Watching the footage of the English backpacker Jamie Neale who walked out of bushland after being lost for 11 days (why on earth anyone wants to go to the bush around the Blue Mountains and walk amongst dense trees populated by large spiders ,deadly snakes and reputed wild marauding cats is a mystery)but it was pretty evident to me something was amiss.

While the lad seems fairly likeable,it was pretty obvious he and his garrulous Spitafields dad couldn't stand each other.

The body language as dad moved in close to his son in his hospital bed was obvious-though not to the assembled hacks who wrote glowing prose of the re-united dad & son..as Jamie visibly flinched as pops got closer.. I though he'd fall out the side of the bed.

Along with the much repeated tale of how dad was about to board a plane back home at Sydney airport after "burying an English rose"in his son's memory. Most difficult unless he had a jack hammer handy in that sea of concrete and perhaps it was a plastic rose with the real ones being out of season.

Now the animosity is well and truly out in the open as Dad fled back to the UK to flog his story before his son. Many noses out of joint including my lovable pal Max Markson-the Oz clone of Max Clifford -who has made a motza from 'celebrity' clients incLuding Cherie Blair, Rudolph Guliani , Bill Clinton and George Bush Snr (-whose backer for this tour as arranged by Max is doing time for defrauding a few thousand local Assyrians of their life savings)soon lost interest in representing Jamie when he heard that he was donating his "60 Minutes" £100K fee to the search and rescue people.

Poor Max-who has made an absolute fortune since leaving the East End himself and arriving in Oz via a stint selling saucepans from a stall in Shepherds Bush must be a bit miffed now that the Brit backpacker is keeping his loot and instead, the TV station had donated a £100 in "advertising time" to the rescue team.(and the local pub is still wondering if dad is going to cough up for the rounds of drinks he bought for searchers and the media)

I smelled a rat from the beginning and I bet there will be more lurking about.

And if you click on the link-beware..it's Murdoch publication and nothing is ever as it seems... the exciting link below that seems to promise :"

CCTV: tourists "having sex orgies on ferries" ,

only leads to a tale about a ferry in Cyprus... sadly no footage:(


www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,25833954-5014090,00.html