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This-statue-will-kill-you · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: This video is brought to you by Current. Today, we're
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Speaker 1: going to look at three places you can't go and
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Speaker 1: people who went there anyways. But before we get into
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Speaker 1: today's stories, if you're a fan of these strange, dark
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Speaker 1: and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to
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Speaker 1: of our weekly uploads. All right, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: In the fall of two thousand and two, nineteen year
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Speaker 1: old Jemmahten moved into her dorm room at the very
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Speaker 1: prestigious University of Manchester in England to begin her freshman year.
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Speaker 1: Her first couple of months at the school were relatively uneventful.
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Speaker 1: She spent all of her time focusing on her studies
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Speaker 1: and so she really had not gone out met any
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Speaker 1: new people. But in early two thousand and three, so
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Speaker 1: about halfway through her freshman year, she was standing outside
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Speaker 1: of her dorm when this boy she had never met
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Speaker 1: before walked up to her and introduced himself. He was
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Speaker 1: this tall, very handsome, very charming guy. He said his
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Speaker 1: name was Ian Redmond. He was a senior at the school,
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Speaker 1: and he in fact lived in the same building that
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Speaker 1: she did, and so he just wanted to introduce himself. Now,
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Speaker 1: Gemma was not looking for a boyfriend, but she was
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Speaker 1: immediately attracted to Ian, and Ian would later say the
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Speaker 1: feeling was mutual. This chance encounter would ultimately blossom into
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Speaker 1: a full fledged romantic relationship, one that would ultimately lead
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Speaker 1: to Ian, six years later, proposing to Gemma on Christmas
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Speaker 1: Eve two thousand and nine. That same year they got engaged.
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Speaker 1: The couple, who had diligently saved money for years and
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Speaker 1: years and years, were able to pool their money and
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Speaker 1: buy a house together. It was not a very nice house.
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Speaker 1: It was a fairly beat up cottage in this little
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Speaker 1: town in England that would need a lot of work.
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Speaker 1: But Ian and Gemma were actually very excited to do
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Speaker 1: the work. They looked at this as an opportunity to
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Speaker 1: make the house exactly the way they wanted it, and
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Speaker 1: it was a chance for them to spend some quality
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Speaker 1: time together. So for the next two years, during all
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Speaker 1: of their free time, Ian and Jemma would work on
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Speaker 1: their home. And then finally, in August of twenty eleven,
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Speaker 1: right before their actual wedding day, they finished the renovation.
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Speaker 1: Their home is done, and so they get married and
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Speaker 1: then literally right after their wedding, instead of going right
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Speaker 1: into a honeymoon, they just moved right into their dream
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Speaker 1: home that night, and so for the next couple of days,
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Speaker 1: the newlyweds got to enjoy being husband and wife for
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Speaker 1: the first time inside of their dream home, and then
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Speaker 1: it was time to go on the honeymoon. In addition
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Speaker 1: to having set aside money for the down payment on
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Speaker 1: their home, the couple had also set aside money for
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Speaker 1: this honeymoon. They wanted it to be an amazing vacation
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Speaker 1: and so what they decided to do for their honeymoon
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Speaker 1: was to go to Sechelle, which is this island nation
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Speaker 1: in the Indian Ocean, which many say has the most
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Speaker 1: beautiful beaches in the world. So on August tenth, the
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Speaker 1: couple hops on a plane and they fly to Stay
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Speaker 1: Shell and when they land, they check into the resort,
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Speaker 1: which is this unbelievable place that overlooks this perfect beach
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Speaker 1: with white sand and crystal clear waters. And then after
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Speaker 1: getting checked in, the couple goes down to a restaurant
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Speaker 1: and they're having a bite to eat and as they're
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Speaker 1: sitting there, they're probably thinking to themselves, this is going
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Speaker 1: to be the best vacation ever. During the first week
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Speaker 1: of their trip, the couple was very active, spending lots
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Speaker 1: of time exploring the island and going out on different
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Speaker 1: excursions and going to lots of restaurants. They were just
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Speaker 1: all over the place. And so come Tuesday, August sixteenth,
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Speaker 1: which was the start of their second week and final
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Speaker 1: week of the honeymoon, the couple was kind of tired
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Speaker 1: from all the activity, and so they decided they would
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Speaker 1: just have a lazy day at the beach that day.
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Speaker 1: And so the couple grabbed their swimsuits and their towels
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Speaker 1: and their chairs and they left the resort and headed
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Speaker 1: down to the beach right outside, and then after finding
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Speaker 1: a decent spot on the sand, they set up their
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Speaker 1: chairs and towels, put their stuff down, and Gemma she
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Speaker 1: laid down on one of the chairs to begin sunbathing,
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Speaker 1: and Ian he grabbed his fins and his snorkel, and
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Speaker 1: he kissed Jemma on the cheek and said he was
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Speaker 1: going to go down to the water and go for
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Speaker 1: a swim. Gemma remembers watching Ian as he walked across
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Speaker 1: the beach and stopped in front of the water and
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Speaker 1: put on his big fins and got a snorkel on,
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Speaker 1: and then he kind of awkwardly duck walked his way
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Speaker 1: into the water, and Gemma remembers just smiling and laughing
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Speaker 1: to herself watching him awkwardly do this, and then thinking
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Speaker 1: to herself how lucky she was to be married to
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Speaker 1: such an amazing guy. She really loved him so much.
