Geoff Keys thanks his rescuer, Senior Constable Brad Foat. Mr Keys was found after writing a plea for help in the sand in Jardine National Park. It was then, Mr Keys wrote, he,"made one of the stupidest decisions ever". "Instead of turning round (sic) 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?" he wrote. Mr Keys spent until 2am the following morning wandering the bush, trying to find his way back. When he came to a waterfall he did not recognise, he said he settled in to wait for daylight.

The dense bushland of Jardine National Park, where British tourist Geoff Keys was lost for two days. Finding no tracks nearby when the sun came up, Mr Keys said he then opted to swim downstream. At the same time, his fellow campers reported his failure to return to police and an air search began. Geoff Keys being winched aboard a rescue helicopter after two days lost in Jardine National Park. "As the morning went on, I heard helicopters over in the distance and guessed they were searching for me," he wrote.

"It meant that I had been reported missing by my friends and also brought home to me what a terrible night they must have had, wondering where I was. "Nothing to do but keep swimming and that's what I did." As the search for Mr Keys continued, he kept swimming downstream until he came across a sandbank. "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," he wrote. "I thought this would be enough to get any helicopter that saw it looking in the right place."

The move probably saved his life. In the rescue helicopter a day later, search and rescue co-ordinator Senior Constable Brad Foat was about to re-route his pilot to a new search area. After nearly two days of searching, there had been nothing to indicate where in the dense bushland Mr Keys might be. When he sighted the SOS message Mr Keys had written in the sand, it was the breakthrough he needed in the hunt for the missing tourist. "I was stoked as this was the first good clue we had," he said.

By that time, however, 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 from the air. "I went up onto the bank to sit in the sun for a while. 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. No reaction to my efforts. "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." Senior Constable Foat said he was about to try a new tack, just as he spotted Mr Keys from the air. "I made a decision to scout a little further before returning to reassign all the helicopters," he said. "After we travelled another six kilometres, I asked the pilot to turn back so I could head back to the drawing board, when out of the blue we spotted our missing man standing in the middle of the creek, waving at us."

The police officer was soon on the ground with Mr Keys, co-ordinating his rescue. The tourist was winched from the bush into the helicopter and airlifted to hospital on Thursday Island for treatment, mostly to cuts on his feet. "Even though I felt fine I was being taken to the hospital on Thursday Island ... I didn't really mind. After all, hospitals have cups of tea and food," he said, after two days without either. Senior Constable Foat said the look on Mr Keys' face when he was winched aboard the helicopter spoke volumes of his relief. He said, "mate you've got a lot of worried people back home", at which Mr Keys reportedly laughed while not letting go of the police officer's hand.

The police officer said the search for Mr Keys had been his most challenging to date, due to the density of the bushland, its remote location and the scant detail he had. "I was about to enjoy a day off with my family when I was recalled to duty at 8.30am for a missing tourist," he said. "The details were very sketchy given that the man was a lone traveller having only befriended nearby campers just days earlier. "The only information I had was the man's first name and that he had an English accent." For Mr Keys, it was not lost on him the outcome could have been very different.

"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. For independent news coverage, be sure to follow our Facebook feed.