AN ENGLISH backpacker who was found yesterday after he had been missing for 12 days survived freezing nights in the Australian bush by sleeping under logs, huddling in his jacket and eating seeds and leaves.
Nineteen-year-old Jamie Neale, from London, thought he was going to die. The police had said there was little hope of finding him alive, and even his father, Richard Cass, who flew to Australia to help search for him in the Blue Mountains, two hours west of Sydney, had given up hope.
Mr Cass was at Sydney airport about to board a flight home when the police sent a text message to say Jamie was alive. It was news Mr Cass had lost hope of hearing.
“It was absolutely stunning. I’m at the airport. I’m surrounded by strangers. My brother was there and I’m like a lunatic – ‘My boy’s been found, my boy’s been found’,” he said.
“When I arrived I thought there was still hope, but as day after day went by, I thought we’d have to consider maybe something terrible has happened. We’d lit a candle, we’d buried a red rose for England, and he’s come back from the dead,” he said.
Mr Cass was reunited with his son at Blue Mountains Hospital.
“When I’ve seen the mistake after mistake he’s made – I can’t say I’d kill him, because it would just spoil the point of him being back,” said Mr Cass.
“I’m going to kick his arse – the millions that have been spent on this search, the man hours and woman hours that have gone into it . . . all because he goes out on a walk without his mobile phone.
“The only teenager in the world who goes on a 10-mile hike and leaves his mobile phone behind.” After Mr Neale went missing while hiking on July 3rd, a huge search was mounted, involving about 400 people scouring 100sq km of rough terrain.
The temperature drops to zero at night at this time of year in the Blue Mountains, and hopes had faded that Mr Neale would be found alive. But after 11 days of fruitless searching, two bushwalkers chanced upon Mr Neale yesterday morning about 15 kilometres from the town of Katoomba.
The walkers asked him his name and then contacted police.
Mr Neale was brought to the hospital in a police car, but walked in on his own. The police said he was gaunt and scratched, but in relatively good health, apart from dehydration.
“He did think he was going to die, he was that scared,” said Mr Cass.
“He’s a bit depressed. He’s in a bit of a daze. He doesn’t know what has happened to him. But it’s definitely my Jamie.”