How a teen survived Australia's ruthless outdoors for 12 days | 60 Minutes Australia

a few days ago The Impossible happened nineteen-year-old Jamie Neal walked out of the Bush safe and surprisingly well surprising because he'd been lost in the Blue Mountains for almost two weeks everyone had given up even his family had said their last goodbyes there's no doubt Jamie was hopelessly unprepared you can sure believe him when he says that he might be smart but he's got no common sense it's an incredible tale too good to be true according to the cynics so what really happened well here's Jamie's own story and you can decide for yourselves great Survivor or great Pretender they're one of the great sides the blue mountains west of Sydney their Majesty's breathtaking but it's their ruggedness that should Inspire respect as inviting as this spectacular landscape is you enter it at your peril would you like to be back it feels a bit weird bit weird the last time Jamie Neal the 19 year old from North London took this path he didn't come back for 12 days and this is what you were doing you're just bashing through the bush really for the first few days here just bashing through it's not until you walk in his footsteps that you realize how easy it is to get lost here [Music] this is ridiculous Jamie yeah that's what it was like it's worse but yeah losing the walking trail Jamie spent days and days fighting his way through all but impenetrable Wilderness desperate to find a way out behind we've got you again that's so good oh oh God you're right I'm not a particularly religious person but I started thinking about God and with praying saying but surely you can you know move a helicopter an inch and find me and they said why won't you just help me and if things like that were you prepared to die there and then I was thinking I might die on that mountain and just think about all the people uh all my friends the people I've working with my family wondering if I was going to see them hear their voices again hi Jamie Tara Brown hi nice to meet you nice to meet you too how you going I'm good thanks never been better yeah I'm on top of the world at the moment two days ago I met Jamie for the first time with First Impressions what a lucky bloke he is no plans for any more Bush walking uh not really not in that area okay yeah not by yourself alive considerably lighter and mightily embarrassed your story is being described as a great tale of survival but also a great tale of stupidity is that a fair cop yeah in the towel area and in the UK you walk for a day you'd end up in a pub where you just out here you can get lost so easily in that and you just respect the fact and be more prepared and think about what you're doing a lot more this grainy image captures the newly arrived Backpacker setting out on his Adventure a 10-hour bushwalk Jamie had remembered to pack two bread rolls and a small bottle of water he'd forgotten his mobile phone or to tell anyone where he was going and he was only wearing light clothing this Trek had disaster written all over it a lot of the people I know I say they I'm incredibly smart person with no common sense when you say you're a smart bloke and I have no nothing to doubt that except that you go into this rugged landscape you don't tell people exactly where you're going you certainly don't register with the police you don't take an emergency Beacon with you and you really don't take a proper amount of supplies I had overconfidence and I just didn't respect the theory of the situation and I made mistakes Jamie's biggest mistake was to take the wrong path it was on dusk he'd lost his bearings thinking he was heading back to town he in fact was walking in the opposite direction so what point did you start to panic it was on the second day that's when it really shocked me that I'm in the wrong side of the valley I've been walking for you know about a day and a half in the wrong direction in that and then that's when I'm thinking well I've got to head back in this direction and that's when I started to think I'm in trouble because Jaime had failed to tell anyone of where he was going there was no search for four days imagine his fear during that time imagine too the sheer relief of hearing rescue chocolates I just started seeing helicopters and that I was convinced they were out searching for me and not someone else and what did you do to attract their attention I basically tried to climb out on these Rocky out Cliff things and I had a bright blue shirt which I tied and I tried to wave and I was shouting out trying to get their attention but it was all for nothing what Jamie didn't know was that he was a needle in a haystack the Choppers just couldn't see him including the one with his father on board Richard Cass had flown out from England to find his son who had now been missing for seven days seen those Cliffs I've been up in a chopper I'd look down on those Cliffs and they terrified me I thought he's been wondering about the docks and he's falling down a cliff and smashed his brains out and we'll never see them again and we'll never even get a body I thought defeated by the harsh Australian bush Richard didn't even wait for the search to be called off he chiseled a memorial to his son along the path Jamie had walked I couldn't leave Australia without some sort of closure you know I'd have to spend the rest of my life thinking about my lost son but without a funeral I thought I had to do something to say goodbye but what was the emotion as you were doing that it it was very intense I spoke a few words not prayer is such to God I think but you know to Jamie said I'm sorry we haven't found you you will never forget you that sort of thing and you know it's such a waste that you came out here and lost your life you had so much ahead of you I'm here and a few times when he's left I'll be screaming I'm still alive while his father thought he was dead Jamie was busy trying to survive he might have been stupid getting into this dangerous mess but now he was being incredibly sensible he built a shelter drank lots of water and resorted to Bush Tucker he was now nine days missing okay it's a bit better I just took a wreck and I am some people said I didn't know they're not poisonous but you didn't but you just took three I don't know the current teacher but man oh man it's cold and clearly I'm pretty rugged up during the time Jamie who was lost the overnight temperatures were around the one two degree Mark never more than five degrees and even during the day it never got more than 13 degrees at times Jamie was also soaking wet add to the cold the complete isolation and the loneliness of his ordeal and it's hard to imagine how this 19 