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SYDNEY - The manager of a Queensland cattle ranch claims that he spent nearly a week up a tree, with only two sandwiches to sustain him, and two large crocodiles circling below.
David George's strange tale began when he fell off his horse while out in rugged bushland.
Dazed and bleeding, he gave the horse "its head" to carry him home.
Instead, it took him into the heart of a crocodile swamp - a fact that Mr George realised, quickly regaining full consciousness, when he saw crocodile tracks and a nest.
He climbed a nearby tree, and spent his first night among the branches, about 8ft above the ground.
But, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday, "I could see two sets of eyes . . . about 12 metres to eight metres away from the bottom of the tree".
The next day he climbed higher, setting up some sticks that he could lie on. But the crocs were still below. His two sandwiches lasted him three days.
Meanwhile, he tied his shirt to a stick and spread toilet paper in the branches, in the hope of attracting rescue crews.
He also created flashes off the back of tin lids.
After his horse arrived home without him, a search and rescue operation was launched.
Eventually an army helicopter crew rescued him from his treetop sanctuary.
He was flown to hospital and treated for minor injuries, then discharged.
He had spent six nights up the tree, he said.
Mark Read, an officer with the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, said Mr George had been fortunate to survive a very dangerous situation.
He was "very lucky in terms of having a tree that was the right size and shape to accommodate his body for the length of time he stayed up there", Mr Read told the ABC.
The crocodiles, he said, would have realised that Mr George was injured, and would have identified him as their next meal.
- INDEPENDENT
