When Germany's Caroline Wilga was discovered last week "fragile" but otherwise not in terrible shape after 12 days of being lost in the Australian outback, a local police official noted, "I think once we do hear her story, it will be a remarkable" one. The 26-year-old backpacker is now telling that tale, in her first public remarks, reports CNN. "I am simply beyond grateful to have survived," Wilga says in a statement posted Monday that thanked police, volunteer searchers, medical staff, and especially "my rescuer and angel, Tania."
"Tania" is Tania Henley, the farmer who discovered Wilga on Friday wandering barefoot along a remote access road, after her vehicle crashed nearly two weeks earlier in the Karroun Hill Nature Reserve, per ABC Australia. "Some people might wonder why I even left my car, even though I had water, food, and clothing there," Wilga says in her statement of why she was found nearly 20 miles away from her vehicle. "The answer is: I lost control of the car and rolled down a slope." She says "I hit my head significantly" in the accident and became disoriented, abandoning the vehicle "in a state of confusion" and becoming lost in the bush.
Authorities say Wilga, who had to contend with a hurt foot, endured swarms of mosquitoes, ate what meager food she had on her, and drank water from puddles and rain showers. Henley chanced upon Wilga on Friday as she was driving home from the town of Beacon in Western Australia. "She was on the side of the road waving her hands," Henley says of Wilga, adding that it would've likely been days before another driver made their way into that part of the outback.
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"Previously, I didn't know where my place was in a culture on the other side of the world to my own, but now, I feel a part of it," Wilga says in her statement. "I am deeply impressed by the courage, helpfulness, and warmth that has been shown to me here. Western Australia has taught me what it really means to be part of a true community." She also thanks "all the people who believed in me, searched for me, and kept hoping for me," which she adds offered her "strength to carry on during my darkest moments."