year old got through one night out here let alone nearly two weeks I know you're you're a tough Northern Hemisphere bloke but how cold did it get out there got really really cold my feet were burning that was the thing I was having to move and just trying to move my toes so scared I might get something like train your foot or gangrene and then it was also where it's moist and thing I kept getting attacked by the leeches in that night when you got to your lowest point what did you think was going to happen to you uh the last thing I thought was going to happen would be that I would starve to death which is something I really didn't want to happen were you terrified that is the thing that did terrify me I didn't want to long drawn out thing and that did terrify me 400 people mainly volunteers scaled the scrub for Jamie even as the chances of finding him alive diminished The Searchers led by Sergeant Ian Collis just kept going did you really think you'd find him it was getting Slimmer by the day that's obvious you know but you know even I think if we'd come to that realization we probably still would have been out here anyway because there's still things to be done even if we don't think he's alive but after 12 days Jamie stumbled into a couple of campers who helped him walk out of the bush in total he'd tracked over 60 kilometers but in the end was only a couple of K's from his setting off point his first call was to his mum back in England I didn't know what to say and you know I just wanted to hear her voice and I didn't know the words to say we're just crying down the phone for about 20 minutes hearing each other SOB I couldn't speak like all I could do was just listen to their voices which was great actually be able to hear people that I've never thought I can hear again what was that moment like when you saw your son again it was fantastic you know I had literally given him up for dead he changed his eyes were so scary like he'd like a train was coming down at him but it was still my boy that was fantastic so what you could see an impact on him oh yes definitely yeah they sort of cheeky glint in his eye three weeks ago but when he come back he'd you could see he'd been to Hell and back but not everyone is convinced such was Jamie's endurance against the odds people started to question whether he was in the bush at all that his claims are a hoax and he's a fake I know what's happened and I know the people who were out searching for me and that they know that it happened and not good enough for me people say what they want because I'm not lying it's the truth so he didn't go off somewhere and have a little nice holiday while family friends and and complete strangers were worried about you searching for you I was genuinely lost and I think it's unfair to you know discredit this and you're genuinely lost for that amount of time and with so little clothing and with no food yep generally the story show some people say it's a hoax I you know can't stop them but does it speak to how incredible they think your story is that they think it's impossible for you to have survived well I think you do have these impossible stories that do happen in that and I've luckily become one of them so there's no question in my mind now that it's uh genuine I've got no reason to do any more to it so what do you say to those doubters then well maybe they should try and spend 12 days in soda Valley without too much comfort this land formation here is Mount solitary for all the frustration and ill-prepared Jamie cause Sergeant Collis is impressed by this 19 year old's mental and physical ability to survive so instead of attacking him perhaps celebrate how remarkable he is I think so um you know in the future when people might start saying is beyond hope we can say well remember Jamie Neal Blue Mountains hospital is in no doubt that while Jamie survived he also suffered his blood tests show signs of malnutrition originally within a lot better condition but and his clothes from two weeks in the wilderness have to be smelt to be believed okay and you know what it does Sting doesn't it and I've just noticed that it clump of blood from the back and do you know what that's from I'm don't know where that one's gone from they Bear all the marks of the physical challenges Jamie faced most of the time so thank you Australia thank you guys specifically I am so grateful to what happened here so grateful to Australia perhaps those who best know what Jamie went through in that Valley are those who took on the bush to save him [Music] it's the old Australian Spirit of the help your mates out but Jamie's not a mate you don't know these are made now everyone's talking to him now and shaking his hand and saying it's great to see you so he's amazing I cry when I uh urge you a fear mates I just want to share these volunteers these mountain men and women are a tough bunch but they think the legend in the room is a young kid from London who survived conditions most of us couldn't really touching to know that if I thought half the world were you know looking for me wondering and that and it was it's a nice feeling I'd like to see Along The Ridges there there's a kind of ledge about halfway there with us Jamie is planning to stay in Australia for another few weeks but yesterday Richard said goodbye to his son once more as he returned to the UK it's so vast area but not before he gave him a warning or two about going Bush again you know I love him to I'm so glad to see him again but you know Jamie for pleased you know use your brain next time that's pretty much reaction that I've gotten from almost everyone I know after people were saying we're going to beat the crap out of you you're going to beat you after things go home you're an idiot we hate you and then the other one what we're going to buy you a drink we love tea again no which is great hello I'm Tom Steinfeld thank you for watching 60 Minutes Australia subscribe to our Channel now for brand new stories and exclusive Clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 minutes which are on nine now.com and the nine Now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 98,919

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Tara Brown, Tom Steinfort, 60Mins, Amelia Adams, news, world news, news australia, investigative journalism, 60 minutes australia youtube, 60 minutes youtube, 60 minutes episodes, 60 minutes australia episodes, 60 minutes australia, 60 minutes, jamie neale, blue mountains, blue mountains nsw, sydney, blue mountains sydney, bushwalk, bush, australian bush, australian outdoors, backpacking, british backpacker, backpacker

Id: zkZjokW_2c4

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023