A librarian's tale of survival on the mountain

After 25 years working as a librarian, Mary-Anne Goossens had become quite orderly and methodical in her ways. This personal discipline is what enabled a rather unadventurous Dutch tourist to survive in the mountains of Nerja, Málaga province, for 18 days with no food.

Goossens, 48, was found late last Tuesday by three surprised climbers some 200 meters downstream from the source of the River Chillar. "We were climbing a rock wall when we heard a woman cry 'Help!' and blow on a whistle. Her face was sunburnt and she was shivering, although she'd stuffed esparto grass into her shirt to shield herself from the cold," recall two of the hikers, the engineering students Daniel Sánchez and Pedro Conde.

"We told her we'd get her out, but she refused because she had no strength left"

A Costa del Sol-based Dutch journalist says Goossens admitted to feeling a "little silly"

The woman was trapped in a gully, between two waterfalls. The climbers, afraid it might be some kind of trap, asked her if she was alone, how she got there and how long she'd been there.

Mary-Anne told them she had got lost during a hike along the Chillar, a very popular family activity in good weather. She said she tried walking for two days in the hopes of reaching the nearby town of Frigiliana, but when she decided to backtrack, she got caught between some crags, at an altitude of about 800 meters.

"We told her we'd get her out of there, but she refused because she had no strength left," Pedro recalls. Night was falling and there was no cellphone reception in the area, so the three friends decided to climb back down and alert the emergency services. Before leaving they gave Mary-Anne her first bite of food in nearly three weeks: two chocolate cereal bars. They also gave her a sleeping bag. At 1pm on Wednesday, three Civil Guard agents trained in mountain rescues put her in a helicopter, safe and sound.

Following her rescue, there has been nothing but praise for the positive attitude and mental fortitude of a woman who was hospitalized for just a day, and whom doctors found to be healthy, if a little malnourished.

Mary-Anne did not speak to the media before returning to the Netherlands, when she gave a brief press conference directed by her children Fritz and Jantje Korten, ages 29 and 24. María Kupers, a Dutch journalist who works out of Costa del Sol, says the woman admitted to feeling "a little silly" getting lost on what was meant to be a two-and-a-half-hour walk, and that she thought "the smartest thing" would be to stay near the water.

In recent days, Mary-Anne Goossens told her friends and family about the routine she had followed to keep mentally and physically balanced during her ordeal. "Every morning she washed her shirt and made sure it was dry so she wouldn't be cold at night; she also rearranged a bed of grass she slept on to keep out the humidity," explained her daughter.

To deal with the hunger pangs, she imagined herself cooking her favorite dishes or nibbled on blades of grass and pieces of wood. Another one of her pastimes was planning her own 50th birthday party.

Her passion for reading came in handy as she was able to put into practice all the things she'd read about outdoor survival. "She rubbed her body with moss because she knew that would keep her skin moisturized," said her son in a telephone interview.

Even optimism became a deliberate routine for Mary-Anne. "Every night she'd say to herself 'I'm getting rescued tomorrow'," said Antonio Díaz, the Spanish-Dutch owner of a bar called El fuego en Nerja who is acting as liaison between the family and the media.

"She slept very little because she wanted to remain alert, in case somebody came by," he added.

The librarian saw many ants and considered eating them, but she could not bring herself to do so. There were also lizards around. "Her greatest fear was running into a snake, but fortunately she didn't see any," added Johan Korten, her ex-husband.

Mary-Anne Goossens traveled to Costa del Sol by herself. On June 17, she left her room at the Bajamar hotel in Nerja wearing shorts, a sleeveless shirt and sports shoes, and embarked on her trek. She did not tell anybody where she was going, which is why it was a week before her family reported her missing. In fact, she did not follow any of the recommendations issued by the Civil Guard to avoid getting lost in the sierra, such as informing someone of your plans or carrying the right equipment. But when it came down to survival, Mary-Anne Goossens followed the right path.