Author: Nikki Brown

Well this was one sad episode when the amazing Eva celebrated her birthday without any fish feast to keep her going and Ceilidh has been enjoying a fish feast but has the medic team coming to check on her.

Episode 4

Alone Quote – ‘Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul’ John Muir

Day 16

9am

Eva – sings Happy Birthday and delivers an Usnea and Mud Cake to herself for her 32^nd lap around the Sun. This time last year she was tracking Emu on the red sand – she has a blessed life. She has 2 Australasian Grebes swimming around near her. She is reflecting on who she was 10 years ago as a 22 year old and how she was deeply unhappy – was in extremely detrimental relationships, lots of substance abuse and she did a lot of damage to herself. She is so grateful to be on the other side of that. Nature is the ultimate healer and really helped her get through. She is hopeful that the lake will give her a fish today as a present – her body needs food. Going to her fishing spot was a bit tricky on a muddy slippery slope ‘I need to be careful’. Eva casts a line and prays for a fish. Reflects that the definition of Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result – but she is pretty sure that doesn’t apply to fishing. The birds, the sunlight have been so beautiful but it is getting to her that she hasn’t been able to catch anything yet. If she doesn’t start getting food, she will need to start rethinking her strategy.

Ceilidh 8km away– ‘Let’s go fishing’. She is feeling better – had her first bit of food in 15 days yesterday and now has 2 days worth of food – so happy. Put her near a body of water and she’ll find something. This is what she is good at – she feels like this is one very cool fishing trip. ‘Now we wait’ as she puts out her very cool woven fishing trap. What an experience! Success! She caught a Brown Trout – ‘Best thing ever!’. It had eggs – caviar. She ate them straight up. Now she is switched on to surviving as long as she can.

Shay – 10am – ‘Here we are’ – a couple of weeks and he can feel his body slowing down and is depleted in some areas. He is concerned about the weight loss. He is eating bracken root by bashing it up. He has made a super cool wallaby trap – ‘a log cabin on death’. He is surviving on bracken root and worms – he wonders if he is the only one eating worms. He found some rusty metal and made a fishing spear – ‘the fish will need a tetnus shot’. He is excited by the spear as he is not one to hold onto the end of a fishing rod. At least the spear is a bit like hunting.

49km away – Eva – has been fishing for 4-5 hours with no luck. She has tried different baits, different times of the day, has spent time fishing every day. Her body is on warning – please eat – please eat. She got no fish for her birthday – sad acceptance. She feels like a part of this place but she can’t stay out here without eating. ‘What are we going to do with no fish?’ She sang a beautiful version of Wills song (her partner) – “If you listen out you can hear the sound of the earth calling you home. She speaks through the trees, she speaks through the breeze and the earth beneath your feet”.

Day 17

8am Eva – This place is absolutely beautiful – the stillness, so peaceful, what a place to wake up to. She has exhausted all options for fishing and she is not mentally strong enough to keep going. She made a home here and she is not regretful but she is not capable of pushing past the hunger. Still she is proud of herself for coming out and doing this. She came out here to deepen her relationship with herself and she did that. She officially taps out. Now she gets to hug her mum and be back with her partner.

Ben – 60km/hr wind picks up. This wind is crazy – a northerly. His shelter is close to the water.

Yonke – is embracing the wind ‘ Bring it on’

Muzza – is not in any rush to get up as it is blowing a gale. It is his first day without food in 10 days and he makes a joke “I’ve got to get rid of this chunkiness somehow”.

Tom – the wind is roaring. He is inside his log cabin. He is amazed with the strength of the wind. He greets the morning sun and decides his new plan is to make a door and give it his best shot. He makes a paperbark clad door – ‘If I had a right hand it would be a lot easier’ J. He reflects on his childhood. As a kid he could do anything including riding a bike. He had lots of stacks but he never was disabled. He is stoked with the door he made – very heavy but good. He is intrigued that such a simple thing like making a door could make him feel so happy. He has made a bed, now a door and tomorrows mission is fishing.

Day 18

Corinne – has woken up on the wrong side of the bed – last night she kept thinking there was someone outside talking. So far she has survived on vegetation but she is wants protein. She is reflecting that everything in this world wants to exist so she struggles killing things and with taking of a life – she can’t handle the suffering. She goes off to find a wallaby track and thinks it will be a traumatic experience but “if you eat meat, you’ve got to be able to kill it”. She heard Wallabies jumping away – so she is going to try to catcha wallaby. She makes a trap for one and lays it out roughly to set it but forgets to attach the trigger to the net. Laughs at herself for this mistake.