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Speaker 1: After Ian had finally gotten into the water and had
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Speaker 1: begun his snorkeling journey, Jemma laid back and began to
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Speaker 1: doze off to sleep. A little while later, though, Jemma
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Speaker 1: suddenly woke up to the sound of what almost sounded
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Speaker 1: like someone sneezing really, really loudly, and so instinctively she
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Speaker 1: sat up and scammed the water line for her husband,
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Speaker 1: but all she saw were other tourists in the water,
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Speaker 1: swimming and snorkeling and doing all sorts of stuff she
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Speaker 1: couldn't find Ian, and then she heard a male voice
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Speaker 1: calling out for help, and it was coming off to
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Speaker 1: the right, towards the top of the beach, pretty far
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Speaker 1: away from her, And she turned and she saw Ian.
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Speaker 1: Ian was about sixty feet off of the sand, so
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Speaker 1: he's well out into the water, and he appeared to
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Speaker 1: be kind of hunched forward with his arm kind of
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Speaker 1: in the water, and he's waving his other arm in
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Speaker 1: the air. It was like he was stuck on something.
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Speaker 1: And before Gemma could get up and run to him
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Speaker 1: or help him in any way, Ian just begins to
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Speaker 1: scream at the top of his lungs. When Ian began screaming,
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Speaker 1: there was a surgeon who was also on vacation at
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Speaker 1: the speech who was in a boat near where Ian was.
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Speaker 1: He hears the scream and he boats over to Ian
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Speaker 1: and he and the guy who was in the boat
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Speaker 1: with him managed to pull Ian out of the water
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Speaker 1: that get him on the boat and Ian is alive
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Speaker 1: and he's conscious, but he is missing his entire left arm,
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Speaker 1: he's missing the majority of his left thigh, and there
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Speaker 1: was a huge chunk missing from his midsection. It would
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Speaker 1: turn out Ian had been attacked by a bull shark
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Speaker 1: one of the most aggressive sharks in the world. That
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Speaker 1: sneezing sound that Jemma had heard that had startled her
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Speaker 1: awake was the sound Ian had made through his snorkel
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Speaker 1: when the shark bit down on him. The surgeon rushed
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Speaker 1: Ian to the shore and pulled him out and got
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Speaker 1: him onto the sand and began trying to save his life.
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Speaker 1: At the same time, Jemma had come running up the beach,
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Speaker 1: and she managed to push through the quickly forming crowd
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Speaker 1: and she drops down next to her husband, and Ian
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Speaker 1: at this point is alive and he's conscious. He's very
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Speaker 1: badly hurt, but he's looking up and he's clearly making
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Speaker 1: eye contact with Gemma, and Jemma she's looking down at
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Speaker 1: her husband and she's making clear eye contact with him,
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Speaker 1: and they don't really say much. It was like this
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Speaker 1: horrible moment where all they could do was just be
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Speaker 1: in the moment together, and so during this kind of
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Speaker 1: silent acknowledgment, Ian would ultimately pass away. It would turn
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Speaker 1: out over the past few weeks there had been a
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Speaker 1: rash of shark attacks at this beach, including one other
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Speaker 1: fatal attack on another tourist. Because shark attacks in Seychelle
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Speaker 1: were so unheard of they believed this had to be
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Speaker 1: the work of one rogue bull shark. That was the
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Speaker 1: one shark that was doing all of these attacks. And
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Speaker 1: so because this shark had not been capped or killed,
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Speaker 1: the country had actually instituted a temporary ban on swimming
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Speaker 1: at this beach and a few other beaches, but for
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Speaker 1: whatever reason, the ban had not been communicated effectively to
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Speaker 1: the taurus, nor had it been enforced on the tourists,
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Speaker 1: and so Gemma and Ian had no idea the water
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Speaker 1: was a dangerous place to be. They just looked out
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Speaker 1: and saw other tourists swimming around and believed it was
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Speaker 1: totally safe, when in reality it obviously wasn't. Jemma would
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Speaker 1: quickly return to England and she would host her husband's
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Speaker 1: funeral in the same church she and he had been
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Speaker 1: married in ten days earlier. Before we get into our
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Speaker 1: next story, I want to talk about today's sponsor Current.
