Books Do Save Lives!

As originally reported in the Port Douglas and Mossman Gazette last month, nine-year-old Port Douglas boy Vasco Gonsalves and two other boys aged six and 11 found themselves stuck in exposed mud flats during a recent family camping holiday at Lake Tinaroo. Vasco had sunk to his waist, while the other two boys were up to their chins in mud. However, Vasco had received a copy of Not-for-Parents: How to Be a World Explorer for Christmas and remembered reading the book’s section on “How to Escape from Quicksand”.“I got out because of the book,” Vasco told the Port Douglas and Mossman Gazette. “It said to lean back and lift my legs and bring them up, roll over and swim back, and I got out and ran to tell my mum and the other mums and dads,” he said.  Thanks to Vasco’s initiative, his two friends were also rescued from the mud. Lonely Planet’s Asia-Pacific Sales and Marketing Director Chris Zeiher says the travel publisher was proud and heartened to learn of Vasco’s story. “To hear of Vasco’s clarity of thought and recollection of “How to Escape from Quicksand” in such a dangerous situation is remarkable, and the fact that our product had a hand in saving these boys from such a dire predicament is humbling,” Chris says.  “We’re often told by our travellers that ‘Lonely Planet saved my life’ by getting them out of an awkward situation whilst on-the-road, but this is an extreme example of that statement.” Published last October, Not-for-Parents: How to Be a World Explorer is subtitled “Your All-Terrain Manual”. In addition to explaining “How to Escape from Quicksand,” it also includes tricks and tips to help navigate by the stars, start a fire, fight a bear and tame a camel.