Backpacker thought he would die in bush

Huddling under logs or just his jacket on freezing nights, Jamie Neale thought he was going to die but somehow survived 12 days lost in the harsh Australian bush, eating seeds and weeds.

Given up for dead, even by his father, who was about to board a plane back to Britain, the rescue of the English backpacker will enter Australia's survival folklore.

The 19-year-old, who became lost during a day hike on July 3, emerged from the bush on Wednesday, gaunt and scratched, but in relatively good health.

Jamie's father Richard Cass, who flew out from Britain to join the search, was overjoyed to see his son after giving him up for dead.

But, he said, he would "kick his arse" for all the trouble he had caused.

"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," Mr Cass said outside the Blue Mountains Hospital in Katoomba, where his son is recovering.

"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."

A mammoth search was mounted for Mr Neale, involving about 400 people scouring some 100 square kilometres of rough terrain in an unsuccessful search.

Mr Neale had left many of his possessions, including a mobile phone, at the Katoomba youth hostel where he had been staying, when he set off on the hike.

He was last sighted a few hours later on top of the Ruined Castle rock formation in the Blue Mountains National Park, telling a married couple he intended to keep walking to Mount Solitary, a return trip of about 10 hours.

Then he was not seen again until Wednesday morning, when a scratched and gaunt Mr Neale wandered into the campsite of two bushwalkers at Medlow Gap about 15km from Katoomba.

Mr Cass said his son had slept one night under a log, and others "huddled up in his jacket" during his 12 days in the bush.

"He was eating seeds. He ate some sort or weed which was like rocket, as he described, a kind of lettuce," he said.

It was a text message from Blue Mountains police commander Superintendent Tony McWhirter which provided Mr Cass with the news he'd lost hope of ever receiving.

At the time he was waiting for his flight back to Britain.

"It was absolutely stunning," he said of the news.

"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'."

Asked about his son's reaction to being rescued, Mr Neale said "he was just so grateful".

"He was talking to me about whether there was a God and he was kind of losing faith in the idea that there was a God every time that helicopter flew over, and he waved and shouted and nothing happened," he said.

"He did think he was going to die, he was that scared.

"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."

Mr Cass praised searchers who spent days looking for his boy, saying he understood why it had taken so long to find him, with visibility such a problem.

"My heart goes out to them, and to Australia, for making it possible for him to come back from the dead, literally, as far as I'm concerned," he said.

"I was told there were 50 guys with yellow jackets out there looking for him - I saw one of them.

"So I can understand how difficult it is to see a stupid kid in a dark blue jacket walking under the trees."

Jamie's mother, Jean Neale, said the family never doubted they would see him again.

"I never gave up hope. I always knew that he'd be coming home," she told Sky News UK from her home in north London.

"I told all the family and all his friends that he was coming home, and I have no doubts about that."

Jamie Neale remains in hospital, suffering exposure and dehydration.

"He is a physically tough boy. He's 19, at the peak of fitness," Mr Cass told reporters.

"My ... mother likes it cold. I like it cold. He likes it cold, and that saved him.

"I knew the one thing that wasn't going to kill him was the cold."