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Speaker 1: sign up now, Okay, back to the stories. In nineteen
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Speaker 1: eighty six, thirty five million Americans went to see the
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Speaker 1: brand new movie Crocodile Dundee, which was a comedy that
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Speaker 1: starred this very capable and rugged Australian crocodile hunter who
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Speaker 1: goes to New York City. One of the thirty five
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Speaker 1: million Americans who saw this film was a twenty four
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Speaker 1: year old model from Virginia named Ginger Meadows. And after
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Speaker 1: seeing this film, Ginger felt inspired to actually go to
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Speaker 1: Australia to see it for herself because it looked so
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Speaker 1: amazing in this movie. So a couple of months later,
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Speaker 1: in March of nineteen eighty seven, Ginger by herself, hops
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Speaker 1: on a plane and flies to Perth, which is a
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Speaker 1: major city in western Australia. And her plan was she
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Speaker 1: would land in Australia and then work odd jobs to
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Speaker 1: make a little bit of cash and then use that
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Speaker 1: cash to fund her travels all over the country, and
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Speaker 1: then at some point after she was tired of doing that,
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Speaker 1: she would head back to the United States. So she
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Speaker 1: lands in Perth and immediately she sees her first opportunity
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Speaker 1: to make some money. There had been this huge sailing
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Speaker 1: competition in the city leading up to the weekend she
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Speaker 1: arrived there, and so she saw all these luxury yachts
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Speaker 1: anchored at all these docks along the coastline, and Gingers
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Speaker 1: thinking to herself, you know, these huge ships, they have
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Speaker 1: crews that work on them basically full time. Maybe one
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Speaker 1: of these boats could use an extra set of hands.
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Speaker 1: And so Ginger, who was very friendly and outgoing, she
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Speaker 1: went right down to one of these docks and she
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Speaker 1: stopped in front of the very first yacht she saw,
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Speaker 1: which was this huge, luxury one hundred foot yacht, and
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Speaker 1: she introduced herself to the captain of this boat, and
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Speaker 1: she said, hey, you know, can I hitch a ride
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Speaker 1: with you guys to the next place you're going and
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Speaker 1: in exchange, I'll work for you. And as it happened,
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Speaker 1: the captain was actually looking for another crew member to
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Speaker 1: assist their chef, and so he said, okay, well can
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Speaker 1: you cook? And Ginger said yeah, I'm a great cook.
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Speaker 1: And he said, okay, well you're hired. You can be
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Speaker 1: the chef's assistant. And so Ginger she climbs on board
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Speaker 1: and she meets the rest of the five other crew members,
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Speaker 1: including the chef who she'd be working with, and the
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Speaker 1: chef's name was Jane, and those two wo had become
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Speaker 1: very close. And then shortly after Ginger had come aboard,
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Speaker 1: the captain cast off their lines and they headed out
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Speaker 1: to sea. Their next stop was going to be New Guinea,
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Speaker 1: which was roughly fourteen days of travel away. After about
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Speaker 1: a week at sea, the captain realized they were dangerously
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Speaker 1: low on fresh water, and so he decided to take
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Speaker 1: a detour and turn east and head inland along this
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Speaker 1: river system that would bring them to this large freshwater pool,
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Speaker 1: which he also knew had this huge waterfall that dumped
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Speaker 1: down into it, and so he figured they could go
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Speaker 1: right underneath this waterfall and fill up their jugs with
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Speaker 1: all this fresh water and then head back out and
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Speaker 1: they'd be good. So on the morning of March twenty ninth,
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Speaker 1: the captain anchored the yacht out at sea near the
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Speaker 1: mouth of this river system, and then he lowered the
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Speaker 1: yacht's dinghy, which was a smaller, more agile boat, and
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Speaker 1: once that was in the water, he Ginger, Jane, and
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Speaker 1: the rest of the crew. They hop in this dinghy
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Speaker 1: along with all these large empty water jugs, and they
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Speaker 1: begin making their way towards this river. And so they're
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Speaker 1: traveling up this river for a little while, and then
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Speaker 1: finally they get to this huge freshwater pool and right
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Speaker 1: in front of them is this amazing waterfall, and everybody
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Speaker 1: is just totally awestruck by this waterfall. It's like a
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Speaker 1: gem in the middle of nowhere, because they're in very
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Speaker 1: rugged Australia at this point. And so the captain he
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Speaker 1: brings the dinghy right near the base of the waterfall,
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Speaker 1: and one by one they hold up their water jugs
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Speaker 1: and they fill them with fresh water. And then they're
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Speaker 1: about to turn and go back out to sea and
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Speaker 1: get back on their yacht, when the captain thinks to himself,
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Speaker 1: you know what, we've been at sea for seven days straight.
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Speaker 1: It's been very monotonous. Maybe it would be a good
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Speaker 1: thing to stick around here for a little bit longer
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Speaker 1: and maybe even hike up to the top of this
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Speaker 1: waterfall and enjoy the view and kind of enjoy the
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Speaker 1: scenery before we head back out to sea. And so
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Speaker 1: he says to his crew, Hey, do you guys want
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Speaker 1: to go to the top of this waterfall, and everyone
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Speaker 1: agrees it's a great idea, with the exception of Jane.
