SYDNEY: German backpacker Carolina Wilga drank water from puddles and sheltered in a cave before escaping an 11-night ordeal in the Australian bush, police said on Saturday.

The 26-year-old walked “confused and disorientated” 24 kilometres away from her van after it got stuck in remote bushland in Western Australia. The backpacker had lost hope of being rescued, police said. But on Friday, she managed to flag down a woman who drove her to police in the agricultural community of Beacon, northeast of Perth.

Wilga was airlifted to a Perth hospital for treatment. “She spent 11 nights exposed to the elements and survived by consuming the minimal food supplies she had in her possession, and drinking water from rain and puddles,” Western Australia police said in a statement.

“She sought shelter at night where possible, including in a cave.” Wilga was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, sunburn, “extensive insect bites”, and an injured foot, police said.

The driver who spotted her, Tania Henley, told public broadcaster ABC that she saw Wilga waving her hands by the side of the road. She appeared to be in a “fragile state”, bitten by midges and suffering from the cold.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2025