Richard Fidler

Then at some point...

You say that a kind of collective delirium took over the group because you've been in the water for days and days and days.

It's freezing cold.

Someone has died.

You're all very, very hungry.

Water is a bit hard to come by.

You're losing hope.

What form did that delirium take?

The life raft was being pulled away, then towards the coast, pulled away towards the coast, and you came up close enough, closer than ever up to the Tasman Peninsula and managed finally after nine days at sea to get yourselves ashore into this rocky inlet called Deep Glen Bay, one of the most isolated parts of Tasmania.

Yeah.

So you're in this remote, wild inlet that's barricaded with rocky cliffs and dense, dense forestry.

And then two more of your men died.

Yeah.

Part of this kind of collective delirium that was sort of going on, including Ken Jones, the guy who'd got you through all of that.

When I was reading this part, Mick, I was thinking, oh, I must have felt like you were living under some cruel star at some point.

The fates have been so terribly cruel.

it would have been so easy to give in and just lie down and wait to die like those two fellas did.

What kept you going?

What thought was it that kept you wanting to live and find a way out of this impossible place?

What you didn't know well enough to give up, in other words, in a way.