I did everything right but still almost died on a bushwalk. Here’s how I survived – and my one piece of advice that could save your life

An experienced bushwalker who faced almost certain death after being stranded in a remote valley without any mobile phone signal has revealed the last-minute decision that saved his life.

Andy Collins, 59, embarked on a three-day, 47km ‘K2K’ walk from Kanangra Walls to his hometown of Katoomba in the NSW Blue Mountains in late February.

The pastor, who used to work for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, has done hundreds of similar walks in the region and knows the terrain better than most.

But his wife Melissa made him make one more promise.

‘She was a little concerned that I would go alone, without any personal locator beacon [a device used in distress situations to alert authorities of your exact coordinates] so I promised her I would have one,” Mr Collins told Daily Mail Australia.

It was a promise that ultimately saved his life.

Mr. Collins had researched the route and read everything he could find in recent trail reports to understand the conditions.

The ferocious bushfires of 2019 and subsequent floods have created a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions for rapid bush regrowth, leaving many tracks completely overgrown.

But nothing he read made him too worried and so on the evening of February 26, his wife dropped him off at the sandstone cliffs at Kanangra Walls.

After saying goodbye, he walked into the wilderness for several hours before camping overnight.

“The next day the path was a bit overgrown, but nothing I haven’t done before,” Mr Collins said.

‘I actually had a really good time that day and I thought: “Oh yeah, this will be fine”.’

Early that evening he reached Mount Cloudmaker, which is almost 1,170 meters high, before beginning an 800 meter descent over about 5 km to Cox’s River.

“As I went further and further down the ridge it just got thicker and thicker, with lots of fallen timber and lots of regrowth,” Mr Collins said.

‘There were vines and wickerwork around chest-to-head height and it was impossible to get through.

‘It was slow and very tiring. It didn’t feel particularly warm and I had three and a half liters of water that I had been drinking all day.”

By sunset, Mr Collins was still 200 meters above the Cox’s River and was forced to camp among the undergrowth.

“I was exhausted,” Mr. Collins said.

“I ended up collapsing on the side of the hill and wrapping myself in my sleeping bag because there was nowhere to pitch my tent.”

Dawn came and it took Mr Collins more than two hours to make his way across the remaining 1km to the river’s edge.

“It was so overgrown that there was no trace at all,” he said.

When he finally arrived at the river, he downed two liters of water mixed with hydrolytes in an attempt to stop the cramps in his legs.

At that point he had intended to abandon the walk and walk out of the bush at the nearest available point.

‘But then I suddenly started to feel really unwell. “I was throwing up and had to pee,” he said.

‘I also got very bad pain in my back, which I dismissed as a cramp. But then it got to the point where I couldn’t really move anymore.’

What Mr. Collins didn’t know was that he was actually suffering from acute kidney failure, caused by extreme exertion and dehydration.

As the sun climbed higher in the sky and his pain intensified, he began to panic.

He knew he had to get out of the woods that evening so he could attend his son’s graduation ceremony at the NSW Police Academy in Goulburn the next day.

Helpless, he could only lie in the river to cool off with a towel to protect his skin from the bright sun.

Since his phone had no signal and the temperature was now above 40 degrees, he had only one option: to set off the personal locator beacon (PLB).

‘I was very sorry that I had to stop. “I didn’t want to bother people, but I just realized my body was completely shut down,” he said.

About 90 minutes later, a PolAir helicopter arrived.

Police realized the trouble Mr Collins was in and sent an air ambulance.

He missed his son Ben’s graduation and spent five nights in the hospital, but in charming fashion, the rescue helicopter pilot attended Ben’s graduation the next day.

Although Mr Collins did not survive as he recovered from acute kidney failure, his wife Melissa and son Ben had their picture taken with his rescuer.

“The paramedics said if I hadn’t had the PLB it would have been a body recovery,” Mr Collins said.

His only advice to fellow bushwalkers is to always have one with them, no matter how experienced they are.

‘They are so light and don’t add anything to your pack weight. Despite the convenience of having one, it’s crazy not to,” Mr Collins said.

GME, an Australian-owned safety technology company, subsidizes the cost of PLBs to National Parks Centers so they can be rented out by bushwalkers.

GME’s safety expert Tony Crooke said that if Mr Collins had not taken one of the emergency beacons, ‘the outcome could have been very different’.

“He’s definitely not an amateur bushwalker,” Mr Cooke said.

“He’s got a lot of experience and I think about the fact that he’s so experienced and yet he still felt it was good to be a beacon in case something went wrong.

“In the end, that’s probably what saved his life.”

Mr Cooke urged bushwalkers to also consider taking a UHF CB handheld radio so that two-way communication with rescue authorities is possible if they ever get into trouble.

“Most people rely on their cell phones as a means of communication, which is great if you’re in an urban area,” says Cooke.

‘But if you’re traveling to a regional or remote area, it’s really important to remember that less than 30 percent of the Australian landmass has mobile phone reception.”

“Something like a UHF CB handheld radio, an open communications platform, allows you to connect with other people who can help you assess your situation and provide the assistance you need.”

Mr Cooke said a PLB, which uses satellites to relay your exact coordinates to rescue authorities, is a last resort.