Dramatic rescue after fishing trip almost cost dad his life

It was cold and so pitch black that Adam Hansen couldn't see one foot going in front of the other, panic was setting in.

Suddenly he fell, down, down and smash! He'd landed at the bottom of the crevice, his back and knee were sore, but he was alive.

The rain was falling at Otford, the rocks were slippery and the mud treacherous, even with his spiked shoes on, and he's still wondering why he left his phone in the car.

"Because I got lost, I panicked," he said. "I decided to make my own track through the [Royal] National Park trying to get back onto the original track that I came down on, and the harder I tried, the more I got lost.

"I was trekking through grass and weeds and trees that were waist high [and] shoulder length grass."

Still sporting injuries from a fishing trip gone very, very wrong, Adam spoke exclusively to ACM's Illawarra Mercury to thank those who came to his rescue on Wednesday, May 8.

Locations of where the fish are biting are closely-guarded secrets of anglers, so when Adam got a hot tip for a great place to catch snapper at Otford it was too good to refuse.

The 38-year-old has been fishing since he was a child and he regularly throws a line in at the Royal National Park, Kiama and Gerringong.

He drove from his home in Oran Park in Sydney's south-west to Otford. He parked, quickly sent his partner a 'pin' on her mobile so she'd know where his car was, before shoving his phone back in the car so it wouldn't get damaged in the wet weather.

Carrying his rods and gear he trekked through the bush for around 20 minutes to find the fishing spot.

Click on the picture below to see more photos from the rescue

For four or five hours he fished - one snapper and two Australian salmon later - and with fading light he decided to trek back to the car, but which way.

As he walked further and further the tree canopy blocked the light, soon it was night time. He kept walking uphill for around an hour, then he fell down the crevice.

"Something inside me said no you're just going to have to just stay in the forest for the night. Just find a rock or a stable place to just to sit down and rest or sleep," he said.

He was freezing, he didn't have enough warm clothes, he had no food or water, and in the dead-quiet of night noises from animals was loud. As he was drifting off to sleep he heard something.

"It was a really loud noise that wasn't too far away from me," he said. "I'm guessing it was a deer, I saw deer tracks along the beach."

As Adam shivered, wide awake in the darkness he thought of his partner and their children - a five-year-old daughter and 18-month-old son - and he worried.

"You don't want to think the worst, but I just started to think that what if I don't come home and what does that look like for her and our kids?," he said.

He got up determined to live and to keep warm started doing star jumps and shadow boxing, anything to keep warm.

Finally the sun rose and when he looked to his right realised he was steps away from the edge of a cliff.

"It was probably about a 20-30 metre drop. I was probably 10 steps away," he said. "If I kept walking [during the night] I would have fell straight down that cliff face, and it would have been really serious, if not fatal."

Instead of trying to trek the bush again, he found a creek and scampered down rocks and cliff edges following it to the beach where he'd been fishing.

Still wearing his spiky shoes he headed back up onto rock ledges towards the Figure Eight Pools, he figured rescuers would be able to spot him there.

He didn't realise, but his brother Macoy Hansen had gone looking for him, thanks to the 'pin' sent the day before. Macoy found the spike marks in the sand from his brother's shoes, but couldn't see Adam.

The first time the Westpac Rescue Helicopter swooped over Adam he waved frantically but they didn't see him and kept going.

READ MORE: I don't want to die': How a friends fishing trip took a terrifying turn

An hour or so later he was feeling desperate, fatigue and hypothermia had set in.

Suddenly the helicopter was overhead again, they'd spotted the bright red lifejacket he was wearing. Adam was about 500 metres south of the Figure Eight Pools.

On board was Kiama rescue crew officer Jake Cleal-Cook who was winched down towards Adam.

"It was pretty stark out there, there was a fair bit of rain and low clouds and there was a fair bit of spray," Jake said. "Our main concern was hypothermia, he [Adam] was so cold."

After an 80-foot winch (24 metres) down, Jake reached the rocks and scampered towards Adam.

"My name's Jake what's yours?" he asked as Adam lent out to shake his rescuer's hand.

Adam was winched to Bald Hill, assessed by paramedics and allowed to go home.

The day after his dramatic rescue he's sworn off rock fishing, at least for a little while, and has so much praise for those who saved him.

"I'm just really, really grateful to the rescue guys and the Westpac Rescue Helicopter and the ambulance, the police, police rescue

Everyone was so nice, there was no judgment at all. They didn't make me feel like I did the wrong. It was just my safety and my welfare was number one for everybody in charge."