Look for water by following birds, insects, or animal tracks. For more advice, including how to pack for a desert trip or signal for help, scroll down Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue. No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow.
Download Article Explore this Article parts. Tips and Warnings. Related Articles. Article Summary. Part 1. Wear clothing that minimizes sweat loss. Most of your body's water loss happens through perspiration.
Cover as much skin as possible with loose, light-weight clothing. This will trap the sweat against your skin, slowing evaporation and therefore water loss. For this reason, it's probably best to go with a cotton undershirt rather than a wicking fabric.
Wear a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and gloves. Pack wool or fleece clothing. If an emergency occurs, you may be traveling at night, when it can get quite cold.
Light-colored clothing reflects more heat, but dark clothing usually provides better protection from UV light, which causes sunburn. Bring lots of extra water. Whenever you enter a desert, bring more water than you expect. Divide the water you're carrying among several containers. This minimizes the amount of water you can lose to one leak. Bring food that packs the most nutrition in the least size and weight. Energy bars, pemmican, jerky, and trail mix are popular choices.
Do your research, experiment beforehand, and be prepared. When wheeled vehicles break down, it's just your two legs and the path to the next town, and you don't want to be carrying anything nonessential. Include some foods with salt and potassium, which are lost in sweat. These will help you avoid heat exhaustion and retain more water. However, if you are dehydrated, excess salt can make you feel worse.
Food is not a priority in a desert emergency. If you are out of water, only eat the minimum required to function. Pack survival equipment. Here are the bare essentials for a survival kit: [6] X Research source Sturdy emergency blankets Cords or rope Water purification tablets First aid kit Fire starters Powerful flashlight or headlamp. LEDs last longest.
Knife Compass Signal mirror Goggles and a dust mask or bandana for dust storms. Part 2. Become nocturnal. In a desert survival situation, you do not want to be moving around during the day. The cooler night air enables you to travel farther and faster with minimum danger of heat exhaustion. In hot climates, this single decision will save your body about three liters three quarts of water per day.
Stay in a shelter during the day. If you don't have a shaded car to stay in, string cords between a pair of objects in a place that gets shade most of the day. Drape a sturdy emergency blanket over the cords. Place a few pieces of brush on top of the blanket, then cover it with another emergency blanket this one can be a thin Mylar sheet.
The gap of air between the two blankets insulates the shelter, keeping it cooler. Build this in the evening or at night. If you build it during the day, you'll trap heat in. You can use an existing rock overhang or cave instead, but approach carefully as an animal may be using it.
Signal for help. Building a fire is a great way to make a signal, creating smoke during the day and light at night. While in transit, keep a signal mirror in reach to reflect light at passing aircraft or distant cars. Decide whether to stay in place. If you have a supply of water and someone knows where you are, staying in one place may be your best chance of rescue.
Traveling to find help will exhaust you much faster than staying in place, and water loss will cut your survival time way down if you can't find another supply. That said, if your water supplies are low, you will need to look for more. You cannot expect to survive more than a couple of days if you run out of water. Find water sources. If there's been a rainstorm recently, you may find pockets of water in rock outcrops or flat stone surfaces.
More often, you'll need to search for areas with possible groundwater: Follow animal tracks leading downhill, birds circling around something, or even flying insects. Walk to the greenest vegetation you can see, especially large plants with wide leaves.
This item would also come in handy for spear-fishing during a future island vacation in the Maldives. A satellite phone is a cellphone that can be used anywhere in the world including a deserted island , as long as there is a clear line from the antenna to the sky. Whilst we might not be able to make that island escape just yet, we can start uncovering island inspiration for travel does open up again. Well we'd love it if you left us a review.
It only takes 30 seconds, we promise! Travel News 10 must-have items when trapped on a deserted island All articles. A fishing net Fish are a very healthy protein choice, and having a net will ensure that catching them is easier. A giant box of matches Who wants to spend hours trying to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together?
