Take on the outback at your peril

Standing on the steps of the Alice Springs hospital while telling media of her miracle escape from the desert, the 52-year-old hung on to the bottle as if her life depended it.

Because a few short days earlier, it did.

Lost with two others in the gritty desert country south of her home town, she would have been dreaming of a cold bottle of Coke.

Of food, of family, of her life back home in Alice Springs.

People from around the world have been following their incredible story of survival, and its tragic end, without ever experiencing what the trio were facing.

When Tamra and her friends Claire Hockridge and Phu Tran went four-wheel-driving south of Alice Springs on Tuesday, November 19, they had chosen one of the most barren places on earth for their trip.

Some people read the reports of how they became bogged in the Hugh River and went to their online maps to see the area was criss-crossed by rivers and streams.

They may not have understand they were bogged in sand, not mud. Rivers in this part of the world work only on a part-time basis.

They spent three days trying to dig their car out.

They had no food other than some noodles and a packet of biscuits.

They were able to stay alive on water alone, muddy water, fit only for stock and not even that, but obviously enough to survive.

Temperatures are as a rule appalling but not just because of the numbers, there is little wind, no moisture in the air, clouds of flies.

There are no high trees with broad shade for relief, and remember, there is no water.

They dug in under the car, the sand would have been as cool as the shade.

When it became obvious they couldn't dig the car out, and police still to be notified they were missing, they decided they had to do what everyone in the outback is drilled not to do: they left their vehicle.

Tamra was found first, at a muddy waterhole close by.

Phu Tran and Claire said they were heading west, hoping to find help at the Stuart Highway, or some station.

It is not easy walking in the desert out there, it is not as flat as you might expect.

There is the sand you might have expected but oceans of little rocks, dips and hillocks, thick scrub and spinifex to pierce your shins.

Without a full moon, walking in the cool of the night can expose the trekker to more of the hazards discussed above, you just can't see them coming.

They headed west, that's what Tamra thought, it's what the note in the car said.

Instead they headed south-west, away from the police search area, they were lost and becoming more so by the day.

Phu Tran was indeed lucky to strike the station fence.

The station owner, called a cattle rancher in one overseas publication, said as much when Phu Tran saw the cattle troughs, only to find them empty and then spied the tanks on a ridge.

Lucky the "rancher" had spotted his footprints, and him, first.

The station owner said a few 100 metres either way, he would have missed the trough, and not found any water for 20km.

That was Tuesday, but the trio's incredible luck, two weeks stranded in one of the harshest environments Australia has, just could not hold.

A body, believed to Claire, was found on Wednesday near where Phu Tran last saw her.

Experienced people have not survived two weeks in the outback as this trio had done.

It was indeed a miracle anyone had survived, especially when they did so many things wrong, but obviously a lot of things right.

Going bush and not telling anyone where they were going was their first mistake.

Not taking supplies, a radio, sat-phone or EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon); not staying near the vehicle, lighting a smoky fire or finding another way to alert searchers didn't help.

But we weren't out there so we can only wonder what we would have done?

Could we have survived as they did, with no food, and hardly any water?

Would we have split up to try and find rescue, or stay together?

Hopefully we never have to find out.