A German backpacker who survived 12 days lost in Australia’s remote outback has said she is “beyond grateful to have survived.”

In her first public statement since being found alive on Friday, 26-year-old Carolina Wilga said she “hit her head significantly” when she crashed her car and became lost after abandoning it in “a state of confusion.”

Wilga was found alive on Friday afternoon, nearly two weeks after she disappeared in the bushland.

According to the Associated Press, the crew of a police helicopter spotted her vehicle Thursday in wilderness in the Karroun Hill Nature Reserve, 36 kilometers (22 miles) north of the town of Beacon.

“Some people might wonder why I even left my car, even though I had water, food, and clothing there,” she wrote in a statement released by Western Australia Police Force on Monday.