Beth Lawrie, 56, was driving in Murray Sunset National Park when she lost the oil cooler from her automatic transmission.

She had been driving over a lot of quick bumps in the sand in her campervan before it broke down.

Without power and stranded, Ms Lawrie embarked on a 25-kilometre journey to seek help.

Aware that if she stayed in the one spot too long her condition would deteriorate, she decided to hit the road by foot.

Despite having two mobile phones and a GPS on hand, there was no reception and she knew there was little hope of cars passing her by. “The sooner I got out of there the better,” she said.

It was January 2 at 8pm and Ms Lawrie walked about 16 kilometres overnight.

The next morning it was too hot to walk so she had a nap on the road during the afternoon with only an umbrella to keep away the sun.

Then at 6pm, with the weather overcast and cool, she took to the road and walked another nine kilometres.

There she reached the gate of the national park and finally she had phone coverage.

She called triple-zero and waited a two hours for police to arrive from Mildura. Speaking to The Recorder from Semaphore on Tuesday, Ms Lawrie said she never had any doubts she would survive.

“I was confident I would make it. I had no doubts about that,” she said.

“When your life is on the line, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”

Beth Lawrie was born in Port Pirie and lived on a farm in Napperby until she was 17.

She then moved to Port Pirie and worked at the Commonwealth bank.

She left the town 30 years ago, then moved between Adelaide and Port Pirie for a number of years before going to Adelaide in the nineties.

The ordeal has not put a damper on her desire to travel. “I had an intimate look at the park,” she said. She said the police had told her they had never come across someone so well prepared.

“My GPS told me how far I had come and how far I had to go. I knew I could walk the distance,” she said.

And she had a warning for people to be better prepared in the future on such trips.

“It is the sort of country where there should be at least two or more four-wheel-drive vehicles travelling in there,” she said.

“If only I had known that the area was a four-wheel-drive only area.

“I just wish there had been more signs in the park.”