Darren Alcock: "Dad, I'm lost up a mountain!"

Darren's father David, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: "They were a bit surprised, but I've got to be honest, they were marvellous, they did well for us."

Darren, who is on a year-long round-the-world trip, set off wearing jeans and a denim jacket believing he would not be in any danger.

When the bad weather closed in, police say he became lost in an area that is popular with bushwalkers.

Darren told ABC: "I'm exceptionally grateful. If they had given up looking for me I would have been sleeping in a cave."

Darren said his phone battery then ran out after he called his father.

"I was not going to call anybody because I did not want to look stupid as an English backpacker lost in Australia," he said.

Rescue team

Police Sergeant Graham Clifford said Darren was "a very lucky man".

He said the trek to the foot of the peak took the rescue party three hours.

The trek to safety took rescuers three hours

"They were about to stop for the night when they found him.

"They were calling out for him, and they heard somebody answer. That is when they saw him.

"Once the weather comes in up there you cannot see more than a few feet in front of you because you are really up in the clouds."

Earlier this year, a group of tourists on board a yacht off the Indonesian island of Bali were only rescued when a woman passenger sent a text message to her boyfriend in Britain.