It's a hard judgement call. Most often when people are lost they can find themselves by keeping moving. I've done it. You don't read about those cases in the media because they don't need rescue. The trick is to realise you are in a situation so unusual that your usual solutions won't work. It's hard. That's a big part of why we have disasters.

It sounds like this guy figured that out about the time it got dark and he was still lost. As far as I can tell, he stayed put for the night, then in morning moved to where he could use his mobile phone. I think that was probably the right thing to do. It's what led to his eventual rescue.

When he was in touch with his rescuers, they told him to move again, to near the river. He did that then stayed put until they found him - several days. What would you have done differently?