To one woman, there’s certainly a difference between loving wine and having to survive off of it. A woman survived five days stranded in the bush in Australia by only consuming candy and drinking a single bottle of wine.
Lillian Ip left for what was meant to be a short trip traveling through the bush in Australia on April 30, 2023. When she hit a dead-end after taking a wrong turn, her vehicle became stuck in the mud. With no way out, the 48-year-old managed to live off of candy and a bottle of wine in the car as she was planning to give it as a present.
After five nights stranded, she was discovered by emergency services on May 5, 2023, as they flew overhead as part of a search. “The first thing coming in my mind, I was thinking ‘water and a cigarette,'” Ip said. “Thank god the policewoman had a cigarette.”
“I thought I was going to die there. My whole body shut down on Friday,” she said. She also added that she “was about to give up” when the helicopter spotted her, around 37 miles away from the nearest town.
“The only liquid Lillian, who doesn’t drink, had with her was a bottle of wine she had bought as a gift for her mother so that got her through,” Wodonga Police Station Sergeant Martin Torpey said. “She used great common sense to stay with her car and not wander off into bushland, which assisted in police being able to find her.”
Ip was taken to hospital to be treated for dehydration but has since returned home to Melbourne, Australia.