A hammock Most deserted islands are filled with trees, and a hammock would provide a comfortable place to sleep those lonely nights away. The mirror to start a fire. Hopefully I could use big leaves to catch dew or rain into my cooking pot. If not I could use the water purifier if I found a stream of water somewhere. I sure hope that I can find berries or coconuts. Morgan Gold. The real answer should be "what's your context?
Stumbled on this thread again. It's related to another thread that was going around the other day. My island is medium sized in a not immediately deadly climate. There are seasonal weather extremes but it's not immediately life threatening.
There are no hordes of ravenous bugblatter beasts who want to kill me just to be obnoxious. There are no other people. No expectation of rescue. Three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food. That's the generally accepted outside range for surviving. There are variables of course. Your mileage may vary. Let's examine the Gilligan's island bunch. The Howels will likely die first. Ginger won't last much longer. Professor has a reasonable chance but he's mostly just book smart with no real world experience.
That's a tough call. I predict she's the last survivor. Ipod or volleyball? It would also improve the human gene pool for future generations. They won't break or get permanently lost.
It's an island so one can't really get too very lost unless they fixate on the Ipod. Too short term. Mud is just as effective. So is shade. Insect repellent? Also short term. Again, mud will do the job. Fishing rod? Nice to have but too short term. There are other ways to catch fish.
Very good to have light available but batteries die fast. They won't last long. I'm going to attempt to eat well. Flare gun? I'm not relying on someone else to rescue me. I intend to save myself. There are other ways to start fire. Too vulnerable. Many other ways available to start fire. Inflatable raft? Tempting but it would probably dry rot before I would be fully prepared for an ocean voyage. Toilet paper? Very short term with limited functions. I'd find soft leaves or jump in the water to clean up.
Maybe if I was expecting to be rescued but that's iffy at best. Could be useful in other ways too but I'll pass. Water purifier? That one is a tough decision. No laughing matter.
Both very useful but not very durable in the long term. I would build more permanent shelter almost immediately.
Another tough choice. Cordage is extremely important but I'll pass. I'm expecting to be there a long time. First aid kit? But some items would still have a shelf life. Commercial ones as shown are too wimpy. Learn wilderness survival first aid. Suck it up buttercup. Hunting rifle? No ravenous hordes of bugblatter beasts. No other people to be concerned about. This one hurts. I love hammocks, especially tent hammocks.
But it would eventually rot. It's fairly easy to make one. So that leaves four items. Assuming it has viable seeds. Might come in handy on an ocean voyage later. A knife is essential. Too many important functions to pass up. Almost unbreakable if it's high quality. I don't do wimpy knives. I trust them. Save the good ones for the harshest terrain or most urgent situations. The steel pot. Multi function. Weapon if necessary. Can make a compass from a small fragment. The weed.
I'm anticipating a long stay so would try to cultivate it for food, cordage, oil, cloth to make a sail, clothes, shelter, medicine, etc. Ross Raven. What the hell. I guess I will throw in. I'm sure a couple people care what I think.
Water storage, Water transport, sterilization, cooking, food storage by reheating assorted soups by killing any bacterial growth. When you need fire, you generally need it now. No messing around. And you keep it going forever unless you screw up That is why there are 2 bic lighters in my pocket as we speak. I could make fire with the rope, hammock, boots, Iphone, flare gun, the fishing rod I wouldnt try the gun method.
Ild need more material for the flashlite method but I might be able to use the relective dish But why fuck around and risk it not happening. Just getter done. Then the tent. Sleep is very important. Live your life importantly. You will need your wits and its hard to sleep when covered with blood sucking bity things. Plus hypothermia kills far faster than hunger or dehydration. It could also be used for rain or Dew catchment.
I got caught up in the knife versus saw trap for a while then remembered I have cut down a tree before with the sharp edge of a broken rock, just to make sure I could do it. Small fire and a rock can also be used to down trees. It was a distraction. The boots was the obvious one. You will be busy constantly and not want to risk a foot injury sorry Cody Lunden plus you have the laces for a bow drill, a bow or shelter starter. Now, if I only had one item Just kidding. I'ld take the other pot.
