One of the most interesting survival stories you will ever hear about is also one of the most controversial. In many ways, the story of Mauro Prosperi, an Italian pentathlete who got lost in the Saharan Desert, is one of how to survive extraordinary challenges and overcome the odds.
In fact, the odds are very much what this story is about as Mauro Prosperi attempts to take on a 156-mile race, a challenge most people would never consider. However, this story goes even deeper into how the human body and mind can unite to survive in some of the world’s most dangerous conditions.
Who Is Mauro Prosperi?
Born in July 1955, Mauro Prosperi was a former Italian police officer turned pentathlete who decided to leave police work behind to face one of the world’s toughest challenges. Having met his wife at a pre-Olympic pentathlon event, married, and with children on the way, Mauro decided one day after hearing about the Marathon Des Sables that this would be his next challenge in life.
The Marathon Des Sables
The Marathon Des Sables, a 156-mile ultramarathon over some of the world’s most difficult conditions, has been held annually since 1986. Regarded as one of the toughest foot races on Earth, runners must tackle mental and physical challenges on an extreme scale. Prosperi did this by training his body with 25 miles of running every day and reducing his water intake to train himself to dehydration.
In 1994, Mauro Prosperi decided to try this race after a fellow runner and friend informed him of it. Mauro believed he was up to the challenge, and while his wife expressed concerns about race conditions, Mauro was determined to run beside his friend Giovanni Manzo.
At first, everything was going well over the first three days of the race, with the two runners covering more than 60 miles of sand dunes, rocks, and salt beds. However, Prosperi was the more advanced runner of the two on the fourth day of the race, and in fourth place, Mauro believed it was his time to make a move. Unfortunately, on the same day, mother nature decided it was also a good time to create strong gusts of wind and cloud Prosperi’s vision to knock him off course.
Off Course and In Trouble
As the sandstorm took place, Mauro kept pushing through, believing he could still see the trail, and even though he had fallen to seventh place, Mauro was determined to remain in this spot. Unfortunately, after stopping to rest for the night, Prosperi began to run again for another four hours before he realized he couldn’t see anyone else from the race.
Alone and in trouble, Prosperi had a limited water supply and began to ration what he could drink while refilling his spare water bottle with his urine, something he learned from his grandfather. Hoping to be rescued, Prosperi remained in one place and sent up a flare given to every race participant after seeing a helicopter flying nearby, but it didn’t see the flare against the sun.
Stranded and Alone
Prosperi realized he had to find shade and water on day two of being stranded. He knew there was nothing but desert in all directions, so he picked one and began to move. Upon locating a Muslim Marabout shrine, he had hoped to find some Bedouins crossing the desert, but it was empty. However, he used this opportunity to find shelter for another few days, using some of his food rations and cooking with his urine and a portable burner.
Prosperi also survived by locating a family of bats inside the structure and eating them raw after killing them with his pocket knife. With desperation setting in, any food was okay, so Prosperi did what needed to be done to survive, all the while hunting beetles and lizards for extra protein.
When he noticed a plane flying overhead on what we believed was the fourth day he was missing, Prosperi traced the letters “SOS” over the sand and attempted to light a fire but another sandstorm struck, lasting approximately half a day and left Prosperi without rescue once again, which led him to try and take his own life out of depression as Prosperi would later state in a 2014 interview. He knew that if he died, his wife would get his police pension, so he tried to take his own life.
Still Alive
After waking up and discovering that slitting his wrists didn’t work due to severe dehydration, Prosperi said he had a renewed sense of confidence to try and survive. By day eight of his disappearance, he had walked another few days in the morning and evening when temperatures were cooler.
Thankfully, a miracle also happened on day eight, when Prosperi located an oasis with a small water supply. Although he was so severely dehydrated he could barely eat, Prosperi still attempted to drink the water slowly and stay overnight at the oasis.
Finally Rescued
After staying at the oasis overnight, Prosperi awoke to find fresh goat dropping nearby, which he followed as a trail until he located human footprints and came upon a young Tuareg girl. As he initially frightened the girl due to his starved and dehydrated appearance, the girl ran away and fetched her grandmother, who helped guide Prosperi over toward a Berber tent in their camp.
The women fed him mint tea and goat’s milk, although he couldn’t digest any of the food they provided. When he was ready to travel, the group put Prosperi on a camel until they encountered a military police patrol. The patrol initially arrested Prosperi, thinking he was a Moroccan spy, until they discovered his identity and transported him to a hospital.
Overall, Prosperi had wandered more than 181 miles off the track and had even moved from inside Morocco into Algeria, where he was hospitalized for seven days. Thankfully, he was able to reach his wife, who had presumed he was dead, allowing for a happy ending to this story, even though Prosperi had lost a whopping 33 pounds over 9 days and had to be fed 16 liters of fluids to replenish his body.
The final part of this story ends with Prosperi staying in Algeria for seven days before he was well enough to travel back to Italy, where he was hailed as a hero.
The Aftermath
For many reasons, Prosperi’s story has been retold as a fantastic rescue story about the desire to survive. However, there have been many questions about whether or not his story is true. Several prominent sports physiologists question whether Prosperi could have survived for nine days based on his supplies and the food and animals he said he discovered.
Still, Prosperi’s story has been retold on the National Geographic Channel and in a 2019 Netflix show. Bear Gryllis, the famed British survivalist, has also attempted a similar situation to see whether Prosperi’s story could be true, but in the end, it doesn’t matter, as only Mauro knows the truth.
There is no question that Prosperi went off course and that race officials changed to heavier flare guns for the following Marathon des Sables races, which Prosperi participated in repeatedly.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Kaisove / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
