A man is lucky to be alive after he was found dazed and dehydrated in a national park about six hours' drive from Sydney.
It is understood that the man was driving down the Newell Highway about 35 kilometres north of Coonabarabran in the New South Wales Central West when he suffered a medical episode.
The Coonabarabran Rescue Squad said the car was found about 100 metres off the road in a "very, very thick forest area” in Pilliga National Park.
Rescuers said the man exited his car in a state of disorientation and wandered deeper into the 8,000-hectare national park.
The middle-aged man was reported missing at about 1pm on Monday.
About 26 people from Coonabarabran Rescue Squad and the Baradine SES, along with ambulance and police officers, were dispatched to scour the thick bushland.
It is believed the man spent up to seven hours in the wilderness.
Tough search
Region three coordinator Rodney Coombs said after hours of searching through dense forest rescuers heard incoherent yelling coming from the direction of the Pilliga Sandstone Caves.
At about 8pm they found him under a rocky outcrop.
He was dehydrated and missing most of his clothes.
Paramedics rushed the man to Coonabarabran Hospital for treatment.
He remained in a stable condition.
Mr Coombs said the man was not a local and that it had been a challenging search in the dwindling light.
"You couldn't see more than four or five feet in front of you," he said.
Mr Coombs said morale was high back at the base after the rescue.
"When they get a good win like that it makes all the training and all the effort that the [Volunteer Rescue Association] and SES guys go through as volunteers worth it," Mr Coombs said.
"We've had a lot of good wins lately with missing persons searches and the effort the volunteers put in is just sensational."
