Google Maps can always lead you astray, but two German tourists following Google Maps will pay dearly when they find themselves stranded in the middle of the Australian desert. Philipp Maier and Marcel Schoene were traveling from Cairns to Bamaga in Queensland when Google Maps told them to follow a remote dirt road. This led them into a park that was closed to the public. According to 9News, they were quickly trapped when their car got stuck in the mud after driving 37 or 59.5 kilometers on a dirt road.
With no phone reception and little help, Philipp and Marcel left their car and decided to walk. The tourists survived severe weather conditions such as thunderstorms and intense heat for a week before reaching the small village of Coen. According to Philipp, at one point during their week-long ordeal, they crossed a river infested with crocodiles.
Speaking to 9News, Philipp recalled their trip and said: “I felt like I was in a movie, like a bad movie, but with a happy ending. We tried to build a house. But it doesn’t work very well. So we slept under the stars. It rains all the time, but it’s good.
At Coen, security forces helped recover their car. Rangers told the media that this is not the first time that tourists have lost the area because of Google Maps. A Google spokesperson said that the company is happy that the men are safe and that it is investigating the reasons and how they were misled.
In January this year, the same thing happened in Gudalur, in the hills of Tamil Nadu, when an SUV driver stopped on the steps of a residential area. The SUV driver relied on Google Maps for directions as he returned to Karnataka to spend the weekend with friends in Gudalur. While following Google Map directions, he got stuck at the top of a flight of stairs. Instead of continuing, the man stopped his SUV and asked the residents for help. Fortunately, residents and police helped the man get his SUV back on the road without incident.
