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“It was cold, we heard the howl of wolves and saw wild pigs. We got scared and decided to sleep in that place. When we saw the headlights of the cars for the first time two days later, we immediately began to turn on the lights giving an SOS signal to detect us. because it was a big fog, and then the guys and the girl from Despotovac appeared … “
With these words, Stefan Russov, a young man who got lost with his girlfriend Milica Mirjanić in a despotic area on the way to Beljanica Mountain, after forty hours of searching for “Blic”, reveals new details of the accident.
Their relatives reported the disappearance of Milica and Stefan, seeing that the young couple did not call for a long time and that their phones were not available. It was not long before his photos flooded the media and social networks, as units from the Interior Ministry, teams from the Mountain Rescue Service, hunters, volunteers and their families set out in search of inaccessible terrain.
Stefan explains to us that they actually got into this situation because of the map to use in “offline mode”.
– Before we go, we downloaded a Google map that can be used even when you don’t have internet. As it was already 12 o’clock at that time, we estimated that it was late for the walk and we decided to return home. We headed towards the road that was marked on the map as the main road, but it turned out that it was a forest road trodden by tractors – Stefan explains.
The original plan was to drive their “Peugeot 207” to a destination where they could leave their car and then go hiking on foot.
– The further we went, the more snow we saw and the fog thickened. Since that road was extremely bad, the trunks towed by a tractor probably produced heavy snowdrifts, and our car ran aground in the snow. So we decided not to go any further by car – Stefan tells us.
There was no one around, so they decided to get off the side path and go to the hut they saw in the forest. They hoped to find someone there who could help them make a connection with their own.
– We knew where we were at all times because we had a map. The problem was, there was no reach anywhere, so we couldn’t call anyone. We were hoping that some base station would answer our phones or that someone would see a car on that road, and when they found a car, they would find us too – Stefan recalls.
Since the cabin was empty, they crowded it and entered in the hope of being able to spend the night in a dry and warm place.
– However, we found a stove that was not working properly. We were afraid to sleep indoors because ingesting carbon monoxide could cause suffocation, so we didn’t want to take any chances. We decided to sleep in bags and built a fire in front to keep warm.
The whole time, Stefan tells us, they were thinking about how they could call for help or make a sign that could lead someone to the cabin.
– We even thought about lighting a big bonfire and throwing leaves to see the smoke, but the fog was so dense that I couldn’t see even 50 meters around me. We heard the howl of wolves in the forest and we also met wild boars. Luckily, it wasn’t a wild boar, because it would surely attack us. Then we tremble with fear: Stefan is honest.
Milica and Stefan tried to call someone for help in every possible way they could remember, they even gave signals with their lamps pointed at the sky, which no one saw, probably due to the fog.
– At one point we saw the headlights and heard a car approaching. Those were the first people, the first car we saw after two days. We point the lamps and flash in their direction, send them an SOS signal. They whistled at us and we thought they had seen us and help had arrived. And then I realized, seeing that the car was pulling away and not turning towards us, that they just waved and passed us. Later I discovered that they were some passers-by, tourists; Stefan remembers the moment of disappointment.
He decided not to give up, so he ran after them, thinking he could catch up, but to no avail. Just 15 minutes later, Stefan and Milica lit up when they saw a jeep with all the lights on.
We also blinked in their direction, and they pointed out that they had seen us. They were two young men and a girl from Despotovac, who set out in search of a jeep with front and rear wheel drive. They told us, “If you hadn’t shone, we certainly wouldn’t have noticed.” The boy who was driving was called Bojan Milovanović, with him was his friend whom he remembered with the nickname of Duta and another girl – reveals Stefan.
The day after the dramatic stay in the misty and snowy forest, Stefan says that he and Milica are fine, that they are resting from everything they went through, but that they are hurt by the comments of people who think they went to the mountain insufficiently prepared and they acted irresponsibly.
– I would like to emphasize that we really did everything that depended on us and that we are sorry that all this happened. We had no intention of going to the mountains in a “Peugeot”, as people criticize us, but we wanted to park it and continue on foot. We had mountaineering gear, but the biggest problem was that the offline map took us to the forest path instead of the main one. The guys at GSSS told us that similar cases had already happened, that navigation would lead someone down that path, says Stefan.
He and Milica are immensely grateful to all who participated in their rescue, to the citizens who joined the search, to the members of the units of the Ministry of the Interior, to the Mountain Service, to the hunters …
– Thanks to all those wonderful people who left their families at home and started looking for us. What happened will not deter us from hiking, we are great lovers of nature, but next time we will definitely go a little more prepared, with a guide and at least two cars – Stefan emphasizes.
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