A plastic bottle to store water, a tarpaulin for shelter, some cassava flour, or even a small music box. It was with a more than rudimentary survival kit that Lesly, 13, Soleiny, 9, Tien Noriel, 5, and Cristin, 1, managed to survive in the Amazon rainforest after the crash on May 1 of the little one. plane in which they were traveling with their mother, a relative and the pilot, all three of whom died in the accident. After long weeks of searching, the rescue teams found the siblings alive. President Gustavo Petro announced the news on Friday evening to the country, referring to “a magical day”, praising “an example of total survival that will go down in history”.
Weakened but safe and sound, the four siblings were transported to a hospital in Bogota. If for the moment, we do not yet know everything about the conditions of their forty days of wandering in the jungle, one thing is certain: their survival, which they owe to their knowledge of the Amazonian forest and the maturity of the eldest of the siblings, is unanimously described as a miracle. ” That’s the word ! What these children have accomplished is truly incredible,” insists Denis Tribaudeautrainer in survival techniques and founding member of the Federation of Survival Organizations (FOS).
How do you think these children managed to stay alive in this hostile natural environment?
It is a hostile environment for us who do not know it, and which, as such, is frightening. They lived in the Amazon and learned from this particular environment. They know a lot more than the greatest European or North American seasoned adventurer crossing the Amazon rainforest for the first time. In that sense, it’s not such a hostile environment for them.
And the eldest of the siblings, who used to take care of her brothers and sisters, showed a lot of composure and common sense. She was able to protect them from the various threats of this environment which remains, even when we know it, very demanding and potentially dangerous. There is no room for error in this Amazonian forest.
Precisely, what are the main threats that we can face on the spot?
There, danger and death can come from something microscopic as well as something very big, like a jaguar. The first necessity is to stay dry in this environment saturated with humidity. Humidity that can kill you in a few days: it’s not necessarily water as such, but knowing that it carries 25 times more calories than air at the same temperature, we’re going to be cold in this jungle saturated with humidity. In addition, water and heat are conducive to the development of fungi and fungal infections. The slightest wound will not heal, and can quickly become problematic because germs and fungi can very quickly multiply there, with tenfold risks of infection, very quickly. Protecting your feet is essential. It would also seem that the children were found with bandages on their feet, a sign again of the knowledge of the older sister of her environment.
The second problem is not to run out of drinking water. Normally, we find in this environment, again, saturated with water. You still have to know how to collect it. It is a question of finding the clearest water possible, which has a good smell and which is running: it must above all not be stagnant, insect larvae could have developed there. Freshly fallen rainwater collected with leaves can be a good source.
Then, you have to deal with the bites of insects, mosquitoes and other small flies and spiders, potentially by the hundreds, all over the body, almost permanently. Not only does this drive you crazy, but it also poses a significant risk of skin infection. It is therefore essential to cover up with long clothes, and to use a mosquito net after dark, which the older sister once again had the intelligence to take with her when she left the plane crash zone. .
In addition, there are large animals, predators, which roam especially at night, which requires constant vigilance after dark.
These children survived on next to nothing. But what are the fundamental elements to ensure its survival in this humid jungle? What survival kit do you recommend to those who participate in your courses?
The solution to almost all these problems is to have fire: it provides light, heats, keeps animals away, allows food to be cooked, water to boil to clean it. When we know that they survived 40 days without fire, and the terrible drama of the loss of their mother, it’s really a miracle.
In our courses, the first thing we transmit is a state of mind: we don’t control anything, it’s nature that commands, we learn humility before suffering the humidity. We have to obey the rules of the game: it’s hot, it’s raining, there are trees, animals, that’s how it is.
Then, in practice, we learn the fundamental basics: having a good shelter to protect ourselves from humidity, the sun, animals – so a mosquito net is good -, having drinking water and fire, these are the essentials. So we teach people never to leave without a lighter. Believe me, if you know how to make a fire like our ancestors, with stones or branches, it’s such a hassle that you’ll never forget your matches and your lighter again. Then, we think of taking a tarpaulin, a water bottle with a filter to make it drinkable or a filter straw, a mobile phone to report to the emergency services and a knife. This is the essential basic kit, which barely weighs a kilo, and which ensures 90% of its survival.
More and more people participate in survival courses, how do you explain it, and what is their profile?
In the space of two generations, we have forgotten this knowledge that ensures its survival in nature. We can no longer do anything without technology, we have focused on the capacities that allow us to survive in our modern life: using a computer, driving a car, doing research on the Internet, but we no longer know the basics of nature.
Our modern life allows us many things, including living a long healthy life. But knowing the fundamental bases, ancestral knowledge can be used if necessary. However, we have not learned the knowledge of our elders, who knew the medicinal plants and edible foods in the forest. These miraculous children have their feet between two worlds: they know how to use a smartphone and fly, but also know the resources of the forest where they were born.
We, even the countryside frightens us. In particular, I organize survival courses where you spend a night in the forest, and some participants are very nervous as they are destabilized by all these little noises of nature to which they have never been used, and are even afraid to walk. in the grass for fear of crossing an animal. For most of us, surviving forty days in our European wilderness would be next to impossible!
In our courses, we have three kinds of audiences, of all ages and backgrounds: adventurers who want to go around the world on foot and wish to acquire notions and techniques. An audience that loves atypical thrills. And people looking to reconnect with their ancestors and a certain naturalness. And with our teams, we pass on to them what we ourselves have learned from elders, from the children of farmers, but also from the indigenous populations encountered during our internships around the world. They are valuable knowledge brokers, whom we pay for their unique knowledge of the desert, the mountains or even the jungle. And all of us meet around this desire to return to nature.