'Backpacker wrote farewell letters'

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

According to reports, he told Australian current affairs television programme 60 Minutes: "I was thinking I might die on that mountain... (I) had actually written some goodbye notes and things to family saying, my last walk, saying sorry, explaining how I'd got lost and different things like that.

"I'm not a particularly religious person but I started thinking about God and I was praying and saying 'surely you can move a helicopter an inch and find me' and 'why won't you just help me?'"

Mr Neale was discharged from Katoomba's Blue Mountains Hospital on Friday after being treated for dehydration and exposure.

He has come in for criticism from some sections of the media who have questioned whether his amazing survival tale was a hoax.

It was reported he told the Channel Nine programme: "The people in hospital said I'm going to get a lot of this criticism and people saying it was a hoax. But I've been in the situation. I know what it's like... People can say what they want because I'm not lying. It's the truth."

Mr Neale's father, Richard Cass, who flew to Australia last week to join the search, has also dismissed the hoax claims.

Mr Cass was waiting at the airport to fly home on Wednesday morning when he received a text message from police saying there was good news. He said: "The words 'good news' told me everything. That was when I knew he was safe."

The gap year traveller has said he survived in the bush by eating seeds and leaves and sleeping under a log.