SOS in sand was moment of inspiration - rescued tourist

The help message Mr Keys scrawled in the sand

A British man who got lost in a remote part of Australia says a life-saving SOS message he wrote in the sand was "one of those moments of inspiration".

Geoff Keys sparked a huge search after going missing on his way to a waterfall in Jardine National Park, Queensland.

The 63-year-old was rescued after two days, with police saying the written cry for help probably saved his life.

When the authorities found him, they said: "'There's a lot of people worried about you mate'," he told the BBC.

Police had been on the verge of re-directing their search to another area of dense bush land when they saw the message.

Mr Keys was wearing only a hat, t-shirt, swimming trunks and shorts when he went missing

Mr Keys, from Dartford, Kent, said he was not concerned about starving - despite having no supplies. He said he would have turned to foraging if he had been lost for longer.

"I was swimming in a creek so drink was no problem," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "And to be honest I wasn't particularly hungry, so food wasn't an issue."

He said he would have kept swimming down the creek had the message proved unsuccessful, and that would have got him back on track "eventually".

He was lost for two days and it took a full day after writing the message before he was found.

Mr Keys was rescued after two days

He spoke of his relief at being rescued

Mr Keys had earlier explained that he had been attempting to find the Eliot Falls.

He told the BBC: "I went for the swim on Monday afternoon, [and] it was the Tuesday lunchtime I left the message.

"I'd heard helicopters out that morning, so that said to me that - unless there's some other fool who'd got themselves lost - they were out there looking for me."

Mr Keys said that after spending another night in the the bush - along with a three-hour hike with no shoes on - he decided to head back to where the message in the sand had said he would be.

Mr Keys realised he was lost on 28 July

"I could be 500m from the track, I could be 5km, I just didn't know," he said. "So [the] sensible thing was to go back to where my message had said I would be, which was swimming down the creek… that's what I did the next morning."

Mr Keys said he would continue to travel in future but would not go swimming again.