseiled down the jagged cliff face to help move Mr Hart to a spot where he could be winched safely to a helicopter.
But when asked about his ‘remarkable’ rescue, Mr Hart affected cool Aussie calm.
‘Yeah… it was grouse,’ he told 9News, before thanking his rescuers.
Daniel Hart, 27, was hurled into the ocean after he spent three hours clambering over rocks following a wrong turning on the Coast Track in the Royal National Park
Shortly after lunchtime on Sunday, a crew of NSW Ambulance paramedics abseiled down the jagged cliff face to help move Mr Hart to a spot where he could be winched safely to a helicopter
Incredibly, Mr Hart only suffered only a few scratches to his knees and was just treated for mild hypothermia.
Inspector Jason Rutherford from NSW AMbulance said it was a ‘difficult extraction’.
‘He was unable to be winched directly up the cliff, so they set up a lateral safety system to move him sideways to a place where he could be safely winched by the helicopter, Mr Rutherford told Nine News.
Asked what was going through his head during his long night on the cliffside, Mr Hart said: ‘You’re an idiot, why are you so stubborn?’
‘It could have been a lot worse,’ he added.
Mr Hard was uninjured and surprisingly nonchalant about his ordeal and dramatic rescue
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Mr Hart was 50 days into a planned 4,500-kilometre journey the length of mainland , from the southern-most point in Wilson’s Promontory, south-east of Melbourne to Cape York in Far North Queensland.
He is undertaking it to raise awareness for a Universal Basic Income, advocating for everyone to be given an unconditional $500 a week to cover their basic needs.
He later shared a selfie smiling alongside one of his rescuers on the cliff face before he was winched to safety.
‘Posting this from the Sutherland Hospital,’ Mr Hart captioned the picture.
‘Bit of a misadventure yesterday; I’ve lost all my stuff, spent the night in a cave on a cliff, and had to get airlifted out today.’
The post was flooded with concern for is wellbeing but people also saw the lighter side, with one joking that he had left his followers on a ‘cliffhanger’.
Another asked: ‘The real question is: does he go back to where he was rescued since he technically didn’t walk to the hospital?’