First thing, find a vantage point to see where you are. The Kimberly may be the size of California, but this area of the outback has only one highway across it. For millennia, this land has been completely undeveloped. And the only people who live here are Australia’s famous bushmen—the Aborigines. It’s their skills and knowledge that I’ll use to show you how to survive in this wild landscape. 

 

Wow, look at that. 

 

And this vast landscape is typical of the outback in northern Australia. It’s a mixture of huge scrub deserts, dry riverbeds and red sandstone cliffs full of deep gorges. It must be over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. It’s devastatingly hot here. But first, get your bearings. There’s a major highway that runs through the south of here about 150 miles away. 

 

But much closer and to the northwest, I know also there’re a few small towns. And there will be plenty of dirt tracks. But first of all, I’m gonna work out which way is northwest. And what I can do is use the sun and my watch. And the technique in the southern hemisphere is you point 12 hour at the sun, and half way between there and the hour hand is north. So that’s north, and that’s northwest. 

 

So head northwest until you find a river which should lead to the coast. But before heading out into the great outback, here’s a little trick. I’m gonna spread my parachute out as a marker. So it’s visible from the air. And I’ll leave an arrow pointing towards the direction that I’ve gone.