4pm

Ceilidh – Loves it out here. She makes an amazing fireplace and caught another fish. Her 3^rd in 3 days. If she gets a lot of fish, she wants to smoke it. She is a future thinker and hopes the hard work will pay off. She is loving overcoming the challenges and that is what makes it cool. She has a roll of metal wire as one of her items. She thinks she can persevere. She got married on Cradle Mountain. She is doing this for herself and her wife.

Day 19

Ben – 8am – has had no luck fishing. He was expecting the fishing to be easier. He made a terrific door and walls that he is very happy with. His shovel handle broke so he found some wood and made a new handle and it looked great. He thought it wasn’t perfect but it was good enough and as he slung it over his shoulder he joked “I’m not a warrior, I’m a worm hunter!”. Then the shovel handle fell off and Ben laughed at himself a losing his weapon for worm hunting.

Celidh 21km away – 10am – she is feeling good. Very happy and proud of how she is going. Might be able to relax today and do some TLC – clothes washing, hanky washing, self cleaning. Feels good to freshen up. She is still pinching herself that she is out here.

2pm She did a wee and all this foam came out, and she had a burning sensation. She is a bit worried, and hopes it is not a UTI and hopes it is not anything that will make her have to leave as she is not ready to go. The medical team wants to come and check it out.

Tom – knows he is losing weight in his face. He is trying to find a fishing spot that is easier to get to and more sheltered. He is feeling like it is a starvation fest at the moment. Really tough without food in the belly. Today is the longest time he has been away from his son. Realising how much family means to him and how he loves spending time with his son – especially after dinner (which is really on his mind). His tummy is saying ‘eat food now!’.

3.44pm – One of his fishing lines looks taught – it is taught. He got a trout – never felt so good. He is going to eat every bit of it.

Ceilidh – she is not ready to go and admits how hard it has been to boil water, so she hasn’t always done that. She is worried and hoping that this is not enough to take her out. She has just got her fireplace sorted and she is hoping that this UTI will go away. She feels like it could be her last day, but she really hopes not. She has made it this far and she was hoping to stay much longer.

8 people remain.

Double feature episode. And pretty sure it will be amazing to see how the final days of those left unfolds.

4 June – 7.30pm of SBS live or watch from 8.30pm on SBS on demand.

Go Muzza – the bushman from Victoria!

Go Corinne – the Food Safety Consultant from Tasmania!

Go Shay – the professional trapper from New Zealand!

What is going to happen? How? Who???????????

Exciting times.

In case you missed watching it or you are keen for a rehash – here is my summary of Episode 3 – where we lost our first participant.

Alone Australia Episode 3

Alone Quote: “We are the sum total of our hungers” – A W Tozer

Day 10

7.30am Matt – is in great mood ‘What a beautiful morning’ – Sings la la la lah. Last night he got an eel after 9 days of consistently trying. Thinks if he can catch one eel or one fish a week he has a chance of going deep in this competition. He has been eating saw sedge up until now – The Eel is now cooked and ready to eat. ‘Moment of truth’ as he goes to eat it. ‘Yum’. What a beautiful moment – a big moment – the sun is out – he just wishes his wife and kids where there. He gets surprisingly full from the one small eel. He drinks the broth too. “Spirits are high’. He feels like he is thriving. ‘Whooah! Burp’. Eel is a calorie dense food.

Eva 6.2km away. Joyfully drinking a warm cup of water – then a Spotted Tail Quoll ran past – she was in awe of seeing it and really curious about why was this nocturnal creature out at this time of day ‘What is his story?’. She is reflecting on how high the highs are out here and how low the lows are. Last night she thought she would have the best sleep because she had finished her removable door and would be cosy as but she had a visitor in the nightthat kept her awake – A bush rat thought the shelter was top notch and decided to move in AND steal Evas toothbrush while he was at it. In the morning she could hear the rat so she snuck up on it, picked up a rock and then suddenly threw it – trying to hit the rat – but sadly missed – said ‘Let’s be honest – I wouldn’t mind eating him’.

