{"id":88303,"date":"2026-09-04T21:21:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/88303\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T21:21:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:21:24","slug":"carolina-wilga-thought-she-was-in-hell-as-hallucinations-kicked-in-while-lost-in-wa-outback-for-11-nights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/88303\/","title":{"rendered":"Carolina Wilga \u2018thought she was in hell\u2019 as hallucinations kicked in while lost in WA outback for 11 nights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carolina Wilga, the German backpacker who survived 11 nights alone in remote WA bushland, fully expected she was going to die during her outback ordeal.<\/p>\n

Or that she already had and that what she was experiencing while aimlessly wandering within Karroun Hill nature reserve was actually hell, such was her state of mind.<\/p>\n

More than 12 months on, Ms Wilga has for the first time shared her unplanned but miraculous story of survival in WA\u2019s Wheatbelt.<\/p>\n

It comes as she also releases a tell-all book of her encounter with the WA outback.<\/p>\n

In the 7NEWS television interview she is unrecognisable from the malnourished and frostbitten 26-year-old last seen by Australians being ushered onto a WA Police jet on July 11 last year.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe picture that was posted to social media when Carolina went missing. Credit: facebook\/supplied<\/p>\n

While no physical scars of the ordeal remain, her full memory of that ill-fated drive from Perth to Beacon, more than 300km from the capital city, has never completely returned.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw lights coming from in front and it was a car,\u201d she recalled of the moment she crashed her van.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got such a weird gut feeling and a crazy feeling of danger. I turned the steering wheel into a fence. It was an irrational moment out of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Perth and across the world, fears began to mount for the missing traveller. They only escalated when searchers found her car several days later, bogged and abandoned in the nature reserve.<\/p>\n

The aerial images of her Mitsubishi Delica van buried in vegetation near rocky terrain left little room for doubt for people at the time hoping she\u2019d be found alive.<\/p>\n

But the question of why she left shelter to face the elements barefoot confounded Australians then, and even her today.<\/p>\n

\"CarolinaCamera IconCarolina Wilga moments after she was found. Credit: 7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a noise, kind of like an alarm for me, and for me I felt like I have to wake up,\u201d Ms Wilga said.<\/p>\n

She then walked, most likely concussed \u2014 losing her bearings, her car, and from time to time during the ensuing three days, her will to live.<\/p>\n

She made two suicide attempts during her ordeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted to make it faster because for me, it was clear I\u2019m going to die but the way I\u2019m dying is super painful and I just wanted to make a cut there to not experience it any longer,\u201d she said plainly, clearly having come to terms with the choice she made.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was terribly cold, like freezing cold, but I was still hallucinating. Like the stars were falling down from the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

As bizarre as her recollection sounds, the now-27-year-old is insistent on how \u201creal\u201d what she was seeing felt.<\/p>\n

\"Carolina\u2019sCamera IconCarolina\u2019s crashed car was found before she was located. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

She had no food or water \u2014 famously drinking from puddles to gain any sustenance. The only thing she remembers breaking through her fixation on thirst were thoughts of death, and that her family might never see her again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will probably never find my dead body,\u201d Ms Wilga recounted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the moment I fully broke down because that\u2019s the worst thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

But her body\u2019s survival instinct and the thought of family kept her going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made my mum a promise that I will walk until I die, that I will not give up, I want to live,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

On the 11th night \u2014 just hours before her chance rescue at the hands of local farmer Tarnia Henley \u2014 came more nonsensical, yet quite understandable, thoughts.<\/p>\n

\"BenCamera IconBen Downie interviewing Carolina Wilga. Credit: 7NEWS\/7NEWS<\/p>\n

\u201cOne realistic theory of mine is I had already died and this is hell,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n

Ms Henley was on her way home to Bimbijy Station when she came across the missing backpacker on the side of Mouroubra Road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not believe it. I was still scared when I was looking at her like, \u2018Is this real? Can I be happy?\u2019\u201d, Ms Wilga said of realising she would be rescued.<\/p>\n

Yes she could \u2014 as evidenced in a video call reunion with Ms Henley during the television interview, where her smile grew wider when she realised who she was speaking with.<\/p>\n

The two made light of how the 27-year-old looks far better now than she did last July, before committing to see one another face to face.<\/p>\n

Lifeline: 13 11 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carolina Wilga, the German backpacker who survived 11 nights alone in remote WA bushland, fully expected she was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,152,464],"class_list":["post-88303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-news","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}