A missing couple were followed by a giant crocodile for days in ‘s remote north after their vehicle was swept in a flood leaving them stranded.
The pair, aged in their 50s, spent three days exposed to the elements in the Gulf Country northwest of Staaten River National Park in Queensland after their four-wheel-drive was washed away in raging flood waters.
The couple were airlifted to safety on Saturday and told rescuers the beast stalked them while they endured 40C heat with no food during the days and freezing temperatures over two nights. The only drinking water they had was from the crocodile-infested river.
The couple first became stranded when they had tried to drive through a river crossing in their vehicle but it was washed away by a large wave of floodwater.
They told rescuers they had to scramble out the passenger window to escape, with the male driver swimming back into the vehicle to free their two dogs.
Without phones, the couple wrote two large SOS signs in the dirt and hoped someone would find them.
A friend reported them missing on Saturday after they failed to arrive in Kowanyama, on the central west coast of Cape York, after setting off from Normanton on Thursday.
A LifeFlight rescue crew took off from Mount Isa base on Saturday morning and located the couple and their dogs after seeing the SOS sign.
The pilot was able to land the chopper on the road beside the river before Queensland Ambulance Service flight paramedics assessed the patients.
They were treated for dehydration and exposure and loaded onto the rescue helicopter, with their two dogs, and airlifted to the Normanton Hospital for further treatment.