Geoff Keys was rescued after writing a plea for help in the sand in Jardine National Park.
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When he was unsuccessful, Mr Keys decided to stop swimming and return to his campsite.
By 2am he sat waiting for dawn to come.
“I heard the helicopters around so I knew they were looking for me”.
Friends raised the alarm and a helicopter rescue team was despatched to try and find him. “I kept swimming – it seemed the sensible thing to do”. “Help, today’s date and my direction of travel”, he wrote.
The move probably saved his life.
The next day the Brit decided to swim downstream before reaching a sandy beach, where he used a stick to write the SOS message “HELP” along with the date and his direction of travel.
Mr Keys was right.
“I was stoked as this was the first good clue we had”, he said.
After he continued to wander lost into the night, Keys realized that he would have stop for the night.
Despite not being in the official search zone, Keys message was spotted by Queensland Police.
It wasn’t until lunch time the next day, after another six hours travelling through the water, he heard a helicopter again.
“I managed to go without food, despite all that walking and swimming”, he added.
“So I took a bearing off the setting sun and the rising moon and headed north, back the way I’d come”. He successfully caught its attention by waving his hat and jumping “up and down like a lunatic”. No reaction to my efforts. “My ordeal was over”.
Missing man Geoff Keys (left) from with Senior Constable Brad Foat.
He said: “As far as I was concerned there was only me to get myself out at that time, although I was always hopeful the helicopter would come over, which eventually it did”. I stood in midstream, yelling at the pilot to come back – and he did.
The police officer was soon on the ground with Mr Keys, co-ordinating his rescue. He was treated for exhaustion, dehydration, and lacerations to his feet, and expressed gratitude for the approximately $580,000 rescue. I didn’t really mind.
When Keys saw the helicopter he jumped up and down but was initially not seen.
Back home, he was anxious his wife and three children would panic but thankfully just 30 minutes after the Foreign Office told his eldest son of his disappearance they called again to say he had been rescued.
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‘I’m sorry about the worry caused to friends and family.