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Speaker 1: She did not feel like hiking to the top of
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Speaker 1: this waterfall. She said she would stay down in the
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Speaker 1: dinghy and wait for them. Now, this pool is basically
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Speaker 1: surrounded on all sides by just pure cliff face. There
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Speaker 1: really is no place to land this dinghy. There's no
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Speaker 1: flat surfaces. You basically have cliffs that go directly into water,
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Speaker 1: and then also you have the river that feeds back
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Speaker 1: out to the ocean. So the captain brings the dinghy
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Speaker 1: right up against the cliff face, right next to this waterfall,
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Speaker 1: and he and Ginger and the other crew members not
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Speaker 1: name Jane climb out of the dinghy onto this cliff
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Speaker 1: face and they begin climbing, literally climbing up this wall
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Speaker 1: towards the top of the waterfall. Now everyone was able
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Speaker 1: to do it, except for Ginger. She kept slipping on
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Speaker 1: the rocks. It was very steep. It seemed kind of dangerous,
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Speaker 1: and so at some point she abandons the idea and
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Speaker 1: goes back down to the dinghy. With Jane and the
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Speaker 1: captain and the rest of the crew. They continue up
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Speaker 1: towards the top and so as Ginger and Jane are
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Speaker 1: sitting in the dinghy watching the other crew members making
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Speaker 1: their way up. They start feeling a little bit left out,
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Speaker 1: and they're like, you know what, let's try to find
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Speaker 1: an alternate way up to the top of this water
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Speaker 1: And so they begin scanning out across this pool at
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Speaker 1: the other cliffs kind of surrounding it, and it looked
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Speaker 1: like on the very other side of the pool there
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Speaker 1: was a less severe cliff face that maybe they would
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Speaker 1: have an easier time climbing up. And so the two
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Speaker 1: women they jump into the murky brown water and begin
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Speaker 1: swimming directly across this pool towards this other cliff. And
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Speaker 1: when they make it about a third of the way,
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Speaker 1: Jane suddenly stops, and Ginger notices and turns around and
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Speaker 1: looks at Jane, and she's like, what's going on. And
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Speaker 1: Jane would tell her, you know, something just feels off
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Speaker 1: the system. Feel right, let's go back to the dinghy.
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Speaker 1: Let's just forget about this. But Ginger is like, come on,
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Speaker 1: we're so close, let's just keep going. It'll be awesome
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Speaker 1: once we get to the top of this waterfall. And
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Speaker 1: so Jane, she's totally hesitant, but she says okay, fine,
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Speaker 1: and they both continue to swim, and then all of
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Speaker 1: a sudden, they hear their captain, who is now on
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Speaker 1: top of the waterfall, screaming down to them to get
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Speaker 1: out of the water right now. And they notice he
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Speaker 1: is pointing down at the pool in a direction slightly
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Speaker 1: away from where they were, and so they're look up
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Speaker 1: at him and they're following his finger down to the
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Speaker 1: part of the pool he's pointing at, and they see
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Speaker 1: there is this tidal wave of water coming towards them.
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Speaker 1: It is a twelve foot long saltwater crocodile that has
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Speaker 1: noticed them, and it is charging straight at them. Now,
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Speaker 1: Jane and Ginger knew they were too far away from
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Speaker 1: the dinghy to be able to swim to it before
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Speaker 1: this crocodile was going to reach them, and so their
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Speaker 1: next best choice was just to turn and swim towards
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Speaker 1: the nearest cliff face, because again, there is no place
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Speaker 1: to get out of the water, there's only cliffs, And
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Speaker 1: so they swim towards this cliff face, which is right
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Speaker 1: on the edge of the bottom of the waterfall, and
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Speaker 1: so water is landing on them and they reach the
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Speaker 1: cliff face and they're trying to climb up and pull
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Speaker 1: themselves out of the water, but there's nowhere to grab onto.
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Speaker 1: It's all totally slick, there's no good handholds, and so
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Speaker 1: all they have is this little ledge that is in
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Speaker 1: the water that they're standing on, but they're still halfway
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Speaker 1: into the water. And so after they struggle for a
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Speaker 1: minute trying to pull themselves out of the water and
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Speaker 1: they realize they can't do it, they both just turn
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Speaker 1: around and they lock arms and they look out through
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Speaker 1: the water that's falling down in front of them into
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Speaker 1: the pool, and they see this crocodile has followed them,
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Speaker 1: and it has now stopped right on the other side
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Speaker 1: of the water that's falling down, and it's just staring
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Speaker 1: at them with its mouth wide open, and the two
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Speaker 1: women are looking at it. They don't know what to do.
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Speaker 1: And the captain and the other crew members they see
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Speaker 1: what's going on, and they're trying to climb down as
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Speaker 1: fast as they possibly can to try to rescue them,
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Speaker 1: but it's going to take several minutes at least before
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Speaker 1: they get down to the dinghy, and so Jane and Ginger,
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Speaker 1: they're totally aware of this and they're just staring at
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Speaker 1: this crocodile, screaming at it, trying to get it to
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Speaker 1: go away, and at some point the crocodile does just
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Speaker 1: close its mouth and sink below the surface, but now
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Speaker 1: they don't know where it is, and this causes Ginger
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Speaker 1: to completely panic, and she lets go of Jane's arm
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Speaker 1: and she dives into the water off to the right
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Speaker 1: and attempts to swim away from the crocodile back over
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Speaker 1: to the boat, but Ginger only made it two strokes
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Speaker 1: before the crocodile suddenly re emerged underneath her and grabbed
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Speaker 1: her by the waist and pulled her under the water.
