ROUGHING IT: An Orange couple was stuck on Mount Canobolas overnight after rescuers failed to find them.
An Orange couple aged in their 30s is lucky to have survived a night of below freezing temperatures after mechanical problems left them stranded on Mount Canobolas on Monday night.
The couple’s sedan is believed to have had mechanical problems on Monday afternoon forcing the man and his partner to contact both police and State Emergency Services (SES) for help.
However despite the calls, emergency services was unable to locate the lost couple who had travelled off the mountain’s main thoroughfare and down some of the lesser-used trails.
By early evening the mobile phone the pair had been using to contact emergency services had run our of charge leaving rescue crews looking for the pair well into the night.
A search party, including Sydney-based police helicopter Polair, members of the SES and the Rural Fire Service (RFS), resumed the search early yesterday morning.
The pair was eventually found at around 9.20am yesterday wandering the mountain on foot having left their vehicle to find help.
Canobolas Local Area Command chief Inspector Peter Atkins told the Central Western Daily the pair did the right thing by staying in the vehicle overnight as temperatures plummeted below -2 degrees.
“The cold weather overnight was a concern, but they were found fit and healthy,” inspector Atkins said.
Despite the pair being in good health inspector Atkins said it was important people remembered to stick to main roads when travelling in isolated locations.
“We’d cautioned people to stick to the main tracks,” he said.
“People shouldn’t go down unmarked fire tracks.”
Inspector Atkins said he wanted to thank everyone who helped in the rescue, particularly volunteers from the SES and RFS.
tracey.prisk@ruralpress.com