As the nine teams were released at the extraction point, kicking off the very first season of Hunted Australia, 56-year-old Angie was the last person to leave the van. Looking for her teammate and sister-in-law, 53-year-old Michelle, Angie landed in a way that somehow caused her to injure her knee.
This injury kicked off a string of bad luck that saw Michelle captured during Sunday night’s premiere, swiftly followed by Angie on Monday.
“The fact that you had to keep running, you couldn’t stop, it just aggravated it a lot more,” Angie told 10 play. “Being on my feet all day, it was just getting worse and worse. Fox’s gut was right,” she said, referring to Michelle by her nickname, “but at the end of the day my knees were on fire and I needed some ice. I would have loved some vodka with that ice.”
Despite having costume changes and plans for decoys and detours to trick the Hunters, Angie’s injury made the pair have to reconsider all of their early plans and strategies.
“We weren’t even planning on staying at any of our friends’ places at all,” Angie added, “we were going to go rogue straight away but unfortunately from the first jump that changed.
“You’ve got to think on your feet… you’ve got to adapt really quickly. Unfortunately, if it was any other part of my body it wouldn’t have been a problem but, not having two walking legs, everything else kind of fell by the wayside.”
After scrapping their plans to immediately go rogue, the pair called an accomplice and sought refuge in her place, but a fumble at Hunters HQ saw their accomplice get a missed call, alerting Angie and Michelle that they were already hot on the trail.
“That was it for me,” Michelle told 10 play, “I said to Ange, we’ve got to get out of here. Unbeknownst to us, everything in Geelong was fully booked because they had some big conference down there. It was just a nightmare.
“I even walked to a hairdressing salon and asked if I could sweep the hair up and stay on their floor, that’s how desperate we got,” Michelle continued.
Struggling to find any accommodation, they returned to their friend’s house where the Ground Hunters were already circling. Attempting to make a getaway, Angie managed to slip into the getaway car while Michelle tried to make a run for it on foot, but she was apprehended.
“Foxy had a Barry Crocker [shocker] in Geelong, didn’t she,” Michelle said. “Nobody remembers the last person to walk on the moon but they remember the first, and I was the first so there you go, keep that up your sleeve.
“I’m a long-distance runner, not a sprinter,” Michelle added, “but I tell you what, Usain Bolt would have been proud of me that day. The last time I ran that fast was when they called last drinks at the bar.”
Split up, Angie managed to get to another friend’s place where she strongly considered if she wanted to even continue on in the experience without her partner in crime.
“We wanted to do it as a family, to understand so many things,” Angie explained. “I did think halfway through… what’s the point now?”
Searching Michelle’s bag for clues the Hunters found details of another accomplice that lived in the general area HQ spotted Angie heading towards where she had hoped to rest her injured knees. Unfortunately, that rest became the end of the experience for Angie as the Ground Hunters were quick to catch up.
For Angie, the whole experience had been deeply personal, a way to better understand her late father who had been on the run with the Richardson gang in London in the ‘60s.
“I always wanted to know why he chose that lifestyle,” Angie explained. “Obviously he didn’t start this late in life, he started a bit earlier,” she added with a laugh.
“Honestly, I think maybe because he did start at a very young age it probably became second nature to him. But for me, doing that so late in life and that stress level -you get this massive exhilaration that just keeps you going and ticking over.
“But it’s just amazing to me that people live like that,” Angie said. “They travel the world like that which is even more astonishing, it’s just crazy.”
For Michelle, seeing their short but sweet time on the series was slightly devastating, especially seeing the moment where they casually had a cup of tea while discussing what their next plans were.
“Oh my gosh, it made us look like we were two old fogeys going in for a cuppa,” she joked. “The Tetley teabag company rang me after I got out, they’re going to name a teabag after me, they’re going to call it the Loser Leaf… two dunks and you’re out.
“Hindsight is a beautiful thing,” Michelle added, “shoulda, coulda, woulda but things just got in our way. Nothing went right from the get-go… nothing went our way.”
Meanwhile, Angie’s takeaway was slightly more surprising.
“I was saying to Fox, I’m going to get healthy, I’m going to get fit, so I quit smoking after like 35 years of being a chain-smoker. I quit a couple of months before the show and I’m running thinking… I run better when I was smoking,” she joked, laughing.
“I’m not saying people should take up [smoking] but if I knew better, if I had to do it again, I’d probably wait to quit smoking for definite.”
Hunted Australia continues Sunday - Tuesday at 7.30 on 10 and 10 play on demand.