Lost UK Backpacker Found In Australia

A young British man, the focus of a massive search when he disappeared for almost two weeks in Australia's Blue Mountains, has turned up saying he survived on leaves and seeds.

Arriving in a police SUV at a hospital in Katoomba near Australia's Blue Mountains.

British backpacker Jamie Neal had been missing for 12 days in the bush.

A police helicopter brought his father in from Sydney Airport for an emotional reunion.

Richard Cass had flown in from the UK a few days earlier to help with what had become a full-scale rescue search.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) JAMIE NEAL'S FATHER, RICHARD CASS SAYING:

"I must say admit I had lost faith. I made a little shrine for him and defaced your national park with his name and his date of birth. He is going to come back in about five years time and see his gravestone. And his gran who lived out in Australia in the 50s said those Australians they will find him and you did find him. Well done, I am so grateful."

Gratitude and happiness as father and son posed for the cameras.

Neal - who's 19 - was dehydrated and suffering from exposure, but otherwise by all appearances healthy. He said he'd survived by eating leaves and seeds.

(UPSOUND) (ENGLISH) RICHARD CASS SAYING:

"We don't usually get this intimate, you know. We're English"

And senior police officer Dennis Clifford expressed some bemusement about how he eventually turned up.

NORTH WEST METROPOLITAN REGION COMMANDER, DENNIS CLIFFORD SAYING:

"From what I understand there were a couple camped down in the area and he simply walked into their camp area and I think they were just as amazed as we were once they realised who he was. I believe he showed them his passport to sort of verify who he was."

Jamie Neal's survival in the freezing temperatures of winter-bound Blue Mountains - according to his father - was down his high tolerance for the cold.

Matthew Stock, Reuters.