Ricky Megee spent 71 days lost in the Australian outback with almost no food. He was left for dead in one of the hottest places on Earth. Yet he managed to walk out of the desert alive by eating frogs, snakes, and tiny boiled sweets.
This is the true story of how a man lost 100 pounds and fought off heat, hallucinations, and wild animals. He survived on melting morning frost, rain, and whatever tiny animals he could catch with his bare hands. If you think the human body gives up easily, this story will change your mind.
How Ricky Megee Got Lost in the Red Centre
It was 2006. Ricky Megee was driving across the Northern Territory of Australia. He was taking a long road trip from Port Hedland to Melbourne. The road was hot, straight, and quiet. There was nothing around for hundreds of miles except red dirt and dry bushes.
Ricky pulled his car over to help some hitchhikers whose truck had broken down. That small act of kindness turned into a nightmare. He remembers feeling sick after taking a drink he was offered. Everything went dark after that.
When he woke up, he was lying under a plastic sheet. His shoes were gone. His money, car, and water bottle were all gone too. He had no idea where he was. The sun was burning his skin, and the dirt under his feet was hot enough to bake bread.
He was completely alone in the outback. Most people who get lost out there die in less than three days. Ricky had no map, no shoes, and no food. All he had in his pocket was a small plastic wrapper with a few fruit drops inside.
The First Days on Snow, Frost, and Fruit Drops
In the outback, the days are boiling hot, but the nights can get freezing cold. Early in the morning, a thin layer of frost would form on the leaves of plants and on the hood of rusty old car wrecks he found. Ricky would lick the moisture off leaves before the morning sun dried it up.
He stretched out his tiny stash of sweets. He did not chew them. He kept one in his mouth for hours at a time just to trick his brain into thinking he was eating real food. Those few grams of sugar kept his sugar levels from crashing completely during the first week.
Water was his main target every single hour. He knew that survival skills start with finding water before anything else. He looked for birds in the sky. If birds were flying down low, it meant a water hole was nearby.
He found a muddy dam used by wild cattle. The water was dirty and smelled bad, but it was liquid. He drank it straight from the mud. Without that dirty water, he would have died within forty-eight hours.
Living Off Frogs, Snakes, and Ants
Sugar drops can only last so long. Soon, Ricky had to eat whatever was moving around him. He had never hunted in his life, but hunger turns anyone into a hunter very fast.
He caught small brown frogs near the muddy water hole. He ate them raw. Later, he figured out a trick to make them taste better. He would leave the dead frogs out on a hot black rock for an hour. The sun baked them until they were dry and crispy like potato chips.
Here is a list of things Ricky ate to stay alive in the bush:
- Small grasshoppers he snatched out of the air
- Black ants he scraped off tree trunks
- Raw leeches he found in the muddy water
- Tiny lizards that ran across his feet
He even caught a small snake one afternoon. He crushed its head with a rock, peeled the skin back with his fingers, and ate the meat right off the bone. It sounds gross, but to a starving man, it was a feast.
If you love reading about real people doing impossible things, check out these amazing true survival accounts that show how tough people can be. Every day was a fight for Ricky, but his mind stayed focused on one simple thought. He just wanted to see his family again.
Fighting Wild Dogs and Burning Heat
Food was not his only problem out in the wild. The Australian desert is filled with dingos, which are wild dogs that hunt in packs. They smelled Ricky from miles away because he was weak and smelled like sick meat.
At night, Ricky had to crawl inside a hollow fallen tree to sleep. He stacked heavy stones and thorny branches around the opening to keep the dingos out. He could hear them scratching at the wood right near his head while he tried to sleep.
The heat was another enemy that never gave up. Temperatures went over 100 degrees during the middle of the day. To keep his brain from cooking, he dug shallow holes in the shade of bushes and buried his body in the cool dirt until the sun went down.
He got lost so many times while trying to walk out. He walked for miles in circles because he had no compass. His feet were cut up, bleeding, and covered in deep sores from walking bare-foot over sharp rocks and spinifex grass.
He kept going by telling himself stories from his childhood. Keeping your mind busy is important when you are totally isolated. You can read more about how people share memories through oral history to see how talking out loud can keep a person sane in bad times.
The Rescue at Birrindudu Station
By day 70, Ricky was near death. His clothes were torn to shreds. His eyes were sunken deep into his skull. When he first got lost, he weighed over 230 pounds. By the end, he was under 100 pounds. You could see every single bone in his chest.
He could no longer stand up straight. He was crawling on his hands and knees through the dust near Birrindudu Station, a giant cattle farm in the middle of nowhere. He had been crawling for three straight days.
Some station workers were out checking water pumps on the farm. One of them spotted something moving in the dirt near a fence line. At first, they thought it was a sick dog or a dying kangaroo. They got closer and realized it was a human being.
Ricky looked up at them with dark, hollow eyes and whispered a request for a drink of water. The workers were shocked. Nobody believed a person could survive out there for more than two months without help.
They loaded him into a truck carefully because his bones felt like glass. They drove him back to the main house and called a rescue helicopter right away. If you are interested in reading more about how people overcome extreme body stress, explore these health tips for recovery.
Why Did He Make It Out Alive?
Doctors at the hospital in Darwin could barely believe he was alive. His kidneys were barely working, his skin was infected, and he had severe sunburn. But he was breathing, and his heart was strong.
How did he do it? First, he never sat down and waited to die. He kept moving every single morning while it was still cool. Second, he was willing to eat things that most people would refuse to touch.
Most of all, he kept his head clear. When fear took over, he forced himself to stop, breathe, and find water. Panic is what kills most lost hikers, not hunger or thirst. Ricky stayed calm even when dingos were circling his camp.
His story became famous all over the world. It is a classic human-interest story about the power of the human spirit. It shows that even when everything is taken away from you, the will to live can keep you going against all odds.
Next time you go for a walk in the woods or drive down a quiet road, think about Ricky. Keep a small water bottle in your bag and some hard candy in your pocket. You never know when a simple sweet might save your life.
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