LA: Last week, a photo showing Donna D’Errico’s face – banged up and bruised following a horrific fall — shocked fans. What made the former “Baywatch” star’s story even more compelling was the fact that Donna fell looking for Noah’s Ark.
On Monday, Access Hollywood’s Shaun Robinson sat down with Donna to find out what happened and why she’s obsessed with the Ark.
“I’m not going to make any big claims like, ‘I’m going to find Noah’s Ark,’ I just wanted to search for it,” Donna told Shaun.
From “Baywatch” bombshell to Biblical relic hunter, earlier this month Donna filmed her nearly 7,000-mile journey to Mount Ararat, a Turkish mountain, which according to the Book of Genesis, contains the remains of Noah’s Ark.
Escorted by Kurdish guides, the spiritual journey to the mountain was a lifelong dream for Donna.
“I’m staring and I have my camera ready. Finally, I saw it way off in the distance and I just started to cry,” Donna explained of seeing the peak.
However, Donna nearly didn’t make it to that view. Once she hiked up to an elevation of 10,000 feet, she fell.
“I made the mistake of looking back and I looked behind me and we were so far up and they are flat rocks with sharp corners and I’m not a professional rock climber. I’ve climbed in the gym, but that’s not the same thing,” Donna said. “When I looked back and saw what kind of danger I would be in, all I could think of were my kids. ‘If I lose my footing, I’m going to die.’ When I looked back, I felt my whole body tense up and I didn’t test the rocks as I should have and I stepped on one that wasn’t stable.
“It gave and it pushed all the other ones out of place and I was basically on top of a rock slide,” Donna added.
The actress said the fall and rock slide cut up her face — however, she credited her hiking companion for saving her life, pulling her to safety moments before she would have slid off the cliff.
“My face was dragging over the face of all these rocks,” she said. “And I was kind of ping-ponging like a pinball machine.”
