The father of British backpacker Jamie Neale, who was rescued from the Australian bush after almost two weeks, has spoken of his joy at seeing his son alive.
Richard Cass, who had flown out to Australia from the family’s home in north London, said he had given up hope that search and rescue teams would find Jamie, 19, alive.“I had lost faith, I made a little shrine for him, I carved his name into a tree,” he said.
“I thought he had fallen off a cliff.”
He was at Sydney Airport, preparing to leave the country and fly home, when he received a text message from one of the police officers co-ordinating the search.
Jamie was found by two bushwalkers at 11.30am on Wednesday morning. They called police and Mr Cass was alerted at 11.45am. He had been due to fly out at 3pm.
“I was surrounded by strangers, but I gave a big shout: ‘My boy’s been found’, it was stunning,” he said outside the Blue Mountains Hospital where Jamie is recovering.
“I knew I was going to see him after giving him up for dead.”
Mr Cass was airlifted to the Blue Mountains to be reunited with his son, who is suffering from dehydration and exhaustion but is otherwise healthy, despite spending 12 days alone and lost in dense bushland.
“He’s still a bit depressed he’s a in a bit of a daze, he doesn’t know what happened to him,” Mr Cass said.
Jamie, who became lost during a bushwalk to Mount Solitary, is being kept under observation in hospital tonight. He has some “scratches and bruises” and is very tired, but had coped with the ordeal very well, his father said.
He survived by eating berries and weeds and sleeping under logs. He had seen rescue helicopters pass overhead, but had not been able to flag them down, Mr Cass said.
Eventually, two bushwalkers stumbled upon him off the southern end of the Narrowneck Plateau, several kilometres from the Ruined Castle rock formation where he was last seen.
His rescue has been hailed as a “miracle” by police, who had grave fears for his safety during the freezing nights and bitterly cold days of the past two weeks.
Twelve days is the longest anyone has survived after becoming lost in the Blue Mountains, a beautiful but dangerous stretch of wilderness two hours west of Sydney.
In 2006, the body of schoolboy David Iredale’s was found after nine days. He had become separated from his friends close to Mount Solitary, in the same area where Jamie became disoriented.
1. He didn’t need to ‘earn the right to be heard’ when he told the strangers his good news
2. His proclamation was spontaneous – a response to the good news he ha received was to share it with others.
3. The good news was a hope in what was unseen – he had received merely a text – words, promising his son’s return
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