Two hikers, a husband and wife, got lost in the Negev near the Ramon Crater on Monday. Police were alerted to incident at 2:00 a.m. on Monday morning. The Search and rescue Units for the Negev Mountain region were immediately mobilized and began the search for the missing man and woman who hadn’t been heard from since Sunday morning.

Search and Rescue volunteers quickly located the couple’s vehicle that was abandoned, and began searching in a wide area surrounding the vehicle. Searches included helicopters from the police and the specialized 669 Search and Rescue IDF unit. Park rangers were also mobilized and joined in the search for the missing people.

At 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning, a police helicopter flew a pass over the Nakarot stream and noticed an S.O.S. sign made out of rocks. After a closer look they saw a man waving frantically in their direction.

The helicopter set down and volunteers helped evacuate the couple, who said that they lost their path on a local hike and since then have been fighting for their survival.

Daniel Sabag and Layla Parker, were on their way to stay at a hotel in Mitze Ramon when they decided to take a short hike. After stopping their car they walked for some three hours before they realized that they were almost out of water and lost. The couple dug themselves a pit for shade and hoped that other hikers would be along to help them. However, due to the extreme heat in the region over the past few days, no hikers came by.

The couple saw that there was a crevice in the ground and dug pits on either side in order to shade themselves and stay out of the sun. They also built a large sign out of rocks that formed the international distress symbol S.O.S. As their water dwindled, Daniel began hunting lizards in order to eat them and survive.

Following their rescue by helicopter the pair was transported to hospital and were classified as being lightly injured due to dehydration.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)