An Australian tourist has been found alive after being lost in the bush for three weeks — surviving on wild mushrooms and drinking from a dam, according to police.
Robert Weber, 58, told his rescuers that he got lost on Jan. 6 after his car got bogged down in a road in Kilkivan after leaving a nearby hotel.
He initially stayed in his car with his dog, but left after three days after running out of water. “He left on foot and became lost and remained at a dam where he survived by sleeping on the ground, drinking dam water and eating mushrooms,” Queensland Police said.
Weber, who lives 100 miles away in Narangba, was found Sunday by a local politician who was out looking for him — three days after the official search had been called off.
“He was sitting under a tree near a dam waving at us,” local MP Tony Perrett told Australia’s ABC News.
“We’d been past this dam on numerous occasions over the last week and when we saw him there it was just quite extraordinary.
“We were just very, very lucky this morning that we did locate him,” he said.
Weber was taken to a nearby hospital because of his exposure to the elements “but was otherwise safe and well,” police said.
His dog was still missing, police said.
