Missing French rambler alive and well - safe and talking

By any stretch of the imagination, it's an incredible story.

A French rambler who went missing on the Spanish side of the Pyrénées has been found safe and sound.

And that after having become separated from the groups she was with, falling into a ravine and then becoming completely disoriented and lost - for 11 days with little or nothing to eat or drink.

Thérèse Bordais was discovered by Spanish rescue services in the Ordesa national park on Monday alive and well, and although the 61-year-old is still in hospital recovering she has already given her first interviews describing her ordeal and her feelings at being found.

An impassioned and experienced rambler, two weeks ago Bordais was back in an area she had visited before, but became separated from the rest of the group she was with.

"There were 14 of us and it was the beginning of the afternoon," she told Le Télégramme as she described what had happened.

"We were looking for a path we had already taken several years ago but we couldn't find it, and that's when we decided to retrace our steps."

But that was also the time when Bordais admitted she made what turned out to be a decisive mistake.

"I left the group and went ahead of the rest," she said.

"In doing so I committed an error I shouldn't have made."

Night began to fall and Bordais realising that it was unlikely she would be found immediately, looked for somewhere to sleep and in doing so slipped and became completely disoriented.

I broke a tooth and I started bleeding," she told French national radio. "I didn't have any more water and I was cold during the night especially when it started to rain."

Even though rescue teams continued searching for her, and she heard helicopters passing overhead, Bordais spent the following 10 days all by herself, gradually all but giving up hope of being found.

And then on Monday - salvation as rescue teams spotted some of the clothes she had laid out on the ground.

"I was lying down, sheltering, and then suddenly there was a helicopter right above me and I quickly assembled my belongings and was ready to go within 30 seconds," she said, recounting the moment when she realised that she had been found.

Relief for Bordais, but also for her husband Marcel, who had spent the first three days after her disappearance helping to look for her, before returning to the couple's home in Brittany in northwestern France.

"It's an incredible story and one difficult to believe," he said.

"To spend 11 days with very little to eat or drink ...and it was horrible to think that we might never have found her again."

And Bordais, who is due to be released from hospital and will be able to fly home at the weekend says that even though the experience hasn't put her off rambling, she has no desire to tackle the mountainous region again.

"I would go rambling once more," she said. "But the mountains - never again."