Thong Of The Wild BY JENNIFER LYON OF SURVIVOR: PALAU

Thong Of The Wild

How a reality outdoors "expert" got caught with her pants down—literally.
BY JENNIFER LYON OF SURVIVOR: PALAU

Lyon gets sand in her panties.

Throughout the course of my life, I have been exposed to the outdoors on a fairly regular basis. After all, I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, specifically The Dalles, Ore.

But nothing could have prepared me for the great outdoors I experienced when I became one of 20 cast members on one of the most popular reality shows of all time: Survivor.

I was cast as the "32-year-old nanny from Encino, Calif.," for the 10th season of Survivor called Survivor: Palau. Although I didn't win the million dollars (I made it to the "final four"), I did learn some valuable experiences during my 37 days on the island.

Like making sure to have the right pair of underwear.

Fast forward to my second day on the island of Palau. Even though I was about to embark on the most amazing adventure of my life, I was pretty much left in the dark about what, where and when all of it would happen—like when we would be dropped off at our "secret location."

For the last two days, my fellow castaways and I had been holing up in big canvas army tents that felt more like ovens than sleeping quarters. Although filming for the show hadn't started, we were there to do a scheduled round of press interviews. Our luxuries were already at a bare minimum: tent lights shorting out and fans barely working. The temperature had to be in the high 90s; the humidity felt close to 100 percent. Not wanting to sound like a whiner, I just grinned and carried on.

That second night I had a restless and sweaty sleep.

"Crap, crap, crap," I said, feeling around my darkened tent, on my hands and knees, rooting around in my luggage, sweating profusely, after just being awakened—way too early—for our "press day."

We had already pre-selected our "outfits" that we were to wear for press. There was much thought on what we would wear, and mine happened to be a miniskirt, tank top and flip-flops. I was one of the fortunate ones. Some of the others had to wear suits and ties (because they were the "business" characters), and with the heat, well, you get the picture. I felt lucky. That is, until I couldn't find my panties.