F Agricola. The survival basics are: shelter, water, food, fire. Dale Hodgins. Many tarps are made of long strands of relatively strong plastic. Any sensible person can fashion a shelter without a tarp.
But the tarp could prove invaluable if it was broken down for these fibers and then made into fishing net. The knife, boots and cooking pots all seem like pretty durable things. I wouldn't plan to live there forever or to wear the boots constantly.
Possibly just when I'm scrambling along the rocks Gathering the little crabs or other things that I want to eat. Sea creatures or some other resource might produce skins suitable for some sort of moccasin. And if this island is anything like Gilligan's Island, I will eventually encounter Headhunters. So, I will use their skins to make a Hannibal Lecter type wardrobe that includes shoes and rain gear. Intestines would be quite valuable as cordage. Femurs and other large bones could be used for spear tips and digging tools.
Craniums should make nice breakfast bowls, and the hair would be great for weaving. I suppose I would dry plenty of the meat, for my voyage but also eat lots of it so that I get my strength up for the trip. If they happen to have a cute girl along, I would see if she would rather be my companion or be made into pemmican, and we would be off to find a more suitable island in the boat that they arrived in. We would make several stops along the way, to pick up her friends and then we would find a nice Island to homestead on.
I think that's how I'd like to end this story. I'd take the raft, for shelter and to take me out to fish and gather crustaceans, move around the island to look for goats and hogs.
I'd take the saw, depending upon how big the pot was, I'd take it. If it's one qt, I'll do without. If it's gallon or bigger, I want it. I''d take the rope, if it was thick and long enough from which to make a lot of netting. If the rope is not big enough for that, and the hammock is made of rope or ideally, paracord, I'll take the hammock instead of the rope. I can fashion a hoku kniife out of obsidian. Bound to be obsidian around, since the desert islands are the tops of volcanos.
Need to be able to cut big bamboo, most likely, so the saw is more to the point. If the knife was a machete, I'd take it over the saw. If the saw is small and the knife big, I'll take the khjife. Kathleen Sanderson. I wouldn't put the boots on my list, because I'm assuming that when I'm deposited on the deserted island, I'm fully dressed, and I always wear sturdy walking shoes. Not always boots, but if we are planning ahead, I'd make sure I had my boots on.
So that's not one of my four choices. My choices would be 1, the knife and it should be a machete or similar ; 2, the pot because it's hard to cook without one, and it can be used to boil water to make it safe to drink ; 3, the rope because there are all kinds of things you can do with rope, and while, yes, you can make your own rope, it would take a while to get enough made to be useful ; and 4, the tent. The tent gives you immediate shelter with good protection against things like insects and snakes; if you are going to be stranded for a long time, you will certainly want to build something else for shelter eventually, but having the tent would allow you to focus on other necessities first, things like finding water and food, and getting a fire built.
Jason Hernandez. Hence the need to replenish it periodically. I have a very hard time choosing among these. I have two scenarios: ideally, and not-so-ideally. Ideally, I would know a few things about sailing, and be able to determine where I was in the world. Then, my four items would be: raft to leave the island , tarp to make into a sail , rope to rig the sail , and compass to navigate at sea.
Too bad a smart phone was not one of the choices; if I could pick up a GPS signal, I could use a map app to assist with this provided I did so early, before the phone's battereies died. Not-so-ideally, let's face it, I'm not a skilled sailor, despite 5 years in the Navy, and determining the location of a deserted island is also easier said than done.
So let's say its the long haul. Hunting rifle is out, because this is a small island without much if any game. Compass is not necessary, because there is no place to navigate to; I can explore the island and remember the routes to any known resources. Toilet paper is also not necessary, because I have often used leaves for that purpose.
It sure would have been nice if a shovel was one of the choices!
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