The crunch of footsteps, the flutter and call of birds and wind whispering in trees are the sounds you’d expect walking in the bush.
But for Michelle and David Martin, the screams of a young girl cut through the serenity of their hike in a remote part of the Grampian National Park.
A distressed Sarah Griffiths, 9, appeared from the bush to tell the shocked couple her father, Brian Griffiths, had slipped off a cliff and hit his head.
Her 12-year-old brother Daniel had scrambled down the cliff to retrieve their dad’s phone, but the kids didn’t know the passcode and, even if they did, had no phone reception.
Michelle Martin told ABC Victoria Statewide Drive she could not believe her eyes last weekend when she saw Sarah running from the bush, waving screaming for help.
“She was obviously in a lot of shock,” she said.
“I didn’t think it was real but very quickly it became apparent it was real.
“I keep pinching myself, [that] we were able to be there for that poor little girl.
“It breaks my heart when I still think about what she must have been going through that moment she came up to us.”
‘Brain goes into overdrive’
Mr and Mrs Martin are no strangers to hiking and camping in remote locations.
They created ExplorOz Traveller, a mobile phone app designed to help people get off the beaten track with no internet service and were mapping the route when the incident unfolded 600 metres from the car park where the trail starts on Mount Difficult Road.
“No-one really goes there,” Mrs Martin said.
“It’s not one of the popular tracks.”
The couple stopped and assessed what Sarah was telling them.
“We looked at one another with our eyes popping out of our heads. It just took us a little moment to regain composure,” Mrs Martin said.
“This is everyone’s worst nightmare, whether it’s your own children or a stranger.
“It’s just not something you expect to happen to you.
“The brain goes into overdrive.”
They asked Ms Griffiths where her father was, as they could not see him nor her brother. The girl led the couple about 20 metres off the track towards the cliff that was concealed by scrub.
Father collapsed, was ‘eerily quiet’
Within moments, her brother Daniel appeared and soon after, Brian Griffiths stumbled into view.
“He had managed to get himself up, obviously with adrenaline,” Mr Martin said.
“He collapsed at our feet and he was obviously in a very bad way.”
They began to assess Mr Griffiths, who Mrs Martin described as a “tall, fit man” with grazes on his arms and elbows.
“He had a lot of blood coming out of a gash on his head with a very obvious lump.
“It was obvious he had a concussion and he was eerily quiet, but he was able to communicate with us,” Mrs Martin said.
The couple focused on calming the children down and providing comfort to Mr Griffiths that he was safe, before turning their efforts on how to evacuate Mr Griffiths from the area.
They could not call an ambulance as there was no cell phone reception.
So, the couple began the long, slow and difficult walk back to the car and called an ambulance along the way.
“A really important part of the rescue mission was to make sure the kids didn’t lose the plot.
“They were already visibly distressed and they had done an amazing job,” Mrs Martin said.
The couple got the trio back to the car park, where they drove to meet an ambulance. Mr Griffiths was taken to Wimmera Base Hospital in Horsham, before being air lifted to Royal Melbourne Hospital.
He sustained a fractured skull and broken collar bone during the fall and has since been discharged from hospital with a long recovery ahead of him.
‘Kids are my heroes’
Brian Griffiths becomes teary recounting the incident.
He took the children geocaching, a type of treasure hunt using GPS to find hidden items, to get them exploring in nature during the school holidays.
“I was more concerned about them than myself. I’m very lucky that David and Michelle came along when they did. We might have been the only people that day to be on that track,” he said.
“The luck of David and Michelle being there at a similar time is life changing.”
He said he was immensely proud of how his children reacted.
“I’ve told them straight out, ‘they are my heroes,’ he said.
“They did brilliantly in trying circumstances and it shows how awesome kids are in a tough situation.”
While his children were rattled by the experience, he believed they would recover well.
“They’ll bounce back and they’ve got a great story for when they get back to school,” he said.