Ricky Megee woke up in the red dirt of the Australian outback with black kites pecking at his boots. He had no shoes, no water, and no idea how he got there. He survived for 71 days eating frogs, grasshoppers, and small leeches while drinking melted morning dew and brown dam water.
When rescuers finally found him in April 2006, he looked like a skeleton covered in sunburnt skin. He had lost over 100 pounds, yet he was still standing. His wild story of endurance remains one of the most unbelievable feats of human survival ever recorded.
Lost in the Burning Red Dirt
The nightmare started in daylight on a quiet stretch of the Buntine Highway. Ricky was driving his car across the Northern Territory, heading toward a new job near Port Hedland. He saw a man standing by the side of the road whose car had broken down in the heat.
Ricky pulled over to help. The stranger asked for a ride, and Ricky let him in. A few miles down the road, Ricky stopped to get something out of his vehicle. That is the last clear memory he had for days. He thinks the hitchhiker drugged his drink when he was not looking.
When he opened his eyes, he was lying face down in the red dust. His car was gone. His shoes, his wallet, his water jugs, and his food were all gone. The sun was burning hot in the sky, and he was alone in one of the most empty places on Earth.
Most people would have panicked right there in the dirt. Ricky stood up, looked around at the flat horizon, and started walking. He did not know which way went home, so he just picked a direction and kept going.
Learning to Eat Whatever Moves
The Australian outback is brutal. Temperatures can top 100 degrees during the day, and then drop near freezing when the sun goes down. Without water, a person can die in just three days. Ricky needed a plan immediately if he wanted to see his family again.
He found a muddy stock dam used by cattle. The water was brown and smelled terrible, but it saved his life. He scooped up the brown liquid with an old plastic container he found on the ground. He drank it slowly so he would not throw up.
Food was a much bigger problem. There were no berry bushes or fruit trees out in the dry scrubland. Ricky looked down at his feet and saw insects crawling through the dirt. He picked up a grasshopper, pulled off its legs, and ate it raw.
He learned basic survival skills the hard way through trial and error. Soon, he was hunting small black frogs that hid near the muddy edge of the dam. He dried them in the hot sun on top of his plastic sheet until they were crunchy. It made them easier to swallow.
When the frogs ran out, he gathered tiny leeches out of the water hole. He swallowed them whole. He ate ants, beetles, and tiny roots he dug up with his fingernails. It tasted terrible, but it kept his heart beating day after day.
Building a Camp out of Trash
Walking in the hot sun burns calories fast. Ricky quickly realized that walking all day was killing him. He had to stop moving, find water, and stay put so rescuers could spot him.
He built a small shelter near a cattle dam using dried tree branches and grass. He found a piece of plastic sheet lying in the bush, likely blown off a passing truck months earlier. That piece of plastic became his most prized possession.
Every night, he laid the plastic flat on the dirt. As the dark cold air set in, water drops formed on top of the sheet. Every morning at dawn, Ricky woke up early and licked the sweet dew off the dirty plastic. That small mouthful of fresh water kept his kidneys working.
He laid under his lean-to during the hottest hours of the day. He worked only in the early morning and late evening when the ground was cool. If you move around at noon in the bush, you sweat out your life in hours.
He kept track of time by scratching marks into the bark of a nearby eucalyptus tree. Ten marks became twenty. Twenty marks became forty. Days turned into weeks, and still, no planes flew overhead. Nobody was looking for him in that spot because nobody knew he was there.
The Terrible Physical Toll
By the second month, Ricky was fading away. His body was eating its own muscle to keep his brain alive. He went from a solid man weighing 230 pounds down to a weak shadow under 100 pounds.
His teeth felt loose in his gums. His skin turned dark, dry, and cracked like old leather. Walking just ten steps to the muddy dam felt like climbing a mountain. He had to crawl on his hands and knees just to get a drink.
He thought about giving up many times. When you are cold, starving, and alone in the dark, dying feels like an easy way to stop the pain. But every time he closed his eyes, he forced himself to picture his home and his friends.
Much like The Pilot Who Landed a Plane on a River, Ricky had to stay completely calm under intense stress. Panic makes you make bad choices. If he lost his mind, he would walk away from his water hole and die in the scrub within hours.
He stayed near his little camp, kept his head down, and kept eating his sun-dried frogs. He refused to give up, even when his mind started playing tricks on him in the heat.
The Miracle Rescue at Birrindudu Station
On day 71, everything changed. It was early morning on Birrindudu Station, a massive, remote cattle ranch in the Northern Territory. A group of stockmen were out checking fences and riding quad bikes through the dusty scrub.
One of the station workers saw something strange near a distant water hole. He thought it was a dead cow or a bundle of trash blown by the wind. As he drove closer on his motor bike, the dark bundle suddenly moved.
Ricky stood up slowly from his pile of branches. He was wearing nothing but a pair of torn shorts. His ribs stuck out sharply against his dark, sunburned skin. His hair was long and matted, and his eyes were sunken deep into his skull.
The station worker stopped his bike in total shock. He could not believe a living human being was standing in the middle of nowhere. Ricky looked at him, lifted a thin arm, and asked softly for a drink of water and a cigarette.
The cowboys wrapped him in a blanket, gave him small sips of fresh water, and rushed him to the station house. From there, a flying doctor plane flew him straight to the hospital in Darwin.
Recovering in the Hospital
When Ricky arrived at Royal Darwin Hospital, doctors were stunned. They had never seen someone survive so long in the Australian outback without supplies. His blood work was wild, and his body was deeply malnourished.
The medical team could not feed him big meals right away. When a person starves for over two months, eating normal food too fast can kill them. Doctors had to feed him tiny spoonfuls of liquid broth every few hours.
Police came to his hospital bed to interview him. They wanted to know who took his car and left him out there. The police checked his story carefully because it sounded so crazy. They found his abandoned car weeks later, miles away, proving he really had been stranded.
Journalists from all over the world rushed to Australia to tell his human-interest story. People could not stop talking about the man who lived on frogs and dirt for over two months. You can read more true tales on our main blog page.
It took months for Ricky to walk normally again. His muscles were weak, and his stomach took a long time to handle real food. But his spirit was completely intact.
What Kept Him Alive out There?
How did Ricky survive when almost anyone else would have died in a week? Survival experts looked at his choices and found three big reasons why he made it out alive.
- He stayed near water. He never left his mud dam once he realized he was lost.
- He ate whatever he could find. He swallowed his fear and ate bugs, frogs, and leeches without complaint.
- He saved his energy. He slept in the shade during the day and worked only in the cool morning hours.
His story shows how tough the human body really is. When everything is taken away from you, the will to live can keep you going against all odds.
Think about your own life for a minute. If you lost everything in the middle of nowhere, could you force yourself to eat a handful of bugs to see tomorrow? Next time you face a tough day, remember Ricky Megee sitting by his mud hole, picking up a frog, and choosing to live.
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