The hospital staffer revealed one of the bush-foods that kept Mr Neale alive: kangaroo berries. "They're not poisonous but they would be the size of half a peanut," she said. "I wouldn't have survived on that." Mr Neale retraced his steps along a rugged Blue Mountains trail, marking the point where he took a wrong turn down a narrow pathway and spent 12 days lost in dense bush, where temperatures dropped to zero at night. 

Mr Neale, of north London, set off for a solo hike on July 3 but got hopelessly lost, eating only seeds and weeds with just a lightweight jacket for warmth in freezing overnight conditions.
 

The 19-year-old who survived through 12 days lost in the NSW bush was told that he won't be able to leave for his home in England for up to two months, after doctors found fluid on his lungs.

Medical staff told The Australian that scans had shown Mr Neale had early signs of pneumonia and he had been banned from flying, lending weight to his story of sleeping in freezing conditions.
 

But The BRITISH teenager walked out of hospital on Friday (17th july 2009) just two days after surviving 12 nights in Australia's harsh bushland in a story that made headlines around the world.

"But I've been in the situation, I know what it's like. Last night I barely slept because I couldn't think certain things.

"I just couldn't shut off my brain. I kept thinking about all the different things that had happened.

"I know what's happened, and I know the people who were out searching for me. They know that it happened and that's good enough for me. It's the truth."

The hikers who discovered Neale -- two off-duty soldiers, including a female medic just back from Afghanistan -- also spoke of their astonishment at seeing him emerge from the bush.

"They heard his cries for help, which they couldn't believe at first," the unnamed medic's mother told. "Then he turned up at their camp looking gaunt and scratched."

Neale could barely talk and was only carrying a 600ml bottle of water and "a fair bit of green weed" in his backpack, the medic's mother added.

Police questioned Mr Neale on Thursday about his whereabouts during the 12 days, in an attempt to verify his version of events.

He gave police a detailed account and was asked to mark on a map the precise point he veered from the trail. Mr Neale is understood to have told them he had stayed near a waterfall while in the bush.

On Friday night, Mr Neale and his father Richard Cass threw a party at Katoomba's Hotel Gearin to thank local rescue workers who searched tirelessly for him.

Mr Neale told them he became disoriented by the sun which was in a different position than in the northern hemisphere.

"They were just walking around saying 'thank you' to people. Jamie was really amazed at how many people came looking for him," a member of the Volunteer Rescue Association said.

As police and Mr Cass were losing hope, campers found Mr Neale on Wednesday near Narrow Neck fire trail, east of Katoomba.

Mr Cass wrote a heartfelt letter to the couple who found his son.

"He wrote this emotional letter to the family telling them of his son and explaining who they saved. He said Jamie was a 'beautiful boy whose mother I just forgot to get married to'," the source said.

Mr Neale was pale when revisiting Narrow Neck Plateau that morning, before flying by chopper over Katoomba's bushland.