--- title: German Tourist Lost in the Australian Outback Survives on Flies description: Discovered after three weeks, 26-year-old cracked jokes about his supposedly nutritious diet canonical: https://time.com/15389/german-tourist-lost-in-the-australian-outback-survives-on-flies/ author: Per Liljas article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-07T09:11:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:07:34.476Z og:title: German Tourist Lost in the Australian Outback Survives on Flies og:description: Discovered after three weeks, 26-year-old cracked jokes about his supposedly nutritious diet og:url: https://time.com/15389/german-tourist-lost-in-the-australian-outback-survives-on-flies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1357eeefabf1f8f8/69868459cd804db1f7cc9a04/93231443.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 93231443 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: German Tourist Lost in the Australian Outback Survives on Flies twitter:description: Discovered after three weeks, 26-year-old cracked jokes about his supposedly nutritious diet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1357eeefabf1f8f8/69868459cd804db1f7cc9a04/93231443.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # German Tourist Lost in the Australian Outback Survives on Flies by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Mar 7, 2014 9:11 AM CUT  A rock outcrop in the outback of Queensland, Australia. A rock outcrop in the outback of Queensland, Australia.Tim Laman—National Geographic/Getty Images by [Per Liljas](/author/per-liljas/) ## Per Liljas Mar 7, 2014 9:11 AM CUT Lost in Australia’s outback for almost three weeks, German tourist Daniel Dudzisz [survived](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26463979?OCID=twitterasia "undefined") by eating flies, according to police. Dudzisz had been out hiking in central West Queensland when he got lost and stranded between two flooded parts of a river. Police says that when a motorist discovered the 26-year-old on Thursday, he was “safe and well” and refused medical treatment. “He was certainly hungry, but other than that he was in reasonable spirits,” police inspector Mark Henderson told the TV-station ABC. “He joked about never going hungry in the Australian outback because of the amount of flies you can eat for their protein, apparently.” Repeated search attempts by quad bike and helicopter had failed to locate Dudzisz, who is now determined to continue his walk to the Northern Territory. “He has made an agreement now that he will stick to the main roads now rather than going cross country,” Henderson said. \[[BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26463979?OCID=twitterasia "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/15389/german-tourist-lost-in-the-australian-outback-survives-on-flies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/15389/german-tourist-lost-in-the-australian-outback-survives-on-flies/"},"headline":"German Tourist Lost in the Australian Outback Survives on Flies","datePublished":"2014-03-07T09:11:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:07:34.476Z","description":"Discovered after three weeks, 26-year-old cracked jokes about his supposedly nutritious diet","url":"https://time.com/15389/german-tourist-lost-in-the-australian-outback-survives-on-flies/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Australia","german","lost","survival"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1357eeefabf1f8f8/69868459cd804db1f7cc9a04/93231443.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Per Liljas","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/per-liljas/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1357eeefabf1f8f8/69868459cd804db1f7cc9a04/93231443.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"93231443","caption":"A rock outcrop in the outback of Queensland, Australia.","creditText":"Tim Laman—National Geographic/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/15389/german-tourist-lost-in-the-australian-outback-survives-on-flies/","name":"German Tourist Lost in the Australian Outback Survives on Flies"}}]}] ```