General Chat

I get lost walking down my own High street never mind going up in mountains.
I dont know the in and outs of this case but I feel some people are not well enough prepared to go up mountains/hills etc.
It cost's a lot of money to go looking for them plus puts the lives of the rescuers in danger.

Marion

So glad that he has been found, what a stroke of luck, those hikers finding him.......

but I bet that Canadian is breathing a sigh of relief as he was allegedly the last person to see him, and as such MUST have been a suspect!!

Bob

He will maybe make sure he takes his phone next time lol.

We too have been in and around there. The major problem is the sheer size of the area. It is not somewhere you can go for a quick afternoon stroll.

He just got lost. The Blue Mountains are very primeval country. They are a place where you expect to see dinosaurs walking around. In a way it was lucky it is winter here as there are many venomous snakes around in the warmer weather.

I do not know how this young man survived, he must have a will of iron. There is very little that he could eat but he would get water at this time of year. One very brave young man to have survived the way he did.

Our volunteers are wonderful people and he had 400 of these heroes looking for him.

Gail

I'm glad he is ok. Had he taken ill or got lost or what?

He is one very lucky young man. I know these mountains well and in my younger days did many searches for people lost.

He had a locator in his phone but did not take it with him.

Happy for his parents that he survived many do not.

Gail

Isn't this an amazing story. I've just added bits of it onto a thread on the Chat Board. He is a truly lucky young man. There's an update on him on

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,25785449-2,00.html?from=public_js

British backpacker Jamie Neale has been found alive and well in the NSW Blue Mountains after going missing for 12 days.

The English tourist was found in remote bushland by two hikers at about 11.30am this morning near the Narrow Neck fire trail, 15km from Katoomba.

A police spokesman told ninemsn that emergency crews were in the process to getting to him.

"He has been able to talk to police … given that he's been out there for such a long time, it's believed he's in very good condition," he said.

Detectives on Friday afternoon released a CCTV image of the 19-year-old, who was last seen leaving a youth hostel at Katoomba on the morning of July 3.

Worried members of Mr Neale's family from England, including his father Richard Cass and an uncle, had joined the search effort.

"He's very tolerant of cold and if anybody can survive this, he will," Mr Cass told reporters at the scene of the search yesterday.

Mr Neale is believed to be an experienced hiker.

Police had been searching for a Canadian man they say was the last person to see the backpacker before his disappearance.

Mr Neale had checked into a Katoomba youth hostel on July 2, and was last seen about 9.40am the next day.

He had told fellow guests he was intending to walk the popular track to the Ruined Castle rock formation and was last sighted prior to his disappearance on top of it.

Mr Neale told a married couple he met there that he intended to keep walking to Mt Solitary, a return trip of about 10 hours.

He had paid for a tour of Jenolan Caves on July 4, but never turned up, police said.

Personal belongings, including his mobile phone and personal papers, were found at the hostel.