After six long days of wandering through the rugged Australian wilderness with nothing but a bottle of wine and some snacks, Lillian Ip was finally found alive.
Lillian’s ordeal began when her car got stuck in the mud during a short trip through densely wooded areas as she was trying to make it to a gathering her mother was attending.
With no cell phone signal and no other means of communication, she ended up being stranded and forced to survive on very limited resources. However, she managed to hold on to her spirit and keep herself alive through smart decisions and sheer determination.
Lillian usually doesn’t drink alcohol, but said she rationed out the wine and snacks that she brought for the gathering for the five nights she was stranded.
She tried to stay positive, but as the days went by, she said she began to lose hope and at one point, even wrote a letter to her family saying her goodbyes, thinking she wasn’t going to make it.
However, Lillian still continued to hang on, relying on her own intuition and staying close to her car, which is what local police said ultimately saved her life.
When a police drone flew above her location on the sixth day to figure out why there was a car in the woods, Lillian waved her arms to alert the flying camera that she was there.
After being rescued, Lillian was taken to the hospital to be treated for dehydration and was later released to her home in Melbourne.
Despite the ordeal, Lillian had a positive attitude and a sense of humor. In an interview, she hilariously said that the first thing on her mind was to find some water and a cigarette.
“The first thing coming in my mind, I was thinking ‘water and a cigarette,'” Lillian told 9News Australia. “Thank god the policewoman had a cigarette.”