A Wilmington tourist who became lost in the Australian bush was rescued after writing a desperate plea for help in the sand.

Geoff Keys got lost in the Jardine National Park in north Queensland after trying to take a short cut through a bush back to his camp from Canal Creek.

The 63-year-old, who was barefoot and wearing a hat, swimming trunks, shorts and a t-shirt, had set off on a trip along the creek to Eliot Falls.

After a long swim and with no sign of Eliot Falls, he tried to retrace his steps but ended up more than 12km from his camp.

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Geoff Keys

Writing in a blog, Mr Keys said: "And here is where I made one of the stupidest decisions ever.

“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?

"Well, I was convinced the track was nearby and walking back would have been easier than swimming.

“So I took a bearing off the setting sun and the rising moon and headed north, back the way I'd come."

Mr Keys believed the sun and moon would point him in the direction of his camp but he was wrong.

He then found another stream, which he believed would guide his way. Wrong again.

"It took me about two hours to realise it wasn't the same creek. I kept swimming - it seemed the sensible thing to do," added Mr Keys, who by 2am was sat waiting for dawn to come.

Hoping a helicopter would spot it, he wrote an SOS message in the sand reading, ‘HELP 2807’ along with an arrow pointing towards his location.

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Mr Keys wrote a 'help message' in the sand

He said: "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. 2807. Help, today's date and my direction of travel. I thought this would be enough to get any helicopter that saw it looking in the right place."

Without food and becoming increasingly exhausted, he trekked through the undergrowth and waded downstream.

As he rested in the sun after an hour-long swim, he heard a helicopter flying down the river.

He told News Shopper: "It was a moment of inspiration, I made a lot of bad decisions, I was an idiot but writing the help message was the best thing I did."

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The Wilmington resident's foot was injured during his shoeless trek

The separated father-of three, who lives off Oakfield Lane, added: "I think it was a combination of logic and luck but I was jumping up and down.
"First so they'd notice me and then for joy.
"I spoke to the search co-ordinator who told me they would have continued looking for five days so I'm confident I would have been found eventually."

Mr Keys was eventually winched to safety by a helicopter before being checked out at a local hospital.

The adventurer, who now plans to travel to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and America, said: "The people I was camping with had a nightmare.
"I am sorry, that was the worst part of it really."