Sydney hiker Sherman left two Uncle Toby muesli bars inside a hut in dense bush on the side of a steep range in the Kosciuszko national park just after Christmas.
He didn’t know it at the time but Victorian man Hadi Nazari had gone missing a day earlier in the remote New South Wales park. Sherman now believes the bars Nazari found and consumed during his two-week ordeal could be those he left behind on 27 December.
Reaching the Opera House hut – known to be Kosciuszko’s most remote and difficult to reach – was a feat.
Sherman undertook the six-hour trek to the hut along with two friends. Inside is a logbook signed by hikers detailing the routes they used to reach the shelter.
In the logbook, Sherman wrote “enjoy the muesli bars”, he told Guardian Australia on Thursday. He left the bars as a friendly gesture because he’d seen other hikers leave food in remote huts.
When reports emerged that Nazari, 23, had been found alive after two weeks lost in Kosciuszko national park and headlines mentioned two muesli bars, “we kind of jokingly thought it might have been ours”, Sherman said.
Then he and his friends started looking at maps and noted Nazari went missing at Hannels Spur trail and emerged later at Blue Lake.
“Nothing else seemed to make sense,” he said. “The only hut in the area would have been Opera House hut. That’s when we were actually like, hold on a second, is that potentially ours?”
While hundreds of people searched for Nazari on land and from the air, he drank fresh creek water, foraged for berries and ate two muesli bars he fortuitously found in a hut, police said on Wednesday.
“He relayed that he found a hut up there in the mountains,” Supt Andrew Spliet told reporters. “And there were two muesli bars up there that he’s eaten, and that’s pretty much all that he’s had to consume over the last two weeks.”
Sherman, who asked for his surname not to be used, doesn’t know for certain yet that the hut Nazari found was indeed Opera House. But he said national parks had told him the theory was plausible.
Guardian Australia contacted NSW police, the State Emergency Service and the National Parks and Wildlife Service on Thursday but none would confirm which hut Nazari had stumbled across.
But if it was the Opera House hut it was “pretty insane that he managed to get out”, Sherman said.
“The hut itself has got a bit of folklore around it. It is the hardest hut to get to … it’s kind of a challenge that people do – trying to find the Opera House hut.”
It’s located on one of the steepest faces off the main range. Different routes require rock scrambling, bush bashing and ropes, Sherman explained.
The hut itself was nestled at the bottom of the range. “You’re pretty much just falling off the side – it’s very steep,” he said. “If you’re not following any routes, it’s pretty much dense bush that you need a machete to get through. Essentially, you’re just swimming in bush.”
Nazari was being treated for dehydration at Cooma hospital on Thursday, the Southern NSW local health district said. “He is in good spirits and recovering well and is expected to be discharged within the next few days.”
Nazari himself thanked all those involved in the search effort.
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“I would like to thank all of the emergency services personnel for their tireless work searching for 13 days in tough conditions to locate me,” he said in a statement released by NSW police on Thursday.
“May God bless them all,” he said in a statement released by the health service. “I cannot thank everyone enough. I would like to thank everyone who has wished me well in my recovery and prayed for me.”
The Hannels Spur trail, where Nazari went missing, is one of Australia’s most difficult bushwalking routes, noted for its undulating 1,800m change in elevation.
The large-scale search mobilising more than 300 people involved police, SES, NPWS, ambulance staff and volunteers. Six rescue and bomb disposal unit specialist officers were airlifted into the bushland to access remote areas.
But Nazari stumbled into the path of a group of hikers at about 3.15pm on Wednesday, on the circuit walk near Blue Lake.
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He called out and told them he was lost – and very thirsty.
“My mate James looked down towards the shouting and we shouted back. We heard him [Nazari] saying, ‘I need help’,” Joshua Dart, one of the hikers who found Nazari, told the ABC on Thursday.
“When we realised it was him, I couldn’t believe it. We were just emotional, we were crying and he was in tears.”
The prime minister said the survival story was “fantastic news”.
“How he was found after such a long period of time with just a couple of muesli bars, relying upon his knowledge as a medical student, eating berries and eating the right ones, it is remarkable,” Anthony Albanese told reporters on Thursday.
“I just think that everyone will have jumped for joy, the whole nation, at this news.”
