A woman has miraculously survived nearly two weeks stranded in the arid central Australian Outback, but the search continues for her two friends.

Tamra McBeath-Riley, 52, was being treated in an Alice Springs hospital for dehydration and exposure after she was found late Sunday, Police Superintendent Pauline Vicary said.

But an aerial search is still continuing for her friends Claire Hockridge, 46, and Phu Tran, 40.

The group set out from Alice Springs for an afternoon drive on 19 November and their car became bogged in a riverbed southwest of the town.

The group then found water about a mile north of the car.

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Superintendent Vicary said: ”Sensibly she appears to have stayed where the water is and has been drinking that and that’s probably what kept her going.”

Ms McBeath-Riley said she and her companions found a waterhole.

Her friends began trekking 12 miles toward a highway on Thursday, planning to avoid the desert heat, which came close to 40C in recent days, by walking at night and carrying up to seven litres of water.

Ms McBeath-Riley said she decided to stay at the waterhole with a dog that she did not think would survive a walk to the Stuart Highway, which connects Australia’s north and south coasts. They did not know anyone was looking for them.

She told reporters: “When the helicopter found me, I thought that Claire and Phu had reached the highway. That was my immediate thought. So to find that’s not the case is worrying.”

Superintendent Vicary said searchers had found one set of footprints.

She added: “It’s quite a diverse terrain. There’s sandy dunes, there’s hard clay, there’s areas of dense trees, but there are also rocks and ranges in the area.”

The pair had little food with them, she said.

A cattle rancher who played a key role in saving the woman told police that he spotted tyre tracks in an area that had not been searched.

Superintendent Vicary said: ”As a result of that information, we were able to locate the vehicle and then from there they have followed some of the other tracks and have located her.”