17:05
Speaker 1: Jane is just standing there watching all of this happen
17:07
Speaker 1: in front of her. She has no idea what to do.
17:09
Speaker 1: The crew is still not down in the dinghy, so
17:11
Speaker 1: she's totally stranded, and she's just staring at the area
17:15
Speaker 1: where Ginger has been pulled below the surface. And just
17:17
Speaker 1: seconds after she's been pulled under, the crocodile re emerges
17:21
Speaker 1: with its head pointed towards Jane, and in its jaws
17:25
Speaker 1: is Ginger, and Ginger's gout, her arms up over her head.
17:27
Speaker 1: She's wide eyed and she's looking right at Jane, and
17:31
Speaker 1: Jane makes eye contact with her, but there's nothing she
17:34
Speaker 1: can do, and she just watched as Ginger again was
17:37
Speaker 1: pulled back under, and this time she did not come
17:40
Speaker 1: up again. Ultimately, Jane would be rescued from the ledge.
17:43
Speaker 1: The crew would get down to the dinghy, they'd swing
17:45
Speaker 1: over it, they would pick her up, and then about
17:47
Speaker 1: two days later they would find what was left of
17:49
Speaker 1: Ginger's remains. It would turn out the captain was well
17:52
Speaker 1: aware of the threat the crocodiles posed in this river,
17:56
Speaker 1: and he had told his crew Ginger and Jane included,
17:59
Speaker 1: about this threat and that at no point should anyone
18:03
Speaker 1: get in this water. But of course his warning went unheeded.
18:10
Speaker 1: If you google the words burning Man and you click
18:13
Speaker 1: on images, you'll see lots of scantily clad and somewhat
18:17
Speaker 1: wild looking people roaming around the Nevada Desert on strange
18:20
Speaker 1: looking bikes. And in the background you'll see all these huge,
18:24
Speaker 1: bizarre statues of aliens and robots and animals, and these
18:28
Speaker 1: statues are often draped in more wild looking people, or
18:33
Speaker 1: these statues are on fire, and these wild looking people
18:37
Speaker 1: are dancing and rejoicing all around the flames. Based on
18:41
Speaker 1: these images, you might think Burning Man is just some
18:44
Speaker 1: totally weird, substance fueled party out in the middle of
18:47
Speaker 1: the desert. And while that is true to some degree,
18:50
Speaker 1: it's not totally accurate. Burning Man is not a party.
18:53
Speaker 1: It's actually an experiment that seventy thousand people from all
18:58
Speaker 1: over the world participate in every year. The question this
19:01
Speaker 1: experiment is trying to answer is can a random segment
19:06
Speaker 1: of the population come together and build a community out
19:10
Speaker 1: of nothing in the middle of nowhere? And can they
19:13
Speaker 1: do it while knowing at the end of Burning Man,
19:16
Speaker 1: which is always nine days long, everything they build, the sculptures,
19:20
Speaker 1: the shelters, everything will be torn down and destroyed and
19:24
Speaker 1: erased from the planet as if it had never been
19:26
Speaker 1: there in the first place. And amazingly, year after year
19:30
Speaker 1: after year, the answer to this question is yes, yes
19:34
Speaker 1: they can. As soon as these seventy thousand people descend
19:38
Speaker 1: on this small section of the Nevada Desert, they immediately
19:42
Speaker 1: get to work helping each other building their own sites.
19:44
Speaker 1: I mean, these people largely don't know each other, or
19:48
Speaker 1: in many cases they don't even speak the same language,
19:50
Speaker 1: but they're showing up with this shared desire to build
19:53
Speaker 1: this temporary community, and so they begin seamlessly working together.
19:58
Speaker 1: And while shelters are being stood up all over the place,
20:01
Speaker 1: other attendees will pull out instruments and form impromptu bands.
20:05
Speaker 1: And then the artists of the group will get together
20:08
Speaker 1: and begin building these kind of strange sculptures, and so
20:11
Speaker 1: very quickly, within only a few hours, every year in
20:14
Speaker 1: Burning Man, this plot of barren desert turns into this beautiful,
20:19
Speaker 1: otherworldly utopia full of totally happy and fulfilled and excited strangers.
