Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan “almost froze to death” in their Range Rover on Friday the 13th.
The TV couple, who have been married since 2008, had been at a Christmas party at the start of the weekend but took to social media in the hours that followed to reveal they had been stranded on the way back when their satellite navigation system.
A joint Facebook post read: ‘How was your Friday the 13th? Let’s just say ours wasn’t great…
—Okay, enough: just so you know that we hate thirst traps. And we hate the traps of sympathy. You will never see us with our t*** out in our underpants.
‘Of course we have drama (just like other people), but we keep our stuff a secret. Normally….
‘So please read this post knowing that you are here for one reason, and one reason only: to profile – and show gratitude – an army of people who (last night) came to our aid in dire circumstances.
‘So what happened? Well, we almost froze to death. Literally.’
TV presenters Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan “almost froze to death” in their Range Rover on Friday the 13th
The TV couple, married since 2008, had been at a Christmas party at the start of the weekend but were stranded on the way back.
The first I’m a celebrity… Get me out of here! The contestants lost all signal and ‘slid into a ditch’ with no option to call for help.
The post continued: ‘Having attended a Christmas party in Nomi (in Harcourt) with our Kabin friends Amanda and Geoff, we set off into the night to return to Haliburton.
“It was 10:30 p.m. The weather, when we left Nomi, was totally fine, otherwise we wouldn’t have left.
But then, out of nowhere, a storm came. We lost phone signal around 10:45 pm…and then our GPS failed, too. We were totally lost, with no turning back.
‘Moments later, we slid into a ditch from which there was no escape. With no phone signal, we were trapped. “We couldn’t call for help and the temperature in our truck was dropping.”
The interior designers tried without success to activate the SOS emergency button of their vehicle several times and despite becoming ‘like ice posts’ they were careful to overheat themselves with the engine.
The post continued: ‘FYI, we have an emergency SOS button on the truck, but it just didn’t activate. For several hours. At that moment we were like ice lollies and we started to feel dizzy.
‘We turned the engine on and off intermittently, to try to keep warm, but we feared carbon monoxide poisoning, even though we had cleaned the exhaust. We are normally VERY practical. And not prone to drama. “But my God, this was so scary.”
In the end, the SOS button was activated and they called for help before falling asleep, only to be awakened by volunteer firefighters and a police officer in the early hours of Saturday morning.
The publication adds: “Finally, the SOS button on our vehicle was finally activated and we were able to convey our distress. But then we fell asleep, our truck already almost completely buried in the snow. At 5.30 we were woken up by real angels.
They explained: ‘Out of nowhere, a storm came. We lost phone signal around 10:45 pm…and then our GPS failed, too. We were totally lost, with no turning back.
The interior designers tried unsuccessfully to activate the emergency SOS button in their vehicle several times and turned into “ice lollies” as the temperature continued to drop.
The couple wanted to reiterate that they had not told the story themselves and wanted to express their “extreme gratitude” to those who saved them.
The first I’m a celebrity… Get me out of here! The contestants lost all signal and ‘slid into a ditch’ with no option to call for help.
In the end, the SOS button was activated and they called for help before falling asleep, only to be awakened by volunteer firefighters and a police officer in the early hours of Saturday morning.
‘Thankfully Range Rover had alerted three volunteer firefighters, two paramedics and an incredibly helpful police officer called Josh to get us out.
‘After being checked by the paramedics, Josh brought us home safely. By 7am the shit show was over. We were safe.’
But the couple wanted to reiterate that they had not told the story for their own good and wanted to express their “extreme gratitude” to those who saved them.
The post concluded: “So, as we said at the beginning of this long post, this is not a sympathy trap – we are FINE.” Completely.
‘This is not about us: it is a post designed to show our EXTREME gratitude to those who were involved in our rescue. The three volunteer firefighters. Both paramedics. And Josh, our incredibly helpful police officer, who made sure we got home safely.’
Colin and Justin have been together as a couple since 1986 and first rose to fame when they presented Million Pound Property Experiment for the BBC in 2003.
Throughout the 2000s they presented other property shows including How Not to Decorate for Channel 5 and Colin and Justin’s Home Show for the now defunct UKTV Style.
They took on the jungle in 2009 when Gino D’Acampo emerged winner of the series and went on to host several shows in Australia and Canada.
In late 2022, they returned to Channel 5, where they headlined Colin and Justin’s Hotel Hell.