"IT'S a huge weight off our minds. Yes, we are thrilled, very relieved to say the least," Mr Dick Mahon, Sandra's father, said on hearing of her safety in Australia yesterday. "We heard from her around lunchtime and she's fine."
Her boyfriend and travelling companion, Mr Stuart Gamble, telephoned home yesterday morning, as he does regularly, "quite off the cuff", according to Mr Brian Hewson, father of the third traveller, Neil.
"They knew absolutely nothing and are quite astounded and baffled at the fuss that has been made. Neil's parents nearly dropped when they heard his voice. So then Sandra phoned her parents and Stuart phoned about an hour ago," he said yesterday.
It seems Sandra knows nothing of the five second "distressed" telephone call to her father last Friday which led to the search for the three friends in Queensland. "It must have either been a hoax or a wrong number," said Mr Mahon.
"It was only five seconds but the voice was exactly the same as Sandra's, the same accent and she even said `Dad' the way Sandra does. And she was crying and distressed and saying she had been attacked and you couldn't not act in that matter.
"My only fear now is that there is some young woman out there who thinks she's told her dad she's in trouble."
The three are now in Mission Beach, a small resort village south of Cairns, and plan to drive on, in the white camper van for which so many Queensland police have been looking. "Neil says they were passed by plenty of police cars in the past few days and none stopped them" said Mr Hewson.
"I'm glad it's ended happily," he added. "It makes you realise how worrying being a parent can be."
Mr Mahon praised the constant updates from the Cairns police. "They were superb, ringing us two and three times a day."
