Wanderer May Have To Foot Bill

A 33-year-old fireman from Alaska who survived 43 days in Australia's parched Great Sandy Desert swapped plants and flowers for ice cream and watermelon as he recovered in a hospital Tuesday.

Robert Bogucki of Fairbanks was fed moist food by staff at Broome Hospital to help rehydrate him after his marathon trek through some of Australia's most unforgiving terrain.

Bogucki said he ate plants and flowers and drank muddy water to survive during his ordeal in Australia's barren northwest. He shed 44 pounds during his one-man odyssey but was reported to be in good condition.
Police in Broome, 1,000 miles north of Western Australia's state capital of Perth, said Tuesday it was unlikely any charges would be pressed against Bogucki in relation to his unannounced solo expedition.

The bill for the manhunt launched to find Bogucki after he was reported missing July 26 is expected to run into tens of thousands of dollars.

State lawmaker Larry Graham said Bogucki should foot the bill himself, blaming him for endangering the lives of those who carried out the search.

There had been speculation Bogucki was deliberately avoiding searchers but police spokesman Sgt. Wally Woolf rejected that.

"That's completely out of the question," Woolf said. "He was unaware he was being searched for."

Bogucki on Tuesday expressed his gratitude to the searchers and apologized for the trouble he'd caused.

"I feel bad that a lot of people came looking for me, that there was so much (money) spent and time and effort," he told reporters at the hospital grounds, as he sat in a wheelchair with a saline drip attached to his arm.

"I really appreciated it ... I'm sorry that people had to go to so much trouble," he said.

The first news of Bogucki's adventure was on July 26 when tourists found his bicycle near Sandfire Roadhouse on the Great Northern Highway that runs along the Western Australia coast.

Police then discovered a postcard dated July 13 sent to his parents in Malibu telling them of his plan to ride across the desert to Fitzroy Crossing or Halls Creek in the northwest. Bogucki abandoned his bike after only 21 miles.

For the next four weeks only his footprints could be found in the desert and on August 9 police called off the search, believing Bogucki had perished.

Police resumed searching last week after a U.S. search team with bloodhounds arrived and fresh footprints were discovered. Sunday, searchers found Bogucki's campsite, with a hat, maps and clothing bundled in a tarpaulin, on the edge of the uninhabited Edgar Range, 110 miles southwest of Broome.