20:25
Speaker 1: But in twenty seventeen, the utopia that was created at
20:29
Speaker 1: that Burning Man was shattered by one man, and his
20:33
Speaker 1: name was Aaron Joel. In twenty seventeen, Aaron Joel was
20:36
Speaker 1: a tall, handsome, forty one year old free spirit who
20:39
Speaker 1: from the time he was just a little kid, had
20:42
Speaker 1: this sort of restless energy about him. He always needed
20:45
Speaker 1: to be out doing stuff. You could never sit still,
20:48
Speaker 1: and so by the time he was old enough, he
20:50
Speaker 1: left his family home in Oklahoma and moved out to
20:53
Speaker 1: Oregon and moved into this commune. A commune is a
20:56
Speaker 1: group of people that live together and share their possessions
21:00
Speaker 1: and responsibilities. But shortly after moving in to this commune,
21:03
Speaker 1: Aaron got restless again. This wasn't enough for him, and
21:06
Speaker 1: so he left the commune and began traveling all over
21:09
Speaker 1: the United States. But after he had basically gone everywhere
21:13
Speaker 1: in the country, he became restless again, and so he
21:16
Speaker 1: left the United States and he went to Nepal and
21:19
Speaker 1: began traveling all over Nepal. And while he was there,
21:22
Speaker 1: he met this wonderful young woman from Switzerland named Ladina,
21:26
Speaker 1: and the two fell madly in love. And then when
21:28
Speaker 1: it was time for Ladina to leave Nepal and go
21:30
Speaker 1: back to her home country, Aaron followed her, and just
21:33
Speaker 1: a couple of years later, in twenty fourteen, the pair
21:36
Speaker 1: got married and they bought a house together and settled
21:39
Speaker 1: down in Switzerland. For a time, Aaron and Ladina were
21:42
Speaker 1: very happy. Their life was very simple and straightforward. They
21:45
Speaker 1: loved each other, they loved Switzerland. But in twenty seventeen,
21:49
Speaker 1: Aaron's wanderlust reared its head again, and so he went
21:52
Speaker 1: up to Ladina and he told her that, you know, honey,
21:55
Speaker 1: I need to go out and explore again. I need
21:57
Speaker 1: to go out and be free again, even if it's
21:59
Speaker 1: just for couple of days or a week or whatever
22:01
Speaker 1: time it is. I need it. I need it in
22:04
Speaker 1: order to be sane. I don't think Ladina was very
22:06
Speaker 1: pleased about this development. However, she knew her husband and
22:10
Speaker 1: she knew this was important to him and to his
22:12
Speaker 1: mental health, and so she said, okay, honey, you know
22:14
Speaker 1: you do what you have to do. And so Aaron
22:16
Speaker 1: thought about what he was going to do to satiate
22:19
Speaker 1: this desire to go out and be free again, and
22:22
Speaker 1: he settled on attending that year's Burning Man, something he
22:25
Speaker 1: had never done before. So Aaron leaves Switzerland and he
22:28
Speaker 1: goes back to Oregon in the United States, and he
22:31
Speaker 1: meets up with a very close friend of his name Justin.
22:34
Speaker 1: Justin was actually someone he had lived with in the
22:36
Speaker 1: commune when he was there, and so the two they
22:38
Speaker 1: link up in Oregon and from there they drive in
22:41
Speaker 1: Justin's big van out to Nevada. And when they get
22:44
Speaker 1: to Nevada, they drive out to the burning Man site,
22:47
Speaker 1: and as they're pulling up, they see thousands and thousands
22:49
Speaker 1: of other vans and tents and all these people that
22:52
Speaker 1: are out setting up and building this community, this utopia.
22:56
Speaker 1: And so right away Aaron and Justin they find their spot,
22:58
Speaker 1: they park their van, they begin to build their own site,
23:01
Speaker 1: and then after that they pulled their bikes out of
23:03
Speaker 1: the van and began biking around helping other people out
23:06
Speaker 1: build their sites and build the rest of the community.
23:09
Speaker 1: And so by that afternoon, Aaron and Justin had made
23:12
Speaker 1: lots of new friends, and they were out partying and
23:14
Speaker 1: dancing and singing with total strangers, just totally immersed in
23:18
Speaker 1: the burning Man experience. That night, Aaron would actually turn
23:22
Speaker 1: in early, while Justin would stay up and continue having
23:24
Speaker 1: a good time with the new people he had met.
23:26
Speaker 1: Aaron was just not a night owl. He liked to
23:28
Speaker 1: get a full night sleep and then get up early
23:30
Speaker 1: and make himself a smoothie and do yoga, and so
23:33
Speaker 1: this was very normal behavior. Justin would later say that
23:36
Speaker 1: he really looked up to Erin, and in fact, many
23:38
Speaker 1: people that knew Erin looked up to him because Aarin,
23:42
Speaker 1: on the one hand, was a total free spirit that
23:44
Speaker 1: would just kind of go where the wind would blow him.
23:47
Speaker 1: But at the same time, he was very regimented and disciplined.
23:50
Speaker 1: He took great care of himself both physically and mentally,
23:53
Speaker 1: and he just seemed wise beyond his years, and he
23:56
Speaker 1: was incredibly charismatic and very funny, and so people really
23:59
Speaker 1: flock to him and really idolized him. One of the
24:02
Speaker 1: traditions of Burning Man has to do with its namesake.
24:05
Speaker 1: Towards the end of every Burning Man, they will build
24:09
Speaker 1: this forty foot tall wooden man effigy and they will
24:13
Speaker 1: burn it to the ground, hence the name burning Man.
