Incredible moment hiker, 80, missing for three days turns up at press conference held by desperate family

The moment Harry Harvey is reunited with his two children, Naomi and Phil (Picture: Reach)
The moment Harry Harvey is reunited with his family. (Picture: Reach)

This is the incredible moment a missing 80-year-old hiker turned up at a press conference being held by his worried family.

Harry Harvey, from Tynemouth, disappeared during a storm while hiking through the Yorkshire Dales on Saturday afternoon – sparking a large manhunt.

The pensioner spent three days camping in the open before being spotted and brought to safety by a wildlife photographer on Tuesday morning.

Harvey was then taken to the nearby Tan Hill Inn pub where an appeal was about to be made by his desperate relatives.

Footage showed him embracing his loved ones in an emotional reunion.

MUST WATCH: 80-year-old hiker missing for three days turns up at press conference held by desperate family

Speaking afterwards, Harvey said: "I had three grand days of wild camping.

"I never felt scared, I had all the right kit, all the right training and I knew what to do.

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"My biggest problem was I only had £21.05 and I didn't think that was enough to get back home.

"I saw a helicopter hovering overhead at one stage but I didn't realise they were searching for me."

The retired shipyard worker was separated from a fellow walker during a hailstorm in the Gunnerside area of Richmondshire, North Yorkshire, on Saturday.

Harry Harvey had been missing for three days (Picture: Reach)
Harvey had been missing for three days. (Picture: Reach)

Harvey lost his glasses and compass, and even banged his head after falling from a bridge over a stream which he was crossing before being found alive today.

He added: 'If I had known there had been all this fuss I would have made my own way home.

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“It is not my scene at all to have a fuss.

"I rang my wife when I was found. I didn't give her chance to get angry with me, I put the phone down before she could be."

Green fields in the bottom of the valley near the village of Gunnerside in North Yorkshire on a sunny September day.
Harvey went missing near the village of Gunnerside in North Yorkshire. (Picture: Getty)

Harvey’s two adult children, Naomi and Phil, jokingly told their father he was "grounded" for not making more of an effort to get back to civilisation and putting the family through a "nightmare".

Phil Harvey said: "We didn't experience it the same way he described it. It's been torture."

Asked what it was like seeing him for the first time after so much worry, his sister added: "It was like every Christmas and birthday and everything wrapped into one. It was sheer relief."

More than 60 people were involved in the search operation involving mountain rescue teams, a police helicopter and search dogs.

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