Against All Odds

Both men realized that if Warren were to have any chance at all, Geert, an inexperienced hiker, would have to make the dangerous descent back down the mountain alone. When he reached the bottom, Geert would then have to catch the island's only ferry that comes just once a day. If he missed it, Warren, whose condition was rapidly worsening, was sure to die.

"I'm in a position where I'm totally relying on this guy that I've met the day before. Even as he's walking away, I'm calling out, 'Go slow! Walk in the bushes. You have to make it out," Warren says.

On his downward hike, Geert repeatedly fell down the steep, slippery decline. At one point, an army of venomous Australian green tree ants attacked him. His only option was jumping into a nearby pool of water while still wearing his camping pack.

Meanwhile, at their makeshift camp, Warren noticed a patch of water near his foot filling with his blood. He then watched as a fresh-water crayfish crawled up and started biting his foot. "I feel like now I'm living in some kind of horror movie," Warren says.