“Initially I thought it was quite strange that only three would get to vote because I knew that meant there was going to be two from one alliance at least, and one from the other alliance. I was somewhat of a threat, so I tried really hard to be one of those three but, unfortunately, I just missed out. I was fourth, which put me more in the firing line,” Baden told 10 play.
As soon as JLP announced the twist at the immunity challenge, Baden revealed that he thought there was going to be some sort of “exile” coming up. So, he tried to convince Hayley not to worry about being voted out, because she would most likely get a second chance.
“I told Hayley, it’s going to be you or I. She had a 50 percent chance of being voted, and most likely whoever it was out of us two would go to exile. Throwing George under the bus, she was burning the entire alliance because she’s ratting out the double agent and even if she does stay in, she’s going to lose her alliance, and the other tribe isn’t going to trust her either.”
But the paranoia was too strong for Hayley, and she still went to Dani and Emmett and told them that George was being a double agent.
“It was a terrible idea. And despite everything I still think it was a terrible idea. I think she would agree that was probably her biggest mistake. Even though she doesn’t go out, she still burns everyone.”
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During Tribal Council, JLP revealed there would be a fire challenge between the three immunity winners that would give one person complete control over who would be voted out.
“I was very happy about that as I thought Andrew would definitely have the most experience in that field. Unfortunately, his flint broke. He would have most definitely won that in my opinion, and then it would have changed the whole game because we would’ve knocked out the other alliance and then I wouldn’t have had to go to Redemption Rock.”
When Dani won the fire-making challenge, she put her vote on Baden and he believes it’s because he was still closely aligned with George.
“I actually trusted George. In the beginning we had a very frosty start and I called him out a number of times. He was always claiming to be a victim. I don’t know if that was part of his game, it probably was, but he was really annoying me… It doesn’t really show so much on the show, but I was meeting George in the middle of the night and we were making plans and he was giving all the info to me and I didn’t know Emmett picked up on that.”
So, Baden was sent to Redemption Rock and while there, he revealed that at one point, he was evacuated from his camp.
“The hardest part of being there was the unknown. I didn’t know how long I was going to be there for, I think it ended up being three days. All I knew was I was sitting there on my own in a rather beautiful rocky lagoon… A herd of bulls ran through the camp one night and I had to be evacuated, it was quite bizarre, but I didn’t mind my time there.”
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Then Hayley was voted out at the next tribal and Baden said he was not surprised it was her that joined him.
“When Hayley turned up in the middle of the night, I thought it was the bulls coming back to spear me with their horns,” he laughed. “But it was Hayley, and that didn’t surprise me because her move to throw George under the bus was going to come back to bite her really quickly.
“I was right about everything; the person going out might not be her, the person going out would go to exile and she’d be next if she did it, so I was sort of right in my opinion on what I told her before that Tribal Council.”
While at Redemption Rock, they had a good chat and “she was very regretful on the moves she had made and was feeling down on herself.” They strategised and came up with plans, but ultimately, “we both agreed it was going to be very hard for her to win because of how many people she got offside.”
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They suspected a challenge was coming up which they would need to compete in, and he shared that as soon as he saw it, he knew Hayley was going to win.
“I knew that my goose was cooked. I got about 20kgs on her, and she said she could’ve stayed on there for another 2-3 hours so there was no way I’d ever beat her on that challenge, and it was unfortunate that that was the challenge they put forward. If I had of been in that challenge with Big D, I probably would’ve won,” he laughed.
Baden played a big game, pulled some great moves and overall, he was proud of the way he played Survivor.
“I haven’t watched much Survivor before, I’m not a Survivor super-fan who knows every trick in the book, but I think that was to my advantage in some ways. I was thinking outside of the square the whole time and doing things that hadn’t been done before because I wasn’t stuck within the Survivor ideas.
“The idea of passing the idol around at the Tribal Council was mine, I was trying to get the idols from Simon before he got snuffed out so that was my idea and that’s become a thing now,” he laughed.
Baden is the first member of the Jury and he was so excited to find out he made it.
“At the time, I had no idea, so my math told me I was going to be the last person not to make the jury. But I didn’t know Chelsea had been taken out for medical reasons, so when I lost to Hayley, I thought I was going home. It wasn’t until much later that I was told no, you’re the first member of the Jury.”
Overall Baden enjoyed his time in the game and said the one thing he missed most was his family.
“It was very difficult. I had to dig deep mentally, but the whole time I was out there, what I was daydreaming about was sitting at home with my daughters watching the show, and it’s been everything I dreamt of so I’m very happy.”
