Nigel Brennan

I think whether a juice was made aware and I guess, you know, obviously very few Westerners in Mogadishu and when two Westerners go missing, that would be fairly hot news, I would reckon.

Well, I don't think that it sort of kicked in at that stage, but it was like, you know, mum and dad had sold their family farm in 2005 and it had set them up for a comfortable retirement.

At that stage, our group hadn't informed us what they were asking for.

It was only days later they found out that the initial demand was US$3 million for the two of us.

I knew that would basically decimate my parents' retirement fund.

I was also very aware that Amanda's family were incredibly poor.

They did not have the financial means to pay a ransom.

Not that my family had the financial means, but they did have money and investments and property and stuff like that.

But I think the realization that if I was going to get out alive, it was going to be my family were going to not only just have to pay for me, but they were going to have to pay for Amanda as well.

But I guess when you live with 13 hostage takers, I think the longer it went on, it was like living with 13 schizophrenics because you just didn't know what you were going to get on any given day because people's moods and things like Ramadan when people are obviously fasting and people get cranky.

So someone that you thought you had a relationship with could, you know, basically just scream at you or slap you in the face.

So it was weird.

But I think, look, in those first few days, it was just trying to, I think, for me, come to terms with reality.

It's just like, is this reality?

Is this actually happening?

Just the complete disbelief that was occurring in my mind.

And obviously, it was great.

From my perspective, being kidnapped with another person, just having that connection with another human being, I think having to do that by yourself would have been incredibly difficult.

But just having Amanda there so that we could talk about things, we could, I guess, try and surmise what was happening.

trying to bolster each other's spirits, those sorts of things.