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Survival saga

Moscow: Eleven people stranded during a fishing trip in a remote area of Russia’s Pacific coast were rescued on Friday after surviving for three months on pancakes.

State television said the “Robinzon Kruzos” had survived by cooking flour they found at a deserted military base. The team got stuck in an isolated bay on the Kamchatka peninsula in October when they had to moor because one of their motorboats was holed. Their two other craft were then swept away in a storm.

The group, which included three women, did not realise they were only 65 miles from the nearest big town. They slept at the base, gathering berries and roasting trapped hares over a fire of smashed furniture. When their teabags ran out they drank chaga, a hot drink made from fungi.

As the supplies dwindled they decided to send five of the team to search for help. “There wasn’t anything left to do,” said Aleksei Lazarev, skipper of one of the boats. “Winter was upon us and people wanted to eat.”

After four days’ wandering they stumbled on a radio transmitter station. “We had to climb over the volcanoes because the rivers still hadn’t frozen,” said Igor Frankin, one of the survivors.

Officials from the ministry of emergency situations said all 11 had been taken to the local capital, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky . — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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