24:15
Speaker 1: And so on the night of the so called Man
24:18
Speaker 1: burn Aaron told Justin that he was not going to
24:21
Speaker 1: turn in early that night, that instead he was going
24:24
Speaker 1: to stay up and watch the spectacle of this effigy
24:27
Speaker 1: being burned to the ground. Justin was really excited about it,
24:29
Speaker 1: and so is Erin. And so that evening, Aaron and
24:32
Speaker 1: Justin met up with their new friends they had met
24:35
Speaker 1: while they were at Burning Man, and their group began
24:38
Speaker 1: making their way over to the wooden Man effigy. Now,
24:41
Speaker 1: this huge effigy was situated in this huge open clearing,
24:45
Speaker 1: and then standing all around this wooden man are what
24:49
Speaker 1: they called rangers. They're basically security guards for the event
24:53
Speaker 1: that also have some fire training, and they would stand
24:55
Speaker 1: almost shoulder to shoulder or very close to shoulder to shoulder,
24:59
Speaker 1: facing away from the effigy, forming a perimeter around it,
25:03
Speaker 1: and the ranger's job was to prevent the crowd of
25:06
Speaker 1: seventy thousand people from getting too close to the effigy
25:10
Speaker 1: when it was on fire, because it's obviously a huge hazard.
25:13
Speaker 1: And so Aaron, Justin and their friends when they got
25:16
Speaker 1: to this clearing and saw the effigy, they would have
25:18
Speaker 1: seen thousands and thousands of event attendees converging on this effigy,
25:24
Speaker 1: getting as close to the rangers as they possibly could
25:27
Speaker 1: on all sides. And so Aaron and Justin and their
25:29
Speaker 1: friends they'd make their way up to one particular section
25:32
Speaker 1: of this crowd, and they began fighting their way through
25:35
Speaker 1: all these people, trying to get as close to the
25:36
Speaker 1: rangers as they possibly could because they won a good
25:39
Speaker 1: view of this man burn. And then once they were
25:42
Speaker 1: satisfied with their view, they just stopped and waited for
25:44
Speaker 1: the effigy to be lit. But before the effigy was lit,
25:48
Speaker 1: Aaron would turn to Justin and say, Hey, I have
25:51
Speaker 1: some friends from Switzerland who are here right now. They're
25:53
Speaker 1: on the other side of the effigy, on the other
25:56
Speaker 1: side of the crowd, and I'm gonna go see them,
25:58
Speaker 1: right now, and so Justin was to totally bummed that
26:00
Speaker 1: Aaron was going to be leaving right before this thing
26:03
Speaker 1: is lit, because he wanted to experience this with Aaron.
26:05
Speaker 1: But he said, okay, no problem. You know, i'll see
26:07
Speaker 1: you hopefully, you know, before this thing gets lit, or
26:09
Speaker 1: you know, i'll see you after this burn is done.
26:11
Speaker 1: And so Aarin departed the group and Justin watched as
26:14
Speaker 1: he kind of disappeared into the crowd, and then Justin
26:17
Speaker 1: turned his attention back towards the effigy. And a little
26:20
Speaker 1: while later, when the sun had gone down and it
26:22
Speaker 1: was totally dark out and the crowd was totally electric
26:25
Speaker 1: as they're waiting for this thing to light. Finally they did.
26:27
Speaker 1: They lit the effigy and as soon as it went
26:29
Speaker 1: up in flames, the crowd of thousands and thousands of
26:32
Speaker 1: people roared with excitement. And this whole time, Justin is
26:36
Speaker 1: totally amazed by what he is watching, but he's also
26:39
Speaker 1: scanning the crowd, kind of hoping that Aaron will eventually
26:42
Speaker 1: pop back up. But at this point, the crowd is
26:44
Speaker 1: so massive and everyone's so tight together that Justin is
26:47
Speaker 1: really not expecting Aaron to come back over to where
26:50
Speaker 1: he had been, it just didn't seem possible. And so
26:53
Speaker 1: this huge wooden man effigy goes up in glorious flames
26:56
Speaker 1: and everyone's so amazed by it. And then eventually the
26:59
Speaker 1: flames be in to dwindle down as the structure continues
27:02
Speaker 1: to burn lower and lower to the ground, and then finally,
27:05
Speaker 1: when the fire is just about out, the crowd of
27:07
Speaker 1: people begin to disperse, and at this point Justin again
27:11
Speaker 1: looks around, hoping to maybe see Erin, but you know,
27:13
Speaker 1: Aaron has not come back yet, and so Justin just says, Okay,
27:16
Speaker 1: you know, maybe it's time to leave and go check
27:18
Speaker 1: in with Aaron back at the van, And so he
27:20
Speaker 1: notifies his friends that he's going to turn around and
27:22
Speaker 1: head back, and as Justin turns and begins leaving the crowd,
27:27
Speaker 1: someone who was at the event, who apparently knew Justin
27:30
Speaker 1: and knew Aaron, came running over to Justin and frantically
27:34
Speaker 1: told him this totally shocking story about something that happened
27:37
Speaker 1: to Aaron. Now, at first, Justin just could not believe it.
