How did Reikko Hori´s experience end?

(The photos of her experience, at the end of this post)

After spending the first 24 hours with Reikko, we left her alone on the island and she finally managed to finish her 19 days experience, but not without suffering. During the 19 days she had only a few items of clothing, a torch, a magnifying glass, snorkel glasses and a spear gun. She refused to bring a machete. (If you wish to watch the videos of the first 24 hours of Reikko on the island visit this post)

According to her story, the first days were extremely hard as she couldn’t find enough food and drink for her survival, mainly as she had no machete to open coconuts. On top of that, as she hadn’t planned building a refuge she had no shelter. And from the intense rain which fell on her second night she was so wet that she caught a cold.

According to Reikko, being wet for several days “was very hard”:

“I felt very bad because my stomach was empty I felt continually dizzy. On top of that it wasn’t very nice not being able to wash my clothes or myself. As I had no shelter the rain made me suffer a lot as did the insects and the sea. On the fifth day I felt absolute desperation knowing I still had another 13 days on the island.”

 Reikko continued:  “Anyway, thanks to this long suffering experience I now know the great importance of food, clothes and of a place to take refuge.”

However, little by little Reikko began to overcome the island’s tests and started to get more confidence in herself. One of her more important achievements was being able to open coconuts easily, using stones.  She also ended up managing to use the spear gun catching some fish. She was even able to climb smaller palms and get some green coconuts which are easier to open and have more water.

Taking advantage of a few dry days she finally managed to light a fire with the magnifying glass we gave her on her first day (surprisingly Reikko arrived on the island thinking she could light a fire from what she could find, with no experience nor knowledge and in only a few days).

Reikko tried again and again, uncountable times, to light a fire without success until she realised that the fibre of the coconut wasn’t dry enough. The last day she told us; “I was surprised to see how easy it was to light a fire with the magnifying glass”.

During her stay she caught a lizard  “On the seventh day I found a large lizard and tried to catch it but I failed. However, on my last day I found another lizard the same size and caught it easily because it was half blind! I was very lucky”.

We asked her if she had felt lonely during her 19 day stay and her surprising answer was:

“Yes very!  I thought I was very independent and that I didn’t need people. But on the island I felt terribly lonely…. It was my first experience of being without other human beings nearby.  Whilst I was there I desperately wished I could go back to civilization and see people. I now realize that where there are people, there is happiness…”

When we asked her for the best three things and the worst three during her experience – as we usually do with each of our castaways on returning from the islands – Reikko answered:

THE BEST: “The best was all my achievements on the island” and continued, “on the first nights there was a New Moon. They were nights full of stars!” Reikko has lived all her life in Osaka where light pollution is one of the highest on the planet.

THE WORST: “The night time floods, not having any food, not having a bathroom or bed, and not having a roof over my head. As the last day was full moon there was a very high tide and enormous waves rolled into the jungle. I was terrified.  Rough seas are very frightening.” 

For her experience, Reikko didn´t want to carry any video camera but instead she promised us to take some pictures with her smart phone. A short description can be found situating your mouse over each photo: