Backpacker's farewell notes to family.

A BRITISH backpacker who was lost in the Australian bush for almost two weeks has described how he wrote goodbye notes to his family, fearing he would starve to death.

Jamie Neale, 19, from north London, was found alive but dehydrated by sightseers in the Blue Mountains national park, west of Sydney.

He said: "I was thinking that I might die on that mountain and in the notebook I had, which I later lost, I had actually written some goodbye notes, things to family, saying sorry and explaining how I got lost and things like that. I thought I was going to have a long, painful starvation death where I could just really think it over and over and over again."

Mr Neale set off from a hostel in Katoomba on July 1, taking a few rolls and a bottle of water with him.

Thinking his hike would take just a few hours, he said he left his mobile phone charging in his r oom.

But, after veering off the path, he realised he was lost.

Mr Neale described in the interview his feelings of "frustration and anger" when he failed to attract the attention of helicopters flying overhead from his position in dense undergrowth.

Unknown to him, his father, Richard Cass, had flown to Australia to help the search.

Relief finally came after 12 nights in the open when he spotted a tent.

He said: "At that point I just started walking towards it and then started screaming 'hello'."

Neale said: "I just collapsed into their camp and found them, and knew I'd been saved."

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Jamie Neale