A German backpacker expected to be buried in the sand after she was struck in the head by a man at a remote South Australian beach, a court has heard.

The 24-year-old broke down in tears as she gave evidence in the trial of a 60-year-old man accused of attacking two backpackers at Salt Creek, east of Adelaide, in February 2016.

She said she had heard a scream from her friend and found her naked on the sand with the man standing over her, and she had told him to stop.

But then the man came at her and, as she was trying to get her bag, which had her phone in it, she said she was hit on the back of the head.

“It was like I was on a boat suddenly,” she told SA supreme court on Thursday. “I was like, OK, that’s it. That’s the end … I saw myself already buried in the sand.

“I was thinking of my parents, that they would never see me again.”

The woman was allegedly hit with the hammer four times in the attack but she fought back, grabbing the tool from the man and hitting him. She fled towards her Brazilian friend, untied her and agreed to run in opposite directions.

But the German woman, now covered in blood, saw the attacker coming at her across the sand in his 4WD.

“He bumped into my back with the bullbar,” she said. “I pretty much flew away in the sand.”

This allegedly happened several times and, once the 4WD drove right over her, the wheels passing on either side of her, the court heard. She knew she couldn’t outrun him but she “had to do something”, so she changed tack.

“He was driving towards me with speed and I jumped on the bonnet and I held on to an antenna,” she said. “And I climbed up to the roof.”

He tried to hit her again with the hammer but she kicked at his face, the jury heard, and a stalemate occurred.

Blood still streaming from her head, she convinced him to throw his weapons away into the shrubs covering the dunes.

“I was pretending like he didn’t do anything bad to me,” she said. “I was kind of motivating him like, ‘We will get out of here. You will bring me back’.”

When she saw other cars approaching – and after a conversation about guilt – she left.

“I said, ‘Do you feel guilty?’ and he said, ‘Yes’,” she said. “I opened the door and I said, ‘I’m going now.’ I thought he would try something but he didn’t.”

Both women escaped and the man was later arrested in his car on the dunes but the hammer and knife he allegedly used were never recovered.

The man is also accused of tying up a Brazilian backpacker, threatening her with a knife and sexually assaulting her on the remote sand dunes that evening.

He met the women when he responded to an advertisement on the classifieds website Gumtree placed by the Brazilian seeking a lift from Adelaide to Melbourne.

He has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, kidnapping, endangering life, indecent assault and other offences.