Monday, November 7, the soldiers of the brigades of Saint-Jean-du-Gard and Anduze were engaged in a search for missing persons. The Operations Center had received a call at 6:30 p.m. from a man in a panic at not having heard from his 69-year-old wife. Going on a hike with her husband in the woods overlooking the hamlet of Bancels in Saint-Jean-du-Gard, their place of residence, she had decided to leave her husband and return alone, but had visibly lost her way. In the middle of the night, in very impractical undergrowth and mountainous, the search quickly proved difficult. The GIC (dog intervention group) of the Gard gendarmerie group was therefore called upon to use the flair of a “track” dog.
Be careful, because the night falls early
From 8 p.m., Portal, a young German shepherd from the GIC and his master, began their search. After more than two hours of searching, Portal found the walker, completely disoriented, without food or water, at the foot of Escorces rock. The temperature at that time was 5°C. The dog handler then carried the hiker, as exhausted as she was relieved, on his shoulders to lead her to her husband. The latter were able to congratulate their four-legged savior themselves
This story, which has a happy ending, should not make hikers forget that the night falls early in this season and even for a short hike, a small bag with some warm effects, supplies, a lamp and a charged phone, it’s not much but it can be very useful.