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SOS plea saves tourist lost in far north Queensland bush

An SOS message written in the sand has helped save the life of a British tourist who spent two days lost in remote bushland in far north Queensland.

Geoff Keys, 63, was camping with two families in Cape York's Jardine National Park in late July, when he set off for a two kilometre walk to go for a swim beneath a waterfall.

Mr Keys says on his blog that he became lost when swimming along a Canal Creek in search of Eliot Falls late on July 27.


When he still had not found the falls at 6pm, he decided it was time to turn back.

“And here is where I made one of the stupidest decisions ever,” Keys wrote on his blog.

“Instead of turning round and swimming back upstream I decided to take to the bush and cut across to the track. It was nearly dark. I had no shoes. What was I thinking of?”

Mr Keys wandered around the bushland until about 2am, when he decided to settle by a waterfall he did not recognise.

The following morning he decided to swim downstream, as could find no tracks near by to point him in the right direction.

By this time his fellow campers has reported his failure to return to police and an air search was underway.

"As the morning went on, I heard helicopters over in the distance and guessed they were searching for me," he wrote.

Mr Keys kept swimming downstream until he came across a sandbank where he wrote what turned out to be a lifesaving plea for help.

"It seemed a good idea to help myself as much as possible so I got out of the water, found a stick and wrote a message in the sand, just in case the helicopter came down that way. Help, today's date and my direction of travel," he wrote.

"I thought this would be enough to get any helicopter that saw it looking in the right place."

Geoff Keys and search and rescue co-ordinator Senior Constable Brad Foat meet up after the 63-year-old was released from hospital. Source:motopangaea.com.
Geoff Keys and search and rescue co-ordinator Senior Constable Brad Foat meet up after the 63-year-old was released from hospital. Source:motopangaea.com.

Mr Keys was right. The following day, search and rescue co-ordinator Senior Constable Brad Foat was about to re-route his pilot to a new search area, when he sighted the SOS message.

By that time, Mr Keys had spent his second night lost in the bush.

The following morning he returned to the creek, again travelling downstream. It was mid-afternoon when search and rescue police finally spotted him.

Geoff Keys being winched aboard a rescue helicopter after two days lost in Jardine National Park. Source: Queensland Police.
Geoff Keys being winched aboard a rescue helicopter after two days lost in Jardine National Park. Source: Queensland Police.

"Suddenly I heard a helicopter coming down river. I leapt off the bank into the creek but by the time I'd done so it had gone," he wrote.

"I stood in midstream, yelling at the pilot to come back – and he did.

"He circled me once while I jumped up and down waving my hat.

"He came around again while I continued to jump up and down like a lunatic and this time someone waved to me out of the window. My ordeal was over."

Mr Keys was winched from the bush into the helicopter and airlifted to hospital on Thursday Island for treatment, mostly to cuts on his feet.

Mr Keys' feet were battered in the brutal two-day ordeal, as he did not have any shoes on. Source: http://motopangaea.com.
Mr Keys' feet were battered in the brutal two-day ordeal, as he did not have any shoes on. Source: http://motopangaea.com.

The outback rescue mission is estimated to have cost more than $800,000.

Mr Keys who is well aware of how differently things could have ended is incredibly thankful to his rescuers.

"It's safe to say that I'm very grateful to everyone involved in my rescue. Their skill and professionalism is incredible. I feel stupid but lucky," he wrote.