Dying of thirst: episode • 7/7 of the Frissons podcast

Morgan Segui is a traveler, adventurer and designer all at the same time. Before settling in Timor-Leste, 500 km north of Australia, this sportsman, used to hiking, also lived in Morocco and Kazakhstan.

“Time stops. And then it’s a collapse”

One day, Morgan decides to climb Manucoco Peak, located in the island’s capital, Dili. Organized, the hiker carefully prepares his pack and begins his ascent without further delay. On the way, two women, natives of Timor, call out to him, “They ask me: where are you going abroad?”, “The youngest tells me: we must not spend the night there, it is already far too late”. But Morgan persists, and continues his journey. Arriving at the summit, he finished his water reserves, relieved. He then begins his descent. Nothing will happen as planned since the adventurer gets lost, “I’m lost. And the more I turn, the more lost I am. And so I search like someone desperate. I’m starting to get very worried. I have no water and I’ve just gone on a trek”.

Intuitively, the hiker decides to follow the bed of a dry river to find the sea. But on his way, a dry waterfall prevents him from going further down. Morgan spots a cliff that could allow him to get around the obstacle. He begins to climb the wall. In the final straight, he no longer finds any grip, the rock is as smooth as marble. Morgan has no choice, he must use a small sapling as a support point, “I test it a little, it seems to hold, I test once, twice, I move in all directions and I say to myself well, I’m going to climb on that. I try to use it as a grip, to pull myself, so I pull all my strength, I raise my body and at the moment when my body is approximately at the height of the shrub, it detaches And there, time stops. . And there it is, the collapse.”

“Three minutes without air, three days without water and three weeks without food”

Morgan falls a few meters lower. The fall was violent, his right arm was broken and his skull was completely split open. Unable to get up, Morgan realizes that he risks dying of thirst, “The rules of survival say three minutes without air, three days without water and three weeks without food”. To survive, the injured person eats everything within reach and drinks his urine. But thirst gradually overcomes him, “The blood solidifies in fact, it is less and less fluid. We even feel the blood flowing, the heart which begins to pump more difficult. Then a fear which settles in all the fibers of the body. It is a warning signal that at any moment says ok, emergencies, water, we only think about that I close my eyes, I see waterfalls, I take a nap, I dream of water, so I am in. my hole and I tell myself that I have to solve this thirst problem”.

It was by following a herd of goats as best he could that he managed to escape, “I see them passing where I was climbing, except that they were climbing in a zigzag. There was a goat path in fact, which streaked across this peak that I had climbed vertically”. Picked up by Moïse, an inhabitant of the island, who washed him and brought him back safely, the Frenchman was then repatriated to Paris to treat his wounds. From this time, he retains a deep attachment to water and now campaigns to defend this essential natural resource.