6.9km away – Corinne – enjoying the place ‘so nice’. She wonders if she has lost weight and knows she has because her pants are much easier to do up. She has been eating Gahnia leaf bases and has lots of plants around her that she can eat – and she reckons she could survive on a vegetarian diet but she wouldn’t be happy. She found a grub and is wanting to eat it but is struggling with the killing. She knows she needs to get over her adversion to killing things but if she can’t kill a grub what hope has she got. She knows she needs to adapt to be able to survive out here. She suddenly threw the grub into her mouth – wasn’t too painful for either of them.

8.3km away Ceilidh. It is silent around her and that keeps her calm because she was born into silence. Some people think that is sad but she likes the silence. Still she is getting hungry and is feeling weak and shaky – 10 days without food and she can feel that her body doesn’t have many days left in it.  She has made a great fishing net and has set up a very cool pulley system that she set up by wading out naked up to her neck into the very cold water – 8 degrees – to set it up around a tree. She had a wash and felt very alive afterwards. ‘That was something else’. Proud that she did it.

53km away – Shay. He had planned to get food straight away but that hasn’t happened. He didn’t hear the wallaby last night so he is hopeful that it is in the trap. As he heads out to the trap he is feeling the same excitement that you get at Christmas as you go to look under the tree. His trap had been triggered but had failed. It was a big Pademelon – two of them- that had triggered it. Shay was heartbroken. He had put so much care into setting that trap, and that was a big feed that got away. But he realised that it is early days and at least they are around. Shay is wearing a very cool possum skin vest.

Day 12 1.30pm Matt. For the first 10 days he struggled being away from his family but the eel changed things, even though it was small – about the size of 3 sausages. It is a half moon and eels are nocturnal so it makes sense to do some night fishing but hard as he was comfy in bed. Matt takes his hat off to the Palawa people who thrived out here in Tasmania. He is now super passionate about his Aboriginal culture. He missed a lot of connection to his culture growing up as his mum who is Aboriginal left when he was 7. Now he often connects with Aboriginal people by going fishing and sharing stories and information. He is fishing and he gets his 2^nd Eel and is very happy. He was close to calling it quits but is so glad he didn’t.

Day 13

Muzza. Beautiful day – he is feeling happy and content. He has caught 4 trout and 3 eels in the last 8 days. He made a cool smoker and cooked up his fish in a stew. ‘Liquid heaven’. He feels like he is living like a king. Yum! Burp! He has 3 days of food left and then he caught another trout, with eggs – fish fry. He ate it straight up. He hopes that the rest of the crew out here are enjoying themselves because he is.

Day 14

Karla.A folding saw was one of her 10 items. Made a very cool shelter with windows and walls made of samplings wedged between two poles – clever. She worked hard today to get it done – and reminded herself to work smarter not harder. She is very hunger and wants to eat. She went fishing using an earth worm as bait and she got a huge eel. She has food and can’t believe it ‘Oh My God’. Very very happy.

20.7km away Ceilidh – Feeling very hungry and weak. She tries several time to cast a line but it keeps getting caught. She is feeling despair and is embarrassed and frustrated. She is worried about another day without food but is making herself stay active.

Day 15

Ceilidh – She has made a sturdy and cosy looking A frame shelter –  feeling weak and her lips are blistered – but she forces herself to go. Fishing is her thing but she hasn’t caught anything –gotta keep trying. She is losing some coordination. She has made a terrific fireplace, a cool net scoop and an amazing woven funnel trap out of Gahnia. She made herself go to the creek – she is wondering if the land wants her there. She saw a trout swimming up the creek and she tried to spear it but missed. She gives herself a lot of positive self-talk. She made a rock wall across the creek and put the funnel trap in a hole of the wall. It is raining. She saw a trout swimming near her trap and then it went it and she got it. She can’t believe it. She got a brown trout – now she is with the land – Thankyou Lutruwita.

Day 16

Matt. Having a real battle. Thinking of his children – Remi – 3 years and Lani – 1 year old. Enjoying the million dollar view and the mist rolling down is magical. Even though he had half and eel for dinner he is ready to leave. He is very proud and in the end his heart won and he is feeling a lot of joy – Family is home. He has a laugh and makes the call to tap out. Cant think of a better reason to leave. He is walking away with a life changing experience – life changing perspective of what is actually important. Family is home – wherever they are – that is his home.

9 people remain.