A SCIENTIST who was stranded in a jungle for five days touched down in Manchester on Friday night for an emotional reunion with his wife and children.

John Gillatt became lost after he set out on a three-miletrek through Malaysian rain forest.

He was eventually rescued after sending a text message to his wife 6,000 miles away in Bolton, who then raised the alarm..

On Friday night, he flew into Manchester Airport where wife Noelene and daughters, Dawn and Claire, were waiting to greet him.

Wiping away tears, Mrs Gillatt said: "I won't be letting him out for a while unless he's on a very short leash."

Mr Gillatt, who lost a stone in weight as he survived on a apple, an orange and some shortbread biscuits he was carrying with him, admitted he had started to lose hope two days after he became lost, and broke down in tears.

He was also forced to drink his own urine before finding water in a stream.

He said: "At one point, I thought I was going to be in there for a very long time.

"I felt very sorry for myself and at one point I cried.

"The lowest moment came on the day I was rescued.

"I heard a helicopter flying overhead and despite my shouting and waving it didn't see me and I though that my number might have been up."

"But I feel fabulous now," he added. "I'm looking forward to going home and having a good curry and just getting my life back to normal.

"I haven't slept properly since I got lost and I'm exhausted but I'm relieved to be back with these three fabulous women.

"When I saw Noelene and the girls, I ran to them and held them as tightly as I could."

Mr Gillatt, a microbiologist, went trekking at Fraser's Hill near Pahang in east Malaysia last Saturday.

But after walking for more than six miles, he realised he was lost and used his mobile phone to text his 46-year-old wife at their home on Fourth Avenue, Heaton, who contacted the Smokehouse Inn where he was staying. Mr Gillat did not have the hotel number with him.

A 70-strong search party was launched and he was eventually picked up early on Wednesday morning.

Mr Gillatt, aged 55, revealed he had wandered into the jungle without a map or a compass - despite being an experienced long distance walker.

He said: "I did all the things I shouldn't have. I could have backtracked when I realised I was lost, but I didn't. I managed to find some high ground where I had a mobile phone signal and sent a text message to Noelene.I kept shouting out every half an hour and eventually I heard some voices and I knew I was saved."

Mr Gillatt told how he made a makeshift bed on the ground in the jungle from leaves and slept for only three hours a night with a piece of wood at his side to protect him from snakes and leopards that live in the jungle.

But he denied reports that he had eaten plants to stay alive.

"I ate one berry and it tasted horrible so I spat it out," he said. "I did see some nice hairy caterpillars but I didn't eat it. There were no bushtucker trials for me.

"The jungle is very quiet during the day but incredibly noisy at night.

"I was sharing it with leopards, poisonous snakes and tarantulas. I had a wooden club at the side of me but I don't know what I would have done with it.

"At one point somebody on the phone told me to try to light a fire with sticks.

"Let me tell you, it does not work. I tried every day, every hour and I still couldn't light a fire."