Mother and son found after surviving 10 days in the bush

A woman and her young son have remarkably emerged after ten days lost in dense bushland, suffering from just dehydration and insect bites.

Michelle Pittman, 40 and her son Dylan, 9, were discovered stumbling along Mount Royal Road within the Mount Royal National Park at lunchtime on Thursday having been missing since Monday, October 2.

A large-scale search involving police, SES, NSW Ambulance paramedics and National Parks and Wildlife had been trying to find the two since their car was found parked at the park on Monday, October 9.

It's believed the mother and son had only set out for a short walk within the park – which is 187km north of Sydney – before becoming lost.

As they had not told anyone where they were going, the alarm wasn't raised until three days later.

Ms Pittman and her son were taken to Singleton Hospital with dehydration and insect bites, but were otherwise uninjured.

The mother and son reportedly used leaves to collect water and removed ticks and leeches from each other as the days passed.

In an effort to work out their location, they tied grass around trees to mark their location.

Hunter Valley LAC Acting Inspector Sandra Kryzius told The Australian the rescue was quite "emotional" as police had begun to lose hope of finding them.

"Mount Royal is more of a rainforest, so you can have four seasons in one day. On Tuesday the fog was so thick in the air we couldn’t see five metres in front of us," she said.

"It’s a densely forested area for only the most experienced bushwalkers, so it’s really a miracle they were able to survive."

The family has since requested privacy as they recover.