A US tourist has died while trekking in the Australian outback.
The 33-year old Californian was found near the end of the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory.
The man, who has not been named, set off with a companion to scale Mount Sonder but at some point they became separated.
It is thought he took a wrong turning when descending the peak.
“It’s about 1,300 metres tall and the actual walk that they undertook was about 16 kilometres there and back — so quite a hike,” Superintendent Rob Burgoyne told ABC Darwin.
“His partner made it back to the Redbank Gorge carpark and raised the alarm, but unfortunately the 33-year-old didn’t arrive and his body was eventually located about 400 metres down the track where he’d turned the wrong way. It was about three hours from when he was last seen and when his body was found.”
Temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius which would have made trekking conditions difficult.
In such heat trekkers run the risk of becoming dangerously dehydrated, said Chris Day from Parks and Wildlife.
“It’s almost physically impossible to put back the fluids that you’re going to lose as quickly as you’re losing them, and unfortunately people become dehydrated very rapidly before even realising that it’s even happening.”
The Larapinta Trail is located near Alice Springs and measures more than 200km.