27:40
Speaker 1: He couldn't even process it. It seems so outlandish and
27:44
Speaker 1: unbelievable that it just could not have happened, but he
27:47
Speaker 1: was thinking to himself, you know, I haven't seen Aaron
27:49
Speaker 1: since he left to go see his friends from Switzerland,
27:52
Speaker 1: and I have no idea where he is. And so
27:54
Speaker 1: Justin starts looking around the crowd again. He's not seeing Aaron,
27:56
Speaker 1: and he's starting to panic, and so finally Justin just
27:59
Speaker 1: turns and he starts running back towards his van. In
28:02
Speaker 1: hopes that Aaron is going to be there. But when
28:05
Speaker 1: he gets back to his van, Aaron is not there,
28:07
Speaker 1: and there's no sign that Aaron has been back after
28:10
Speaker 1: they had left for the man Burn. It would turn
28:12
Speaker 1: out that shocking story Justin had been told about Aarin
28:16
Speaker 1: was true. This is that shocking story. After Aarin told
28:20
Speaker 1: Justin that he was going to go to the other
28:22
Speaker 1: side of the crowd and spend some time with his
28:24
Speaker 1: friends from Switzerland, he disappeared from the group and he
28:27
Speaker 1: made his way over to that far side of the crowd.
28:30
Speaker 1: But we don't know if he actually met up with
28:32
Speaker 1: friends from Switzerland or if that was just some cover
28:35
Speaker 1: to get away from Justin and the other people he
28:37
Speaker 1: was with. But regardless, at some point, Aaron made his
28:41
Speaker 1: way over to the other side of the effigy away
28:44
Speaker 1: from Justin and away from his other friends, and once
28:47
Speaker 1: he was over there, he pushed his way towards the
28:49
Speaker 1: front of the crowd until he was right in front
28:52
Speaker 1: of the rangers with front row seats of the effigy.
28:55
Speaker 1: And then after the effigy was set alight in this
28:58
Speaker 1: fully engulfed in plane, Aaron at some point bum rushed
29:03
Speaker 1: one of the rangers right in front of him and
29:05
Speaker 1: was able to push past him, and then before that
29:08
Speaker 1: ranger or any other nearby rangers could stop him, Aaron
29:12
Speaker 1: was able to sprint directly into the bottom of this
29:16
Speaker 1: massive effigy, right into the fire, and he disappeared inside
29:20
Speaker 1: of it. Because the crowd was massive and unruly and
29:24
Speaker 1: many people were under the influence of drugs or alcohol
29:27
Speaker 1: or both. Because of all that, even though Aaron is
29:31
Speaker 1: running into the fire right in front of them, it
29:34
Speaker 1: was like nobody noticed. Everybody was in kind of their
29:36
Speaker 1: own worlds, and it's dark out, there's this fire, I mean,
29:39
Speaker 1: there's so many distractions that really nobody noticed this happening,
29:43
Speaker 1: besides the rangers that were immediately affected by Aaron running
29:47
Speaker 1: past them, and some of the people that were right
29:50
Speaker 1: at the front of the crowd watching as Aaron did this,
29:53
Speaker 1: and so this is why Justin and the rest of
29:55
Speaker 1: his friends had no idea this had happened, despite the
29:58
Speaker 1: fact they were watching this fire as this was happening.
30:01
Speaker 1: Aaron would ultimately only be inside of the flames for
30:05
Speaker 1: twelve seconds before the rangers were able to go inside
30:07
Speaker 1: and pull him out, but by that time it was
30:10
Speaker 1: already too late. Aaron would be rushed to the hospital,
30:13
Speaker 1: but he would die that night. It would later be
30:15
Speaker 1: determined that Aarin was completely sober at the time he
30:18
Speaker 1: decided to run into the burning man, which means he
30:22
Speaker 1: was of clear mind when he decided to do this,
30:26
Speaker 1: and so it was determined that his death had to
30:28
Speaker 1: be a suicide. However, his family and his friends and
30:31
Speaker 1: anybody who knew him are just totally not buying the
30:34
Speaker 1: idea that he decided to commit suicide, especially like this.
30:38
Speaker 1: It just didn't make any sense. This is not something
30:41
Speaker 1: Aaron would have done. He was acting totally normally. His
30:44
Speaker 1: behavior was not erratic. Something else must have caused this
30:48
Speaker 1: to happen, but unfortunately, at this point, no one has
30:51
Speaker 1: come close to figuring out what this other thing could be,
30:54
Speaker 1: and so to date his death still remains largely a mystery.
30:58
Speaker 1: Here is a picture one of the Bise Standards took
31:01
Speaker 1: of Aaron as he charges into the fire. So that's
31:08
Speaker 1: going to do it. Guys. If you found the secret
31:10
Speaker 1: in today's episode, let us know in the comment section
31:12
Speaker 1: what it is and where you found it. So give
31:14
Speaker 1: us the timestamp, and if you're the first to do that,
31:16
Speaker 1: we'll pin you at the top of the comment section.
31:18
Speaker 1: If you got something out of today's video and you
31:20
Speaker 1: haven't done this already, please offer to do the like
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32:26
Speaker 1: See you